Microbes have evolved over 3.5 billion years and are arguably the most adaptable organisms on earth. Restricted genetically by their inability to reproduce sexually, bacteria have acquired several additional mechanisms by which to exchange genetic material horizontally. Such mechanisms have allowed bacteria to inhabit some of the most inhospitable environments on earth. It is thus hardly surpri...

The prospect of controlling the magnetization (M) of a material is of great importance from the viewpoints of fundamental physics and future applications of emerging spintronics. A class of rare-earth orthoferrites RFeO3 (R is rare-earth element) materials exhibit striking physical properties of spin switching and magnetization reversal induced by temperature and/or applied magnetic field. Furt...

Although enhanced conductivity of ferroelectric domain boundaries has been found in BiFeO3 and Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 films as well as hexagonal rare-earth manganite single crystals, the mechanism of the domain wall conductivity is still under debate. Using conductive atomic force microscopy, we observe enhanced conductance at the electrically-neutral domain walls in semiconducting hexagonal ferroelectric...

Consider a sum-product normed space, i.e. a space of the form Y = `1 ⊗ X , where X is another normed space. Each element in Y consists of a length-n vector of elements in X , and the norm of an element in Y is the sum of the norms of its coordinates. In this paper we show a constant-distortion embedding from the normed space `1 ⊗X into a lower-dimensional normed space ` ′ 1 ⊗ X , where n′ n is ...

The discovery and characterization of exoplanets have the potential to offer the world one of the most impactful findings ever in the history of astronomy--the identification of life beyond Earth. Life can be inferred by the presence of atmospheric biosignature gases--gases produced by life that can accumulate to detectable levels in an exoplanet atmosphere. Detection will be made by remote sen...

Rare-earth iron nitrides are emerging as an important class of magnetic materials. In certain rare-earth iron compounds, the insertion of small atoms such as nitrogen and boron has resulted in significant changes in the magnetic properties in the form of higher Curie temperatures, enhanced magnetic moments, and stronger anisotropies. In an attempt to understand some of the above, we have focuse...

Earth system and environmental models present the scientist/programmer with multiple challenges in software design, development, and maintenance, overall system integration, and performance. We describe how work in the industrial sector of software engineering—namely component-based software engineering—can be brought to bear to address issues of software complexity. We explain how commercially...

a pure silicate host namely sr2mgsi2o7 as a support for a long-lasting afterglow when dopped with rare-earth elements was sought after. to this end the process of obtaining firing temperatures of the above mentioned phase in normal condition was carried out using suggested wet and dry methods. the degree of purity obtained in these preparatory methods as well as the different firing temperature...

nature displays profound preference for certain specific ratios to design her life-forms. these are geometric relationships that are transcendent and originated from sacred geometry. the view that geometry had a ritual origin is a part of a wider view that civilization itself had a ritual origin, and therefore the history of utilization of sacred geometry by man goes back to many centuries ago....

In no other living species does technology (or more precisely the need for technological development) play such an important role as it does in the human species. This rationale remains surely a matter of fact regarding the “traditional” or “common” condition of the man, understood as a being living “on the Earth” and with a specific and consolidated biological structure. However, any possible ...