Phys.org June 8, 2021 Researchers in the UK have developed the concept of the evotype to help biological engineers both harness, design, and capture the evolutionary potential of a biosystem. The evotype can be broken into three key parts: Variation, Function, and Selection, with each of these offering a tuning knob for bioengineers to control the possible paths available to evolution. Many of the tools already available to bioengineers fitted nicely into their framework when considered from an evolutionary perspective. Their concept of the evotype not only provides a means for developing biotechnologies that can harness evolution in new ways, […]
Scientists use public databases to leap over scourge of publication bias
Eurekalert June 9, 2021 Due to publication bias, there has been little focus on genes other than well-known signature hypoxia-inducible genes. Therefore, researchers in Japan performed a meta-analysis to identify novel hypoxia-inducible genes. They searched publicly available transcriptome databases to obtain hypoxia-related experimental data, retrieved the metadata, and manually curated it, selected the genes that are differentially expressed by hypoxic stimulation, and evaluated their relevance in hypoxia by performing enrichment analyses. They calculated and evaluated the number of reports and similarity coefficients of each gene to HIF1A, which is a representative gene in hypoxia studies. In this data-driven study, they […]
Ultra-high-density hard drives made with graphene ‘overcoats’ store ten times more data
Nanowerk June 7, 2021 Currently, carbon-based overcoats (COCs), layers used to protect platters from mechanical damages and corrosion, occupy a significant part of this spacing. An international team of researchers (India, Singapore, UK, USA – Argonne National Laboratory, University of Illinois, Switzerland) replaced commercial COCs with one to four layers of graphene which fulfills all the ideal properties of an HDD overcoat in terms of corrosion protection, low friction, wear resistance, hardness, lubricant compatibility, and surface smoothness. They transferred graphene onto hard disks made of iron-platinum as the magnetic recording layer, and tested Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) that enables an […]
Top 10 Science and Technology Inventions for the Week of June 4, 2021
01. Shadow figment technology foils cyberattacks 02. Quantum computing with holes 03. Scientists unravel noise-assisted signal amplification in systems with memory 04. World’s smallest, best acoustic amplifier emerges from 50-year-old hypothesis 05. Controlling magnetization by surface acoustic waves 06. Creating nanomaterials with new laser driven method 07. Detecting mid-infrared light, one photon at a time 08. DNA circuits 09. Making batteries live longer with ultrathin lithium 10. A new direction of topological research is ready for take off And others… Atmospheric metal layers appear with surprising regularity The biodegradable battery that’s 3D printed, disposable and made of paper Mapping zoonotic […]
Atmospheric metal layers appear with surprising regularity
Science Daily June 2, 2021 A team of researchers in the US (University of Colorado, UC Berkeley, Virginia Polytech, MIT) reported regular occurrence of mid-latitude thermosphere-ionosphere Na (TINa) layers over Boulder, Colorado. TINa layers occur regularly in various months and years, descending from ∼125 km after dusk and from ∼150 km before dawn. The downward-progression phase speeds are consistent with semidiurnal tidal phase speeds. One or more layers sometimes occur across local midnight. Elevated volume mixing ratios above the turning point of Na density slope suggest in situ production of the dawn/dusk layers via neutralization of converged Na+ layers. Vertical […]
The biodegradable battery that’s 3D printed, disposable and made of paper
Phys.org June 3, 2021 A team of researchers in Switzerland developed and implemented the concept of a biodegradable electricity storage device. They developed gelatinous inks which consists of cellulose nanofibers and cellulose nanocrystallites, carbon in the form of carbon black, graphite and activated carbon. They used glycerin, water and two different types of alcohol to mix the ingredients and a pinch of table salt for ionic conductivity. They built a functioning supercapacitor from four layers of these ingredients flowing from a 3D printer one after the other: a flexible substrate, a conductive layer, the electrode and finally the electrolyte. The […]
Controlling magnetization by surface acoustic waves
Nanowerk May 27, 2021 Interconversion between electron spin and other forms of angular momentum is useful for spin-based information processing. Well-studied examples of this are the conversion of photon angular momentum and rotation into ferromagnetic moment. Recently, several theoretical studies have suggested that the circular vibration of atoms work as phonon angular momentum; however, conversion between phonon angular momentum and spin-moment has yet to be demonstrated. Researchers in Japan demonstrated that the phonon angular momentum of surface acoustic wave can control the magnetization of a ferromagnetic Ni film by means of the phononic-to-electronic conversion of angular momentum in a Ni/LiNbO3 […]
Creating nanomaterials with new laser driven method
Nanowerk May 31, 2021 For successful implementation of photoelectrocatalytic synthesis of fuels and value-added chemicals hybrid photoelectrodes with low energy consumption and high photocurrent densities are essential. Researchers in Japan have developed a laser-driven technology to print sensitizers with desired morphologies and layer thickness onto different substrates, such as glass, carbon, or carbon nitride (CN). The process uses a thin polymer reactor impregnated with transition metal salts, confining the growth of TMO nanostructures on the interface in milliseconds, while their morphology can be tuned by the laser. Multiple nano-p-n junctions at the interface increase the electron/hole lifetime by efficient charge […]
Detecting mid-infrared light, one photon at a time
Phys.org June 2, 2021 An international team of researchers (USA – NIST, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, MIT, UK) has developed superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors based on tungsten silicide. To compensate for the lower energy carried by IR light they reduced the density of electrons in the wires that are available to absorb the photons. With fewer electrons available, the fraction of the total photon energy absorbed by any one electron is likely to be higher, increasing the likelihood that the electron would have enough energy to cross the superconducting gap and generate a signal when IR photons strike the detector. They […]
DNA circuits
EurekAlert June 2, 2021 Researchers in China have developed a configurable, multi-mode logic switching network that reacts differently with its surroundings depending on pH and DNA input. They developed a series of four DNA switches, each with slightly different lengths and combinations of bases. At a slightly alkaline pH of 8, two of the switches formed triple-stranded DNA, while the others remained loosely stretched out. These reactions and folds led to secondary reactions, which were utilized by the researchers as logic functions in the switching circuit. In demonstration DNA acted as a crosslinker, joining the polymer molecules in the gel […]