Tag: Physics

Recipe for Neuromorphic Processing Systems?

sarah JonasResearch Results

The field of “brain-mimicking” neuromorphic electronics shows great potential for basic research and commercial applications, and researchers in Germany and Switzerland recently explored the possibility of reproducing the physics of real neural circuits by using the physics of silicon. In Applied Physics Letters, they present their work to understand neural processing systems, as well as a recipe to reproduce these computing principles in mixed signal analog/digital electronics and novel materials.

Adjusting Processing Temperature Results in Better Hydrogels for Biomedical Applications

sarah JonasResearch Results

Biohydrogels have been studied closely for their potential use in biomedical applications, but they often move between sols and gels, depending on their temperature, changes that can pose issues depending on the intended use. In Physics of Fluids, researchers discuss their work studying the effect of temperature on hydrogels. They found that creating hydrogels at room temperature or below results in more robust materials that function more effectively when used in the body.

Berkeley Lab Cosmologists Are Top Contenders in Machine Learning Challenge

sarah JonasFeature

In a machine learning challenge dubbed the 2020 Large Hadron Collider Olympics, a team of cosmologists from Berkeley Lab developed a code that best identified a mock signal hidden in simulated particle-collision data.

Physicists test coronavirus particles against temperature, humidity

sarah JonasFeature

One of the biggest unknowns about coronavirus is how changing seasons will affect its spread. Physicists from the University of Utah have received a NSF grant to create individual coronavirus particles without a genome. They’ll test how the structure of the coronavirus withstands changes in humidity and temperature.

Composing New Proteins with Artificial Intelligence

sarah JonasResearch Results

Proteins are the building blocks of life and scientists have long studied how to improve them or design new ones. Traditionally, new proteins are created by mimicking existing proteins or manually editing their amino acids. This process is time-consuming, and it is difficult to predict the impact of changing an amino acid. In APL Bioengineering, researchers explore how to create new proteins by using machine learning to translate protein structures into musical scores, presenting an unusual way to translate physics concepts across domains.

Last Call for Entries: AIP’s 2020 Science Communication Awards

sarah JonasAnnouncement

The American Institute of Physics is accepting nominations for the 2020 AIP Science Communication Awards through March 31, 2020. Four awards will be given for the best science writing in books; magazine, newspaper or online articles; children’s books and other works intended for children; and broadcast and online. Works should be intended for a general audience and will be judged on their ability to enhance the public’s understanding and appreciation of physics and related fields.

Inverse Design Software Automates Design Process for Optical, Nanophotonic Structures

sarah JonasResearch Results

Stanford University researchers created an inverse design codebase called SPINS that can help researchers explore different design methodologies to find fabricable optical and nanophotonic structures. In the journal Applied Physics Reviews, Logan Su and colleagues review inverse design’s potential for optical and nanophotonic structures, as well as present and explain how to use their own inverse design codebase.

Crosstalk Captured Between Muscles, Neural Networks in Biohybrid Machines

sarah JonasResearch Results

Researchers created a platform to observe stem cell-derived neurons grow toward muscle cells, representing a critical milestone towards the realization of future biohybrid machines. In tiny biorobots using muscle cells as actuators, the ability to tune parameters would allow more precise designs with desirable characteristics and predictable behaviors for intelligent drug delivery, environment sensing, biohybrid blood circulation pumps and other uses. But big questions remain about future experiments.

Discovery points to origin of mysterious ultraviolet radiation

sarah JonasResearch Results

Lyman-alpha blobs (LABs) are gigantic clouds of hydrogen gas that produce ultraviolet light known as Lyman-alpha emissions. A study of Lyman-alpha blob 6 (LAB-6) is the first LAB with infalling gas feature. The findings suggest that star-forming galaxies are likely the primary energy source of Lyman-alpha radiation emitted from LAB-6.

Argonne’s Valerii Vinokur awarded Fritz London Prize

sarah JonasAnnouncement

Valerii Vinokur, a senior scientist and distinguished fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, has been awarded the Fritz London Memorial Prize for his work in condensed matter and theoretical physics.

How a Magnet Could Help Boost Understanding of Superconductivity

sarah JonasResearch Results

Physicists have unraveled a mystery behind the strange behavior of electrons in a ferromagnet, a finding that could eventually help develop high temperature superconductivity. A Rutgers co-authored study of the unusual ferromagnetic material appears in the journal Nature.

A Talented 2D Material Gets a New Gig

sarah JonasResearch Results

Berkeley Lab scientists tap into graphene’s hidden talent as an electrically tunable superconductor, insulator, and magnetic device for the advancement of quantum information science

A joint venture at the nanoscale

sarah JonasResearch Results

Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory report fabricating and testing a superconducting nanowire device applicable to high-speed photon counting. This pivotal invention will allow nuclear physics experiments that were previously thought impossible.

