ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

Artificial hail for more accurate weather forecasts

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 11:46 AM PDT

A vertical wind tunnel has supplied important data to facilitate the prediction of heavy rain, hail, and graupel precipitation.

Breakthrough application of moisture-trapping film to reduce heat stress in personal protective suits

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 09:27 AM PDT

Researchers have developed a novel super-hygroscopic material that enhances sweat evaporation within a personal protective suit, to create a cooling effect for better thermal comfort for users such as healthcare workers and other frontline officers. With this innovation, users will feel 40% cooler and their risk of getting heat stroke is lowered significantly.

Innovative AI technology aids personalized care for diabetes patients needing complex drug treatment

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 09:24 AM PDT

Medical researchers have developed and tested an AI method to improve care for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who need complex treatment. The new AI method analyzed electronic health record data across Utah and Indiana and learned generalizable treatment patterns of type 2 diabetes patients with similar characteristics. Those patterns can now be used to help determine an optimal drug regimen for a specific patient.

Quantum physics sets a speed limit to electronics

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 06:39 AM PDT

Semiconductor electronics is getting faster and faster - but at some point, physics no longer permits any increase. The speed can definitely not be increased beyond one petahertz (one million gigahertz), even if the material is excited in an optimal way with laser pulses.

Simply printing high-performance perovskite-based transistors

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 06:39 AM PDT

A research team develops high performing p-type transistor using perovskite. Solution-processed metal halide perovskite transistors can now be printed.

'Hot' spin quantum bits in silicon transistors

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 06:38 AM PDT

Quantum bits (qubits) are the smallest units of information in a quantum computer. Currently, one of the biggest challenges in developing this kind of powerful computer is scalability. A research group has now made a breakthrough in this area.

Scientists develop the largest, most detailed model of the early universe to date

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 03:47 PM PDT

Thesan is a new universe simulation that models the first billion years of the universe with the highest resolution, over the largest volume, to date.

Cells dancing harmonic duets could enable personalized cancer therapies

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 03:46 PM PDT

Mechanical engineers are using two electronic 'voices' singing a harmonic duet to control suspended particles and cells in new and valuable ways. Their prototype device can form and rotate a single-layer crystal from a group of particles, create arbitrary shapes with a given number of particles, and move pairs of biological cells together and apart again hundreds of times. These abilities could serve fields like materials science, biophysics, life science and medicine.

Scientists shave ‘hairs’ off nanocrystals to improve their electronic properties

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 03:46 PM PDT

A new study introduces a breakthrough in making nanocrystals function together electronically. The research may open the doors to future devices with new abilities.

New Fermi arcs could provide a new path for electronics

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 03:46 PM PDT

Newly discovered Fermi arcs that can be controlled through magnetism could be the future of electronics based on electron spins. During a recent investigation of the rare-earth monopnictide NdBi (neodymium-bismuth), researchers discovered a new type of Fermi arc that appeared at low temperatures when the material became antiferromagnetic, i.e., neighboring spins point in opposite directions.

Carbon-coated nickel enables fuel cell free of precious metals

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 03:45 PM PDT

A nitrogen doped carbon-coated nickel anode can catalyze an essential reaction in hydrogen fuel cells at a fraction of the cost of the precious metals currently used, researchers have found.

Cheap, eco-friendly catalyst opens new possibilities for organic molecules built from pyruvate

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 11:38 AM PDT

Chemists have developed an organic catalyst that can drive reactions using pyruvate -- a key biomolecule in many metabolic pathways -- that are difficult and complicated to achieve using conventional industrial techniques. The research is an important step towards simplifying the production process and increasing the range of molecules that can be built from pyruvate, like amino acids or glycolic acids, which are used in drug discovery efforts and medications.

On Jupiter's moon Europa, 'chaos terrains' could be shuttling oxygen to ocean

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 11:38 AM PDT

Researchers have built the world's first physics-based computer simulation of oxygen transport on Europa, finding that it's possible for oxygen to drain through the moon's icy shell and into its ocean of liquid water -- where it could potentially help sustain alien life -- by hitching a ride on salt water under the moon's 'chaos terrains.' The results show that not only is the transport possible, but that the amount of oxygen brought into Europa's ocean could be on a par with the quantity of oxygen in Earth's oceans today.

Enhancing the electromechanical behavior of a flexible polymer

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 11:37 AM PDT

Piezoelectric materials convert mechanical stress into electricity, or vice versa, and can be useful in sensors, actuators and many other applications. But implementing piezoelectrics in polymers -- materials composed of molecular chains and commonly used in plastics, drugs and more -- can be difficult.

Physicists create extremely compressible 'gas of light'

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 11:37 AM PDT

Researchers have created a gas of light particles that can be extremely compressed. Their results confirm the predictions of central theories of quantum physics. The findings could also point the way to new types of sensors that can measure minute forces.

Light derails electrons through graphene

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 11:37 AM PDT

Researchers have experimentally caused electrons to bend in bilayer graphene with the use of light. The way electrons flow in materials determine its electronic properties. For example, when a voltage is sustained across a conducting material, electrons start flowing, generating an electrical current. These electrons are often thought to flow in straight paths, moving along the electric field, much like a ball rolling down a hill. Yet these are not the only trajectories electrons can take: when a magnetic field is applied, the electrons no longer travel in straight paths along the electric field, but in fact, they bend. The bent electronic flows lead to transverse signals called 'Hall' responses.

