Next Big Future June 13, 2018 The hypersonic missiles being introduced now and over the next few years have speeds of mach 5 to mach 20. This will be followed by more mature hypersonic weapons. Russia’s Kinzhal has a claimed range of more than 2,000 km (1,200 mi), Mach 10 speed, and an ability to perform evasive maneuvers at every stage of the flight. China’s HGV warhead, the DF-17, will be the first hypersonic glide weapon. The US will be spending billions to have Lockheed and other develop hypersonic missiles and other weapons. 2035 and beyond the hypersonic drones and planes […]
IBM to release world’s largest facial analytics dataset
Phys.org June 27, 2018 One of the biggest issues causing bias in facial analysis is the lack of diverse data to train systems on. IBM is releasing a facial attribute and identity training dataset of over 1 million images to improve facial analysis. It is annotated with attributes and identity, leveraging geo-tags from Flickr images to balance data from multiple countries and active learning tools to reduce sample selection bias. Unlike the current datasets the IBM dataset has a single capability to match attributes (hair color, facial hair, etc.) and identify multiple images of the same person. A dataset which […]
New carbon could signal step-change for the world’s most popular batteries
Phys.org June 25, 2018 An international team of researchers (China, India, UK, France) used ‘Eglinton homocoupling’ involving removing silicon from carbon-silicon groups to produce carbon to carbon links resulting in OSPC-1, an amorphous, very stable and highly conductive anode material for lithium-ion batteries. It does not form dendrites, able to store lithium ions at more than double the rate as graphite with high charging speeds and longer-lasting than graphite. They found no signs of deterioration after over 100 charging and discharging cycles. The method used by the team has the potential to be extended to other 3-D carbon materials… read […]
Researchers create world’s smallest ‘computer’
Tech Explore June 23, 2018 Researchers at the University of Michigan have created a device that measures just 0.3 mm to a side. It is designed as a precision temperature sensor that converts temperatures into time intervals, defined with electronic pulses. Microdevices, from IBM and now Michigan, lose all prior programming and data as soon as they lose power. In addition to the RAM and photovoltaics, the new computing devices have processors and wireless transmitters and receivers. Because they are too small to have conventional radio antennae, they receive and transmit data with visible light. A base station provides light […]
Spatial overlap leads to useful quantum entanglement, say physicists
Physics World June 25, 2018 Researchers in Italy studied independently prepared identical particles showing that, when they spatially overlap, an operational entanglement exists that can be made to manifest by means of separated localized measurements. They proved this entanglement is physical as it can be directly exploited to activate quantum information protocols, such as teleportation. These results establish that particle indistinguishability is a utilizable quantum feature and open the way to new quantum-enhanced applications… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Synthetic gene circuits for the detection, elimination and prevention of disease
Nature Biomedical Engineering June 11, 2018 In living organisms, naturally evolved sensors that constantly monitor and process environmental cues trigger corrective actions that enable the organisms to cope with changing conditions. This has inspired the biologists to construct synthetic living sensors and signaling pathways, by repurposing naturally occurring proteins and by designing molecular building blocks de novo, for customized diagnostics and therapeutics. In this Review, an international team of researchers (Switzerland, France) describe the biomedical applications of synthetic gene circuits in major disease areas and discuss how the first genetically engineered devices developed based on synthetic-biology principles made the leap from […]
Thermal camouflage disguises hot and cold
Nanowerk June 27, 2018 Thermal camouflage requires an ability to control the emitted thermal radiation from the surface. An international team of researchers (Turkey, USA – MIT, UK) used electro-modulation of IR absorptivity and emissivity of multilayer graphene via reversible intercalation of nonvolatile ionic liquids. The new surfaces are thin, ultraflexible and they can conformably coat their environment. By combining active thermal surfaces with a feedback mechanism, they demonstrated an adaptive thermal camouflage system which can reconfigure its thermal appearance and blend itself with the varying thermal background in a few seconds. These devices can disguise hot objects as cold […]
Top 10 Science and Technology Innovations for the Week of June 22, 2018
01. Giant lasers pass new milestone towards fusion energy 02. On track to commercial extraction of uranium from seawater 03. Physicists show that is impossible to mask quantum information in correlations 04. Researchers predict materials to stabilize record-high capacity lithium-ion battery 05. Robots learn by checking in on team members (Video https://youtu.be/SVaQ8CpHjSc) 06. Scientists Have Invented a Software That Can ‘See’ Several Minutes Into The Future 07. A surprising twist on skyrmions 08. Russian scientists created ‘flying’ gas chromatograph 09. Promising new material has the right properties to capture solar energy, split water into hydrogen and oxygen 10. Silicon carbide […]
Giant lasers pass new milestone towards fusion energy
Physics World June 18, 2018 An international team of researchers (USA – Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, industry, University of Rochester, MIT, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Germany) has shown that the fusion energy generated by the laser implosion of a deuterium-tritium fuel capsule is twice that of the kinetic energy of the implosion. They changed the shape of the laser pulses to create much more stable implosions. In 2014, these “high-foot” pulses each yielded up to 17 kJ of fusion energy (and later 26 kJ) – exceeding the roughly 10 kJ created in earlier experiments. They say they will be close […]
Can geoengineering ever be low risk?
Physics World June 13, 2018 At the European Union General Assembly in Vienna in April, the World Meteorological Organization proposed that to meet the Paris agreement on global warming, we should look seriously at the artificial manipulation of the climate through geoengineering. Geo-engineering strategies fall into two groups: carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and solar radiation management (SRM). Afforestation and land management, ocean fertilisation and carbon capture and storage are soft approaches to CDR with low-risk. There are currently no low-risk technologies for SRM, and further research is needed to quantify risks. Geo-engineering strategies that act to cool the planet and […]