… using artificial intelligence. Real-time classification of underwater earthquakes based on acoustic signals enables earlier, more reliable disaster preparation. Tsunamis are incredibly destructive waves that can destroy coastal infrastructure and cause loss of life. Early warnings for such natural disasters are difficult because the risk of a tsunami is highly dependent on the features of the underwater earthquake that triggers it. In Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles and Cardiff University in…

… into the world of super small things. Physicists at The Australian National University (ANU) are using nanoparticles to develop new sources of light that will allow us to “peel back the curtain” into the world of extremely small objects – thousands of times smaller than a human hair – with major gains for medical and other technologies. The findings, published in Science Advances, could have major implications for medical science by offering an affordable and effective solution to analyse…

Fraunhofer IZFP at Control 2023: A planned service life of structures can only be achieved if the quality-assured execution of construction measures and the necessary maintenance measures during the service life phase are coordinated. This is why, it is usually necessary to record component-specific characteristic values non-destructively and with high accuracy of the measured value recording and localization. How this works will be presented by experts of the Fraunhofer IZFP from May 9 to 12, 2023 at the 35th Control…

Automated machining and assembly of large lightweight structures on a 1:1 scale. The Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM in Stade, Germany, will be presenting automation solutions for sustainable production at the Leading International Composites Show JEC WORLD 2023 from April 25 to 27 in Paris at the joint booth of Composites United e.V. (Hall 6 l Booth Q 28 l Position 16). Lightweight robotics modular system Assembly technologies for a lighter Clean Sky 2 aircraft fuselage…

A coil-powered robot fish designed by scientists at the University of Bristol could make underwater exploration more accessible. The robot fish was fitted with a twisted and coiled polymer (TCP) to drive it forward, a light-weight low cost device that relies on temperature change to generate movement, which also limits its speed. A TCP works by contracting like muscles when heated, converting the energy into mechanical motion . The TCP used in this work is warmed by Joule heating – the pass…

Revolutionary design could combine superconductor levitation, lossless electricity transmission, and liquid hydrogen transportation into one system. Superconductors can conduct electricity without any resistance or power loss, and they can effortlessly cause magnets to levitate above them. These properties would make superconductors useful for high-speed trains or long-distance power transmission, except for one glaring problem: superconductors only work at low temperatures, more than a hundred degrees below zero. This one requirement makes building a hyperefficient electrical grid or high-speed rail network…

KIT researchers develop first two-dimensional photonic time crystal – Application promises enhancements in wireless communication and laser technology. Photonic time crystals, whose properties change periodically, promise significant enhancements in microwave engineering, optics, and photonics. Researchers from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and partners from Aalto University and Stanford University have unveiled a groundbreaking 2D photonic time crystal and demonstrated important applications. Their approach simplifies the realisation of photonic time crystals and may improve the efficiency of future communication systems. The…

A new study has uncovered intriguing insights into the liquid core at the centre of Mars, furthering understanding of the planet’s formation and evolution. The research, led by the University of Bristol and published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the US, reveals the first-ever detections of sound waves travelling into the Martian core. Measurements from this acoustic energy, called seismic waves, indicate its liquid core is slightly denser and smaller than previously thought, and…

New research, using ultracold atoms, reveals particular properties of quantum systems. A team of physicists has illuminated certain properties of quantum systems by observing how their fluctuations spread over time. The research offers an intricate understanding of a complex phenomenon that is foundational to quantum computing—a method that can perform certain calculations significantly more efficiently than conventional computing. “In an era of quantum computing it’s vital to generate a precise characterization of the systems we are building,” explains Dries Sels,…

Even if you are not a quantum physicist, you will most likely have heard of Schrödinger’s famous cat. Erwin Schrödinger came up with the feline that can be alive and dead at the same time in a thought experiment in 1935. The obvious contradiction – after all, in everyday life we only ever see cats that are either alive or dead – has prompted scientists to try to realize analogous situations in the laboratory. So far, they have managed to…

Human-like intelligence could be physical. An international team led by scientists at the University of Sydney has demonstrated nanowire networks can exhibit both short- and long-term memory like the human brain. The research has been published today in the journal Science Advances, led by Dr Alon Loeffler, who received his PhD in the School of Physics, with collaborators in Japan. “In this research we found higher-order cognitive function, which we normally associate with the human brain, can be emulated in…

Using an ultrafast laser direct writing method, researchers arrange 3D voxels in glass to precisely direct light for various applications. Modern-day technologies like optical computing, integrated photonics, and digital holography require light signals to be manipulated in three dimensions. To achieve this, it is necessary to be able to shape and guide the flow of light according to its desired application. Given that light flow within a medium is governed by the refractive index, specific tailoring of the refractive index…

Simulations with a machine learning model predict a new phase of solid hydrogen. Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, is found everywhere from the dust filling most of outer space to the cores of stars to many substances here on Earth. This would be reason enough to study hydrogen, but its individual atoms are also the simplest of any element with just one proton and one electron. For David Ceperley, a professor of physics at the University of…

New way to entangle high-dimensional quantum systems. Recently quantum computers started to work with more than just the zeros and ones we know from classical computers. Now a team at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, demonstrates a way to efficiently create entanglement of such high-dimensional systems to enable more powerful calculations. In the world of computing, we typically think of information as being stored as ones and zeros – also known as binary encoding. However, in our daily life we…

Built to bounce back… Search and rescue efforts following disasters like the massive earthquakes in Turkey and Syria are a race against time. Emergency response teams need to quickly identify voids or spaces in building rubble where survivors might be trapped, and before natural gas leaks, water main flooding or shifting concrete slabs take their toll. Advanced technology plays a vital role in these recovery operations. Thermal imaging equipment and sensitive listening devices are deployed to seek out signs of…

Collaboration between TRUMPF, Fraunhofer ILT and DESY provides the most detailed of insights into laser welding processes to date thanks to the particle accelerator // Fraunhofer expert Marc Hummel: “We have now been able to clearly prove for the first time that raw materials can be saved in the welding high-performance electronics by using lasers with green wavelength.” Lots of raw materials can be saved in the welding of high-performance electronics. This is the result of an investigation at the…