Science Daily May 22, 2018 The uncontrolled interaction of a quantum system with its environment is detrimental for quantum coherence. An international team of researchers (USA – Harvard University, Sandia National Laboratory, UK) used a nano-electro-mechanical system to mitigate the effect of thermal phonons on a spin qubit, the silicon vacancy color center, without changing the system temperature. By controlling the strain environment of the colour centre, they tuned its electronic levels to probe, control, and eventually suppress the interaction of its spin with the thermal bath. Strain control provided both large tunability of the optical transitions and significantly improved […]
The US military is funding an effort to catch deepfakes and other AI trickery
MIT News May 23, 2018 This summer, under a project funded DARPA, the world’s leading digital forensics experts will gather for an AI fakery contest. They will compete to generate the most convincing AI-generated fake video, imagery, and audio—and they will also try to develop tools that can catch these counterfeits automatically. The contest will include so-called “deepfakes,” videos in which one person’s face is stitched onto another person’s body… read more.
Top 10 Science and Technology Innovations for the Week of May 25, 2018
01. Can a quantum drum vibrate and stand still at the same time? 02. Detecting the shape of laser pulses 03. Keep the light off: A material with improved mechanical performance in the dark 04. Entangled atoms shine in unison 05. No Motor, No Battery, No Problem 06. PNNL successfully vitrifies three gallons of radioactive tank waste 07. Self-assembling 3D battery would charge in seconds 08. Supersonic waves may help electronics beat the heat 09. Effective methods for automated design of complex technical objects and systems 10. E. coli tailored to convert plants into renewable chemicals And others… 3D-printed smart […]
3D-printed smart gel that walks underwater, moves objects
Science Daily May 18, 2018 During the printing a walker, an international team of researchers (USA – Rutgers University, South Korea) projected light on a light-sensitive solution that becomes a gel. The hydrogel was placed in an electrolyte. Two thin wires applied electricity to trigger motion – walking forward, reversing course and grabbing and moving objects. The speed of the smart gel’s movement is controlled by changing its dimensions (thin is faster than thick), and the gel bends or changes shape depending on the strength of the salty water solution and electric field. It has applications in biomedical engineering and […]
Ebola Is Back. Here’s How The New Outbreak Is Different From 2014
Science Alert May 17, 2018 The largest of Ebola outbreaks took place in West Africa from 2014 through 2016 killing 11,310. The world is once again on the brink of another Ebola outbreak, this time in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This time health officials have another, far more proactive weapon in the fight against Ebola: an experimental vaccine known as Merck’s rVSV-ZEBOV, or V920. The first batch of 4,000 Ebola vaccine doses arrived in the DRC capital of Kinshasa. More doses should follow, according to the WHO… read more.
Effective methods for automated design of complex technical objects and systems
Eurekalert May 18, 2018 To overcome the computational complexity of multicriteria problems researchers in Russia proposed a two-fold approach. First, effective global search algorithms will be used for solving optimization problems. Second, when performing calculations, all the search information received during the calculation will be used to the greatest possible extent. Computational experiments performed by the team shows that the proposed approach makes it possible to reduce more than a hundredfold the amount of required computations when searching for the next effective solution… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Entangled atoms shine in unison
Phys.org May 18, 2018 A team of international researchers (Austria, Australia, Czech Republic) compared the photon interference produced by entangled and non-entangled barium atoms. The measured difference of the interference fringes directly corresponds to the amount of entanglement in the atoms which helps to characterize the entanglement fully optically. They demonstrated that the interference signal is highly sensitive to environmental factors at the location of the atoms. The demonstration could lead to the development of highly sensitive optical gradiometers for the precise measurement of the gravitational field or the Earth’s magnetic field… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Keep the light off: A material with improved mechanical performance in the dark
Phys.org May 17, 2018 Researchers in Japan have shown that when crystals of zinc sulfide are kept in the dark at room temperature, they deformed plastically without fracture until a large strain of 45%. The high plasticity was accompanied by a considerable decrease in the band gap of the deformed crystals increasing their electrical conductivity which may be controlled by mechanical deformation. According to the researchers the decreased band gap was caused by deformation introducing dislocations into the crystals, which changed their band structure. The findings open avenue to optimize the performance of inorganic semiconductors in electronics… read more. TECHNICAL […]
NextGen postdocs
Science May 18, 2018 The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) report examines U.S. programs and policies that could support the next generation of researchers in the biomedical and behavioral sciences. It accurately identifies the nexus of career development, effective mentoring, and adequate funding as key components to improving postdoctoral training. The recommendations discuss career development training, training beyond technical skills, “core competencies.” Over 200 U.S. academic institutions have dedicated staff for this purpose… read more. Report “The Next Generation of Biomedical and Behavioral Sciences Researchers: Breaking Through“
No Motor, No Battery, No Problem
Caltech May 15, 2018 An international team of researchers (Switzerland, USA – Caltech) has developed robots that paddle through water as the material they are constructed from deforms with temperature changes. The new propulsion system relies on strips of a flexible polymer that is curled when cold and stretches out when warm. The polymer is positioned to activate a switch inside the robot’s body, that is in turn attached to a paddle that rows it forward like a rowboat. The switch is made from a bistable element, which is a component that can be stable in two distinct geometries… read […]