DARPA News February 20, 2018 DARPA announced its SIGMA+ program, an expansion of the existing SIGMA program. The program calls for the development of highly sensitive detectors and advanced intelligence analytics to detect minute traces of various substances related to WMD threats. SIGMA+ will use a common network infrastructure and mobile sensing strategy. The detection network would be scalable to cover a major metropolitan city and its surrounding region. The program is structured around two Phases. The first phase focuses on developing novel sensors for chemicals, explosives, and biological agents, the second phase focuses on network development, analytics, and integration. […]
Magnetic nanoparticles will help stop internal bleeding 15 times more effectively
Nanowerk February 28, 2018 Researchers in Russia used magnet-driven nanoparticles consisting of two key components – thrombin, an enzyme responsible for blood clotting and magnetite. Thrombin interacts with the protein called fibrinogen and triggers clot formation to block the damaged vessel. The thrombin is wrapped into a special porous matrix made of magnetite that allows for precise control of the movement of particles inside the body using an external magnetic field. A drug based on these nanoparticles is nontoxic and can be injected intravenously and delivered straight to the site of a vascular injury. It can accelerate local clot formation […]
Exotic state of matter: An atom full of atoms
Science Daily February 26, 2018 An international team of researchers (USA – Rice University, MIT, Switzerland, Brazil, Austria, Germany) reports spectroscopic observation of Rydberg polarons in an atomic Bose gas. Polarons are created by excitation of Rydberg atoms as impurities in a strontium Bose-Einstein condensate. As computer simulations show, this comparatively weak kind of interaction decreases the total energy of the system, and so a bond between the Rydberg atom and the other atoms inside the electronic orbit is created. This new, weakly bound state of matter is an exciting new possibility of investigating the physics of ultracold atoms… read […]
MIT Engineers Have Built a Device That Pulls Electricity Out of Thin Air
Science Alert February 27, 2018 Researchers at MIT designed materials that maximize the thermal effusivity by impregnating copper and nickel foams with conformal, chemical-vapor-deposited graphene and octadecane as a phase change material. These materials are ideal for ambient energy harvesting in the form of thermal resonators to generate persistent electrical power from thermal fluctuations over large ranges of frequencies. The harvestable power is proportional to the thermal effusivity of the dominant thermal mass. With 18-degree Fahrenheit temperature difference between night and day, a small sample of material produced 350 millivolts of potential and 1.3 milliwatts of power, which is enough […]
New technology may protect troops from blast-induced brain injury
Science Daily February 26, 2018 Researchers at the University of Maryland developed highly advanced shock absorber designs that incorporate polyurea-coated tubes and other structures to reduce the blast acceleration experienced by vehicle occupants by up to 80 percent. It spreads out the application of force. Polyurea is compressible and rebounds following compression, resulting in an excellent ability to decrease the acceleration. The research has produced new insights into the causes of TBI experienced by vehicle occupants, even in the absence of significant pressure changes… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
‘Two-way signaling’ possible with a single quantum particle
Physorg February 26, 2018 By using a quantum particle that has been put in a superposition of two different locations, researchers in Austria have theoretically shown that both partners are able to encode their messages into a single quantum particle simultaneously. Being in a quantum superposition means that the quantum particle is “simultaneously present” at each partner’s location. Therefore, both partners are able to encode their messages into a single quantum particle simultaneously, a task that is essentially impossible using classical physics. The experimental results show that the communication is secure and anonymous, the direction of communication is hidden—an eavesdropper […]
China’s inexpensive missile firing drones and long duration solar drone
Next Big Future February 28, 2018 China’s domestically-produced UAV Caihong 4 (CH-4) is an upgraded version of the model which was first produced in 2015. The CH-4 can conduct effective air strikes on more targets, from longer distances with faster reaction. The drone flew for 15 hours, 20 kilometers above sea level well within near space. It is designed to reach altitudes of 65 km and fly for weeks on end. The plane can shoot 50-kilogram cluster bombs and an assortment of guided missiles… read more… read more.
Faster data transfer through plasmons
Nanowerk February 22, 2018 Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) function like photonic elements, carrying information at high speeds. Researchers in Singapore designed transducers comprising aluminum and gold electrodes, separated by a two nanometer-thick layer of aluminum oxide that acts as an insulating ‘quantum tunneling’ barrier. Electrons that make the quantum leap across this gap will either generate or detect SPPs. By joining two transducers with a plasmonic waveguide, so that one acted as a source and another as detector they observed about 1 in 7 of the tunneling electrons coupling to a SPP. The invention has potential applications in three-dimensional integrated […]
Governance of emerging technologies: Aligning policy analysis with the public’s values
Eurekalert February 20, 2018 This special report, published as a supplement to the Hastings Center Report, volume 48, issue 1, is the product of a research project, Values in Impact Assessment, conducted at The Hastings Center from 2014 to 2018. The ideas in these essays were initially presented to a working group… read more. Open Access Report
New algorithm can create movies from just a few snippets of text
Science Magazine February 23, 2018 Researchers in Belgium have developed a machine learning a neural network algorithm. During training, software assesses its performance after each attempt, and feedback circulates through the millions of network connections to refine future computations. The first stage uses the text to create a “gist” of the video, the second stage takes both the gist and the text and produces a short video. During training, a second network acts as a “discriminator.” As it gets better, it becomes a harsher critic, and its feedback sets a higher bar for the generator network. Currently, the videos are […]