Are humans or machines better at recognizing speech? A new study shows that in noisy conditions, current automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems achieve remarkable accuracy and sometimes even surpass human performance. However, the systems need to be trained on an incredible amount of data, while humans acquire comparable skills in less time. Automatic speech recognition (ASR) has made incredible advances in the past few years, especially for widely spoken languages ​​such as English. Prior to 2020, it was typically assumed…

Additional data can help differentiate subtle gestures, hand positions, facial expressions The Complexity of Sign Languages Sign languages have been developed by nations around the world to fit the local communication style, and each language consists of thousands of signs. This has made sign languages difficult to learn and understand. Using artificial intelligence to automatically translate the signs into words, known as word-level sign language recognition, has now gained a boost in accuracy through the work of an Osaka Metropolitan…

Scientists at the University of Stuttgart have succeeded in controlling the structure and function of biological membranes with the help of “DNA origami”. The system they developed may facilitate the transportation of large therapeutic loads into cells. This opens up a new way for the targeted administration of medication and other therapeutic interventions. Thus, a very valuable instrument can be added to the toolbox of synthetic biology. Prof. Laura Na Liu and her team published their findings in the journal…

From the persistent droughts of southern Africa and Central America in the early part of the year to the more recent devastating extreme rainfall in Spain and the deadly Hurricane Helene along America’s east coast, 2024 has been a year of climate events that affected the lives of billions of people. A “Climate-Resilient” Future In a recent paper published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, an international team of scientists led by Dr Wenxia Zhang at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese…

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, in collaboration with Chongqing University and the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, have achieved a breakthrough in topological thermoelectrics. In their study, published in “Nature Materials”, they demonstrate a groundbreaking development in thermoelectrics: By applying a weak magnetic field, the cooling performance of topological materials at low temperatures can be significantly improved. It marks a significant advance in magneto-thermoelectrics, which can be a cost-effective and energy-efficient alternative to…

Researchers from Osaka University introduced an innovative technology to lower power consumption for modern memory devices. Stepping up the Memory Game: Overcoming the Limitations of Traditional RAM Osaka, Japan – Numerous memory types for computing devices have emerged in recent years, aiming to overcome the limitations imposed by traditional random access memory (RAM). Magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) is one such memory type which offers several advantages over conventional RAM, including its non-volatility, high speed, increased storage capacity and enhanced endurance. Although…

Cutting-Edge Framework for Enhancing System Security Researchers at the University of Electro-Communications have developed a groundbreaking framework for improving system security by analyzing business process logs. This framework focuses on ensuring that role-based access control (RBAC) rules-critical to managing who can access specific system resources-are correctly implemented. Noncompliance with these rules, whether due to error or malicious activity, can result in unauthorized access and pose significant risks to organizations. Challenges in Ensuring Compliance with RBAC Policies RBAC is a widely…

AQSolotl’s quantum controller is designed to be adaptable, scalable and cost-efficient. Quantum technology jointly developed at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and National University of Singapore (NUS) has now been spun off into a new deep tech startup, AQSolotl. The startup’s flagship product, CHRONOS-Q, is a quantum controller that acts as a translator between conventional computing systems and quantum computers. Developed by university researchers affiliated with Singapore’s Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT), it enables users to control quantum computers…

Operations teams have confirmed NASA’s mission to “touch” the Sun survived its record-breaking closest approach to the solar surface on Dec. 24, 2024. Breaking its previous record by flying just 3.8 million miles above the surface of the Sun, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe hurtled through the solar atmosphere at a blazing 430,000 miles per hour — faster than any human-made object has ever moved. A beacon tone received late on Dec. 26 confirmed the spacecraft had made it through the…

At the Berlin synchrotron radiation source BESSY II, the largest magnetic anisotropy of a single molecule ever measured experimentally has been determined. The larger this anisotropy is, the better a molecule is suited as a molecular nanomagnet. Such nanomagnets have a wide range of potential applications, for example, in energy-efficient data storage. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Kohlenforschung (MPI KOFO), the Joint Lab EPR4Energy of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion (MPI CEC) and the Helmholtz-Zentrum…

LSU quantum researchers uncover hidden quantum behaviors within classical light, which could make quantum technologies robust. Understanding the boundary between classical and quantum physics has long been a central question in science. While thermal light fields have traditionally been viewed as classical, the team fragmented these fields into smaller multiphoton subsystems. Surprisingly, they uncovered quantum coherence—features such as particle interference previously thought unique to quantum systems—within a classical light source. By using a sophisticated technique involving photon-number-resolving detection and orbital…

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to contribute leadership to national effort in microelectronics design and development. Microelectronics run the modern world. Staying ahead of the development curve requires an investment that doesn’t just keep pace but sets new standards for the next generation of technological advances. Today, the Department of Energy announced the creation of three Microelectronics Science Research Centers to address the nation’s specific needs for microelectronics designed to operate in extreme environments such as high radiation, extreme cold, and…

One of the biggest mysteries in science – dark energy – doesn’t actually exist, according to researchers looking to solve the riddle of how the Universe is expanding. For the past 100 years, physicists have generally assumed that the cosmos is growing equally in all directions. They employed the concept of dark energy as a placeholder to explain unknown physics they couldn’t understand, but the contentious theory has always had its problems. Now a team of physicists and astronomers at…

New technique reveals complex spin structures at femtosecond timescales. Plasmons are collective oscillations of electrons in a solid and are important for a wide range of applications, such as sensing, catalysis, and light harvesting. Plasmonic waves that travel along the surface of a metal, called surface plasmon polaritons, have been studied for their ability to enhance electromagnetic fields. One of the most powerful tools for studying these waves is time-resolved electron microscopy, which uses ultrashort laser pulses to observe how…

Grapes show promise for quantum sensing breakthrough. Macquarie University researchers have demonstrated how ordinary supermarket grapes can enhance the performance of quantum sensors, potentially leading to more efficient quantum technologies. The study, published in Physical Review Applied on 20 December 2024, shows that pairs of grapes can create strong localised magnetic field hotspots of microwaves which are used in quantum sensing applications – a finding that could help develop more compact and cost-effective quantum devices. “While previous studies looked at…

With a processing speed a billion times faster than nature, chip-based laser neuron could help advance AI tasks such as pattern recognition and sequence prediction. Researchers have developed a laser-based artificial neuron that fully emulates the functions, dynamics and information processing of a biological graded neuron. With a signal processing speed of 10 GBaud —a billion times faster than its biological counterparts — the new laser graded neuron could lead to breakthroughs in fields like artificial intelligence and other types…