Shock-induced localized amorphization in boron carbide

High-resolution electron microscope observations of shock-loaded boron carbide have revealed the formation of nanoscale intragranular amorphous bands that occur parallel to specific crystallographic planes and contiguously with apparent cleaved fracture surfaces. This damage mechanism explains the measured, but not previously understood, decrease in the ballistic performance of boron carbide at high impact rates and pressures. The formation of these amorphous bands is also an example of how shock loading can result in the synthesis of novel structures and materials with substantially altered properties.     

Widespread intense turbulent mixing in the Southern Ocean

Observations of internal wave velocity fluctuations show that enhanced turbulent mixing over rough topography in the Southern Ocean is remarkably intense and widespread. Mixing rates exceeding background values by a factor of 10 to 1000 are common above complex bathymetry over a distance of 2000 to 3000 kilometers at depths greater than 500 to 1000 meters. This suggests that turbulent mixing in the Southern Ocean may contribute crucially to driving the upward transport of water closing the ocean's meridional overturning circulation, and thus needs to be represented in numerical simulations of the global ocean circulation and the spreading of biogeochemical tracers.     

Electron solvation in two dimensions

Ultrafast two-photon photoemission has been used to study electron solvation at two-dimensional metal/polar-adsorbate interfaces. The molecular motion that causes the excess electron solvation is manifested as a dynamic shift in the electronic energy. Although the initially excited electron is delocalized in the plane of the interface, interactions with the adsorbate can lead to its localization. A method for determining the spatial extent of the localized electron in the plane of the interface has been developed. This spatial extent was measured to be on the order of a single adsorbate molecule.     

A closer look at water-related geologic activity on Mars

Water has supposedly marked the surface of Mars and produced characteristic landforms. To understand the history of water on Mars, we take a close look at key locations with the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, reaching fine spatial scales of 25 to 32 centimeters per pixel. Boulders ranging up to approximately 2 meters in diameter are ubiquitous in the middle to high latitudes, which include deposits previously interpreted as finegrained ocean sediments or dusty snow. Bright gully deposits identify six locations with very recent activity, but these lie on steep (20 degrees to 35 degrees) slopes where dry mass wasting could occur. Thus, we cannot confirm the reality of ancient oceans or water in active gullies but do see evidence of fluvial modification of geologically recent mid-latitude gullies and equatorial impact craters.     

Acetylcholine-synthesizing T cells relay neural signals in a vagus nerve circuit

Neural circuits regulate cytokine production to prevent potentially damaging inflammation. A prototypical vagus nerve circuit, the inflammatory reflex, inhibits tumor necrosis factor-α production in spleen by a mechanism requiring acetylcholine signaling through the α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor expressed on cytokine-producing macrophages. Nerve fibers in spleen lack the enzymatic machinery necessary for acetylcholine production; therefore, how does this neural circuit terminate in cholinergic signaling? We identified an acetylcholine-producing, memory phenotype T cell population in mice that is integral to the inflammatory reflex. These acetylcholine-producing T cells are required for inhibition of cytokine production by vagus nerve stimulation. Thus, action potentials originating in the vagus nerve regulate T cells, which in turn produce the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, required to control innate immune responses.     

Carbon-based supercapacitors produced by activation of graphene

Supercapacitors, also called ultracapacitors or electrochemical capacitors, store electrical charge on high-surface-area conducting materials. Their widespread use is limited by their low energy storage density and relatively high effective series resistance. Using chemical activation of exfoliated graphite oxide, we synthesized a porous carbon with a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area of up to 3100 square meters per gram, a high electrical conductivity, and a low oxygen and hydrogen content. This sp(2)-bonded carbon has a continuous three-dimensional network of highly curved, atom-thick walls that form primarily 0.6- to 5-nanometer-width pores. Two-electrode supercapacitor cells constructed with this carbon yielded high values of gravimetric capacitance and energy density with organic and ionic liquid electrolytes. The processes used to make this carbon are readily scalable to industrial levels.