Phys.org November 11, 2024 Understanding and controlling liquid interactions on tiny, advanced surfaces, a breakthrough that could impact a wide range of industries, from self-cleaning materials to medical devices. Through experimental approaches and theoretical analysis, a team of researchers in Australia assessed how variations in geometry and material impact wettability. Key findings revealed that SiC re-entrant structures had similar hydrophobic behavior. Although flat SiC surfaces exhibited higher inherent hydrophobicity than flat SiO₂, re-entrant geometry predominantly influenced wetting behavior. Structures with lower solid area fractions showed increased hydrophobicity, with a distinct hierarchy: micro lines were the least hydrophobic, followed by shark-skin […]
Tag Archives: S&T Australia
Harnessing quantum principles: Phased arrays within phased arrays for smarter, greener indoor optical wireless networks
Phys.org October 11, 2024 Researchers in Australia developed a novel approach for enhancing signal radiation patterns in optical wireless networks utilizing a planar optical aperture incorporated with infrared radiative element clusters to optimize signal radiation patterns through selective cluster excitation. They used dual carrier wavelength approach, leveraging an effectively large carrier wavelength for the system to avoid grating lobes occurrence due to distributed clusters. They used optimization-based algorithm to ensure optimized signal reception at the specific receiver location. Using simulations, they demonstrated the behavior of parameters like side lobe level, focal spot area, and power efficiency within the focal spot […]
The importance of wave modeling in predicting climate change’s effect on sea ice
Phys.org September 24, 2024 Researchers in Australia used a theoretical model to study water waves propagating into and through a region containing thin floating ice, for ice covers transitioning from consolidated (large floe sizes) to fully broken (small floe sizes). The degree of breaking was simulated by a mean floe length. The model predicted deterministic limits for consolidated and fully broken ice covers where the wave fields do not depend on the realization of the ice cover for a given mean floe length. The consolidated ice limit was consistent with classic flexural-gravity wave theory, and the fully broken limit was […]
Electricity generated by earthquakes might be the secret behind giant gold nuggets
Phys.org September 2, 2024 Gold nuggets occur predominantly in quartz veins, and the current paradigm posits that gold precipitates from dilute (<1 mg kg−1 gold), hot, water ± carbon dioxide-rich fluids owing to changes in temperature, pressure and/or fluid chemistry. However, the widespread occurrence of large gold nuggets is at odds with the dilute nature of these fluids and the chemical inertness of quartz. Using quartz deformation experiments and piezoelectric modelling researchers in Australia investigated if piezoelectric discharge from quartz could explain the ubiquitous gold–quartz association and the formation of gold nuggets. They found that stress on quartz crystals could generate enough voltage to […]
Revealing the influences on La Niña and El Niño weather conditions
Phys.org July 31, 2024 Despite common background La Niña conditions, Australia was very dry in November 2020 and wet in November 2021. Researchers in Australia examined the El Niño Southern Oscillation, Indian Ocean Dipole, Southern Annular Mode and Madden Julian Oscillation, but they did not find obvious clues. They found that the absence (in 2020) or presence (in 2021) of an enhanced thermal wind and subtropical jet over the Australian continent contributed to the rainfall anomalies. In November 2021 the warm sea surface temperatures led to an enhanced meridional temperature gradient and subtropical jet over Australia. The enhanced jet provided […]
Tonga’s volcanic eruption could cause unusual weather for the rest of the decade, new study shows
Phys.org May 30, 2024 The amount of water vapor injected into the stratosphere after the eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai (HTHH) was unprecedented, and it is therefore unclear what it might mean for surface climate. Researchers in Australia used chemistry climate model simulations to assess the long-term surface impacts of stratospheric water vapor (SWV) anomalies similar to those caused by HTHH, but neglected the relatively minor aerosol loading from the eruption. The simulations showed that the SWV anomalies led to strong and persistent warming of Northern Hemisphere landmasses in boreal winter, and austral winter cooling over Australia, years after eruption, […]
Flat optics revolutionize quantum light sources for enhanced communication and sensing
Nanowerk April 25, 2024 Recent advancements have witnessed a significant shift toward the utilization of “flat” optics with thickness at subwavelength scales for the development of quantum light sources. This approach offers notable advantages over conventional bulky counterparts, including compactness, scalability, and improved efficiency, along with added functionalities. In this review researchers in Australia focused on the recent advances in leveraging flat optics to generate quantum light sources. Specifically, the generation of entangled photon pairs through spontaneous parametric down-conversion in nonlinear metasurfaces, and single photon emission from quantum emitters including quantum dots and color centers in 3D and 2D materials […]
Australian researchers develop new method to more accurately spot underground nuclear tests
Phys.org February 7, 2024 Currently possible mis-classification of explosions as earthquakes currently limits the use of screening methods for verification of test-ban treaties. Researchers in Australia showed that populations of moment tensors for both earthquakes and explosions are anisotropically distributed on the hypersphere. They described a method that uses these elliptical distributions in combination with a Bayesian classifier to achieve successful classification rates of 99 per cent for explosions and 98 per cent for earthquakes using existing catalogues of events from the western United States. The 1983 May 5 Crowdie underground nuclear test and 2018 July 20 DAG-1 deep-borehole chemical […]
Reading on screens instead of paper is a less effective way to absorb and retain information, suggests research
Phys.org February 5, 2024 Evidence from recent experiments suggests a complex interplay of visual and cognitive influences on how people engage with digital reading. According to the researchers in Australia although readers can strategically adjust their reading behaviors in response to their immediate reading context, the efficacy of these strategies depends on cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational factors. Comprehension tends to be less effective when reading on screens than on paper, particularly with texts that require a deeper understanding or when reading under time pressure. Recent evidence indicates that digital readers exhibit a tendency towards more shallow or superficial text processing […]
Superlensing without a super lens: Physicists boost microscopes beyond limits
Phys.org October 18, 2023 Imaging with resolutions much below the wavelength λ remains challenging at lower frequencies, where exponentially decaying evanescent waves are generally measured using a tip or antenna close to an object. Such approaches are often problematic because probes can perturb the near-field itself. Researchers in Australia have demonstrated that information encoded in evanescent waves can be probed further than previously thought, by reconstructing truthful images of the near-field through selective amplification of evanescent waves like a virtual superlens that images the near field without perturbing it. They quantified trade-offs between noise and measurement distance, experimentally demonstrated reconstruction […]