Phys.org November 25, 2019 An international team of researchers (USA – University of Nebraska, University of Pennsylvania, Finland, China) has identified a catalytic reaction between methanol and SO3, catalyzed by SA, DMA, or water that was previously overlooked. The catalytic reaction between methanol and SO3 can convert methanol into a methyl hydrogen sulfate (MHS). Their simulation results suggest that the formation of MHS consumes an appreciable amount of atmospheric SO3, disfavoring further reactions of SO3 with H2O. They show that MHS formation can cause a reduction of SA concentration up to 87%. Hence, a high abundance of methanol in the […]
Scientists develop electrochemical platform for cell-free synthetic biology
Eurekalert November 25, 2019 To date, gene-circuit-based sensors have primarily used optical proteins as reporter outputs, which has limited the potential to measure multiple distinct signals. An international team of researchers (Canada, USA – Arizona State University) has engineered a scalable system of reporter enzymes that cleave specific DNA sequences in solution, which results in an electrochemical signal when these newly liberated strands are captured at the surface of a nanostructured microelectrode. They describe the development of this interface and show its utility using a ligand-inducible gene circuit and toehold switch-based sensors by demonstrating the detection of multiple antibiotic resistance […]
Sniffing Out Errors
Inside Big Data November 26, 2019 Error Analysis builds a model out of your existing model’s errors. From this it is possible to gain an understanding of where the model is succeeding and what can be amended to improve performance. Additionally, this process can be trivially integrated into the data science pipeline and run multiple times to iteratively improve model performance. Building a simple model using all your input features to explain the error will give an indication of which features are driving most of the error. A highly interpretable linear model in error analysis will yield much faster and […]
Toward more efficient computing, with magnetic waves
MIT News November 28, 2019 Classical computers rely on massive amounts of electricity for computing and data storage and generate a lot of wasted heat. MIT researchers developed a circuit architecture that uses only a nanometer-wide domain wall in layered nanofilms of magnetic material to modulate a passing spin wave without any extra components or electrical current. In turn, the spin wave can be tuned to control the location of the wall, as needed. This provides precise control of two changing spin wave states, which correspond to the 1s and 0s used in classical computing. In the future, pairs of […]
Top 10 Science and Technology Inventions for the Week of November 22, 2019
01. Foam offers way to manipulate light 02. Making tiny antennas for wearable electronics 03. Nanooptical traps: A promising building block for quantum technologies 04. New water-based optical device revolutionizes the field of optics research 05. Synthetic biologists developing a new class of high-performance materials 06. The first high-speed straight motion of magnetic skyrmions at room temperature demonstrated 07. Researchers create better light-trapping devices 08. Carnegie Mellon system locates shooters using smartphone video 09. Advancing nuclear detection and inspection 10. Kick-starting Moore’s Law? New ‘synthetic’ method for making microchips could help And others… Clean carbon nanotubes with superb properties Development […]
Advancing nuclear detection and inspection
MIT News November 14, 2019 Previously proposed solutions lacked the combination of isotopic sensitivity and information security. Researchers at MIT present the experimental feasibility proof of a technique that uses neutron induced nuclear resonances that is sensitive to the combination of isotopics and geometry. The information is physically encrypted to prevent the leakage of sensitive information. The approach can significantly increase the trustworthiness of future arms control treaties while expanding their scope to include the verified dismantlement of nuclear warheads themselves…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Carnegie Mellon system locates shooters using smartphone video
Eurekalert November 20, 2019 Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a system called Video Event Reconstruction and Analysis (VERA), that can accurately locate a shooter based on video recordings from as few as three smartphones. They released the code at a recent ACM International Conference on Multimedia in France. VERA uses machine learning techniques to synchronize the video feeds and calculate the position of each camera based on what that camera is seeing. The audio from the video feeds localizes the source of the gunshots. It also uses audio to identify the type of gun used, which determines bullet […]
Clean carbon nanotubes with superb properties
Eurekalert November 19, 2019 An international team of researchers (Finland, USA – Rice University, Japan) has developed a new method to fabricate single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNT). They used aerosols of metal catalysts and gasses containing carbon which allows the researchers to carefully control the nanotube structure directly. The devices do not contain degrading processing chemicals on their surface. The method makes it possible to fabricate hundreds of individual carbon nanotube devices within 3 hours as opposed to the current method. They have shown that the aerosol-based nanotubes are superb in terms of their electronic quality. These clean devices help to […]
Development of magneto-optic effect measurement device using dual-comb spectroscopy
Phys.org November 19, 2019 Researchers in Japan developed a desktop prototype magneto-optic effect measurement device capable of evaluating the characteristics of magnetic materials with improved optical system and signal detection system its measurement performance greatly exceeds conventional measurement methods. It has magneto-optic effect measurement resolution of 0.01 degree, a wavelength resolution of 0.01 nanometer and capable of high-speed measurement through batch measurements of all wavelength components. A major feature of the prototype is its capability to measure the phase difference of light in addition to its intensity ratio. It is expected to become an important new tool for the precise […]
The first high-speed straight motion of magnetic skyrmions at room temperature demonstrated
Phys.org November 19, 2019 The magnetic skyrmion can be driven by low current density and has a potential to be stabilized in nanoscale offering new directions of spintronics. However, there remain some fundamental issues in widely studied ferromagnetic systems which include a difficulty to realize stable ultra-small skyrmions at room temperature, presence of the skyrmion Hall effect, and limitation of velocity owing to the topological charge. Researchers in Japan have shown that skyrmion bubbles in a synthetic antiferromagnetic coupled multilayer are free from the above issues. Additive Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and spin-orbit torque (SOT) of the tailored stack allow stable skyrmion […]