Science Daily December 13, 2022 Harvesting an electrical current from biological photosynthetic systems is typically achieved by immersion of the system into an electrolyte solution. Researchers in Israel used the thick water-preserving outer cuticle of the succulent Corpuscularia lehmannii serves as the electrochemical container, the inner water content as the electrolyte into which an iron anode and platinum cathode were introduced. They produced up to 20 μA/cm2 bias-free photocurrent. When 0.5 V bias was added to the iron anode, the current density increased ∼10-fold, and evolved hydrogen gas could be collected with a Faradaic efficiency of 2.1 and 3.5% in […]
Tag Archives: S&T Israel
Researchers fabricate tiny multi-component beam shaper directly onto optical fiber
Phys.org October 3, 2022 Researchers in Israel have shown that by using 3D-direct laser writing, high-quality optical devices could be fabricated directly on top of the fiber’s facet by the two-photon absorption process. They demonstrated how a high-order Bessel beam carrying orbital angular momentum could be generated by using this lithography process. The beam is shaped using an integrated micro-optical system that consists of a twisted axicon and parabolic lens in an adapted fiber configuration. They provided the analysis and measurements of the generated beam, along with simulated predictions. They found that the size of the central ring remained nearly […]
Researchers fabricate complex optical components from fluids
Nanowerk November 18, 2021 Based on controlling the minimum energy state of the interface between a curable optical liquid and an immersion liquid and dictating a geometrical boundary constraint a team of researchers in Israel has developed a method to shape liquid volumes and solidify them into desired freeform components. They provided an analytical solution for the resulting topography given a predefined boundary and demonstrated the fabrication of freeform components with sub-nanometer surface roughness within minutes. The process allows for rapid prototyping of high-quality components, has the potential to answer an unmet need in the optical design industry and allowing […]
A world first: A robot able to “hear” through the ear of a locust
EurekAlert March 2, 2021 During hundreds of millions of years of evolution, insects have evolved some of the most efficient and robust sensing organs, often far more sensitive than their man-made equivalents. Researchers in Israel integrated a locust tympanic ear with a robotic platform using hybrid bio-technological approach. Using an Ear-on-a-Chip method, they created a long-lasting miniature sensory device that operates as part of a bio-hybrid robot. The neural signals recorded from the ear in response to sound pulses, are processed and used to control the robot’s motion. This work is a proof of concept, demonstrating the use of biological […]
Rapid Identification of Ricin in Serum Samples Using LC–MS/MS
Global Biodefense January 23, 2021 Researchers in Israel have developed a sensitive, rapid, antibody-independent assay for the identification of ricin in body fluids using mass spectrometry. The assay involves lectin affinity capturing of ricin by easy-to-use commercial lactose–agarose beads, followed by tryptic digestion and selected marker identification using targeted Multiple Reaction Monitoring analysis. This enables ricin identification down to 5 ng/mL in serum samples in 2.5 hours. They demonstrated the technology in a clinical scenario where the toxin was identified in an abdominal fluid sample taken 72 h post self-injection of castor beans extraction. This method has the potential application […]
New cyberattack can trick scientists into making toxins or viruses — Ben-Gurion University researchers
EurekAlert November 30, 2020 According to the researchers in Israel a malware could easily replace a short sub-string of the DNA on a bioengineer’s computer so that they unintentionally create a toxin producing sequence. To regulate both intentional and unintentional generation of dangerous substances, most synthetic gene providers screen DNA orders which is currently the most effective line of defense against such attacks. Unfortunately, the screening guidelines have not been adapted to reflect recent developments in synthetic biology and cyberwarfare. Screening protocols can be circumvented using a generic obfuscation procedure which makes it difficult for the screening software to detect […]
New technology allows cameras to capture colors invisible to the human eye
Phys.org November 5, 2020 In upconversion imaging phase matching severely limits the spectral bandwidth, therefore requires serial acquisitions to cover a large spectrum. Researchers in Israel have designed an upconversion imaging scheme covering the mid‐IR based on adiabatic frequency conversion. They presented mid‐IR multicolor imaging and demonstrated simultaneous imaging on a CMOS camera of radiation spanning a spectrum from 2 to 4 µm. This approach being coherent and ultrafast in essence, spectrally resolved spatiotemporal imaging is further demonstrated that allows spatially distinguishing the temporal evolution of spectral components. The findings has applications in a variety of fields from computer gaming […]
Magnetic memory states go exponential
EurekAlert July 9, 2020 When spintronic devices are used for storing data, the number of stable states sets an upper limit on memory capacity. Researchers in Israel have shown that relatively simple structures can support exponential number of magnetic states – much greater than previously thought. They studied structures that are magnetic thin films patterned in the form of N crossing ellipses which have two to the power of 2N magnetization states. The researchers demonstrated switching between the states by generating spin currents. The finding may pave the way to multi-level magnetic memory with extremely large number of states per […]
New method to remove dust on solar panels
Science Daily December 9, 2019 To better understand the forces that attach and detach particles from surfaces during the self-cleaning mechanism and the effect of nanotextures on these forces, researchers in Israel prepared four silicon-based samples relevant to solar panels: (1) smooth hydrophilic (2) nanotextured hydrophilic surfaces and (3) smooth hydrophobic (4) nanotextured hydrophobic surfaces. They found that hydrophilic particle removal increased from ∼41%, from hydrophilic smooth Si wafers to 98% from superhydrophobic Si-based nanotextured surfaces. They determined that the reason for the increased particle removal is due to the reduction of the adhesion force between the particle and the […]
New computer attack mimics user’s keystroke characteristics and evades detection
Science Daily June 6, 2019 Researchers in Israel have developed a new attack called Malboard and a detection module. Malboard automatically generates keystrokes that have the attacked user’s behavioral characteristics. The keystrokes are injected into the computer in the form of malicious commands and thus can evade existing detection mechanisms designed to continuously verify the user’s identity based on keystroke dynamics. In demonstration attack against three existing detection mechanisms, the results showed that Malboard managed to evade detection in 83–100% of the cases, depending on the detection tools in place. They also developed three different modules, aimed at detecting keystroke […]