MIT Technology Review January 30. 2019 The 42-page report compiled by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence identifies China and Russia as the biggest sources of potential attacks on US infrastructure with the ability to cause disruption for days or even weeks. The review said Russia could carry out cyber-espionage and launch influence campaigns and that is “becoming more adept at using social media to alter how we think, behave, and decide”. It believes Chinese IT firms are being used to spy on the US. It warns that the US’s overall lead in science and technology will continue to shrink. […]
Advances in stretchable semiconductors, integrated electronics
Science Daily February 1, 2019 Researchers at the University of Houston introduced metallic carbon nanotubes into a rubbery semiconductor composite enhancing carrier mobility by providing fast paths and, therefore, a shortened carrier transport distance. They developed transistors and their arrays which retained electrical performances without substantial loss when subjected to 50% stretching. Fully rubbery integrated electronics and logic gates they developed functioned reliably upon mechanical stretching. To illustrate one of the applications they demonstrated rubbery active matrix based elastic tactile sensing skin to map physical touch…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
These 3 high-profile DOD systems have persistent operational flaws, according to testing
Fedscoop February 1, 2019 According to the DOD Office of the Director of Operational Test & Evaluation’s 2018 report , in tests there were an increasing number of instances where the cyber Red Teams employed during DOT&E assessments experienced greater difficulty in penetrating network defenses or maintaining previously acquired accesses. But they estimate that the rate of these improvements is not outpacing the growing capabilities of potential adversaries who continue to find new vulnerabilities and techniques to counter the fixes and countermeasures by DOD defenders. Three areas of concern are: The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s brain is malfunctioning, DOD EHR (Electronic […]
Top 10 Science and Technology Inventions for the Week of February 1, 2019
01. Lasers can send a whispered audio message directly to one person’s ear 02. Shadowy algorithm allows digital camera to see round corners 03. Waterproof graphene electronic circuits 04. Engineers develop novel strategy for designing tiny semiconductor particles for wide-ranging applications 05. Materials that open in the heat of the moment 06. Scientists demonstrate fractal light from lasers 07. Multitasking graphene ink printed into tiny flexible supercapacitors 08. Taking magnetism for a spin: exploring the mysteries of skyrmions 09. Understanding warfighter performance from the inside out 10. Current generation via quantum proton transfer And others… Artificial intelligence ARTIST instantly captures […]
We analyzed 16,625 papers [from Arxiv] to figure out where AI is headed next
MIT Technology Review January 25, 2019 Through their analysis, they found three major trends: a shift toward machine learning during the late 1990s and early 2000s, a rise in the popularity of neural networks beginning in the early 2010s, and growth in reinforcement learning in the past few years. The biggest shift was a transition away from knowledge-based systems by the early 2000s. Through the 1990s and 2000s, there was steady competition between all these methods. Then, in 2012, a pivotal breakthrough led to another sea change, deep learning. In the last few years, however, reinforcement learning, which mimics the […]
Waterproof graphene electronic circuits
Science Daily January 30, 2019 Water molecules change the electrical resistance of this carbon material, which introduces a false signal into the sensor. An international team of researchers (Sweden, Germany) discovered that when this two-dimensional material is integrated with the metal of a circuit, contact resistance is not impaired by humidity. They used graphene together with gold metallization and silica substrates in transmission line model test structures, as well as computer simulations to demonstrate their discovery. As part of the European CO2-DETECT project, they are applying this new approach to create the first prototypes of graphene-based sensors to measure carbon […]
Understanding warfighter performance from the inside out
DARPA January 22, 2019 The anticipated outputs of the Measuring Biological Aptitude (MBA) program are a set of biomarkers that correspond to traits of highly effective performance in a given role, along with new tools to measure and report on those biomarkers in real time. This information will enable individual warfighters to understand and affect the underlying biological processes that govern their success. MBA technologies could improve training, team formation, mission performance, and post-mission recovery, yielding a better prepared, more effective, more resilient force. At its core, MBA seeks to shed light on the biological factors and processes that support […]
Taking magnetism for a spin: exploring the mysteries of skyrmions
Nanowerk January 23, 2019 Until recently skyrmions were a phenomenon only observed at extreme low temperature. They need external magnetic fields to exist. A team of researchers in the US (Ames Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, University of Florida) established a skyrmion lattice in a sample through exposure to magnetic fields and supercooling with liquid nitrogen. They were able to observe the skyrmion lattice in zero magnetic field, and then observe the decay of the skyrmions as the temperature warmed gaining critical new information about how skyrmions behave and how they revert to metastable state. The research provides a very solid […]
Shadowy algorithm allows digital camera to see round corners
Physics World January 25, 2019 If the line of sight between a target object and a camera is blocked some of the light from the target can reach the camera via diffuse scattering from surrounding objects. Researchers at Boston University have achieved non-line-of-sight imaging with an ordinary digital camera without the need for measuring arrival times. Their algorithm analyses information that is contained in shadows cast by an obscuring object that is placed between the target object and the relay surface. The technique relies on the fact that shadows are not sharp, but rather have penumbrae at their edges. The […]
Scientists demonstrate fractal light from lasers
Science Daily January 30, 2019 A team of researchers (South Africa, UK) has observed a variety of fractal shapes in transverse intensity cross sections through the lowest-loss eigenmodes of unstable canonical laser resonators, thereby demonstrating the controlled generation of fractal light inside a laser cavity. They advance the existing theory of fractal laser modes, first by predicting three-dimensional self-similar fractal structure around the center of the magnified self-conjugate plane and second by showing, quantitatively, that intensity cross sections are most self-similar in the magnified self-conjugate plane. The work offers a significant advance in the understanding of a fundamental symmetry of […]