An international team has developed, assembled, and integrated a new set of receivers for the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Band 1 receivers, which have now been installed for the first time in ALMA antennas and successfully achieved the first light. With ALMA’s lowest frequency receivers, astronomers can view the cool Universe as never before. ALMA, located in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile at an altitude of 5,000m above sea level, is comprised of 66 antennas working as…
University of Warwick convenes researchers to investigate challenges of monitoring objects in Earth orbit in new Centre for Space Domain Awareness Research into sustainable use of space aims to support UK aim to become a responsible spacefaring nation Projects will investigate new methods to track debris in orbit and space weather that threaten spacecraft Established as congestion of near-Earth space through new satellites and mega-constellations is anticipated to expand rapidly in coming years New ways of tackling the threat that…
A publication saw light in Chemosensors. Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites of fungi that contaminate agriculture products. Their release in the environment can cause severe damage to human health. Aptasensors are compact analytical devices that are intended for the fast and reliable detection of various species able to specifically interact with aptamers attached to the transducer surface. Among many others, mycotoxins are frequently mentioned as one of the most pertinent problems in food safety and human health control. They affect a…
A European project led by Eurac Research has developed standard solutions suitable for every climate zone. The starting point is a modular prefabricated wooden façade that can include insulation and active components and is attached to the walls of the existing building. The façade’s openings align with those of existing windows and doors. Other technological components can be added to this base to form different solutions. These include a decentralised ventilation system that can also be equipped with a heat…
Anyone using a cellphone, laptop or electric vehicle depends on lithium. The element is in tremendous demand. And although the supply of lithium around the world is plentiful, getting access to it and extracting it remains a challenging and inefficient process. An interdisciplinary team of engineers and scientists is developing a way to extract lithium from contaminated water. New research, published this week in Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, could simplify the process of extracting lithium from aqueous brines,…
Soft valve paves the way for fully soft robots. Soft robots driven by pressurized fluids could explore new frontiers and interact with delicate objects in ways that traditional rigid robots can’t. But building entirely soft robots remains a challenge because many of the components required to power these devices are, themselves, rigid. Now, researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed electrically-driven soft valves to control hydraulic soft actuators. These valves could…
New superconducting magnet breaks magnetic field strength records, paving the way for practical, commercial, carbon-free power. It was a moment three years in the making, based on intensive research and design work: On Sept. 5, for the first time, a large high-temperature superconducting electromagnet was ramped up to a field strength of 20 tesla, the most powerful magnetic field of its kind ever created on Earth. That successful demonstration helps resolve the greatest uncertainty in the quest to build the…
A recent study using fruit flies in a Virtual Reality setting shows that the connection between vision, the brain and the spinal cord may have a crucial role in facilitating locomotion. Eugenia Chiappe, Principal Investigator of the Sensorimotor Integration Research Group at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal is standing in her office. There is a door, maybe three metres away, and the floor is flat and clear. Eugenia, who intends to walk in a straight line to…
Researchers from the University of Tsukuba use ultraviolet light pulses to access ion conductor properties that are otherwise difficult to safely attain. Automotive and other industries are hard at work improving the performance of rechargeable batteries and fuel cells. Now, researchers from Japan have made a discovery that will enable new possibilities for future environmental stability in this line of work. In a study recently published in Applied Materials Today, researchers from the University of Tsukuba have revealed that ultraviolet…
Astronomers from the UNIGE have observed the composition of the gases in our galaxy and have shown that, contrary to the models established until now, they are not homogeneously mixed. In order to better understand the history and evolution of the Milky Way, astronomers are studying the composition of the gases and metals that make up an important part of our galaxy. Three main elements stand out: the initial gas coming from outside our galaxy, the gas between the stars…
Vibration with different frequencies widely distributed in natural environments, living creatures, and artificial machines could be a nearly bottomless, locally obtained, and green energy source. By collecting ubiquitous vibrations through micro-transducers, it becomes possible to power wearable consumer electronics integrated in clothes, implantable devices in human bodies, portable terminals in the Internet of Things and even unsupervised vehicles in harsh environments. However, it’s a long-standing challenge to efficiently utilize the dispersed vibration energy especially within the high frequency range, since…
A new efficiency record of 21.4% for flexible CIGS solar cell on polymer film has been achieved by scientists at Empa. Solar cells of this type are especially suited for applications on roofs, transport vehicles or mobile devices. A group of scientists at Empa has pushed the efficiency of flexible solar cells to a new limit. Independent measurements revealed an efficiency of 21.4 percent when these types of solar cells convert light into electricity. For comparison: the best efficiency of…
Natural killer cells do not just kill cancer cells or cells infected with viruses, they also mediate a trade-off between wound healing and bacterial defense in skin wounds. If the healing process is accelerated, the immune defense is weakened, researchers at the University of Zurich have now shown. This has relevance in treating skin injuries and in tackling antibiotic-resistant germs. Natural killer cells are a specific type of immune cell. They recognize abnormal body cells such as cancer cells or…
Scientists awarded $6 million to plan brain-inspired computer that runs on probability. If you’ve ever asked a car mechanic how long a part will last until it breaks, odds are they shrugged their shoulders. They know how long parts last on average, and they can see when one is close to breaking. But knowing how many miles are left is extremely difficult, even using a supercomputer, because the exact moment a belt snaps or a battery dies is to some…
Breakthrough in stabilizing nanocrystals introduces a low-cost, energy-efficient light source for consumer electronic devices, detectors and medical imaging. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are an unsung hero of the lighting industry. They run efficiently, give off little heat and last for a long time. Now scientists are looking at new materials to make more efficient and longer-lived LEDs with applications in consumer electronics, medicine and security. Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Los Alamos…
Without rapid point-of-care testing, the pandemic will likely continue to evolve. Without the prospect of herd immunity on the immediate horizon, speedy detection for COVID-19 remains imperative for helping to curb the pandemic. Point-of-care testing that can provide immediate results is an urgent need. Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin and Omega Optics Inc. investigated the opportunities and challenges in developing rapid COVID-19 sensing techniques. They discuss the prospects of optical biosensors for point-of-care COVID-19 testing in the…
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