TechXplore September 28, 2020 An international team of researchers (Austria, Germany) has created a soft robot and demonstrated a series of simulation-guided lightweight, durable, untethered, small-scale soft-bodied robots that perform large-degree deformations at high frequencies up to 100 Hz. They are driven at very low magnetic fields down to 0.5 mT and exhibit a specific energy density of 10.8 kJ m−3 mT−1. They observed asynchronous strongly nonlinear cross-clapping behavior of the robots in experiments and analyzed by simulation, breaking ground for future designs of soft-bodied robots. The robots walk, swim, levitate, transport cargo, squeeze into a vessel smaller than their dimensions and can […]
Author Archives: Hema Viswanath
Researchers work to create a roadmap on quantum materials
Phys.org September 25, 2020 Recently the definition of quantum materials has broadened to cover all the materials that allow scientists and engineers to explore emergent quantum phenomena and their potential applications. In this roadmap an international team of researchers (USA – UT Austin, University of Minnesota, Cornell University, France, Germany, South Korea, Canada, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Chile, India, Brazil, Austria) aims to capture a snapshot of the most recent developments in the field, and to identify outstanding challenges and emerging opportunities. The experts in each discipline share their viewpoint and articulate their vision for quantum materials, reflecting the […]
Scientists Have Found a Molecule That Allows Bacteria to ‘Exhale’ Electricity
Science Alert September 27, 2020 At any given time, billions of the bacteria are buzzing with electricity beneath the seafloor. Using advanced microscopy techniques a team of researchers in the US (Yale University, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) found that, stimulated by the electric field, the microbes assemble into dense biofilms, interlinked piles of hundreds of individual microbes, moving electrons through a single shared network. They found the “unique fingerprint” of each amino acid in the proteins that make up Geobacter’s signature nanowires. And when stimulated by an electric field, Geobacter produce a previously unknown kind of nanowire made of a […]
Scientists synthesise a MOF capable of degrading nerve agents in water
Nanowerk September 30, 2020 An international team of researchers (Spain, USA – Scripps research, CA, industry, UK, Portugal) used heterometallic metal-organic frameworks to exemplify the advantages of controlling metal distribution across the framework in heterogeneous catalysis by exploring their activity toward the degradation of a nerve agent simulant of Sarin gas. MUV-101(Fe) is the only pristine MOF capable of catalytic degradation of diisopropyl-fluorophosphate (DIFP) in non-buffered aqueous media. This activity cannot be explained only by the association of two metals, but to their synergistic cooperation, to create a whole that is more efficient than the simple sum of its parts. […]
Superconductivity with a twist explained
Phys.org September 29, 2020 An international team of researchers (Switzerland, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Japan) has shown that the interplay between the two hexagonal carbon lattices, slightly twisted, causes a much larger hexagonal moiré pattern to emerge. By creating this new periodicity, the interaction between the electrons changes, yielding “slow” electrons enabling superconductivity. At a temperature of 1.7 Kelvin, twisted bilayer graphene conducts electricity without resistance. The researchers have finally confirmed the mechanism behind these fascinating new superconductors…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Top 10 Science and Technology Inventions for the Week of September 25, 2020
01. The world’s first photodetector that can see all shades of light 02. New type of superconductor identified 03. A new strategy to implement a high-fidelity mixed-species entangling gate 04. Physicists create turnstile for photons 05. Controlling ultrastrong light-matter coupling at room temperature 06. Physicists develop printable organic transistors 07. Scientists identify solid electrolyte materials that boost lithium-ion battery performance 08. Single photon emission from isolated monolayer islands of InGaN 09. Inflatable Antennas for High Data Rate Satellite and 5G Communications 10. Breakthrough Could Lead to Amplifiers for 6G Signals And others… Major Physics Publisher Goes Double Blind New method […]
Breakthrough Could Lead to Amplifiers for 6G Signals
IEEE Spectrum September 24, 2020 Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have been developing a device that could be critical to efficiently pushing 6G’s terahertz-frequency signals out of the antennas of future smartphones and other connected devices. They show that N-polar GaN deep recess HEMTs grown on sapphire match the power performance of a device on SiC up to 14 V with 5.1 W/mm of output power density. At 16 V the device on sapphire starts to suffer from thermal effects but still demonstrated 5.5 W/mm with an associated 20.6% power-added efficiency. This work also examines the impact of encapsulating the […]
Controlling ultrastrong light-matter coupling at room temperature
EurekAlert September 23, 2020 Ultrastrong coupling is a distinct regime of electromagnetic interaction that enables a rich variety of intriguing physical phenomena. An international team of researchers (Sweden, Russia, Poland) used a plasmonic nanorod array positioned at the antinode of a resonant optical Fabry-Pérot microcavity to reach the ultrastrong coupling (USC) regime at ambient conditions and without the use of magnetic fields. From optical measurements they extracted the value of the interaction strength over the transition energy as high as g/ω ~ 0.55, deep in the USC regime, while the nanorod array occupies only ∼4% of the cavity volume. They indirectly observed […]
Faint orbital debris that threatens satellites not being monitored closely enough, warn astronomers
Phys.org September 24, 2020 Despite previous optical surveys probing to around 10–20 cm in size, regular monitoring of faint sources at GEO is challenging, thus our knowledge remains sparse. Researchers in the UK present photometric results from a survey of the GEO region carried out in Canary Islands. They uncovered 129 orbital tracks with GEO-like motion across the eight nights of dark-grey time comprising the survey. The faint end of the brightness distribution continues to rise until the sensitivity limit of the sensor is reached, suggesting that the modal brightness could be even fainter. They uncover several faint, uncatalogued objects […]
Inflatable Antennas for High Data Rate Satellite and 5G Communications
Next Big Future September 22, 2020 The inflatable antenna system enables big data from cubesats and small low-cost spacecraft. The 3-dimensional phased array antenna technology can provide high data rate communication at virtually any frequency at a fraction of the size and cost of any existing solution. They have a 5G communication antenna which is superior for communication in a city. The 5G antenna can replace 3-4 traditional antennas. The antenna has a fully electronic beam steering, 360-degree coverage eliminates moving parts to dramatically reduce cost and complexity. It is small, lightweight, reliable, provides low-cost access to large volumes of […]