Science Daily March 3, 2022 A team of researchers in the US (University of Illinois, UMass Amherst, Stanford University) expanded molecular alphabet for DNA data storage comprising four natural and seven chemically modified nucleotides that are readily detected and distinguished using nanopore sequencers. They showed that Mycobacterium smegmatis porin A (MspA) nanopores can accurately discriminate 77 combinations and orderings of chemically diverse monomers within homo- and heterotetrameric sequences. The sequencing accuracy exceeded 60%. The extended molecular alphabet may potentially offer a nearly 2-fold increase in storage density and potentially the same order of reduction in the recording latency, thereby enabling […]
Author Archives: Hema Viswanath
Physicists show how frequencies can easily be multiplied without special circuitry
Phys.org March 10, 2022 Non-linear electronic circuits are typically used to generate the high-frequency gigahertz signals needed to operate today’s devices. An international team of researchers (Germany, Switzerland) found a way to do this within a magnetic material without the electronic components. Instead, the magnetization is excited by a low-frequency megahertz source. Using the newly discovered effect the source generates several frequency components, each of which is a multiple of the excitation frequency. These cover a range of six octaves and reach up to several gigahertz. The frequency multiplication is explained by synchronized switching of the dynamic magnetization on a […]
Researchers design charged ‘power suits’ for electric vehicles and spacecraft
Phys.org March 7, 2022 A team of researchers in the US (University of Central Florida, NASA Kennedy space Center, FL) has developed a supercapacitor using carbon fiber reinforced polymer (e-CFRP) that can store electrical energy and function as the structural component for the EV’s body shell. Vertically aligned graphene sheets were attached to carbon fiber electrodes on which different metal oxides were deposited to obtain high-energy density electrodes. They fabricated a high-strength multilayer e-CFRP assembly using an alternate layer patterning configuration of epoxy and polyacrylamide gel electrolyte. It delivered a high areal energy density of 0.31 mWh cm–2 at 0.3 […]
Robot ‘bugs’ that can go just about anywhere
Science Daily March 3, 2022 For many creatures under a certain size—like trap-jaw ants, mantis shrimp, and fleas—jumping across a surface is more energy-efficient than crawling. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh built a robot about the size of a cricket made of a polymeric artificial muscle and replicated such movements. The curved composite shape of the polymer muscle allows it to build energy when it is powered to move along moving surfaces like sand as easily as hard surfaces, and even to hop across water. High speed imaging reveals tip velocities of several 100 mm s−1 with powers approaching […]
A sieve for molecules
Science Daily March 7, 2022 Scientists have long tried to use graphene as a sieve. However, it doesn’t have any pores. An international team of researchers (Germany, USA – Yale University) found that bilayer silica composed of corner-sharing (SiO4) units to be permeable for small molecules due to its intrinsic lattice openings. Their study sheds light on the mass transport properties of freestanding 2D SiO2 upon using atomic layer deposition (ALD) to grow large-area films on Au/mica substrates followed by transfer onto Si3N4 windows. Permeation experiments with gaseous and vaporous substances revealed the suspended material to be porous, but the […]
Spinning electricity under the sky
Nanowerk March 8, 2022 In thermoelectric materials the hot side can be easily obtained by excess heat. Since thermoelectric voltage is proportional to the temperature difference between the hot and cold sides, efficient passive cooling to increase the temperature gradient is of critical importance. Researchers in Japan have designed a magnetic hybrid system where radiative cooling occurs at the top, as heat is lost from a material in the form of infrared radiation, while solar radiation is absorbed at the bottom. They demonstrated this concept by using the spin Seebeck effect. The device shows the highest thermoelectric voltage when both […]
Study raises new possibilities for triggering room-temperature superconductivity with light
Phys.org March 9, 2022 In the case of the superconducting material yttrium barium copper oxide, or YBCO, experiments have shown that under certain conditions, knocking it out of equilibrium with a laser pulse allows it to superconduct at much closer to room temperature than researchers expected. YBCO switches from a normal to a superconducting state when chilled below a certain transition temperature or it can be switched off with a pulse of light. An international team of researchers (South Korea, USA – SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Japan, Germany) compared the two switching approaches (exposing to high magnetic field and laser […]
Vacuum fluctuations break topological protection
Phys.org March 4, 2022 The prospect of controlling the electronic properties of materials via the vacuum fields of cavity electromagnetic resonators is emerging as one of the frontiers of condensed matter physics. An international team of researchers (Switzerland, France) found that the enhancement of vacuum field fluctuations in subwavelength split-ring resonators strongly affects the quantum Hall electron transport in high-mobility two-dimensional electron gases. The observed breakdown of the topological protection of the integer quantum Hall effect is interpreted in terms of a long-range cavity-mediated electron hopping where the anti-resonant terms of the light-matter coupling develop into a finite resistivity induced […]
Top 10 Science and Technology Inventions for the Week of March 4, 2022
01. Arrays of metallic nanoparticles can form an optical cavity tunable by liquid crystals 02. First observation of the quantum boomerang effect 03. Freshwater from thin air 04. How to make a ‘computer’ out of liquid crystals 05. Lightweight nanofiber mats could battle bullets, deflect space debris 06. Live wire: New research on nanoelectronics 07. Metasurface-based antenna turns ambient radio waves into electric power 08. Strong, stretchy, self-healing polymers rapidly recover from damage 09. Surprising semiconductor properties revealed with innovative new method 10. Using two different elements creates new possibilities in hybrid atomic quantum computers And others… This 500-Year-Old Landslide […]
This 500-Year-Old Landslide Found in The Red Sea Could Trigger a Future Tsunami
Science Alert February 28, 2022 Tsunamigenic submarine landslides are common in deep, steep-sided, and seismically active basins of the Red Sea. Because the rift is narrow, tsunami formed on one margin dissipate little before impacting the opposite side. An international team of researchers (USA – University of Miami, UC Santa Cruz, industry, Columbia University, Italy, Saudi Arabia) examined the tsunamigenic potential of an incipient landslide in the Tiran Straits that started, but then stopped after a short distance. Their analyses fix the age of this landslide to within the last 500 years. Tsunami modeling predicts ∼10 m wave heights on […]