Science Daily April 12, 2021 An international team of researchers (USA – SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University, Colombia) synthesized high-temperature superconductor BPBO (Barium, Lead, Bismuth, Oxygen) and tested its properties, including transition temperature. The data showed electrons behaving as if they were confined to ultrathin, 2D layers or stripes within the material. The stripes were layers where electrons behave as if they are confined to 2D, puddle-like areas in the material. The distances between the puddles were short enough to allow them to behave like a superconductor. The 2D puddles emerged as the scientists carefully adjusted the temperature and […]
Superbug killer: New nanotechnology destroys bacteria and fungal cells
Nanowerk April 13, 2021 Researchers in Australia developed nano thin coating of black phosphoros. As BP breaks down, it oxidizes the surface of bacteria and fungal cells (process called cellular oxidization) ultimately works to rip them apart. They tested the effectiveness of nano thin layers of BP against five common bacteria strains, including E. coli and drug-resistant MRSA, as well as five types of fungus, including Candida auris. In just two hours, up to 99% of bacterial and fungal cells were destroyed. Importantly, the BP also began to self-degrade and was entirely disintegrated within 24 hours – an important feature […]
Transforming circles into squares
Science Daily April 14, 2021 The fundamental topology of cellular structures can profoundly affect their acoustic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, and optical properties, as well as heat, fluid, and particle transport. In the previous techniques the resulting structures generally preserve the defining connectivity features of the initial topology. Researchers at Harvard University have developed a two-tiered dynamic strategy that achieves systematic reversible transformations of the fundamental topology of cellular microstructures, which can be applied to a wide range of materials and geometries. The approach requires exposing the structure to a selected liquid that can first infiltrate and plasticize the material at […]
World leaders call for international pandemic treaty
Outbreakobservatory.org April 8, 2021 Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, national leaders, academic experts, and policymakers have stressed the need for a coordinated, international effort to mitigate the harmful health and economic consequences of the deadly virus. In an open letter world leaders joined WHO to call for an international treaty regarding pandemic response based on lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. It describes the goals of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A), a program created to instill equitable access to COVID-19 diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines. The treaty would also take into consideration leadership and expertise from other global health organizations. The […]
Top 10 Science and Technology Inventions for the Week of April 9, 2021
01. Silencing vibrations in the ground and sounds underwater 02. Atom-based radio communications for noisy environments 03. A new, positive approach could be the key to next-generation, transparent electronics 04. Researchers report breakthrough that enables practical semiconductor spintronics 05. New computing algorithms expand the boundaries of a quantum future 06. Qubits composed of holes could be the trick to build faster, larger quantum computers 07. Scientists achieve single-photon imaging over 200 kilometers 08. Scientists harness chaos to protect devices from hackers 09. Spin-to-charge conversion achieves 95% overall qubit readout fidelity 10. Less than a nanometer thick, stronger and more versatile […]
Atom-based radio communications for noisy environments
Science Daily April 5, 2021 Previously NIST researchers had demonstrated that atom-based sensors can receive commonly used communications signals. Now a team of researchers in the US (University of Colorado, NIST) used a Rydberg atom-based sensor for determining the angle of arrival of an incident RF signal, key part for a potential atomic communications system. They measured phase differences of a 19.18 gigahertz experimental signal at two locations inside the vapor cell for various angles of arrival. Comparisons of these measurements with both the full-wave simulation and the plane wave theoretical model show that the atom-based sub-wavelength phase measurements can […]
This hydrogen fuel machine could be the ultimate guide to self-improvement
Science Daily April 5, 2021 Development of an efficient and durable photoelectrode is important for the deployment of solar-fuel production. A team of researchers in the US (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, University of Michigan) has shown the photoelectrochemically self-improving behaviour of a silicon/gallium nitride photocathode for hydrogen production with efficiency approaching ~100%. Using correlative approach based on different spectroscopic and microscopic techniques, and density functional theory calculations, they provided a mechanistic understanding of the chemical transformation as the origin of the self-improving behaviour. A thin layer of gallium oxynitride forms on the side walls of the […]
Less than a nanometer thick, stronger and more versatile than steel
Science Daily April 5, 2021 A team of researchers in the US (Northwestern University, Argonne National Laboratory, University of Florida) grew borophene on a silver substrate then exposed it to hydrogen to form the borophane and unraveled its structure by combining a scanning tunneling microscope with a computer-vision based algorithm that compares theoretical simulations of structures with experimental measurements. They found a borophane nanosheet on a silver substrate to be quite stable making it easy to integrate it with other materials in the construction of new devices for optoelectronics, it could boost performance for electronic devices, solar cells, batteries, and […]
Lightning strikes will more than double in Arctic as climate warms
Science Daily April 5, 2021 An international team of researchers (USA – UC Irvine, UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Netherlands) projected how lightning in high-latitude boreal forests and Arctic tundra regions will change across North America and Eurasia as the climate continues warming and Arctic weather during summertime will be closer to those seen today far to the south, where lightning storms are more common. Looking at over-twenty-year-old NASA satellite data on lighting strikes in northern regions they constructed a relationship between the flash rate and climatic factors. They estimated a significant increase in lightning strikes as a result […]
New computing algorithms expand the boundaries of a quantum future
Phys.org April 6, 2021 Researchers at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory have developed two new algorithms that build upon existing work to in the field to further diversify the types of problems quantum computers can solve. To get around the probabilistic nature of superpositions the researchers developed the non-Boolean quantum amplitude amplification algorithm which is open to more tasks. A second algorithm they introduced dubbed the quantum mean estimation algorithm allows scientists to estimate the average. Both algorithms do away with having to reduce scenarios into computations with only two types of output, and instead allow for a range of […]