Global Biodefense December 20, 2018 The nature of Ebola outbreaks is changing as the virus finds its way out of rural villages into populous urban settings. Outbreak response experts at the WHO and GAVI are already talking to the leading Ebola vaccine manufacturer, Merck, to reassess just how much larger global stocks need to be. Besides Merk’s vaccine, another potential vaccine being developed by Johnson & Johnson could also eventually become part of the stockpile, global health officials say… read more.
New T-wave detector uses waves of the electronic sea in graphene
Nanowerk December 21, 2018 It has proven challenging to implement plasmonic devices operating at terahertz frequencies. An international team of researchers (UK, Russia, Japan) has demonstrated plasmon-assisted resonant detection of terahertz radiation by antenna-coupled graphene transistors that act as both plasmonic Fabry-Perot cavities and rectifying elements. By varying the plasmon velocity using gate voltage, they could tune the detectors between multiple resonant modes. The devices offer a convenient tool for further plasmonic research and promise a viable route for various photonic applications… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
The man turning China into a quantum superpower
MIT Technology Review December 19, 2018 An international team of scientists (Austria, China) made possible an unhackable videoconference between Vienna and Beijing. They include a plan to create a globe-spanning constellation of satellites that constitute a super-secure quantum internet. As funding for government programs is opaque, it could be $1.1 billilon. In spite of this China still trails the US in quantum computing. If China thinks the technology could give it a military edge, it might pull back on international collaborations and keep innovations to itself. Close coordination between Chinese government research groups, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the […]
Lean electrolyte design is a game-changer for magnesium batteries
Science Daily December 21, 2018 Magnesium is far more common and therefore less expensive, and it’s not prone to breaches in its internal structure but magnesium batteries won’t be commercially competitive until they can store and discharge large amounts of energy. Cathode and electrolyte materials have been a stumbling block. Through the optimal combination of organic carbonyl polymer cathodes and Mg-storage-enabling electrolytes, a team of researchers in the US (University of Michigan, industry partner) has demonstrated that high specific energy, power, and cycling stability that are rarely seen in Mg batteries. They showed that in lean electrolyte conditions, the Mg2+-storing […]
Hybrid qubits solve key hurdle to quantum computing
Phys.org December 28, 2018 Single-spin qubits in semiconductor quantum dots hold promise for universal quantum computation. However, initialization and readout of a qubit is orders of magnitude slower than control. An international team of researchers (Japan, France, Germany, Switzerland) combined slow initializing single-spin qubit called a Loss-DiVincenzo qubit, which has very high control fidelity and a singlet-triplet qubit, which has quick initialization and read out, but quickly becomes decoherent. For the study they combined the two types with a type of quantum gate known as a controlled phase gate, which allowed spin states to be entangled between the qubits in […]
Global Quantum Communication Network has Been Proven Feasible With 20,000 km Transmissions
Next Big Future December 24, 2018 Researchers in Italy have reported on the first experimental exchange of single photons from Global Navigation Satellite System at a slant distance of 20000 kilometers, by exploiting the retroreflector array mounted on GLONASS satellites. They observed the predicted temporal spread of the reflected pulses due to the geometrical shape of array. They provide estimated the requirements needed for an active source on a satellite, aiming towards quantum communication from GNSS with state-of-the-art technology… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Forecasters may be looking in wrong place when predicting tornadoes
Science Daily December 21, 2018 Researchers at Ohio University demonstrated that tornadoes form at the ground and move up rapidly, contrary to the long-held hypothesis that most tornadoes form at cloud level and descend to touch the earth. They coupled visual and near-surface radar observations from the El Reno 2013 case enabled them to analyze the tornadogenesis process. The findings indicate that a tornado-strength vortex can be active on the ground for a minute or more before the deeper tornadic column forms and is picked up by conventional radar. However, tornado warnings are issued based on radar readings that pick-up […]
Fail-safe, reconfigurable chips
Phys.org December 28, 2018 According to researchers in Spain faults often take place within the components of the circuits, which end up affecting their final performance. They have developed a technique which makes it possible to predict where the circuit will fail and configure the other components to make up for these deficiencies, thus guaranteeing their maximum performance. Each one of the units of the circuit is configured, and by applying mathematic induction techniques, offers a diagnosis of how the circuit would behave in each of the ports. Based on this diagnosis modifications can be made as needed… read more. […]
The 10 most intriguing inventions of 2018
MIT Technology Review December 28, 2018 Here are some of the more recondite inventions MIT Technology Review has covered this year, many of them plumbed from the arXiv, the pre-publication academic paper database. They include Artificial synapses, Anti-aging medicines, Electric planes with no moving parts, DNA computing for programmable pills, Group brain-to-brain communication, Seeing through walls using Wi-Fi, Secure quantum communications via satellite, Phones that shoot a million frames per second, Edible electronics and Electricity-generating boots… read more.
Electronics of the future: A new energy-efficient mechanism using the Rashba effect
Science Daily December 27, 2018 Researchers in Japan using the Rashba effect for generating spin currents in material structures that possess electrons with desirable spin properties. They developed a mechanism to generate a spin current without energy loss from a series of simulations for new quasi-1D materials based on bismuth-adsorbed indium that exhibit a giant Rashba effect. This mechanism does not require an external magnetic field to generate nondissipative spin current. The process would simplify potential spintronic devices and would allow for further miniaturization… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE