A newly developed polarizer-embedded metalens enables a compact, portable microscope system that efficiently obtains wide-field, noise-free, high-resolution images. The microscope effectively expands human eyesight to microworld. It supports wide applications in scientific research, biomedical diagnosis, industry, and beyond. The ultimate goal is superresolution, yet along the way researchers are working to achieve compact, miniature devices with comprehensive performance for wide field-of-view (FOV), large depth-of-field (DOF), and high throughput. Traditional optical microscopes are based on refractive optical elements, which are usually…

Quantum computing, a field that relies on the principles of quantum mechanics to calculate outcomes, has the potential to perform tasks too complex for traditional computers and to do so at high speeds, making it in some ways the new frontier for science and engineering. To get to the point where quantum computers can meet their expected performance potential, the development of large-scale quantum processors and quantum memories is needed. Precise control of qubits — or quantum bits, the basic…

A mmWave Backscatter System, developed by a team led by Professor Song Min Kim is exciting news for the IoT market as it will be able to provide fast and stable connectivity even for a massive network. A research team led by Professor Song Min Kim of the KAIST School of Electrical Engineering developed a system that can support concurrent communications for tens of millions of IoT devices using backscattering millimeter-level waves (mmWave). With their mmWave backscatter method, the research…

Researchers from Aarhus and Berlin have developed a new algorithm that can teach computers to predict how complex molecules will bind to the surface of catalysts. It’s almost llike playing extreme Tetris. Imagine a game of Tetris where you not only have to stack the pieces in three dimensions, but the pieces are also much more complicated than the seven geometric shapes you normally use in the game. In this case, the pieces are large and complex molecules that are…

Response time variability can be perceived as human-like. Researchers at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) implemented a non-verbal Turing test that shows that people interacting with the humanoid robot iCub were not able to tell whether the robot was human-controlled or pre-programmed. Humans behave and act in a way that other humans can recognize as human-like. If humanness has specific features, is it possible to replicate these features on a machine like a robot? Researchers at IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia…

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory used neutron scattering to determine whether a specific material’s atomic structure could host a novel state of matter called a spiral spin liquid. By tracking tiny magnetic moments known as “spins” on the honeycomb lattice of a layered iron trichloride magnet, the team found the first 2D system to host a spiral spin liquid. The discovery provides a test bed for future studies of physics phenomena that may drive next-generation information…

Seeing the light: Researchers at Oxford University’s Department of Materials, working in collaboration with colleagues from Exeter and Munster have developed an on-chip optical processor capable of detecting similarities in datasets up to 1,000 times faster than conventional machine learning algorithms running on electronic processors. The new research published in Optica took its inspiration from Nobel Prize laureate Ivan Pavlov’s discovery of classical conditioning. In his experiments, Pavlov found that by providing another stimulus during feeding, such as the sound…

Space study offers clearest understanding yet of the life cycle of supermassive black holes. Research uses X-ray telescopes and a new data analysis technique to describe space objects. Black holes with varying light signatures but that were thought to be the same objects being viewed from different angles are actually in different stages of the life cycle, according to a study led by Dartmouth researchers. The research on black holes known as “active galactic nuclei,” or AGNs, says that it…

… discovered over thousands of years of observations. The secrets of the origin of some of them have not been solved so far. For the first time in the history of observations, scientists from the Helsinki and Ural Federal Universities Jarmo Moilanen and Maria Gritsevich have systematized information about all forms of atmospheric halos recorded by mankind at the end of 2021. From numerous sources of data on observations, the history of which includes 4-5 millennia, 119 different forms of…

A new AI program observed physical phenomena and uncovered relevant variables–a necessary precursor to any physics theory. But the variables it discovered were unexpected. Energy, Mass, Velocity. These three variables make up Einstein’s iconic equation E=MC2. But how did Einstein know about these concepts in the first place? A precursor step to understanding physics is identifying relevant variables. Without the concept of energy, mass, and velocity, not even Einstein could discover relativity. But can such variables be discovered automatically? Doing…

On-chip spectrometer, silicon nanowires determine light spectrum, angle. Image sensors measure light intensity, but angle, spectrum, and other aspects of light must also be extracted to significantly advance machine vision. In Applied Physics Letters, published by AIP Publishing, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Washington University in St. Louis, and OmniVision Technologies highlight the latest nanostructured components integrated on image sensor chips that are most likely to make the biggest impact in multimodal imaging. The developments could enable autonomous vehicles…

When communication lines are open, individual agents such as robots or drones can work together to collaborate and complete a task. But what if they aren’t equipped with the right hardware or the signals are blocked, making communication impossible? University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers started with this more difficult challenge. They developed a method to train multiple agents to work together using multi-agent reinforcement learning, a type of artificial intelligence. “It’s easier when agents can talk to each other,” said…

Liquid film can function as optical memory, enabling new architectural horizons for nanoscale neuromorphic computing. Sunlight sparkling on water evokes the rich phenomena of liquid–light interaction, spanning spatial and temporal scales. While the dynamics of liquids have fascinated researchers for decades, the rise of neuromorphic computing has sparked significant efforts to develop new, unconventional computational schemes based on recurrent neural networks, crucial to supporting wide range of modern technological applications, such as pattern recognition and autonomous driving. As biological neurons…

Researchers discover they contain a phase of quantum matter, known as charge density waves, that’s common in other unconventional superconductors. In other ways, though, they’re surprisingly unique. A new study shows that nickel oxide superconductors, which conduct electricity with no loss at higher temperatures than conventional superconductors do, contain a type of quantum matter called charge density waves, or CDWs, that can accompany superconductivity. The presence of CDWs shows that these recently discovered materials, also known as nickelates, are capable of…

The team* led by Prof. Toru Misawa of the School of General Education, Shinshu University found for the first time that the internal donut-shaped structure of the central nuclei of bright galaxies in the distant universe can have an “anisotropic” effect on the gas distributed over a vast area around them. Because luminous nuclei of distant galaxies (quasars) emit strong ultraviolet radiation, they ionize** hydrogen gas (intergalactic gas***) around them. If the quasar’s UV radiation is isotropic, the “ionization level”…

An international team of 23 researchers led by Maria Dainotti, Assistant Professor at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), has analyzed archive data for powerful cosmic explosions from the deaths of stars and found a new way to measure distances in the distant Universe. With no landmarks in space, it is very difficult to get a sense of depth. One technique astronomers use is to look for “standard candles,” objects or events where the underlying physics dictate that the…