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Category: engineering – Page 100

The Floquet engineering of quantum materials

Quantum materials are materials with unique electronic, magnetic or optical properties, which are underpinned by the behavior of electrons at a quantum mechanical level. Studies have showed that interactions between these materials and strong laser fields can elicit exotic electronic states.

In recent years, many physicists have been trying to elicit and better understand these exotic states, using different material platforms. A class of materials that was found to be particularly promising for studying some of these states are transition metal dichalcogenides.

Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides are 2D materials that consist in single layers of atoms from a transition metal (e.g., tungsten or molybdenum) and a chalcogen (e.g., sulfur or selenium), which are arranged into a . These materials have been found to offer exciting opportunities for Floquet engineering (a technique to manipulate the properties of materials using lasers) of excitons (quasiparticle electron-hole correlated states).

The problems with Helion Energy — a response to Real Engineering

I still like Helion… but not for a power plant. Instead, this is an interesting route to a fusion drive.

This is also a very good channel. It is worth watching his other fusion videos first.

A short humorous analysis of challenges with the fusion approach of Helion Energy.

00:00 — Introduction.
01:03 — Low reactivity.
02:55 — Neutrons.
05:33 — Bremsstrahlung.
06:17 — Diagnostics.
06:57 — Conclusion.

References.

Continue reading “The problems with Helion Energy — a response to Real Engineering” | >

New nanoparticles deliver therapy throughout the brain and edit Alzheimer’s gene in mice

Gene therapies have the potential to treat neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, but they face a common barrier—the blood-brain barrier. Now, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a way to move therapies across the brain’s protective membrane to deliver brain-wide therapy with a range of biological medications and treatments.

“There is no cure yet for many devastating disorders,” says Shaoqin “Sarah” Gong, UW-Madison professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences and biomedical engineering and researcher at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery. “Innovative brain-targeted delivery strategies may change that by enabling noninvasive, safe and efficient delivery of CRISPR genome editors that could, in turn, lead to genome-editing therapies for these diseases.”

CRISPR is a molecular toolkit for editing (for example, to correct mutations that may cause disease), but the toolkit is only useful if it can get through security to the job site. The is a membrane that selectively controls access to the brain, screening out toxins and pathogens that may be present in the bloodstream. Unfortunately, the bars some beneficial treatments, like certain vaccines and gene therapy packages, from reaching their targets because in lumps them in with hostile invaders.

First observation of the Cherenkov radiation phenomenon in 2D space

Researchers from the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology have presented the first experimental observation of Cherenkov radiation confined in two dimensions. The results represent a new record in electron-radiation coupling strength, revealing the quantum properties of the radiation.

Cherenkov is a unique physical phenomenon, which for many years has been used in medical imaging and in particle detection applications, as well as in laser-driven electron accelerators. The breakthrough achieved by the Technion researchers links this phenomenon to future photonic quantum computing applications and free-electron quantum light sources.

The study, which was published in Physical Review X, was headed by Ph.D. students Yuval Adiv and Shai Tsesses from the Technion, together with Hao Hu from the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore (today professor at Nanjing university in China). It was supervised by Prof. Ido Kaminer and Prof. Guy Bartal of the Technion, in collaboration with colleagues from China: Prof. Hongsheng Chen, and Prof. Xiao Lin from Zhejiang University.

The Insane Engineering behind the Joby S4

Joby makes EVTOL vehicles intended for small trips like Austin to Houston. A year ago they were the first EVTOL company to complete a 150 mile all electric flight. Check out this video to see the engineering innvolved.

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In July of 2021, this aircraft achieved what many thought impossible with today’s battery technology. It completed the longest, all-electric, vertical takeoff and landing flight. The Joby S4 is the result of more than 13 years of engineering and innovation. Joby Aviation’s ambitious goal is to make affordable air travel between places like Houston and Austin, or Los Angeles and San Diego an everyday reality.
However, to be allowed to operate in urban areas, Joby had to develop an aircraft that is quieter than helicopters, as safe as commercial airliners, and cost-effective for mass adoption. More than 250 evtol companies worldwide are working to make Urban Air Mobility a reality, and Joby Aviation is the indisputable leader. In this video, I will explore the three key design elements that make the S4 technically impressive and unique. This is the engineering behind the Joby S4.

• Inside Joby’s Unicorn: Flight Tests and Patents Reveal New Details ➡️ https://evtol.news/news/inside-jobys-unicorn-flight-tests-an…w-details.

Continue reading “The Insane Engineering behind the Joby S4” | >

Wireless brain implant monitors neurotransmitters in real-time

Scientists have developed a wireless, battery-free implant capable of monitoring dopamine signals in the brain in real-time in small animal models, an advance that could aid in understanding the role neurochemicals play in neurological disorders.

The , detailed in a study published in ACS Nano, activates or inhibits specific neurons in the using light, a technique known as optogenetic stimulation. It also records dopamine activity in freely behaving subjects without the need for bulky or prohibitive sensing equipment, said John Rogers, Ph.D., the Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Neurological Surgery, and a co-author of the study.

“This device allows neuroscientists to monitor and modulate in and in a programmable fashion, in mice—a very important class of animal model for neuroscience studies,” Rogers said.

Dutch Startup 3D Prints Bridge With 10,000 Pounds of Stainless Steel

If you walk along the Oudezijds Achterburgwal canal in Amsterdam, you will notice an elegant and aesthetically pleasing steel bridge for pedestrians. If not for the media attention it got, you would even consider it a regular feature of the city’s architecture. But this bridge loaded with sensors, is actually the world’s first 3D-printed steel bridge, according to an Imperial College London press release.

“A 3D-printed metal structure large and strong enough to handle pedestrian traffic has never been constructed before,” said Imperial co-contributor Prof. Leroy Gardner of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, in a press release. “We have tested and simulated the structure and its components throughout the printing process and upon its completion, and it’s fantastic to see it finally open to the public.”

Integrated photonic circuits could help close the ‘terahertz gap’

EPFL researchers have collaborated with colleagues at Harvard and ETH Zurich on a new thin-film circuit that, when connected to a laser beam, produces finely tailorable terahertz-frequency waves. The device opens up a world of potential applications in optics and telecommunications.

Researchers led by Cristina Benea-Chelmus in the Laboratory of Hybrid Photonics (HYLAB) in EPFL’s School of Engineering have taken a big step toward successfully exploiting the so-called terahertz gap, which lies between about 300 to 30,000 gigahertz (0.3 to 30 THz) on the electromagnetic spectrum. This range is currently something of a technological dead zone, describing frequencies that are too fast for today’s electronics and telecommunications devices, but too slow for optics and imaging applications.

Now, thanks to an extremely thin chip with an integrated photonic circuit made of , the HYLAB researchers and colleagues at ETH Zurich and Harvard University have succeeded not just in producing terahertz waves, but in engineering a solution for custom-tailoring their frequency, wavelength, amplitude, and phase.