Information transfer in free space using ultraviolet, visible, or infrared waves has been gaining interest because of the availability of large bandwidth for high-data-rate communication. However, the presence of opaque occlusions or walls along the path between the transmitter and the receiver often impedes information transfer by blocking the direct line of sight.

In a new article published in Nature Communications, a team of researchers at UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and the California NanoSystems Institute, led by Dr. Aydogan Ozcan, the Chancellor’s Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Dr. Mona Jarrahi, the Northrop Grumman Endowed Chair at UCLA, has reported a fundamentally new method for delivering optical information around arbitrarily shaped opaque occlusions or walls.

This method permits the transmission of optical information, for example, images, around large and dynamically changing opaque occlusions. It is based on digital encoding at the transmitter and diffractive all-optical decoding at the receiver for transferring information around arbitrary opaque occlusions that completely block the direct line of sight between the transmitter and the receiver apertures.

A new study has unlocked a “backdoor” into the inner ear that could make administering gene therapies to restore hearing less risky.

Is the alternate timeline of ‘For All Mankind,’ leading to a better future? Here’s what the philosophy and atheistic of this sci-fi show is all about.

Four groups in the field of experimental psychology successfully replicate each other’s work by following best practices.

This new service has the potential to significantly increase access to care.

🔒 Yet another critical SQL injection vulnerability (CVE-2023–36934) uncovered in popular MOVEit Transfer—the same software that was exploited.

Some big treats are en route for Plus subscribers.

About 400 earthquakes have rumbled under Mount St. Helens since mid-July, the largest chain of shakes since the volcano finished erupting in 2008, the U.S. Geological Survey reported last week.

Small magnitude earthquakes, detected only by sensitive equipment, signal a volcano’s “recharging” as magma flows through chambers and cracks deep under the ground, said Wes Thelen, U.S. Geological Survey Cascades Volcano Observatory geophysicist and seismologist.

Between late August and early September, scientists observed 40 to 50 earthquakes per week located between 2.5 to 5 miles below the crater floor, before recently dwindling to 30. To compare, Mount St. Helens averaged roughly 11 quakes per month since 2008.

In fact, the paper outlines that 80% of the helpers had a satellite nibbling on their “necks”. The ones that didn’t had satellite tendrils at the neck site, what we referred to as love bites earlier.

Satellite viruses usually have a gene that helps them assimilate effectively after entering their hosts, and not get killed off in the process. Surprisingly enough, in this instance, the satellite had no gene for integration. The scientists reckon that to thus remain safe, they must keep snuggled with their helper viruses every time they enter a host.

The study’s authors revealed that the satellite and helper have been co-evolving for a long time, and this unusual behaviour might’ve been a result of that process. It’s hard not to develop separation anxiety if you’ve been with someone for 100 million years, after all.