Many displays found in smartphones and televisions rely on thin-film transistors (TFTs) made from indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) to control pixels. IGZO offers high transparency due to its large bandgap (the gap existing between the valence and conduction bands), high conductivity, and can operate even in an amorphous (non-crystalline) form, making it ideal for displays, flexible electronics, and solar cells.
However, IGZO-based devices face long-term stability issues, such as negative bias illumination stress, where prolonged exposure to light and electrical stress shifts the voltage required to activate pixels. These instabilities are believed to stem from structural imperfections, which create additional electronic states—known as subgap states—that trap charge carriers and disrupt current flow.
Until recently, most studies on subgap states focused on amorphous IGZO, as sufficiently large single-crystal IGZO (sc-IGZO) samples were not available for analysis. However, the disordered nature of amorphous IGZO has made it difficult to pinpoint the exact causes of electronic instability.
Quantum mechanics has a reputation that precedes it. Virtually everyone who has bumped up against the quantum realm, whether in a physics class, in the lab, or in popular science writing, is left thinking something like, “Now, that is really weird.” For some, this translates to weird and wonderful. For others it is more like weird and disturbing.
Chip Sebens, a professor of philosophy at Caltech who asks foundational questions about physics, is firmly in the latter camp. “Philosophers of physics generally get really frustrated when people just say, ‘OK, here’s quantum mechanics. It’s going to be weird. Don’t worry. You can make the right predictions with it. You don’t need to try to make too much sense out of it, just learn to use it.’ That kind of thing drives me up the wall,” Sebens says.
One particularly weird and disturbing area of physics for people like Sebens is quantum field theory. Quantum field theory goes beyond quantum mechanics, incorporating the special theory of relativity and allowing the number of particles to change over time (such as when an electron and positron annihilate each other and create two photons).
New optical chip enables ultra-fast computing and data processing. Built using silicon photonics for next-gen networks. The rise of the big data era presents major challenges for information processing, particularly in terms of handling large volumes of data and managing energy consumption. These
Microsoft has confirmed a widespread issue in Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) that prevents organizations from syncing with Microsoft Update and deploying the latest Windows updates.
Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) is a Microsoft product that allows businesses to manage and distribute Windows updates to computers within their network.
By default, WSUS synchronizes with Microsoft Update servers once a day, when it downloads the latest metadata on available Windows updates. Admins can change the frequency if they wish in the settings.
The graphite found in your favorite pencil could have instead been the diamond your mother always wears. What made the difference? Researchers are finding out.
How molten carbon crystallizes into either graphite or diamond is relevant to planetary science, materials manufacturing and nuclear fusion research. However, this moment of crystallization is difficult to study experimentally because it happens very rapidly and under extreme conditions.
In a new study published July 9 in Nature Communications, researchers from the University of California, Davis and George Washington University use computer simulations to study how molten carbon crystallizes into either graphite or diamond at temperatures and pressures similar to Earth’s interior. The team’s findings challenge conventional understanding of diamond formation and reveal why experimental results studying carbon’s phase behavior have been so inconsistent.
Around the world, technology is slowly becoming a part of our bodies. What was once shown only in science fiction movies is now becoming real. For example, in Sweden, thousands of people already have small chips inside their hands. These chips help them open doors, unlock cars, and enter offices—without using keys or cards. These tiny chips make daily life easier and smoother. Now imagine—what if a chip could not only make life easy but also help people with disabilities? This is what Neuralink, a company started by Elon Musk in 2016, is trying to do. Neuralink’s dream is to connect the human brain directly with a computer using a very small chip. Their main aim is to help people who have serious spinal injuries and cannot move. In early trials, Neuralink showed positive results. Some people with paralysis could move a computer cursor or play a chess game—just by thinking. This has given hope to many people who cannot move. But recently, Elon Musk made a new and bold statement that caught the world’s attention. In a post on social media platform X (earlier called Twitter), Musk said that Neuralink’s brain chip could help deaf people hear—even those who were born deaf. He explained that this chip would directly send signals to the part of the brain that understands sound. So, even if a person’s ears do not work, they might still be able to hear. This is different from cochlear implants, which help some deaf people by sending signals to the hearing nerve. Neuralink’s chip would go even deeper—straight to the brain’s hearing area. If successful, this chip could help those who cannot use cochlear implants and give them a new way to experience sound. Elon Musk even said that in the future, such chips might give humans “super-hearing”—allowing them to hear sounds that normal ears cannot hear. However, this is still just an idea. The chip is still being tested. Many technical, safety, and ethical questions are yet to be answered. Also, many Deaf people and experts have said that deafness is not a problem to be “fixed.” For many, deafness is an identity, a language, and a culture. They want to be respected for who they are—not forced to change. At ISH News, we agree with this view. We do not believe that deafness must be “cured.” We also do not support the idea of putting chips inside the body through surgery. But as a news platform made for the Deaf community, we believe it is important to share such news. We want to keep our viewers informed so they can think and talk about these big topics. We are here to provide both sides of the story—the big promises of this new technology, and the serious questions it raises. This way, our community can decide what they think for themselves. The world is now watching to see what Neuralink does next—and whether this brain chip can really change the way people live.
ISH News broadcasts the Daily News and Entertainment online in Deaf-friendly accessible formats which are in Indian Sign Language (ISL), visual images with titles, voice-over and closed-captions. This ensures that we provide equal access to every individual, whilst promoting awareness.
When the Empire State Building was constructed, its 102 stories rose above midtown one piece at a time, with each individual element combining to become, for 40 years, the world’s tallest building. Uptown at Columbia, Oleg Gang and his chemical engineering lab aren’t building Art Deco architecture; their landmarks are incredibly small devices built from nanoscopic building blocks that arrange themselves.
“We can now build the complexly prescribed 3D organizations from self-assembled nanocomponents, a kind of nanoscale version of the Empire State Building,” said Gang, professor of chemical engineering and of applied physics and materials science at Columbia Engineering and leader of the Center for Functional Nanomaterials’ Soft and Bio Nanomaterials Group at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
“The capabilities to manufacture 3D nanoscale materials by design are critical for many emerging applications, ranging from light manipulation to neuromorphic computing, and from catalytic materials to biomolecular scaffolds and reactors,” said Gang.
Imagine a high-tech workshop where scientists and engineers craft objects so small they can’t be seen with the naked eye — or even a standard microscope. These tiny structures — nanostructures — are thousands of times smaller than a strand of hair. And they are essential for faster computers, better smartphones and life-saving medical devices.
Nanostructures are at the core of the research happening every day in the Washington Nanofabrication Facility (WNF). Part of the Institute for Nano-Engineered Systems at the UW and located in Fluke Hall, the WNF supports cutting-edge academic and industry research, prototyping and hands-on student training. Like many leading nanofabrication centers, it is part of the National Science Foundation’s National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure, a network that shares expertise and resources.
Step inside the Washington Nanofabrication Facility, where tiny tech is transforming research in quantum, chips, medicine and more.
A team of researchers from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Adobe Research have presented Imprinto, a system for embedding invisible digital information in printed documents using infrared ink and a special camera. This technology introduces a new generation of hybrid interfaces between paper and augmented reality.
The tool, recently presented at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2025) held in Yokohama, Japan, has been developed with the aim of enabling advanced interaction with physical documents, without altering their visual appearance. The study is published in the Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
“Imprinto uses an infrared ink that is invisible to the human eye but detectable by means of a near-infrared camera, such as those that can be integrated into mobile devices by simply modifying the photographic sensor,” explains one of the driving forces behind the project, Raúl García Martín, from UC3M’s Department of Electronic Technology.