Advances in Computer Modeling, Protein Development Propel Cellular Engineering

sarah JonasResearch Results

A review of recent work in biophysics highlights efforts in cellular engineering, ranging from proteins to cellular components to tissues grown on next-generation chips. Author Ngan Huang said the fast pace of development prompted her and her colleagues to take stock of promising areas in the field as well as hurdles researchers can expect in coming years. They discuss their work in this week’s APL Bioengineering.

Unstable Rock Pillars Near Reservoirs Can Produce Dangerous Water Waves

sarah JonasResearch Results

In many coastal zones and gorges, unstable cliffs often fail when the foundation rock beneath them is crushed. Large water waves can be created, threatening human safety. In this week’s Physics of Fluids, scientists reveal the mechanism by which these cliffs collapse, and how large, tsunami-like waves are created. Few experimental studies of this phenomenon have been carried out, so this work represents valuable new data that can be used to protect from impending disaster.

AIP Task Force Brings Diversity, Inclusion, Systemic Change Report to APS March Meeting

sarah JonasAnnouncement

At the American Physical Society March Meeting in Denver, five members of the TEAM-UP task force, chartered and funded by the American Institute of Physics, will outline how faculties, departments and professional societies can promote sweeping changes in physics higher education. Evidence-based recommendations from AIP’s TEAM-UP report will be discussed to highlight the need for increasing the number of African American students obtaining bachelor’s degrees in physics and astronomy.

Simple Self-Charging Battery Offers Power Solutions for Devices

sarah JonasResearch Results

A new type of battery combines negative capacitance and negative resistance within the same cell, allowing the cell to self-charge without losing energy, which has important implications for long-term storage and improved output power for batteries. In Applied Physics Reviews, researchers at the University of Porto and the University of Texas at Austin report making their very simple battery with two different metals, as electrodes and a lithium or sodium glass electrolyte between them.

Moving Precision Communication, Metrology, Quantum Applications from Lab to Chip

sarah JonasResearch Results

Photonic integration has focused on communications applications traditionally fabricated on silicon chips, because these are less expensive and more easily manufactured, and researchers are exploring promising new waveguide platforms that provide these same benefits for applications that operate in the ultraviolet to the infrared spectrum. These platforms enable a broader range of applications, such as spectroscopy for chemical sensing, precision metrology and computation. A paper in APL Photonics provides a perspective of the field.

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Diagnosis Improved by Simple Accelerometers

sarah JonasResearch Results

Testing for Duchenne muscular dystrophy can require specialized equipment, invasive procedures and high expense, but measuring changes in muscle function and identifying compensatory walking gait could lead to earlier detection. This week in Chaos, researchers present a relative coupling coefficient, which can be used to quantify the factors involved in the human gait and more accurately screen for the disorder. They measured movements of different parts of the body in test subjects, viewing the body as a kinematic chain.

Dancing Matter: New form of movement of cyclic macromolecules discovered

sarah JonasResearch Results

Physicists show unique polymer behavior using computer simulationsEmploying a computer simulation, physicists Maximilian Liebetreu and Christos Likos have shown a unique dynamic behavior of cyclic polymers. Their motion can be distinguished into phases, and the scientists were able to observe the so-called “inflation phase” for the first time.

Kick Off International Year of Sound with U.S. Opening Ceremony at American Center for Physics on Feb. 13

sarah JonasAnnouncement

The International Year of Sound (IYS 2020) is a global initiative to highlight the importance of sound-related sciences and technologies, and the U.S. opening ceremony will be held Thursday, Feb. 13, at the American Center for Physics. Sponsored by the Acoustical Society of America and its Washington, DC Regional Chapter, the ceremony will have presentations about sound-related issues as well as a public showing of a film highlighting how scientists are reducing the impact of noise pollution on the natural world.

Crystal-stacking process can produce new materials for high-tech devices

sarah JonasResearch Results

Stacking ultrathin complex oxide single-crystal layers allows researchers to create new structures with hybrid properties and multiple functions. Now, using a new platform developed by engineers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, researchers will be able to make these stacked-crystal materials in virtually unlimited combinations.

Ultra-high energy events key to study of ghost particles

sarah JonasResearch Results

Physicists at Washington University in St. Louis have proposed a way to use data from ultra-high energy neutrinos to study interactions beyond the standard model of particle physics. The ‘Zee burst’ model leverages new data from large neutrino telescopes such as the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica and its future extensions.

