No one would ever imagine crumpling up their smartphone, television or another electronic device. Today’s displays – which are flat, rigid and fragile – lack the ability to reshape to interactively respond to users. As part of an overarching quest to build “skin-inspired” electronics that are soft and stretchy, Stanford University chemical engineer Zhenan Bao and her research team have been developing a display to change that. Now, after more than three years of work, they show the proof of principle toward…
Two teams of physicists led by Peter Zoller and Thomas Monz at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, have designed the first programmable quantum sensor, and tested it in the laboratory. To do so they applied techniques from quantum information processing to a measurement problem. The innovative method promises quantum sensors whose precision reaches close to the limit set by the laws of nature. Atomic clocks are the best sensors mankind has ever built. Today, they can be found in national…
Researchers develop a 2D tomography technique that will enable the search for Mach waves in the smallest droplets of quark-gluon plasma. The Science Nuclear scientists create the hottest matter in the universe by colliding nuclei at almost the speed of light. At such high temperatures, almost a million times hotter than the Sun, nuclear matter melts into a soup of subatomic particles called quarks and gluons. This quark-gluon plasma has almost no resistance to flow, making it the world’s most perfect…
Scientists from the University of Warsaw, the Military University of Technology and the University of Southampton presented a new type of tunable microlaser emitting two beams. – These beams are polarized circularly and directed at different angles – says prof. Jacek Szczytko from the Faculty of Physics of the University of Warsaw. This achievement was obtained by creating the so-called a persistent-spin helix on the surface of the microcavity. The results have been published in “Physical Review Applied”. To achieve…
The pollen grains of maize, rice and all other cereals, need to store starch as energy deposit for later use during fertilization. A research team, led by Dr Iván Acosta from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, Germany, together with colleagues from the Umeå Plant Science Centre, Sweden, the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Germany and Rutgers University, USA now identified the phytohormone auxin as a main driver for energy production during pollen maturation…
The effect of strain and pressure on the electron-phonon coupling and superconductivity in MgB2—Benchmark of theoretical methodologies and outlook for nanostructure design. Researchers at Linköping University have, by way of a number of theoretical calculations, shown that magnesium diboride becomes superconductive at a higher temperature when it is stretched. The discovery is a big step toward finding superconductive materials that are useful in real-world situations. “Magnesiumdiboride or MgB2 is an interesting material. It’s a hard material that is used for…
The appearance of ovarian lesions on ultrasound is an effective predictor of cancer risk that can help women avoid unnecessary surgery, according to a new study published in the journal Radiology. Ovarian cancer is the deadliest of the gynecologic cancers, killing about 15,000 women every year in the United States. Characterization of adnexal lesions, or lumps near the uterus, on ultrasound examination is crucial for appropriate patient management, as some adnexal lesions can progress to cancer, while many others are…
Combining engineered flaps with other structures inspired by seagull wings improves lift, reduces stalling in wind energy turbine blades. Wind energy relies on efficient wind turbine blades, which act as airfoils, structures akin to an airplane wing. Air flow control accessories similar to those found in aircraft improve the turbine blade’s aerodynamic performance. In the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, by AIP Publishing, scientists from China show a bionic approach combining features of a seagull’s wing with an engineered…
Nanofountain Probe Electroporation system enables efficient engineering of stem cells. One of the ultimate goals of medical science is to develop personalized disease diagnostics and therapeutics. With a patient’s genetic information, doctors could tailor treatments to individuals, leading to safer and more effective care. Recent work from a team of Northwestern Engineering researchers has moved the field closer to realizing this future. Led by Professor Horacio Espinosa, the research team developed a new version of its Nanofountain Probe Electroporation (NFP-E), a…
Microchips with tiny clocks may hold key to future of computing security. It’s fairly reasonable to assume that an encrypted email can’t be seen by prying eyes. That’s because in order to break through most of the encryption systems we use on a day-to-day basis, unless you are the intended recipient, you’d need the answer to a mathematical problem that’s nearly impossible for a computer to solve in a reasonable amount of time. Nearly impossible for modern-day computers, at least….
To treat Ebola virus infections, researchers are taking a close look at a key piece of the virus: polymerase Polymerase is a viral protein that directs how Ebola virus replicates its genome as it infects new hosts. Drugs that target polymerase could potentially treat Ebola virus infections and save lives. Now scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) and Scripps Research have found a promising strategy for stopping Ebola virus polymerase. The researchers discovered that Ebola virus polymerase hijacks…
A team of scientists has predicted the science return from one of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s groundbreaking planned surveys, which will analyze millions of galaxies strewn across space and time. The mission’s enormous, deep panoramas will provide the best opportunity yet to discern between the leading theories about what’s speeding up the universe’s expansion. Roman will explore this mystery using multiple methods, including spectroscopy – the study of the color information in light. This technique will allow scientists…
Our eyes may be windows on the world, but our fingertips put us in touch with it. To recreate this tactile sense, current technology relies on tiny motors and electricity. However, the bumps and buzzes they generate are not that good at mimicking the real thing. Today, scientists report evidence that our skin can perceive subtle differences in chemistry — findings they hope could provide the basis for a new way to control touch and better integrate it into applications,…
Attosecond laser pulses in the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) are a unique tool enabling the observation and control of electron dynamics in atoms, molecules, and solids. Most attosecond laser sources operate at a pulse repetition rate of 1 kHz (1000 shots per second), which limits their usefulness in complex experiments. Using a high power laser system developed at MBI we have managed to generate attosecond pulses at 100 kHz repetition rate. This enables new types of experiments in attosecond science. Light…
A UNIGE team has succeeded in storing a quantum bit for 20 milliseconds. A duration that had never before been achieved by a solid-state quantum memory. Computers, smartphones, GPS: quantum physics has enabled many technological advances. It is now opening up new fields of research in cryptography (the art of coding messages) with the aim of developing ultra-secure telecommunications networks. There is one obstacle, however: after a few hundred kilometers within an optical fiber, the photons that carry the qubits…
If a Tyrannosaurus Rex living 66 million years ago featured a similar leg structure as an ostrich running in the savanna today, then we can assume bird legs stood the test of time – a good example of evolutionary selection. Graceful, elegant, powerful – flightless birds like the ostrich are a mechanical wonder. Ostriches, some of which weigh over 100kg, run through the savanna at up to 55km/h. The ostriches outstanding locomotor performance is thought to be enabled by the…
Feedback
