To celebrate the 60th birthday of King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway in 1889, the journal Acta Mathematica offered a prize for manuscripts that could help solve the following question, generally referred to as the 3-body problem: Can we predict the orbits of planets, moons and other celestial bodies over time? Although mathematician Henri Poincaré was awarded the gold medal and 2,500 Swedish kronor prize for his submission (later found to have an error), the general analytical solution to the “n-body”…
… homogeneity leads to stability. Scientists from The University of Tokyo Institute of Industrial Science used computer simulations to study the aging mechanism that can cause an amorphous glassy material to turn into a crystal. They find that removing tiny irregularities in local densities help prevent the atomic “avalanches” that trigger ordered structure formation. This work may lead to more stable glassy materials, including for pharmaceutical applications. Glasses are highly unusual solids in that they lack an organized crystal structure….
Device can see around corners and through scattering media like fog and human tissue. Northwestern University researchers have invented a new high-resolution camera that can see the unseen — including around corners and through scattering media, such as skin, fog or potentially even the human skull. Called synthetic wavelength holography, the new method works by indirectly scattering coherent light onto hidden objects, which then scatters again and travels back to a camera. From there, an algorithm reconstructs the scattered light…
Physicists from Exeter and Zaragoza have created a theory describing how non-reciprocity can be induced at the quantum level, paving the way for non-reciprocal transport in the next generation of nanotechnology. A pair of theoretical physicists, from the University of Exeter (United Kingdom) and the University of Zaragoza (Spain), have developed a quantum theory explaining how to engineer non-reciprocal flows of quantum light and matter. The research may be important for the creation of quantum technologies which require the directional…
A surprising discovery at TU Wien: A catalyst seems to contradict usual laws and can exhibit completely different activity states at the same time. Sometimes chemical reactions in the lab work the way you imagine them to, and sometimes they don’t. Neither is unusual. What is highly unusual, however, is what a research team at TU Wien has now observed when studying hydrogen oxidation on a rhodium catalyst: The surface of a rhodium foil can be highly chemically active in…
Researchers from Osaka University and Osaka City University synthesize and crystallize a molecule that is otherwise too unstable to fully study in the laboratory, and is a model of a revolutionary class of magnets. Since the first reported production in 2004, researchers have been hard at work using graphene and similar carbon-based materials to revolutionize electronics, sports, and many other disciplines. Now, researchers from Japan have made a discovery that will advance the long-elusive field of nanographene magnets. In a…
Scientists have created a new triboelectric fabric that generates electricity from the movement of the body while remaining flexible and breathable. The triboelectric effect is a phenomenon where a charge is generated on two dissimilar materials when the materials are moved apart after being in contact with each other. Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) use this effect to convert mechanical motion into electrical energy. The compactness of TENGs allows them to be used as wearable devices that can harness the motion of…
New technique opens a possibility to replace silicon with 2D materials in semiconducting technology. As silicon based semiconducting technology is approaching the limit of its performance, new materials that may replace or partially replace silicon in technology is highly desired. Recently, the emergence of graphene and other two-dimensional (2D) materials offers a new platform for building next generation semiconducting technology. Among them, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), such as MoS2, WS2, MoSe2, WSe2, as most appealing 2D semiconductors. A prerequisite of…
The new molecule can improve the yield of reactions for generating pharmaceuticals and other useful compounds. By mimicking photosynthesis, the light-driven process that plants use to produce sugars, MIT researchers have designed a new type of photocatalyst that can absorb light and use it to drive a variety of chemical reactions. The new type of catalyst, known as a biohybrid photocatalyst, contains a light-harvesting protein that absorbs light and transfers the energy to a metal-containing catalyst. This catalyst then uses…
New mineral from Earth’s lower mantle surfaced as diamond inclusion; study led by UNLV geochemist Oliver Tschauner. UNLV geochemists have discovered a new mineral on the surface of the Earth. There’s just one catch: it shouldn’t be here. The mineral — entrapped in a diamond — traveled up to the surface from at least 410 miles deep within the Earth’s lower mantle, the area between the planet’s core and crust. It’s the first time that lower mantle minerals have ever…
Convolutional neural networks trained to identify abnormalities on upper extremity radiographs are susceptible to a ubiquitous confounding image feature that could limit their clinical utility: radiograph labels. According to an open-access Editor’s Choice article in ARRS’ American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR), convolutional neural networks (CNN) trained to identify abnormalities on upper extremity radiographs are susceptible to a ubiquitous confounding image feature that could limit their clinical utility: radiograph labels. “We recommend that such potential image confounders be collected when possible…
A team of scientists has forecast the scientific impact of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s High Latitude Wide Area Survey on critical questions in cosmology. This observation program will consist of both imaging, which reveals the locations, shapes, sizes, and colors of objects like distant galaxies, and spectroscopy, which involves measuring the intensity of light from those objects at different wavelengths, across the same enormous swath of the universe. Scientists will be able to harness the power of a…
A new technique developed in part by University of Hawaiʻi astronomer Nader Haghighipour has allowed scientists to quickly detect a transiting planet with two suns. Termed circumbinary planets, these objects orbit around a pair of stars. For years, these planets were merely the subject of science fiction, like Tatooine in Star Wars. However, thanks to NASA’s successful planet-hunting Kepler and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) missions, a team of astronomers, including Haghighipour, have found 14 such bodies so far. Kepler…
Researchers from Osaka University have improved the transfer efficiency between quantum information carriers, in a manner that’s based on well-established nanoscience and is compatible with upcoming advanced communication technologies. Information storage and transfer in the manner of simple ones and zeros—as in today’s classical computer technologies—is insufficient for quantum technologies under development. Now, researchers from Japan have fabricated a nanoantenna that will help bring quantum information networks closer to practical use. In a study recently published in Applied Physics Express,…
New methodology enables the detection of ground deformation automatically at a global scale. Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory are applying machine learning algorithms to help interpret massive amounts of ground deformation data collected with Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) satellites; the new algorithms will improve earthquake detection. “Applying machine learning to InSAR data gives us a new way to understand the physics behind tectonic faults and earthquakes,” said Bertrand Rouet-Leduc, a geophysicist in Los Alamos’ Geophysics group. “That’s crucial…
University of Rochester researchers for the first time package a way of amplifying interferometric signals using inverse weak value amplification —without increase in extraneous input or “noise”—on an integrated photonic chip. By merging two or more sources of light, interferometers create interference patterns that can provide remarkably detailed information about everything they illuminate, from a tiny flaw on a mirror, to the dispersion of pollutants in the atmosphere, to gravitational patterns in far reaches of the Universe. “If you want…
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