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Category: electronics – Page 2

HIE-ISOLDE: Ten years, ten highlights

The Isotope Separator On-Line facility (ISOLDE) directs a proton beam from the Proton Synchrotron Booster (PSB) onto specially developed thick targets, producing low-energy beams of radioactive nuclei—those with too many or too few neutrons to be stable. These beams can be further accelerated to energies of up to 10 MeV per nucleon using the HIE-ISOLDE linear accelerator, enabling a wide range of studies.

The HIE-ISOLDE beams are sent to three experimental stations: the Miniball array of high-purity germanium gamma-ray detectors, the ISOLDE solenoid spectrometer (ISS), which repurposed a former MRI magnet, and the scattering experimental chamber (SEC), used for a broad variety of physics experiments. Since its first experiment in October 2015, HIE-ISOLDE has been pushing back the boundaries of nuclear physics. To celebrate its 10th anniversary, we look back at 10 key achievements that have defined its first decade.

Electric control of ions and water enables switchable molecular stickiness on surfaces

What if a surface could instantly switch from sticky to slippery at the push of a button? By using electricity to control how ions and water structure at the solid liquid interface of self-assembled monolayers of aromatic molecules, researchers at National Taiwan University have created a molecular-scale adhesion switch that turns attraction on and off.

Why do some surfaces stick together while others repel each other? At scales far too small to see with the bare eye, this question is controlled by a complex interplay of intermolecular forces that arise when charged particles, called ions, and water organize themselves at the boundary between a solid and a liquid.

Understanding and controlling this behavior is essential for technologies ranging from lubricants and coatings to sensors and electronics.

OLEDs can now switch light’s handedness with an electrical signal

Researchers from the University of Oxford have for the first time discovered an approach to electrically switch organic LEDs (OLEDs) to emit either left- or right-handed circularly polarized light without changing the light-emitting molecules. This could be useful for a range of technological applications, from more energy efficient OLED displays, to optical information transfer.

Scientists detect new climate pattern in the tropics

Tropical cyclones can unleash extensive devastation, as recent storms that swept over Jamaica and the Philippines made unmistakably clear. Accurate weather forecasts that buy more time to prepare are crucial for saving lives and are rooted in a deeper understanding of climate systems.

Driving this forward, researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) and others have successfully identified a previously unknown cyclic climate pattern by historical reanalysis of datasets and satellite observations. The findings are published in PNAS.

Jiawei Bao still remembers coming home from middle school to catch the weather forecast on TV. It spanned from China’s northernmost province, Heilongjiang, to the southernmost province and tropical island, Hainan. In winter, the temperature between these regions can range from cold to balmy, varying by a staggering 50 degrees Celsius.

Wedding cake contains edible chocolate batteries that power candles

This isn’t your normal wedding cake. The gummy bears on top can dance, their heads and arms moving thanks to injections of air through a pneumatic system, and the LED candles at the bottom are powered by batteries made out of chocolate. Such edible electronics have been proposed as a solution to electronic waste. The cake was unveiled at Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, on 13 April.

The “StemDif Sensor Test”: A Straightforward, Non-Invasive Assay to Characterize the Secreted Stemness and/or Differentiation Activities of Tumor-Derived Cancer Cell Lines

Cancer stem cells are a subpopulation of tumor cells characterized by their ability to self-renew, induce tumors upon engraftment in animals and exhibit strong resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. These cells exhibit numerous characteristics in common with embryonic stem cells, expressing some of their markers, typically absent in non-pathological adult differentiated cells. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of conditioned media from cancer stem cells to modulate the fate of Leukemia Inhibitory Factor (LIF)-dependent murine embryonic stem cells (mESCs) as a way to obtain a direct readout of the secretome of cancer cells. A functional assay, “the StemDif sensor test”, was developed with two types of cancer stem cells derived from grade IV glioblastoma (adult and pediatric) or from gastric adenocarcinoma.

Acoustic waves could be the key to orbitronic devices

Electronics traditionally rely on harnessing the electron’s charge, but researchers are now exploring the possibility of harnessing its other intrinsic properties. In a Nature Communications study, scientists from Japan demonstrated that sound waves in certain solids can generate orbital currents—flow of electron orbital angular momentum.

Their findings establish a foundation for realizing next-generation “orbitronic” devices using existing acoustic technology.

Since the discovery of electricity, countless advancements in technology have relied on harnessing the electron’s charge, which is the fundamental principle behind most traditional electronics.

New WrtHug campaign hijacks thousands of end-of-life ASUS routers

Thousands of ASUS WRT routers, mostly end-of-life or outdated devices, have been hijacked in a global campaign called Operation WrtHug that exploits six vulnerabilities.

Over the past six months, scanners looking for ASUS devices compromised in Operation WrtHug identified “roughly 50,000 unique IPs” around the globe.

Most of the compromised devices have IP addresses located in Taiwan, while others are distributed across Southeast Asia, Russia, Central Europe, and the United States.

Hollow glass fiber sensors withstand extreme radiation in particle accelerator tests

A slender glass fiber no thicker than a human hair placed across a particle beam could improve accelerator monitoring. A team is testing the use of hollow-core optical fibers to measure the profile and position of the beams extracted from the Super Proton Synchrotron, CERN’s second-largest accelerator, which feeds the experiments located in the North Area.

Unlike conventional fibers, which guide light through solid glass, hollow-core optical fibers are mostly empty inside but have a microstructure design that guides light through resonance–antiresonance effects on the electromagnetic field.

By filling these fibers with a scintillating gas—a gas that emits tiny flashes of light when struck by particles—scientists can create a simple yet powerful sensor that helps them to adjust the beam profile and position and may even allow them to measure the delivered beam dose in real time.

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