Physicists 'shine' light on inner details and breakup of simple nucleus

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 11:37 AM PDT

Scientists have found a new way to 'see' inside the simplest atomic nuclei to better understand the 'glue' that holds the building blocks of matter together. The results come from collisions of photons (particles of light) with deuterons, the simplest atomic nuclei (made of just one proton bound to one neutron). The photons act somewhat like an x-ray beam to provide the first glimpse of how particles called gluons are arranged within the deuteron.

Warming oceans are getting louder

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 10:03 AM PDT

Climate change is speeding sound transmission in the oceans and the way it varies over the globe with physical properties of the oceans. Two 'acoustic hotspots' of future sound speed increases are predicted east of Greenland and in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, East of Newfoundland. In these locations, the average speed of sound is likely to increase by more than 1.5% if 'business-as-usual' high rates of greenhouse gas emissions continue through 2100.

Health risk due to micro- and nanoplastics in food

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 10:02 AM PDT

Five grams of plastic particles on average enter the human gastrointestinal tract per person per week. This is roughly equivalent to the weight of a credit card. Whether ingested micro- and nanoplastics pose a health risk is being investigated in numerous studies but is largely unknown to date. A research team has now summarized the current state of scientific knowledge.

Blow flies can be used detect use of chemical weapons, other pollutants

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 10:02 AM PDT

A study suggests blow flies could be used to detect the use of chemical weapons -- as well as other dangerous substances -- in areas too dangerous or remote for human investigators.

In animal study, implant churns out CAR-T cells to combat cancer

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 09:26 AM PDT

Researchers have developed an implantable biotechnology that produces and releases CAR-T cells for attacking cancerous tumors. In a proof-of-concept study involving lymphoma in mice, the researchers found that treatment with the implants was faster and more effective than conventional CAR-T cell cancer treatment.

Scientists solve solar secret

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 09:25 AM PDT

The further we move away from a heat source, the cooler the air gets. Bizarrely, the same can't be said for the surface of the Sun, but scientists may have just explained a key part of why.

Artificial neurons go quantum with photonic circuits

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 09:25 AM PDT

In recent years, artificial intelligence has become ubiquitous, with applications such as speech interpretation, image recognition, medical diagnosis, and many more. At the same time, quantum technology has been proven capable of computational power well beyond the reach of even the world's largest supercomputer. Physicists have now demonstrated a new device, called quantum memristor, which may allow to combine these two worlds, thus unlocking unprecedented capabilities. The experiment has been realized on an integrated quantum processor operating on single photons.

Pivotal battery discovery could impact transportation and the grid

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 09:25 AM PDT

Researchers have uncovered a new avenue for overcoming the performance decline that occurs with repeated cycling in the cathodes of next-generation batteries. This discovery could find applications in batteries for transportation and the electric grid.

How campus design and architecture influence interaction among researchers

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 09:25 AM PDT

A new study examines the relationship between physical proximity, social networking, and collaboration on a university campus.

A simple diagnostic tool for gastrointestinal disorders

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 09:18 AM PDT

Researchers have designed a new device that could offer a cheaper and easier-to-manufacture alternative to existing diagnostics for GI dysmotility, inspired by the ancient Incan technology of quipu, which involves using knotted cords to communicate information.

Photonic technology enables real-time calculation of radio signal correlation

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 07:45 AM PDT

Researchers have developed a new analog photonic correlator that can be used to locate an object transmitting a radio signal. They demonstrated its ability to identify the location of a radio frequency transmitter, working faster than other methods. The device is considerably simpler than today's analog or digital correlators and uses off-the-shelf telecommunications components to process a wide range of radio frequency signals in cell phones, signal jammers, and more.

Immune to hacks: Inoculating deep neural networks to thwart attacks

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 07:45 AM PDT

If a sticker on a banana can make it show up as a toaster, how might strategic vandalism warp how an autonomous vehicle perceives a stop sign? Now, an immune-inspired defense system for neural networks can ward off such attacks, designed by engineers, biologists and mathematicians.

Breaking down plastic into its constituent parts

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 07:44 AM PDT

A team of ETH researchers led by Athina Anastasaki have succeeded in breaking down plastic into its molecular building blocks and in recovering over 90 percent of them. A first step towards genuine plastic recycling.

Artificial intelligence to bring museum specimens to the masses

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 07:44 AM PDT

Scientists are using cutting-edge artificial intelligence to help extract complex information from large collections of museum specimens.

Eliminating the bottlenecks for use of lithium-sulfur batteries

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 07:44 AM PDT

Energy storage in lithium-sulfur batteries is potentially higher than in lithium-ion batteries but they are hampered by a short life. Researchers have now identified the main bottlenecks in performance.

Speaking from the heart: Could your voice reveal your heart health?

Posted: 24 Mar 2022 07:44 AM PDT

An artificial intelligence (AI)-based computer algorithm accurately predicted a person's likelihood of suffering heart problems related to clogged arteries based on voice recordings alone.

Concert hall acoustics for non-invasive ultrasound brain treatments

Posted: 23 Mar 2022 07:12 AM PDT

Engineers have developed a device that is a first step to enabling noninvasive, ultrasound-based therapies for the brain. For example, ultrasound waves are currently being used in clinical trials to treat epilepsy.

Researchers control brain circuits from a distance using infrared light

Posted: 22 Mar 2022 12:09 PM PDT

Scientists have developed the first non-invasive technique for controlling targeted brain circuits in behaving animals from a distance. The tool has the potential to solve one of the biggest unmet needs in neuroscience: a way to flexibly test the functions of particular brain cells and circuits deep in the brain during normal behavior.