Laser light can radically change the properties of solid materials, making them superconducting or magnetic within millionths of a billionth of a second. The intense light causes fundamental, immediate changes in a solid by ‘shaking’ its atomic lattice structure and moving electrons about. But what exactly is happening at that elementary level? How do those atoms and electrons actually move? Now a theory team at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Hamburg has found…

After three years: ATLAS detector more powerful than ever – with major contributions from Mainz University. Tomorrow (on July 5th) protons are expected once again colliding with each other at speeds close to that of light in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, also giving physicists of the PRISMA⁺ Cluster of Excellence of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz something to celebrate. Over the last three years, they have made important contributions to the upgrade of the ATLAS detector, ensuring that…

Researchers improve widely used simulation method for high-performance computing clusters. Although most fundamental mathematical equations that describe electronic structures are long known, they are too complex to be solved in practice. This has hampered progress in physics, chemistry and the material sciences. Thanks to modern high-performance computing clusters and the establishment of the simulation method density functional theory (DFT), researchers were able to change this situation. However, even with these tools the modelled processes are in many cases still drastically…

A concept developed by University of Arizona aerospace experts and a NASA planetary scientist takes inspiration from albatross flight to learn more about the Red Planet’s atmosphere and geology. Eight active spacecraft, including three operated by NASA, orbit Mars, gathering imagery of the planet’s surface at a resolution of about 1 foot per pixel. Three rovers traverse the ground, mapping small areas of the planet with greater precision. But what lies in the hundreds of kilometers between the rovers and…

Professor Ben Mazin talks superconductors, exoplanets and dance clubs as he explains advances in sensor technology. It may seem like technology advances year after year, as if by magic. But behind every incremental improvement and breakthrough revolution is a team of scientists and engineers hard at work. UC Santa Barbara Professor Ben Mazin is developing precision optical sensors for telescopes and observatories. In a paper published in Physical Review Letters, he and his team improved the spectra resolution of their…

On the 50th anniversary of the discovery of a close connection between star formation in galaxies and their infrared and radio radiation, researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) have now deciphered the underlying physics. To this end, they used novel computer simulations of galaxy formation with a complete modelling of cosmic rays. To understand the formation and evolution of galaxies like our Milky Way, it is of particular importance to know the amount of newly formed stars…

A joint research group led by Genki Kanda at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR) has developed a robotic artificial intelligence (AI) system for autonomously determining the optimal conditions for growing replacement retina layers necessary for vision. The AI controlled a trial and error process spanning 200 million possible conditions that succeeded in improving cell culture recipes used in regenerative medicine. This achievement, published in the scientific journal eLife on June 28, is just one example of how…

New simulation also shows gamma ray bursts are 10 times rarer than previously thought. A Northwestern University-led team of astrophysicists has developed the first-ever full 3D simulation of an entire evolution of a jet formed by a collapsing star, or a “collapsar.” Because these jets generate gamma ray bursts (GRBs) — the most energetic and luminous events in the universe since the Big Bang — the simulations have shed light on these peculiar, intense bursts of light. Their new findings…

Sensing with levitated nanoparticles has so far been limited by the precision of position measurements. Now, researchers at the University of Innsbruck led by Tracy Northup, have demonstrated a new method for optical interferometry in which light scattered by a particle is reflected by a mirror. This opens up new possibilities for using levitated particles as sensors, in particular, in quantum regimes. Levitated nanoparticles are promising tools for sensing ultra-weak forces of biological, chemical or mechanical origin and even for…

Breakthrough by Berkeley engineers could dramatically improve the efficiency of lasers for sensing, communication and imaging. Berkeley engineers have created a new type of semiconductor laser that accomplishes an elusive goal in the field of optics: the ability to maintain a single mode of emitted light while maintaining the ability to scale up in size and power. It is an achievement that means size does not have to come at the expense of coherence, enabling lasers to be more powerful…

Equivalent total oxidation potential of a plasma-activated medium has implications for cancer treatments. Chinese researchers may have found a new approach to treat cancer by using a plasma treatment to induce apoptosis, the death of cancer cells, without any obvious side effect to normal cells. The catch is that while a plasma-activated medium (PAM) can be treated as a drug, there is always a dose-effect relationship. And within the plasma community, many researchers are defining the plasma dose as either…

The work has been accepted at “SIGGRAPH”, the most important conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques. “LeviPrint” is a system that uses acoustic manipulation for assembling objects without physical contact. We generate acoustic fields that trap small particles, glue droplets and, most importantly, elongated stick-like elements that can be manipulated and reoriented as we levitate them. In short, it is a fully functional system for manufacturing 3D structures using contactless manipulation.” This is how it was explained by researchers…

A new GPU-based machine learning algorithm developed by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) can help scientists better understand and predict connectivity between different regions of the brain. The algorithm, called Regularized, Accelerated, Linear Fascicle Evaluation, or ReAl-LiFE, can rapidly analyse the enormous amounts of data generated from diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging (dMRI) scans of the human brain. Using ReAL-LiFE, the team was able to evaluate dMRI data over 150 times faster than existing state-of-the-art algorithms. “Tasks that…

… will aim to think and act for themselves in the most hazardous places on Earth – and beyond. Manchester experts are combining expertise in “hot-robotics” and AI to make a new generation of robots to work in harsh hotspots. A new generation of smart robots is being developed at The University of Manchester as part of an ambitious R&D programme to help the UK maintain its leadership in automatation technologies, These new AI-powered machines will be designed to think…

Liquid water is an important prerequisite for life to develop on a planet. As researchers from the University of Bern, the University of Zurich and the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS report in a new study, liquid water could also exist for billions of years on planets that are very different from Earth. This calls our currently Earth-centred idea of potentially habitable planets into question. Life on Earth began in the oceans. In the search for life…

Using a time lens, Columbia Engineers resolve single photons 70x faster than other techniques, another step towards advancing quantum information processing. Light has long been used to transmit information in many of our everyday electronic devices. Because light is made of quantum particles called photons, it will also play an important role in information processing in the coming generation of quantum devices. But first, researchers need to gain control of individual photons. Writing in Optica, Columbia Engineers propose using a…