01. Tunable optical chip paves way for new quantum devices 02. In a Quantum First, Physicists Put 2,000 Atoms in Two Places at Once 03. Physicists couple key components of quantum technologies 04. Physicists break distance record for electron spin-state transmission in spin qubits 05. Finding the ‘magic angle’ to create a new superconductor 06. Creating a single phonon in ambient conditions 07. Accidental discovery of strong and unbreakable molecular switch 08. Groundbreaking method detects defective computer chips 09. Predicting terror activity before it happens 10. Using machine learning to hunt down cybercriminals And others… By 2060 the Airplane Industry […]
Accidental discovery of strong and unbreakable molecular switch
Science Daily October 8, 2019 An international team of researchers (the Netherlands, China) report that fluorenone derivative (4-DBpFO) shows a strong shear deformation upon heating due to a structural phase transition which is reproducible after more than hundred heating/cooling cycles. Molecular dynamic simulations show that the transition occurs through a nucleation-and-growth mechanism, triggered by thermally induced rotations of the phenyl rings, leading to a rearrangement of the molecular configuration. This material can serve as a prototype structure to direct the development of new types of robust molecular actuators…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
By 2060 the Airplane Industry Will Be Mostly Gone
Next Big Future October 5, 2019 According to IATA and other aviation journals the number of passengers transported by airlines will double by 2040 to around 8.5 billion passengers. The total operating mileage of China’s high-speed rail network is predicted to exceed 50,000 km by 2030–2035, thus revolutionizing land-based travel. China is developing two types of next-generation trains, one class which can carry passengers at a top speed of 500 kilometers (310 miles) an hour and cargo at 250km/h, with wheels that can adjust to fit different track gauges used around the world. China is also developing maglev trains capable […]
Creating a single phonon in ambient conditions
Nanowerk October 8, 2019 So far, individual phonons have only been observed at extremely low temperatures and under high vacuum. An international team of researchers (Switzerland, USA – MIT) shot ultrafast laser pulses onto a diamond crystal to excite its atomic lattice into vibrating. By careful design of the experiment, they triggered a collective vibration involving more than 100 billion atoms that exchanged energy with single photons from the laser light. By measuring the energy exchanged by this vibration with single photons, they were able to prove that a single phonon was excited, and confirm that the collective oscillation behaves […]
Extreme solar storms may be more frequent than previously thought
Phys.org October 7, 2019 The Carrington Event of 1859 is one of the most extreme solar storms observed in the last two centuries and was caused by a large coronal mass ejection. Based mostly on records from the Western Hemisphere, leaving a considerable data gap in the Eastern Hemisphere, scientists thought events like the Carrington Event were very rare, happening maybe once a century. To fill the gaps in their knowledge of the Carrington event from studying only the Western Hemisphere records, an international team of researchers (Japan, UK, USA – University of Maryland, NCAR, Italy, Portugal) compiled and analyzed […]
Finding the ‘magic angle’ to create a new superconductor
Science Daily October 2, 2019 Earlier this year, scientists at MIT reported that graphene could become a superconductor if one piece of graphene were laid on top of another piece and the layers twisted to a specific angle , they called “the magic angle” of between 1 degree and 1.2 degrees. Now an international team of researchers (USA – Ohio State University, TT Dallas, Japan) found that graphene layers still superconducted at a smaller angle, around 0.9 degrees. It is a small distinction, but the findings provide a wealth of new information to help decipher the strongly correlated phenomena observed […]
Groundbreaking method detects defective computer chips
TechXplore October 7, 2019 An international team of researchers (Switzerland, University of Southern California) has developed a technique called ptychographic X-ray laminography which utilizes x-rays from a synchrotron to illuminate a small region of a rotating chip at an angle of 61 degrees (with respect to the normal of the chip plane). The resulting diffraction patterns are measured with a photon-counting detector array. The data are used to generate high-resolution slice images of the chip, from which 3-D renderings are created. The 3-D image can be compared with the original design as a type of forensics to help companies or […]
In a Quantum First, Physicists Put 2,000 Atoms in Two Places at Once
Science Alert October 5, 2019 An international team of researchers (Austria, Switzerland, Germany) has demonstrated the interference of a molecular library of functionalized oligoporphyrins consisting of up to 2,000 atoms, by far the heaviest objects shown to exhibit matter-wave interference to date. They realized quantum superposition of these massive particles by measuring interference fringes in a new 2-m-long interferometer that permits access to a wide range of particle masses with a large variety of internal states. The results show excellent agreement with quantum theory and cannot be explained classically. The interference fringes reach more than 90% of the expected visibility […]
MIT launches digital content library for workforce learning on emerging technologies
MIT News October 8, 2019 In the age of blockchains, 3D printing, CRISPR-Cas9 today’s workforce is struggling to keep up with the latest developments. To address this unmet need, MIT has assembled a team of writers, educators, and subject matter experts from both academia and industry to power a digital content library designed to help organizations keep their workforces apprised of the latest developments in technology and science. Known as MIT Horizon MIT Horizon , the platform contains bite-sized articles, videos, and podcasts on emerging technologies, with early topics including additive manufacturing, artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, and robotics. The content delivered […]
New silk materials can wrinkle into detailed patterns, then unwrinkle to be ‘reprinted’
Science Daily October 7, 2019 Water and methanol vapor, for example, can soak into the fibers and interfere with hydrogen bond cross links in the silk fibroin, causing it to partially ‘unravel’ and release tension in the fiber. Taking advantage of this property, the researchers at Tufts University fabricated a silk surface from dissolved fibroin by depositing it onto a thin plastic membrane (PDMS). After a cycle of heating and cooling the silk surface of the silk/PDMS bilayer folds into nanotextured wrinkles due to the different mechanical properties of the layers. Exposing any part of that wrinkled surface to water […]