All News

Information Technology

Collaborative Efforts Boost Distributed Training for AI Models

… Tokyo Tech, Tohoku University, Fujitsu, and RIKEN. Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), Tohoku University, Fujitsu Limited, and RIKEN today announced that they will embark on the research and development of a distributed training of Large Language Models (LLM) [1]on supercomputer Fugaku in May 2023, within the scope of the initiatives for use of Fugaku defined by Japanese policy. LLMs are AI models for deep learning that serve as the core of generative AI including ChatGPT[2]. The four organizations aim to improve…

Earth Sciences

Tonga Volcano Eruption Disrupts Global Satellite Signals

… found to disrupt satellite signals halfway around the world. An international team has used satellite- and ground-based ionospheric observations to demonstrate that an air pressure wave triggered by volcanic eruptions could produce an equatorial plasma bubble (EPB) in the ionosphere, severely disrupting satellite-based communications. Their findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports. The ionosphere is the region of the Earth’s upper atmosphere where molecules and atoms are ionized by solar radiation, creating positively charged ions. The area with…

Medical Engineering

New Device Enhances Heart Ablation Safety for AFib Patients

A new device invented with the help of an electrophysiologist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center makes a heart procedure safer for patients suffering from atrial fibrillation (AFib), a common irregular heart rhythm. AFib affects millions of people worldwide and greatly increases their risk of stroke and heart failure. To treat AFib, doctors use cardiac ablation to help restore the heart’s rhythm. Heat or cold energy delivered through a catheter destroys the heart tissue causing rapid and irregular…

Materials Sciences

Coated Titanium Reduces Blood Clot Risk on Heart Valves

An international research team led by the german University of Jena has now developed a promising approach to significantly reducing blood clotting on the heart valve material titanium. Around 25,000 artificial heart valves are implanted in Germany per year because the original heart valve is damaged, for example, by an infection. The mechanical heart valves are made of titanium dioxide, among other materials, and last for many years. However, because blood tends to clot on contact with these material surfaces,…

Physics & Astronomy

‘Charge density wave’ linked to atomic distortions

… in would-be superconductor. Precision measurements reveal connection between electron density and atomic arrangements in charge-ordered states of a superconducting copper-oxide material. What makes some materials carry current with no resistance? Scientists are trying to unravel the complex characteristics. Harnessing this property, known as superconductivity, could lead to perfectly efficient power lines, ultrafast computers, and a range of energy-saving advances. Understanding these materials when they aren’t superconducting is a key part of the quest to unlock that potential. “To solve the problem,…

Life & Chemistry

New Neural Device Reads Brain Chemicals with High Precision

… with an aptamer/microelectronic fiber combination. A research group has developed a neural device that detects specific neurotransmitters in the brain with high sensitivity and selectivity by combining multifunctional fibers and DNA molecular probes. Details of their research were published in the journal Analytical Chemistry on April 24, 2023. It is estimated that over a billion people suffer from brain disorders worldwide. Current therapeutic techniques use electrical modalities to establish an interface with the brain. This typically involves electrodes being…

Information Technology

Flexible Transparent Augmented Reality Display Unveiled

– opens possibilities to see digital content in real-time. The world’s first flexible, transparent augmented reality (AR) display screen using 3D printing and low-cost materials has been created by researchers at the University of Melbourne, KDH Design Corporation and the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication (MCN). The development of the new display screen is set to advance how AR is used across a wide range of industries and applications. AR technology overlays digital content onto the real world, enhancing the user’s…

Medical Engineering

Low-Cost Waterproof Sensors Enhance Health Monitoring Capabilities

A Penn State-led team of researchers has literally put pencil to paper to create an accessible, affordable, waterproof and wearable sensor to monitor multiple vital signals. The team published the details of the pencil-on-paper sensor in Chemical Engineering Journal.  The team had previously designed a pencil-on-paper sensor that could be used in “smart diapers” to detect wetness. That sensor, however, was not hydrophobic, so while it was useful in detecting moisture, it could not be used to accurately monitor other health…