A Quantum of Solid

sarah JonasResearch Results

Researchers in Austria use lasers to levitate and cool a glass nanoparticle into the quantum regime. Although it is trapped in a room temperature environment, the particle’s motion is solely governed by the laws of quantum physics. The team of scientists from the University of Vienna, the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) published their new study in the journal Science.

Particle Physics Turns to Quantum Computing for Solutions to Tomorrow’s Big-Data Problems

sarah JonasFeature

Giant-scale physics experiments are increasingly reliant on big data and complex algorithms fed into powerful computers, and managing this multiplying mass of data presents its own unique challenges. To better prepare for this data deluge posed by next-generation upgrades and new experiments, physicists are turning to the fledgling field of quantum computing.

‘Curious and curiouser!’ Meteorite chunk contains unexpected evidence of presolar grains

sarah JonasResearch Results

An unusual chunk in a meteorite may contain a surprising bit of space history, based on new research from Washington University in St. Louis. Presolar grains — tiny bits of solid interstellar material formed before the sun was born — are sometimes found in primitive meteorites. But a new analysis reveals evidence of presolar grains in part of a meteorite where they are not expected to be found.

Spider-Man-Style Robotic Graspers Defy Gravity

sarah JonasResearch Results

Traditional methods of vacuum suction and previous vacuum suction devices cannot maintain suction on rough surfaces due to vacuum leakage, which leads to suction failure. Researchers Xin Li and Kaige Shi developed a zero-pressure difference method to enhance the development of vacuum suction units. Their method overcame leakage limitations by using a high-speed rotating water ring between the surface and suction cup to maintain the vacuum. They discuss their work in Physics of Fluids.

What’s MER? It’s a way to measure quantum materials, and it’s telling us new and interesting things

sarah JonasResearch Results

Experimental physicists have combined several measurements of quantum materials into one in their ongoing quest to learn more about manipulating and controlling the behavior of them for possible applications. They even coined a term for it– Magneto-elastoresistance, or MER.

Reinventing the Computer: Brain-Inspired Computing for a Post-Moore’s Law Era

sarah JonasResearch Results

Since 1947, computing development has seen a consistent doubling of the number of transistors that can fit on a chip. But that trend, Moore’s Law, may reach its limit as components of submolecular size encounter problems with thermal noise, making further scaling impossible. In this week’s Applied Physics Reviews, researchers present an examination of the computing landscape, focusing on functions needed to advance brain-inspired neuromorphic computing.

Opening Up DNA to Delete Disease

sarah JonasResearch Results

Protein editorial assistants are clearing the way for cut-and-paste DNA editors, like CRISPR, to access previously inaccessible genes of interest. Opening up these areas of the genetic code is critical to improving CRISPR efficiency and moving toward futuristic, genetic-based assaults on disease. The DNA-binding editorial assistants were devised by a U.S.-based team of bioengineers, who describe their design in APL Bioengineering.

SuperTIGER on its second prowl — 130,000 feet above Antarctica

sarah JonasFeature

A balloon-borne scientific instrument designed to study the origin of cosmic rays is taking its second turn high above the continent of Antarctica three and a half weeks after its launch. SuperTIGER (Super Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder) is designed to measure the rare, heavy elements in cosmic rays that hold clues about their origins outside of the solar system.

Ultrasound Selectively Damages Cancer Cells When Tuned to Correct Frequencies

sarah JonasResearch Results

Doctors have used focused ultrasound to destroy tumors without invasive surgery for some time. However, the therapeutic ultrasound used in clinics today indiscriminately damages cancer and healthy cells alike. Researchers have now developed a low-intensity ultrasound approach that exploits the properties of tumor cells to target them and provide a safer option. Their findings, reported in Applied Physics Letters, are a new step in oncotripsy, the singling out and killing of cancer cells based on their physical properties.

Task Force Recommendations Outline Changes Needed to Increase African American Physics and Astronomy Students

sarah JonasResearch Results

Due to long-term and systemic issues leading to the consistent exclusion of African Americans in physics and astronomy, a task force is recommending sweeping changes and calling for awareness into the number and experiences of African American students studying the fields. “The Time Is Now: Systemic Changes to Increase African Americans with Bachelor’s Degrees in Physics and Astronomy” discusses the factors responsible for the success or failure of African American students in physics and astronomy.

Tests Measure Solar Panel Performance Beyond Established Standards

sarah JonasResearch Results

In testing solar panels, the sun’s intensity, the spectral composition and the angle of light are important factors in understanding why certain panels are successful and others degrade more quickly. To address the knowledge gap in degradation mechanisms for various photovoltaic types, researchers performed tests over five years in which they collected weather data and panel performance information. The results are published in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy.