Science Daily January 10, 2020 Few studies have investigated the longer‐term effects of either wildfire or post‐fire land management on catchment hydrology. A team of researchers in the US (UC Santa Barbara, Oregon State University, industry) analyzed ten years of pre‐fire data, along with post‐fire data from 1 to 7 and 35 to 41 years after wildfire burned three experimental catchments in the Entiat Experimental Forest (EEF) in the Pacific Northwest. They quantified and compared the short‐ and longer‐term effects of both wildfire and post‐fire forest management treatments on annual discharge, peak flows, low flows, and evapotranspiration (AET). They found increases […]
Satellite constellations harvest energy for near-total global coverage
Science Daily January 10, 2020 A team of researchers in the US (Industry, UC Davis, Cornell University) has discovered two alternative 4-satellite constellations with 24- and 48-hour periods, both of which attain nearly continuous global coverage. They harness energy from nonlinear orbital perturbation forces (e.g., Earth’s geopotential, gravitational effects of the sun and moon, and solar radiation pressure) to reduce their propellant and maintenance costs. The 24-hour period constellation reduces the overall required vehicle mass budget for propellant by approximately 60% compared to a geostationary Earth orbit constellation with similar coverage over typical satellite lifetimes. The discovery could drive advances […]
Self-assembled artificial microtubules developed
Science Daily January 17, 2020 Microtubule is one of the principal cellular components formed via hierarchical self‐assembly of nanometer‐sized tubulin heterodimers into protofilaments, which then associate to form a micron‐length‐scale, multi‐stranded tube. Researchers in South Korea discovered that a cucurbituril (pumpkin-shaped chemical compound)-based host-guest complex polymerized into a linear polymer chain, which was further associated with each other into a hollow microtubule via van der Waals interactions arising from their shape self-complementarity. It formed a tubular structure with a length over tens of micrometers. The polymer chain became straight and stiff by itself, and eventually LEGO brick-like shape emerged during […]
Slow light to speed up LiDAR sensors development
Phys.org January 14, 2020 Currently existing optical beam steering devices uses mechanics that make them large, unstable, heavy, with limited overall speed and a high cost. Optical phased arrays for steering beams requires many optical antennas. Researchers in Japan used a special waveguide “photonic crystal,” aimed through a silicon-etched medium. Light is slowed down and emitted to the free space when forced to interact with the photonic crystal. They engaged a prism lens to then direct the beam in the desired direction. The resulting method and device are small-sized, free of moving mechanics, setting the stage for a solid-state LiDAR. […]
Solving complex problems at the speed of light
EurekAlert January 14, 2020 The inability of conventional electronic architectures to efficiently solve large combinatorial problems motivates the development of novel computational hardware. Researchers at MIT present the Photonic Recurrent Ising Sampler (PRIS), a heuristic method tailored for parallel architectures allowing fast and efficient sampling from distributions of arbitrary Ising problems. Since the PRIS relies on vector-to-fixed matrix multiplications, implementing of the PRIS in photonic parallel networks will realize operations at an unprecedented speed…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Top 10 Science and Technology Inventions for the Week of January 10, 2020
01. Cutting through fog with laser focus 02. Nano antennas for data transfer 03. Nanomaterial fabric destroys nerve agents in battlefield-relevant conditions 04. Researchers build a particle accelerator that fits on a chip 05. Researchers develop universal flu vaccine that protects against 6 influenza viruses in mice 06. Scientists find new way to sustainably make chemicals by copying nature’s tricks 07. An 18-carat gold nugget made of plastic 08. Wearable air conditioning without needing electricity 09. Ending the Cycle of Crisis and Complacency in U.S. Global Health Security 10. Outbreak science: Infectious disease research leads to outbreak predictions And others… […]
An 18-carat gold nugget made of plastic
EurekAlert January 8, 2020 Researchers in Switzerland have developed a material via a hydrogel precursor dried into an aerogel. Annealing of the polystyrene matrix under vacuum gives rise to a homogeneous template. The final apparent density and porosity of the material depend directly on the volumetric concentration of the starting solution used for hydrogel formation. After annealing, a homogeneous microstructure is obtained in which the shining gold single crystal platelets are evenly embedded in a polystyrene matrix. The material has a glass transition temperature of ≈105 °C, the Young’s modulus of the material with a density of 1.7 g cm−3 […]
Animal life thriving around Fukushima
Science Daily January 6, 2020 Using a network of remote cameras placed along a gradient of radiological contamination and human presence, an international team of researchers (USA – University of Georgia, Japan) collected data on population‐level impacts to wildlife (that is, abundance and occupancy patterns). They found no evidence of population‐level impacts in mid‐ to large‐sized mammals or gallinaceous birds, and show several species were most abundant in human‐evacuated areas, despite the presence of radiological contamination. These data provide unique evidence of the natural rewilding of the Fukushima landscape following human abandonment, and suggest that effects of radiological exposure in […]
Cutting through fog with laser focus
Phys.org January 7, 2020 Most of the previous studies demonstrated spatial focusing to the speckle grain size, and manipulation of the temporal properties of the achieved focus. Researchers in Australia demonstrate an approach to control the total temporal impulse response, not only at a single speckle grain but overall spatial degrees of freedom (spatial and polarization modes) at any arbitrary delay time through a multimode fiber. Global enhancement or suppression of the total light intensity exiting a multimode fibre is shown for arbitrary delays and polarization states. This work could benefit to applications that require pulse delivery in disordered media, […]
Ending the Cycle of Crisis and Complacency in U.S. Global Health Security
CSIS November 2019 According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) report there is recognition that increasing levels of global disorder and conflict across the world are resulting in destruction of public health infrastructure and capacity, reduced access to critical services for vulnerable populations, and heightened risk of sudden outbreaks. These health threats undermine the economic and political security of nations. While formidable obstacles remain, experts are convinced there is a ripeness to health security, an opportunity to press for strengthening America’s policy approaches in a way that can drive forward overall U.S. global health engagement, bring about new […]