ScitechDaily.com August 11, 2021 In a proof-of-concept study a team of researchers in the US (North Carolina State University, Yale University) cut bulk materials into spatially closed-loop to construct a new class of 3D kirigami metamaterials. The module is transformable with multiple degrees of freedom that can transform into versatile distinct daughter building blocks. Depending on how the cubes are connected to each other, the building blocks can be folded into more than 300,000 different designs. Their conformable assembly creates a wealth of reconfigurable and disassemblable metamaterials with diverse structures and unique properties, including reconfigurable 1D column-like materials, 2D lattice-like […]
Anatomy of an earthquake series
Science Daily August 11, 2021 Gas storage oil field operations worldwide are typically not stimulating substantial seismicity. However, the Castor sequence in Spain remains to date the most significant case of seismicity related to this type of industrial operations in Europe. The new analysis by an international team of researchers (Germany, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, USA- Stanford University) identified about 3,500 earthquakes, which took place at shallow depth between September and early October in the vicinity of the Castor injection platform using a combination of advanced seismological techniques applied to an enhanced waveform dataset to better understand the seismogenic process and […]
Deconstructing the Infectious Biological Weaponry of the COVID-19 Virus
SciTech Daily August 8, 2021 The replication transcription complex (RTC) from the virus SARS-CoV-2 is responsible for recognizing and processing RNA for two principal purposes, propagation into new virus and for ribosomal transcription of viral proteins. The RTC will discontinuously transcribe specific sections of viral RNA to amplify certain proteins over others. A team of researchers in the US (University of Chicago, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, University of Auburn) has conducted a systematic structural investigation of three components that make up the RTC: Nsp7, Nsp8, and Nsp12 and solved high-resolution crystal structures of the Nsp7/8 […]
Emergent magnetic monopoles controlled at room temperature
Phys.org August 6, 2021 3D nano-architectures are promising for the realization of 3D magnetic nano-networks for ultra-fast and low-energy data storage. Frustration in these systems can lead to magnetic monopoles, which can function as mobile, binary information carriers. However, Dirac strings in 2D artificial spin ices bind magnetic charges, while 3D dipolar counterparts require cryogenic temperatures for their stability. An international team of researchers (Austria, USA – Los Alamos National Laboratory) used micromagnetic simulations to demonstrate that the mobility threshold for magnetic charges is by 2 eV lower than their unbinding energy. By applying global magnetic fields, they steered magnetic charges […]
Engineers clean up water pollution with sunlight
Science Daily August 11, 2021 Researchers at the Michigan Technological University have developed a comprehensive reactive activity model that shows how singlet oxygen’s reaction mechanisms perform against a diverse group of contaminants and computes their half-life in a natural aquatic environment. The rate of indirect-sunlight-initiated chemical oxidation is unique to the body of water; singlet oxygen plays a partial role in degrading the toxins in harmful algal blooms and in breaking down the excess nitrogen and phosphorus produced by agricultural runoff. It can oxidize chemicals in drinking water or wastewater treatments. With the half-life calculations established by their model, the […]
Metamaterials research challenges fundamental limits in photonics
Phys.org August 10, 2021 Previous research was limited to modifying either absorption or refraction in metamaterials. Researchers at Cornell University have demonstrated that if both properties are modulated in time, it is possible to absorb electromagnetic waves much more efficiently than in a static structure, or in a structure in which either one of these two degrees of freedom is modulated individually. They combined these two aspects together to create a much more effective system. The findings may lead to the development of new metamaterials with wave absorption and scattering properties that far outperform what is currently available. The research […]
Minor volcanic eruptions could ‘cascade’ into global catastrophe
Science Daily August 6, 2021 The typical focus of attention for global-scale catastrophes has been on large-scale eruptions with a volcanic explosivity index (VEI) of 7–8. An international team of researchers (UK, Israel) has identified seven “pinch points” where clusters of relatively small but active volcanoes sit alongside vital infrastructure that, if paralyzed, could have catastrophic global consequences. They include, the volcanic group on the northern tip of Taiwan, the home to one of the largest producers of electronic chips; The Mediterranean, where earthquakes can induce tsunamis that smash submerged cable networks and seal off the Suez Canal; eruptions in […]
New device can diagnose Covid-19 from saliva samples
MIT News August 6, 2021 A team of researchers in the US (Harvard University, MIT, Boston Children’s Hospital, Beth Israel Deconus Hospital, Mass General Hospital) has developed a low-cost, self-contained, POC diagnostic called miSHERLOCK (minimally instrumented SHERLOCK) that is capable of concurrent universal detection of SARS-CoV-2 as well as specific detection of the B.1.1.7, B.1.351, or P.1 variants. The miSHERLOCK platform integrates an optimized one-pot SHERLOCK reaction with an RNA paper-capture method compatible with in situ nucleic acid amplification and Cas detection. miSHERLOCK combines instrument-free, built-in sample preparation from saliva, room temperature stable reagents, battery-powered incubation, and simple visual and […]
New electronic phenomenon discovered
Science Daily August 11, 2021 A team of researchers in the US (University of North Florida, University of Illinois, Arizona State University) has demonstrated a new electronic phenomenon they call “asymmetric ferroelectricity” in atomic layer superlattices constructed using three constituent phases, CaTiO3, SrTiO3 and BaTiO3. The stacking sequence of the atomic layers is found to control the symmetry of the high-temperature dielectric response. When a nanostructured asymmetric strain is programmed into the lattice via the stacking order, the natural symmetry at high temperatures is removed and a polarized sample is obtained in which the polarization increases as the temperature is […]
Non-line-of-sight imaging with picosecond temporal resolution
Phys.org August 12, 2021 Non-line-of-sight (NLOS) imaging enables monitoring around corners and is promising for diverse applications. The resolution of transient NLOS imaging is limited to a centimeter scale, mainly by the temporal resolution of the detectors. Researchers in China have constructed an up-conversion single-photon detector with a high temporal resolution of ∼1.4 ps and a low noise count rate of 5 counts per second (cps). The detector operates at room temperature, near-infrared wavelength. They demonstrated high-resolution and low-noise NLOS imaging. The system can provide a 180 μm axial resolution and a 2 mm lateral resolution, which is more than […]