Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: engineering

Programmable metamaterial can morph into more configurations than there are atoms in the universe

The Wave Engineering for eXtreme and Intelligent maTErials (We-Xite) lab, led by engineering assistant professor Osama R. Bilal, has developed a reconfigurable metamaterial that can control sound waves—bending them, dampening them, or focusing them—while encoding real-time tuning with almost infinite possible shapes.

Their work is now published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Metamaterials are artificial materials that can achieve extraordinary properties not easily found in nature,” explains Ph.D. candidate Melanie Keogh ‘22 (ENG), the first author of the study. In this case, the research team wanted to develop a material that could control sound waves, while being adjustable in both frequency and function, with potential applications ranging from medical imaging to soundproofing.

Nanoflowers rejuvenate old and damaged human cells by replacing their mitochondria

Biomedical researchers at Texas A&M University may have discovered a way to stop or even reverse the decline of cellular energy production—a finding that could have revolutionary effects across medicine.

Dr. Akhilesh K. Gaharwar and Ph.D. student John Soukar, along with their fellow researchers from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, have developed a new method to give damaged cells new mitochondria, returning energy output to its previous levels and dramatically increasing cell health.

Mitochondrial decline is linked to aging, heart disease and neurodegenerative disorders. Enhancing the body’s natural ability to replace worn-out mitochondria could fight all of them.

New light, strong material developed, withstands 932°F temperature

Researchers have developed very light and extremely strong material that can withstand extreme heat. The material could be useful for aerospace and other high-performance industries.

Developed by researchers from University of Toronto Engineering, the material can withstand temperatures up to 932°F (500° C).

The new composite material is made of various metallic alloys and nanoscale precipitates, and has a structure that mimics that of reinforced concrete, but on a microscopic scale.

ClickFix attack uses fake Windows Update screen to push malware

ClickFix attack variants have been observed where threat actors trick users with a realistic-looking Windows Update animation in a full-screen browser page and hide the malicious code inside images.

ClickFix is a social-engineering attack where users are convinced to paste and execute in Windows Command Prompt code or commands that lead to running malware on the system.

The attack has been widely adopted by cybercriminals across all tiers due to its high effectiveness and has continually evolved, with increasingly advanced and deceptive lures.

CRISPR/Cas9-Driven Engineering of AcMNPV Using Dual gRNA for Optimized Recombinant Protein Production

The CRISPR/Cas9 system is a powerful genome-editing tool that is applied in baculovirus engineering. In this study, we present the first report of the AcMNPV genome deletions for bioproduction purposes, using a dual single-guide RNA (sgRNA) CRISPR/Cas9 approach. We used this method to remove nonessential genes for the budded virus and boost recombinant protein yields when applied as BEVS. We show that the co-delivery of two distinct ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes, each assembled with a sgRNA and Cas9, into Sf9 insect cells efficiently generated deletions of fragments containing tandem genes in the genome. To evaluate the potential of this method, we assessed the expression of two model proteins, eGFP and HRPc, in insect cells and larvae. The gene deletions had diverse effects on protein expression: some significantly enhanced it while others reduced production.

Lab-grown diamond coatings shown to prevent mineral scale in industrial pipes

In industrial pipes, mineral deposits build up the way limescale collects inside a kettle ⎯ only on a far larger and more expensive scale. Mineral scaling is a major issue in water and energy systems, where it slows flow, strains equipment and drives up costs.

A new study by Rice University engineers shows that lab-grown diamond coatings could resolve the issue, providing an alternative to chemical additives and mechanical cleaning, both of which offer only temporary relief and carry environmental or operational downsides.

“Because of these limitations, there is growing interest in materials that can naturally resist scale formation without constant intervention,” said Xiang Zhang, assistant research professor of materials science and nanoengineering and a first author on the study alongside Rice postdoctoral researcher Yifan Zhu. “Our work addresses this urgent need by identifying a coating material that can ‘stay clean’ on its own.”

Metasurfaces etched into 2D crystals boost nonlinear optical effects at nanoscale

In January, a team led by Jim Schuck, professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia Engineering, developed a method for creating entangled photon pairs, a critical component of emerging quantum technologies, using a crystalline device just 3.4 micrometers thick.

Now, in a paper published in Nature Photonics in October, Columbia Engineers have shrunk nonlinear platforms with high efficiency down to just 160 nanometers by introducing metasurfaces: artificial geometries etched into ultrathin crystals that imbue them with new optical properties.

“We’ve established a successful recipe to pattern ultrathin crystals at the nanoscale to enhance nonlinearity while maintaining their sub-wavelength-thickness,” said corresponding author Chiara Trovatello is currently an assistant professor at Politecnico di Milano and was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow at Columbia working with Schuck.

New implant captures gut-brain signals in awake, moving animals

Scientists have been able to measure the electrical signals in the “second brain in our guts” for the first-ever time, giving renewed understanding to its interconnection with the brain.

Researchers from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (CEB) and Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge, and Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth have created a miniature device, thinner than the width of a hair, that can be placed between the layers of the colon to record these signals.

The device, a soft, flexible electronic implant, has been tested in rodents and pigs so far and works even in freely moving animals, detecting responses to various stimulants and physical pressure.

Quantum Breakthrough Unlocks Potential of “Miracle Material” for Future Electronics

Graphene is a remarkable “miracle” material, consisting of a single, atom-thin layer of tightly connected carbon atoms that remains both stable and highly conductive. These qualities make it valuable for many technologies, including flexible screens, sensitive detectors, high-performance batteries, and advanced solar cells.

A new study, carried out by the University of Göttingen in collaboration with teams in Braunschweig and Bremen in Germany, as well as Fribourg in Switzerland, shows that graphene may be even more versatile than previously believed.

For the first time, researchers have directly identified “Floquet effects” in graphene. This finding settles a long-running question: Floquet engineering – an approach that uses precise light pulses to adjust a material’s properties – can also be applied to metallic and semi-metallic quantum materials like graphene. The work appears in Nature Physics.

How small can optical computers get? Scaling laws reveal new strategies

The research, published in Nature Communications, addresses one of the key challenges to engineering computers that run on light instead of electricity: making those devices small enough to be practical. Just as algorithms on digital computers require time and memory to run, light-based systems also require resources to operate, including sufficient physical space for light waves to propagate, interact and perform analog computation.

Lead authors Francesco Monticone, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Yandong Li, Ph.D. ‘23, postdoctoral researcher, revealed scaling laws for free-space optics and photonic circuits by analyzing how their size must grow as the tasks they perform become more complex.

/* */