The merger of two massive (about 30 solar masses) black holes has been detected in gravitational waves. This discovery validates recent predictions that massive binary black holes would constitute the first detection. Previous calculations, however, have not sampled the relevant binary-black-hole progenitors—massive, low-metallicity binary stars—with sufficient accuracy nor included sufficiently realistic physics to enable robust predictions to better than several orders of magnitude. Here...
Tag Archives: first
Intrinsic ferroelectric switching from first principles
The existence of domain walls, which separate regions of different polarization, can influence the dielectric, piezoelectric, pyroelectric and electronic properties of ferroelectric materials. In particular, domain-wall motion is crucial for polarization switching, which is characterized by the hysteresis loop that is a signature feature of ferroelectric materials. Experimentally, the observed dynamics of polarization switching and domain-wall motion are usually explained as the behaviour of...
First experimental Zika vaccine gets nod from FDA, moves to human trials
(credit: CDC/ James Gathany)
The US Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved the first human trial of an experimental Zika vaccine, according to a joint announcement by the two companies behind the new therapy.
The companies, Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc., based in Pennsylvania, and GeneOne Life Science, Inc., based in South Korea, said that their DNA-based vaccine...
NASA gets first official X-plane in a decade: Electric craft named X-57 Maxwell
NASA says it has received its first X-plane...
NBC becomes first broadcast network to launch a ‘skill’ on Amazon’s Alexa
The list of “skills” that Alexa, Amazon’s voice-enabled virtual assistant, is capable of performing keeps on growing,...
How Rainier created its first new beer in 20 years, using clues from 1930s
Rainier Brewing Co. decided to get crafty with its first new beer release in nearly 20 years, and to do so the brewer reached back...
Astronauts get their first look inside BEAM, the first expandable space habitat
Nine days after the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module was blown up to...
Legacies that save lives: Washington Life Science Hall of Fame gets first members
Six medical pioneers were inducted into the newly created Washington Life Science Hall of Fame today, and although some of...
It’s been over a decade since Valve first promised Half-Life 2: Episode 3
Artist's conception of Valve's Gabe Newell finally putting us out of our misery.
Well what do you know? We were so busy playing and talking about Overwatch this week that we failed to note an important vaporware milestone on Tuesday. Just over ten years ago, on May 24, 2006, Valve first announced it was working on Half-Life 2:...
Windows hardware specs going up for the first time since 2009
You'll need a little bit more of this. (credit: Pete)
Windows Vista was a shock to many Windows users, as its hardware requirements represented a steep upgrade over those required to run Windows XP: most 32-bit versions required a 1GHz processor, 1GB RAM, DirectX 9 graphics, and 40 GB of mass storage with 15GB free. But...