Phys.org August 29, 2022 One of the key outstanding questions in fluid turbulence concerns the role of coherent structures that describe frequently observed patterns embedded in turbulence. It has been suggested, but not proved, that coherent structures correspond to unstable, recurrent solutions of the governing equation of fluid dynamics. Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have presented experimental and numerical evidence that three-dimensional turbulent flow tracks, episodically but repeatedly, the spatial and temporal structure of multiple such solutions. According to the researchers their results provide compelling evidence that coherent structures, grounded in the governing equations, can be harnessed to predict […]
Author Archives: Hema Viswanath
Protein that could prevent chemical warfare attack created
Phys.org September 1, 2022 The creation of proteins that use specific, sensitive, real-time biological recognition detection methods for VX neurotoxin using directed evolution or library screening methods has been hampered because its toxicity makes laboratory experimentation extraordinarily expensive. A team of researchers in the US (the City College of New York, the State University of New Jersey, Clarkson University) designed the protein to have a cavity at its center that matched the precise shape and chemical composition of VX. The protein underwent a dramatic shape change, burying VX in the cavity. The shape change is the signal which could be […]
Researchers develop equations to predict and compare tipping points of our globe’s most imperiled ecosystems
Phys.org August 29, 2022 An international team of researchers (Canada, USA – Northeastern University, Rensselaer Polytechnique Institute, Israel) has developed a general dimension-reduction approach that simultaneously compresses the natural control and state parameters of high-dimensional complex systems and introduces a scaling factor for recovery rates. Their theoretical framework places various systems with entirely different dynamical parameters, network structure and state perturbations on the same scale. More importantly, it compares distances to tipping points across different systems based on data on abundance and topology. By applying the method to 54 real-world mutualistic networks, their analytical results showed the network characteristics and […]
Researchers use infrared light to wirelessly transmit power over 30 meters
Science Daily August 30, 2022 Researchers in South Korea used an erbium-doped fiber amplifier optical power source with a central wavelength of 1550 nm. and wavelength division multiplexing filter that created a narrowband beam with optical power within the safety limits for free space propagation. They optimized distributed laser charging which enables self-alignment without tracking processes and automatically shifts to a safe low power delivery mode if an object or a person blocks the line of sight. They incorporated a spherical ball lens retroreflector in the receiver unit to facilitate 360-degree transmitter-receiver alignment, which maximized the power transfer efficiency. The […]
Silicon image sensor that computes
Science Daily August 26, 2022 To reduce the energy cost associated with transferring data between the sensing and computing units, in-sensor computing approaches are being developed where images are processed within the photodiode arrays. However, such methods require electrostatically doped photodiodes where photocurrents can be electrically modulated or programmed, and this is challenging in current CMOS image sensors that use chemically doped silicon photodiodes. An international team of researchers (USA – Harvard University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, South Korea) developed in-sensor computing using electrostatically doped silicon photodiodes by fabricating thousands of dual-gate silicon p–i–n photodiodes, which were integrated into CMOS image […]
Small molecules, giant (surface) potential
Phys.org August 26, 2022 The performance of organic optoelectronic and energy-harvesting devices is largely determined by the molecular orientation and resultant permanent dipole moment, yet this property is difficult to control during film preparation. Researchers in Japan have demonstrated the active control of dipole direction in organic glassy films by physical vapour deposition. It was obtained by utilizing the small surface free energy of a trifluoromethyl unit and intramolecular permanent dipole moment induced by functional groups. According to the researchers their work could pave a way toward the formation of spontaneously polarized organic glassy films, leading to improvement in the […]
The US has ruled all taxpayer-funded research must be free to read. What’s the benefit of open access?
Phys.org August 31, 2022 As per the guidance, all U.S. federal agencies must put in place policies and plans so anyone anywhere can immediately and freely access the peer-reviewed publications and data arising from research they fund. It may act as a catalyst for more policy changes globally. The new OSTP guidance emphasizes the primary intention is for the US public to have immediate access to research funded by their tax dollars. Even academics at well-funded universities can access only journals for which their universities have subscription. Last year, estimates suggested some 2 million research articles were published. People outside […]
Why ‘erasure’ could be key to practical quantum computing
Phys.org September 1, 2022 The fundamental challenge to quantum computers is that the operations are noisy. Rather than focusing solely on reducing the number of errors a team of researchers in the US (Yale University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Princeton) made errors more visible. They delved deeply into the actual physical causes of error and engineered their system so that the most common source of error effectively eliminates, rather than simply corrupting, the damaged data leading to “erasure error,” which is fundamentally easier to weed out than data that is corrupted but still looks like all the other data. Erasure errors […]
Top 10 Science and Technology Inventions for the Week of August 26, 2022
01. New stable quantum batteries can reliably store energy into electromagnetic fields 02. Antiferromagnetic hybrids achieve important functionality for spintronic applications 03. Damage-reporting and self-healing skin-like polymeric coatings 04. Engineers fabricate a chip-free, wireless electronic ‘skin’ 05. Exploring quantum electron highways with laser light 06. Harvesting energy – drop by drop 07. Novel smart material enables high-performance and reliable light control of droplets 08. A quantum pump without a crank 09. Researchers discover a material that can learn like the brain 10. Scientists identify liquid-like atoms in densely packed solid glasses And others… Lack of grants from funding agencies biggest […]
Antiferromagnetic hybrids achieve important functionality for spintronic applications
Phys.org August 23, 2033 Previous studies have shown spin injection and detection in antiferromagnet/nonmagnetic metal bilayers; however, spin injection in these systems has been found effective only at cryogenic temperatures. An international team of researchers (USA – UC Riverside, University of Utah, Germany) has demonstrated sizable interfacial spin transport in a hybrid antiferromagnet/ferromagnet system, consisting of Cr2O3 and permalloy, which remains robust up to the room temperature. They examined their experimental data within a spin diffusion model and found evidence for the important role of interfacial magnon pumping in the signal generation. The results bridge spin-orbitronic phenomena of ferromagnetic metals […]