High-speed method uses less computational power, could be useful for autonomous driving. Researchers have developed a new high-speed way to detect the location, size and category of multiple objects without acquiring images or requiring complex scene reconstruction. Because the new approach greatly decreases the computing power necessary for object detection, it could be useful for identifying hazards while driving. “Our technique is based on a single-pixel detector, which enables efficient and robust multi-object detection directly from a small number of…

Extreme pressures rearrange atoms to reveal interesting new properties. For decades, scientists sought a way to apply the outstanding analytical capabilities of neutrons to materials under pressures approaching those surrounding the Earth’s core. These extreme pressures can rearrange a material’s atoms, potentially resulting in interesting new properties. A breakthrough resulted in 2022 when researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Spallation Neutron Source squeezed a tiny sample of material – sandwiched between two diamonds – to a record 1.2 million times the average…

Cyberattacks on industry and critical infrastructure are on the rise across the globe. Targets also include ships, which, by transporting billions of tons of goods around the world each year, form part of international supply chains — yet their on-board IT systems often lack secure protection. To raise awareness of the risks of inadequate cybersecurity at sea and to help develop defensive solutions for guarding against cyberattacks, the Maritime Cyber Security research group at the Fraunhofer FKIE has teamed up…

Harnessing light for ultra-fast and low-power artificial intelligence. A study by the Politecnico di Milano in Science: Neural networks are distributed computing structures inspired by the structure of a biological brain and aim to achieve cognitive performance comparable to that of humans but in a much shorter time. These technologies now form the basis of machine learning and artificial intelligence systems that can perceive the environment and adapt their own behaviour by analysing the effects of previous actions and working…

Photonic chips have revolutionized data-heavy technologies. On their own or in concert with traditional electronic circuits, these laser-powered devices send and process information at the speed of light, making them a promising solution for artificial intelligence’s data-hungry applications. In addition to their incomparable speed, photonic circuits use significantly less energy than electronic ones. Electrons move relatively slowly through hardware, colliding with other particles and generating heat, while photons flow without losing energy, generating no heat at all. Unburdened by the…

The algorithm pairs machine-learning techniques with classical beam physics equations to avoid massive data crunching. Whenever SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory’s linear accelerator is on, packs of around a billion electrons each travel together at nearly the speed of light through metal piping. These electron bunches form the accelerator’s particle beam, which is used to study the atomic behavior of molecules, novel materials and many other subjects. But trying to estimate what a particle beam actually looks like as it travels…

Most massive touching stars ever found will eventually collide as black holes. Two massive touching stars in a neighbouring galaxy are on course to become black holes that will eventually crash together, generating waves in the fabric of space-time, according to a new study by researchers at University College London and the University of Potsdam. The study, accepted for publication in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics”, looked at a known binary star (two stars orbiting around a mutual centre of…

The most common stars in the universe are red dwarf stars, which means that rocky exoplanets are most likely to be found orbiting such a star. Red dwarf stars are cool, so a planet has to hug it in a tight orbit to stay warm enough to potentially host liquid water (meaning it lies in the habitable zone). Such stars are also active, particularly when they are young, releasing ultraviolet and X-ray radiation that could destroy planetary atmospheres. As a…

Over the past 70 years, the number of transistors on a chip has doubled approximately every two years – according to Moore’s Law, which is still valid today. The circuits have become correspondingly smaller, but an end to this development appears to be in sight. “We have now reached a stage where structures are only 2 to 3 nanometers in size. This is approximately equal to the diameter of 10 atoms, which takes us to the limits of what is…

— just like us. Columbia Engineers design a robot hand that is the first device of its kind to join advanced sense of touch with motor-learning algorithms–it doesn’t rely on vision to manipulate objects. Think about what you do with your hands when you’re home at night pushing buttons on your TV’s remote control, or at a restaurant using all kinds of cutlery and glassware. These skills are all based on touch, while you’re watching a TV program or choosing…

With Larger Selection of Materials to Enable High-Performance & Cost-Effective Hardware. The digital world is booming and has long since become part of everyday life in industry and society. More recent developments such as autonomous driving, telemedicine, but also private use require ever higher rates to transmit large amounts of data in real time. 6G should help with this: The aim is to transmit 1,000 GB/s and reduce latency to a tenth compared to 5G. At the current development stage,…

A team of Japanese astronomers used simultaneous ground-based and space-based observations to capture a more complete picture of a superflare on a star. The observed flare started with a very massive, high-velocity prominence eruption. These results give us a better idea of how superflares and stellar prominence eruptions occur. Some stars have been seen releasing superflares over 10 times larger than the largest solar flare ever seen on the Sun. The hot ionized gas released by solar flares can influence…

An international team of scientists with participation of the MPIfR in Bonn has used new millimetre-wavelength observations to image for the first time the link between the ring-like structure that reveals the matter falling into the central black hole and the powerful relativistic jet in the prominent radio galaxy M87. These images show the origin of the jet and the accretion flow near the central supermassive black hole. The new observations at 3.5 mm wavelength were obtained with the Global…

FAU physicists measure and control electron release from metals in the attosecond range. By superimposing two laser fields of different strengths and frequency, the electron emission of metals can be measured and controlled precisely to a few attoseconds. Physicists from FAU, the University of Rostock and the University of Konstanz have shown that this is the case. The findings could lead to new quantum-mechanical insights and enable electronic circuits that are a million times faster than today. The researchers have…

Using OLEDs to image magnetic fields. Smartphones could one day become portable quantum sensors thanks to a new chip-scale approach that uses organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) to image magnetic fields. Researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science at UNSW Sydney have demonstrated that OLEDs, a type of semiconductor material commonly found in flat-screen televisions, smartphone screens and other digital displays, can be used to map magnetic fields using magnetic resonance. Sensing of magnetic fields has important applications…

… with high phase purity. Researchers provide direct evidence that the magnetic properties of the novel icosahedral quasicrystals depend on the electrons-per-atom ratio. Quasicrystals (QCs) have peculiar structures with interesting atomic arrangements. Although they are similar to crystals from the exterior, at the atomic scale, they lack periodicity despite being ordered. Such structural arrangements confer quasicrystals with symmetries and other special properties that are missing in crystals. In particular, icosahedral QCs (i QCs), which have a special geometric structure, show…