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 […]
Arrays of metallic nanoparticles can form an optical cavity tunable by liquid crystals
Phys.org March 2, 2022 An international team of researcher (the Netherlands, Japan) designed, constructed, and analyzed a tunable device combining nano-particle arrays that support collective surface lattice resonances (SLRs) with liquid crystals. By leveraging the tunability of liquid crystals and the effect of the refractive index of the environment on SLRs, the optical response of the array can be controlled electrically by switching between states in the liquid crystal. The resulting rapid and reversible spectral tuning gives users a large degree of control over SLR wavelength. Because of narrow collective resonances the changes in refractive index that can be induced […]
Bacterial and Viral Bioinformatics Resource Center Website Now Available
Global Biodefense February 26, 2022 The Bacterial and Viral Bioinformatics Resource Center (BV-BRC), an initiative funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), has launched a beta version of its website: BV-BRC Beta combining the data, technology, and extensive user communities from two long-running centers: PATRIC, the bacterial system , and IRD/ViPR, the viral systems. It is an information system designed to support the biomedical research community’s work on bacterial and viral infectious diseases via integration of vital pathogen information with rich data and analysis tools. The two resources host data on protein structure and function, clinical […]
DARPA Screening for ‘Risk’ in Researchers’ Foreign Affiliations
AIP Science Policy News February 15, 2022 The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is implementing a “Countering Foreign Influence Program” FAQ that involves assessing risks posed by researchers’ affiliations with foreign institutions, even for unclassified projects in fundamental research. It has implemented a review process for fundamental research projects that assesses risks posed by funding applicants’ affiliations with organizations in countries of concern. While other science agencies have likewise expanded their use of disclosure policies to identify problematic conflicts of interest and time commitment, DARPA’s policy goes further by tying the review process to specific categories of foreign entities of […]
First observation of the quantum boomerang effect
Nanowerk February 28, 2022 The boomerang effect is a disorder-induced behavior which inhibits transport of electrons turning what would otherwise be a conducting material into an insulator. An international team of researchers (USA – UC Santa Barbara, Brazil, France) reported experimental observation and characterization of this surprising quantum-mechanical phenomenon. They exposed a gas of ultracold lithium atoms to a phase-shifted pair of optical lattices to realize a “quantum kicked rotor,” a momentum-space realization of Anderson-localized matter. They observed the characteristic departure from and return to the origin that is the key signature of the boomerang effect. Detailed characterization revealed the […]