Science March 10, 2022 According to researchers in Australia zoonotic diseases have been part of the human experience since the origin of our species. The key issue is not that zoonotic diseases appear in humans, but that their emergence seems to be increasing in frequency. Major changes in land use, increasing urbanization, and global connectedness will accelerate the rate of zoonotic events. A core question is whether particular animal groups are common sources of zoonotic viruses. By understanding why and how zoonotic diseases emerge in humans, as well as the barriers to this process, it is possible to be better […]
Extracting mechanical work from superfast-expanding hydrogels
Nanowerk March 12, 2022 Superabsorbent polymer gels can absorb large amounts of water (100–1000× their dry weight). However, gels that are both superabsorbent and able to expand rapidly have not yet been realized. Researchers at the University of Maryland created such gels by in situ foaming of a monomer solution (acrylic acid and acrylamide) using a double-barreled syringe which has acid and base in its two barrels. The gas generated by the acid–base reaction, was stabilized by an amphiphilic polymer in one of the barrels. The monomers are then polymerized by UV light to form the gel around the bubbles, […]
High-Energy Interactions Between Light and Matter Described by Advanced New Mathematical Model
SciTech Daily March 15, 2022 High-harmonic generation has several applications, way to create table-top sources of extreme ultraviolet or x-ray light using lasers, and produce ultrashort light pulses, which are useful for imaging extremely rapid processes such as those that occur in atoms. But high-harmonic generation is inherently difficult to model mathematically, and understand fully. An international team of researchers (Japan, USA – University of Chicago) has developed an analytical approach to high-harmonic generation in the non-perturbative regime using mathematical techniques that had not previously been applied to high-harmonic generation. Their approach revealed the microscopic mechanism that converts incoming intense […]
Hoverfly brains mapped to detect the sound of distant drones
Science Daily March 15, 2022 Insect vision systems have been mapped for some time now to improve camera-based detections. Researchers in Australia shown that it is possible pick up clear and crisp acoustic signatures of drones, including very small and quiet ones, using an algorithm based on the hoverfly’s visual system. They converted acoustic signals into spectrograms and used the neural pathway of the hoverfly brain to improve and suppress unrelated signals and noise, increasing the detection range for the sounds they wanted to detect. They looked for narrowband and/or broadband to pick up drone acoustics at short to medium […]
Magnetism helps electrons vanish in high-temp superconductors
Phys.org March 10, 2022 In high-temperature superconductors, at a certain “critical point,” electrons seem to vanish from the Fermi surface map. To understand this phenomenon and engineer that property into some other material that is easier to adopt in technologies, an international team of researchers (USA – Cornell University, UT Austin, National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Binghamton University, Canada, France, UK) discovered that magnetism is key to understanding the behavior of electrons in “high-temperature” superconductors. They measured the Fermi surface of a copper-oxide high temperature superconductor as a function of electron concentration, right around the critical point and found that […]
Quantum information: Light from rare-earth molecules
Nanowerk March 11, 2022 Rare-earth ions (REIs) are promising solid-state systems for building light–matter interfaces at the quantum level. However, few crystalline materials have shown an environment quiet enough to fully exploit REI properties. Molecular systems can provide such capability but generally lack spin states and they show broad optical lines that severely limit optical-to-spin coherent interfacing. An international team of researchers (France, Germany) found that europium molecular crystals exhibit linewidths in the tens of kilohertz range, orders of magnitude narrower than those of other molecular systems. They harnessed this property to demonstrate efficient optical spin initialization, coherent storage of […]
Researchers Set Record by Preserving Quantum States in Silicon Carbide for More Than Five Seconds
SciTech Daily March 13, 2022 Inability to easily read the information held in qubits, and the short coherence of qubits are impediments to the many technological applications of quantum science such as hacker proof communications networks and quantum computers. An international team of researchers (USA – University of Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory, Japan, Sweden) has demonstrated single-shot readout of single defects in SiC via spin-to-charge conversion, whereby the defect’s spin state was mapped onto a long-lived charge state. With this technique, they achieved over 80% readout fidelity without pre- or post-selection, resulting in a high signal-to-noise ratio that enabled them […]
Revealing thermal runaway routes in lithium-sulfur batteries
EurekAlert March 14, 2022 Researchers in China investigated the thermal runaway behavior of Li-S pouch cells from the materials level and found that the thermal runaway route starts from cathode-induced reactions and then gets accelerated by reactions from the anode. The solvent vaporization was verified to dominate pressure building up during thermal runaway. Li-S batteries employing varied electrolytes with different thermal stabilities, even inorganic all solid-state electrolytes, all undergo rapid thermal runaway at a narrow temperature range due to the intrinsic thermal features of the sulfur cathode and Li metal anode sublimating, melting, and cross-reacting at high temperatures. According to […]
‘Self-driving’ lab speeds up research, synthesis of energy materials
Science Daily March 16, 2022 A team of researchers in the US (North Carolina State University, University of Buffalo) has developed and demonstrated a ‘self-driving lab’ that uses artificial intelligence and fluidic systems to advance our understanding of metal halide perovskite (MHP) nanocrystal using cesium lead halides for proof of concept. The self-driving lab technology can autonomously dope MHP nanocrystals with varying levels of manganese which changes the optical and electronic properties of the nanocrystals and introduces magnetic properties to the material. Thus, giving control over greater range of electronic and magnetic properties. The autonomous system could also be used […]
Simpler graphene method paves way for new era of nanoelectronics
Phys.org March 15, 2022 The high electron mobility of graphene points to great potential for broadband communications and high-speed electronics operating at terahertz switching rates. However, complex, and expensive fabrication methods make it more expensive and hinder mass production of such devices. Researchers in Sweden proposed chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of graphene on commercial copper (Cu) foils providing a scalable route towards high-quality single-layer graphene. The graphene is grown on a metallic surface like Cu, Pt or Ir, after which it can be separated from the metal and transferred to specifically required substrates. The process can be simply explained as […]