Power and Electrical Engineering

Harnessing Solar Power for Clean Liquid Fuels

Researchers have developed a solar-powered technology that converts carbon dioxide and water into liquid fuels that can be added directly to a car’s engine as drop-in fuel.   The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, harnessed the power of photosynthesis to convert CO2, water and sunlight into multicarbon fuels – ethanol and propanol – in a single step. These fuels have a high energy density and can be easily stored or transported. Unlike fossil fuels, these solar fuels produce net…

Materials Sciences

Smart material prototype challenges Newton’s laws of motion

University of Missouri researchers designed a prototype of a small, lightweight active ‘metamaterial’ that can control the direction and intensity of energy waves. For more than 10 years, Guoliang Huang, the Huber and Helen Croft Chair in Engineering at the University of Missouri, has been investigating the unconventional properties of “metamaterials” — an artificial material that exhibits properties not commonly found in nature as defined by Newton’s laws of motion — in his long-term pursuit of designing an ideal metamaterial….

Environmental Conservation

Global Lakes Face Water Loss: Climate Change and Consumption Impact

Climate change, human consumption and sedimentation contributing to decline. More than 50 percent of the largest lakes in the world are losing water, according to a groundbreaking new assessment published today in Science . The key culprits are not surprising: warming climate and unsustainable human consumption. But lead author Fangfang Yao, a CIRES visiting fellow, now a climate fellow at University of Virginia, said the news is not entirely bleak. With this new method of tracking lake water storage trends…

Materials Sciences

High-Temperature Sensors for Extreme Environments

Sensitive, reliable and durable sensors created for multiple industries. Extreme environments in several critical industries – aerospace, energy, transportation and defense – require sensors to measure and monitor numerous factors under harsh conditions to ensure human safety and integrity of mechanical systems. In the petrochemical industry, for example, pipeline pressures must be monitored at climates ranging from hot desert heat to near arctic cold. Various nuclear reactors operate at a range of 300-1000 degrees Celsius, while deep geothermal wells hold…

Physics & Astronomy

X-Ray Insights Into the Most Luminous Quasar: J1144

Researchers have observed the X-ray emission of the most luminous quasar seen in the last 9 billion years of cosmic history, known as SMSS J114447.77-430859.3, or J1144 for short. The new perspective sheds light on the inner workings of quasars and how they interact with their environment. The research is published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Hosted by a galaxy 9.6 billion light years away from the Earth, between the constellations of Centaurus and Hydra, J1144 is extremely…

Earth Sciences

“Warm Ice Age” Changed Climate Cycles

Earth scientists identify pivotal step in the Earth’s later climate development. Approximately 700,000 years ago, a “warm ice age” permanently changed the climate cycles on Earth. Contemporaneous with this exceptionally warm and moist period, the polar glaciers greatly expanded. A European research team including Earth scientists from Heidelberg University used recently acquired geological data in combination with computer simulations to identify this seemingly paradoxical connection. According to the researchers, this profound change in the Earth’s climate was responsible for the…

Information Technology

3D-Printed Pills: Custom Shapes for Targeted Drug Release

– a step upwards in medication. Don’t be surprised to see pills with unusual shapes in the future. At first sight they may look funny, but they can release pharmaceuticals inside the body in a controlled manner. Using a combination of advanced computational methods and 3D printing, objects are produced that dissolve in liquids in a predetermined manner. A group of Computer Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Saarbrücken, Germany, and the University of California at Davis,…

Physics & Astronomy

New Model Sheds Light on Ice Age Cycle Control

A research team, composed of climatologists and an astronomer, have used an improved computer model to reproduce the cycle of ice ages (glacial periods) 1.6 to 1.2 million years ago. The results show that the glacial cycle was driven primarily by astronomical forces in quite a different way than it works in the modern age. These results will help us to better understand the past, present, and future of ice sheets and the Earth’s climate. Earth’s orbit around the Sun…

Feedback