An illustration shows the design of Rice University researchers’ antenna-on-a-chip for spatial light modulation. The chip is able to process incident infrared light for signal processing at very high speeds.

Credit: Xu Group/Rice University

Source: Antenna-on-a-chip rips the light fantastic (Rice University News & Media)

Super Kamiokande (from the upper of the tank).

©redit & Source: Kamioka Observatory, ICRR（Institute for Cosmic Ray Research), The University of Tokyo. 3281 feet under.

First Scanning Tunneling Microscope who brought to Gerd Binnig, German, and Heinrich Rohrer, a Swiss, both from IBM Zurich Reasearch Laboratory, the physics Nobel prize in 1986.

By J Brew [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Personal note: I have to say that a third physicist (Spanish in this case) had much to do with the success of this technique, as their experiments led to that the microscope could be used in simple laboratory conditions. He did felt very pissed by not being recipient of this Nobel, something that paid with their students during the following years, being this humble correspondent one of them… though I ended up passing his subject (quantum mechanics) with A+. Such is life.

A lattice composed of columns of squares that represent repeating molecular structures, one rotated clockwise (colored blue) and another counterclockwise (colored orange) with respect to each other. (…) Such new symmetries also arise in helical structures such as DNA, proteins, and sugar crystals. These new symmetries lead to the prediction of new properties of these crystals that relate to these rotations, called “roto properties.” Applications range from the discovery of materials that allow electrical control of magnetism to new insights into well-known crystals such as quartz and organic crystals.

Credit: Penn State University, Gopalan lab, Ryan Haislmaier.

Source: Search for Advanced Materials Aided by Discovery of Hidden Symmetries in Nature, Penn State SCIENCE.

The quantum spin liquid state, predicted to be achievable in two-dimensional hexagonal lattice systems, may not occur in such structures after all.

Credit: iStockphoto/Thinkstock

Source: Intriguing state of matter previously predicted in graphene-like materials might not exist after all, Phys.org.

Female Nephila clavipes on her web. The web was characterized using Brillouin spectroscopy to directly and non-invasively determine the mechanical properties. 

Credit: Jeffery Yarger

Source: ASU scientists unravel the mysteries of spider silk, asu news (Arizona State University)