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Category: computing – Page 31

DNA origami turns secret messages into nano–Morse code that acts as multiplayer molecular encryption

Mathematics has always been at the core of securing information. From online banking to government communications, modern society relies on cryptography, in which complex mathematical algorithms transform readable information into an unreadable form to keep it secure. But as computing power grows and quantum technology advances, these mathematical safeguards are increasingly vulnerable to being broken. That’s where biology stepped in.

Choosing DNA as their information protector, researchers from China developed a multilayer encryption device that takes advantage of the double-helix molecule’s programmable nature to create an origami structure that can store information with high security.

This new system used tiny, custom-built rectangular structures made of DNA, in which researchers stored the message as dots and dashes, creating a nanoscale version of Morse code. To hide the message further, they turned the flat DNA origami surfaces into tubes, physically blocking the patterns from being read or imaged. With the help of a matching unlocking key, the recipient can trigger a reaction that unrolls the DNA back to its flat form, allowing them to read and verify the message.

Computer-guided electricity rapidly transforms flat nanofilms into 3D shapes on demand

Researchers at Nagoya University in Japan have developed a method to form dome-shaped bumps on nanofilms in water using a computer-guided electron beam. The bumps form within 10 seconds and can be flattened, reshaped or repositioned as needed.

This method may enable computer-guided manipulation of nanomachines for uses such as microscale touch sensing, guiding cellular growth and direct assembly of colloidal particles. The findings were published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

Existing approaches each have drawbacks: Light-based techniques typically take 60 seconds or more per shape change, while electrical methods rely on fixed electrodes that restrict where reshaping can occur and limit the size of the change.

A 200-year-old physics experiment could help build future computers

Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have found a much simpler way to produce unusual light structures known as optical skyrmions by reviving a classic optics experiment that dates back more than 200 years.

Optical skyrmions are tiny, stable swirling patterns formed within the properties of light. Their structure has often been compared to the spines of a hedgehog. Because they can potentially encode and store information, researchers see them as promising building blocks for future data storage, communications, and computing technologies.

Instead of relying on expensive, highly engineered metamaterials that have traditionally been needed to generate optical skyrmions, the NTU team created them by shining a laser at a small circular disc. The approach provides a far simpler way to produce, study, and control these complex light structures.

World’s first superconducting quantum heat engine offers path to larger quantum computers

Recent improvements in our understanding of how the principles of thermodynamics apply in the quantum realm could give a boost to quantum technology, and a clearer picture of quantum thermodynamics could in turn enhance our understanding of classical thermodynamics. Now, Aalto University researchers have demonstrated the first cyclic quantum heat engine inside a superconducting circuit.

Physicists have become increasingly fascinated with the idea that classical thermodynamics could be combined with quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics captures the behavior of particles on tiny scales—smaller than atoms—while thermodynamics is about large systems, from molecules up to the entire universe. How do strange quantum phenomena like tunneling, entanglement and superposition mix with the stolid familiarity of the heat engines that kick-started the Industrial Revolution?

Heat engines, like James Watt’s famous steam engine, convert heat into useful energy, or work. They power our cars, ships and planes, and heat engines are how most power plants generate electricity. Now, the world’s first superconducting quantum heat engine has been built: a tiny device consisting of a transmon qubit, a resonator and a quantum refrigerator.

New 3D thermal cloak hides objects from heat in any direction

Researchers have designed and built the first 3D device that can make objects invisible to heat, an advance that could transform how we protect sensitive electronics, manage heat in microchips and shield equipment from thermal detection.

The new thermal cloak can hide objects of almost any shape from infrared cameras while also protecting them from extreme temperatures. Unlike previous designs, which worked only in two dimensions or from a single direction, the cloak works from essentially any direction. Rather than simply blocking heat, thermal cloaking guides heat around an object so that, to an infrared camera, it appears as if nothing is there.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign civil and environmental engineering professor Shelly Zhang, postdoctoral researcher Weichen Li and graduate student Yibo Wang collaborated with professor Ole Sigmund at the Technical University of Denmark on the study, which was published in the journal Nature Communications.

Entanglement Goes Steady

Two independent groups have demonstrated ways to entangle quantum bits without the need for precisely timed control pulses.

Quantum entanglement describes a link, or correlation, between the states of two or more quantum particles. For example, given a pair of entangled qubits—particles that can be in either a ground state or an excited state—measuring the state of one qubit can inform us about the state of the other. Entanglement is puzzling because it has no analogue in the classical world, where our physical intuition can be relied upon. In particular, entanglement appears to violate the principle of locality: The qubits’ states remain correlated even if we move them far apart before measuring them. But entanglement is more than a curiosity: It is also critical to quantum computing, where it serves as a resource for performing quantum algorithms and remote operations between distant qubits.

Battery-like device pulls CO₂ from air using electricity and saltwater chemistry

Engineers have developed a new way to pull carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere using a process similar to charging and discharging a battery—an advance that could help address the planet’s excess CO2 problem.

A new collaborative study between scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Toyota focuses on direct air capture, a technology designed to reduce new emissions and remove CO2 that has already accumulated in the atmosphere. Instead of using heat to absorb and release CO2, as many carbon capture methods do, the new method uses electricity and water-based chemistry within an electrochemical device.

The results of the study by mechanical engineering and science professor Kyle Smith, Illinois graduate students Paul Rozzi and JeongA Lee, and Chip Roberts and Tim Arthur from the Toyota Research Institute of North America are published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

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