National Academies December 4, 2018 According to a NAS [Open Access] report it is still too early to be able to predict the time horizon for a practical quantum computer. The current research on quantum computing has clear implications for national security. Any entity that has a large-scale quantum computer could break today’s cryptography to read intercepted communications or stored data. Continued support from the U.S. to this field is imperative if the country wants to maintain its leadership position…read more.
Author Archives: Hema Viswanath
Nanowerk’s Nanotechnology Top 10 Articles
Nanowerk January 1, 2019 The most popular Nanowerk Spotlight articles for each year from 2006 to 2018 are listed…read more.
Manhole Covers Serve as Antennas Expanding Wireless Network Coverage
IEEE Spectrum December 18, 2018 High-speed bandwidth, and the use of the millimeter wave spectrum needed for 5G networks barely propagate around the corners of buildings. To overcome this issue, the strategy has been a combination of small cells with massive MIMO antennas to increase coverage. To manage to get all these small cells dispersed throughout a city landscape, researchers in the UK propose using manhole covers as antennas for mobile communications. It eliminates traffic disruptions from street construction, and there are no antennas awkwardly placed on buildings, marring the appearance of a neighborhood. The manhole does not interfere with […]
How does the brain learn by talking to itself?
Medical Express January 2, 2019 Researchers in Switzerland previously showed that synaptic learning mechanisms in the brain’s cortex are dependent on feedback from deeper brain regions. They have now deciphered how this feedback gates synaptic strengthening by switching particular inhibitory neurons on and off. They have identified which neurons are involved in this mechanism in mouse. They will test their results in “real life” to check whether the inhibiting neurons will behave as predicted when a mouse needs to learn new sensory information or when it discovers new aspects in its tactile environment. The findings might be relevant for unsupervised […]
Emotion-reading tech fails the racial bias test
Phys.org January 3, 2019 Researchers at Wake Forest University compared the emotional analysis from two different facial recognition services, Face and Microsoft’s Face API. Both services interpreted black players as having more negative emotions than white players. According to the researchers there are two different mechanisms. Face consistently interprets black players as angrier than white players, even controlling for their degree of smiling. Microsoft registers contempt instead of anger, and it interprets black players as more contemptuous when their facial expressions are ambiguous. As the players’ smile widens, the disparity disappears. The finding has implications for individuals, organizations, and society, […]
Computer program can translate a free-form 2-D drawing into a DNA structure
Phys.org January 3, 2019 Scaffolded DNA origami offers the unique ability to organize molecules in nearly arbitrary spatial patterns at the nanometer scale, with wireframe designs further enabling complex 2D and 3D geometries with irregular boundaries and internal structures. A team of researchers in the US (MIT, Arizona State University) has developed a fully autonomous procedure to design all DNA staple sequences needed to fold any free-form 2D scaffolded DNA origami wireframe object. The algorithm enables the full autonomy of scaffold routing and staple sequence design with arbitrary network edge lengths and vertex angles. The technique has utility for nanoscale […]
China Has Radio Antenna to Talk to Submarines and It Covers Five Times Area of NY City
Next Big Future January 1, 2019 Project WEM’s (Wireless Electromagnetic Method) main surface structure is a pair of high voltage power supply lines stretching from north to south, east to west on steel lattice towers, which form a cross that is 60km (37 miles) wide and 80km to 100km (50 to 62 miles) long. At the end of each power line, thick copper wire goes underground through a deep borehole. Two power stations generate strong currents and electrify the ground in slow, repeating pulses, turning the earth underfoot into an active source of electromagnetic radiation. The radio pulses not only […]
A catalytic flying carpet
Nanowerk January 2, 2019 Catalyst-coated, hard particles can spontaneously generate fluid flows, which, in turn, propel the particles through the fluid. If it were a deformable sheet, then the self-generated flows could affect not only the sheet’s motion but also its shape. Researchers at Pittsburgh University developed models that capture the interrelated chemical, hydrodynamic, and mechanical interactions to uncover novel behavior emerging from the previously unstudied coupling between active, soft sheets and the surrounding fluid. The sheets can be tailored by modifying the sheet’s geometry, patterning the sheet’s surface with different catalysts, and using cascades of chemical reactions. The layers […]
Top 10 Science and Technology Inventions for the Week of December 28, 2018
01. Discovery of topological LC circuits transporting EM waves without 02. Electronics of the future: A new energy-efficient mechanism using the Rashba effect 03. Fail-safe, reconfigurable chips 04. Hybrid qubits solve key hurdle to quantum computing 05. Lean electrolyte design is a game-changer for magnesium batteries 06. Study on low noise, high-performance transistors may bring innovations in electronics 07. An Amoeba Just Found an Entirely New Way to Solve a Classic Computing Problem 08. Global Quantum Communication Network has Been Proven Feasible With 20,000 km Transmissions 09. New T-wave detector uses waves of the electronic sea in graphene 10. Rethinking […]
Study on low noise, high-performance transistors may bring innovations in electronics
Science Daily December 19, 2018 Electronic noise is ubiquitous to all devices and circuits and only worsens when the material becomes atomic thin. A team of researchers in the US (Purdue University, Kansas State University) has systematically shown that if one can control the layer thickness between 10 and 15-atomic thin in a transistor, the device will not only show high performance — such as turning the switch “on” — but also experience very low electronic noise. This unique finding is essential to building several enabling technologies in electronics and sensing using a number of emerging 2D materials. The research […]