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New ‘camera’ with shutter speed of 1 trillionth of a second sees through dynamic disorder of atoms

Researchers are coming to understand that the best performing materials in sustainable energy applications, such as converting sunlight or waste heat to electricity, often use collective fluctuations of clusters of atoms within a much larger structure. This process is often referred to as “dynamic disorder.”

Understanding dynamic disorder in materials could lead to more energy-efficient thermoelectric devices, such as solid-state refrigerators and , and also to better recovery of useful energy from , such as car exhausts and power station exhausts, by converting it directly to electricity. A was able to take heat from radioactive plutonium and convert it to electricity to power the Mars Rover when there was not enough sunlight.

When materials function inside an operating device, they can behave as if they are alive and dancing—parts of the material respond and change in amazing and unexpected ways. This dynamic disorder is difficult to study because the clusters are not only so small and disordered, but they also fluctuate in time. In addition, there is “boring” non-fluctuating disorder in materials that researchers aren’t interested in because the disorder doesn’t improve properties. Until now, it has been impossible to see the relevant dynamic disorder from the background of less relevant static disorder.

This Is What the End of the Universe Will Look Like, According to a Cosmologist

End of the universe would look like?


It’s difficult to speak of the far future of the universe with any level of precision, but we can make rough estimates. Our cosmos is currently 13.77 billion years old, and galaxies throughout the universe will continue making new stars for many years to come. But eventually—roughly one trillion years from now—the last star will be born.

That star will likely be a small red dwarf, barely a fraction of our sun’s mass. Red dwarf stars live fantastically long lives, gently sipping on hydrogen to power a slow but steady fusion reaction. But eventually, all stars, including the red dwarfs, will come to an end. In roughly 100 trillion years, the last light will go out.

Florida startup raises $5 million toward building lunar data centers

“Data is the greatest currency created by the human race”.

Cloud computing startup Lonestar Data Holdings announced the results of its latest $5 million funding round, which will help it develop its technology for storing data on the lunar surface.

New lunar data centers will store humanity’s ‘greatest currency.’


LoneStar.

The Florida-based company aims to build lunar data centers on the Moon to help combat the environmental impact of large server centers on Earth. It could also help NASA in its bid to build a permanent colony on the Moon with its upcoming crewed Artemis missions.

Scientists Have Finally Discovered Massless Particles, And They Could Revolutionize Electronics

After 85 years of searching, researchers have confirmed the existence of a massless particle called the Weyl fermion for the first time ever. With the unique ability to behave as both matter and anti-matter inside a crystal, this strange particle can create electrons that have no mass.

The discovery is huge, not just because we finally have proof that these elusive particles exist, but because it paves the way for far more efficient electronics, and new types of quantum computing. “Weyl fermions could be used to solve the traffic jams that you get with electrons in electronics — they can move in a much more efficient, ordered way than electrons,” lead researcher and physicist M. Zahid Hasan from Princeton University in the US told Anthony Cuthbertson over at IBTimes. “They could lead to a new type of electronics we call ‘Weyltronics’.”

So what exactly is a Weyl fermion? Although we’re often taught in high school science that the Universe is made up of atoms, from a particle physics point of view, everything is actually made up of fermions and bosons. Put very simply, fermions are the building blocks that make up all matter, such as electrons, and bosons are the things that carry force, such as photons.

The Beginning to the End of the Universe: The cosmic dark ages

This story comes from our special January 2021 issue, “The Beginning and the End of the Universe.” Click here to purchase the full issue.

By studying this cosmic dawn, Mobasher hopes to answer fundamental questions about our universe today. Understanding the dark ages “would help us understand how galaxies are formed, how stars are formed, the evolution of galaxies through the universe,” he says. “How our own galaxy started, how it was formed, how fast it built up stars … all those questions are important questions we need to answer.”

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