Lifeboat Foundation

The processes that haul gold up to the surface from deep within Earth’s mantle rely on the sulfur that bubbles beneath active volcanoes.

Two new papers have agreed that some forms of sulfur form molecular bonds with gold that would otherwise remain sequestered in the mantle, allowing the precious element to rise.

What they don’t quite agree on is which form of sulfur is most important.

Prof. Zhao Yinghe from the Yunnan Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with collaborators, have conducted a study examining the correlation between the [C II] 158 micron emission and the CO(1−0) line. Their findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Molecular gas (H₂) plays a critical role in star formation, a key factor in the evolution of galaxies. Therefore, measuring the gas content in galaxies is crucial. However, the traditional tracer for H₂ mass, the CO(1−0) line, is challenging to detect in the early universe due to various factors, including lower metal content.

As a result, there is a pressing need for alternative H₂ tracers, especially as more galaxies at high redshifts are being discovered.

Research led by Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University in China has performed a metadata investigation into the presence of microplastics in humans. They report a concerning relationship between micro and nanoplastic (MNP) concentrations in damaged tissues and links with multiple health conditions.

Plastic usage soared from 1.5 million metric tons in the 1950s to nearly 390.7 million in 2021. With the increased use in consumer products came elevated microscopic plastic pollution circulating in soil and waterways, eventually accumulating in the environment, food webs and human tissues.

Consistent methods to pinpoint and quantify MNPs in human tissues are lacking. Reliable data linking MNPs to human diseases are necessary for assessing potential risks and developing mitigation measures.

In a breakthrough set to revolutionize the semiconductor industry, the School of Engineering of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has developed the world’s first-of-its-kind deep-ultraviolet (UVC) microLED display array for lithography machines. This enhanced efficiency UVC microLED has showcased the viability of a lowered cost maskless photolithography through the provision of adequate light output power density, enabling exposure of photoresist films in a shorter time.

Conducted under the supervision of Prof. Kwok Hoi-Sing, Founding Director of the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Displays and Optoelectronics Technologies at HKUST, the study was a collaborative effort with the Southern University of Science and Technology, and the Suzhou Institute of Nanotechnology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

A lithography machine is crucial equipment for semiconductor manufacturing, applying short-wavelength ultraviolet light to make integrated circuit chips with various layouts. However, traditional mercury lamps and deep ultraviolet LED light sources have shortcomings such as large device size, low resolution, high energy consumption, low light efficiency, and insufficient optical power density.

A trio of physicists from the University of Rennes, Aoyama Gakuin University, and the University of Lyon have discovered, through experimentation, that it is friction between fibers that allows knitted fabrics to take on a given form. Jérôme Crassous, Samuel Poincloux, and Audrey Steinberger have attempted to understand the underlying mechanics involved in the forms of knitted garments. Their paper is published in Physical Review Letters.

The research team noted that while many of the factors that are involved in intertwined fabrics have been studied to better understand their characteristics (such as why sweaters keep people warm despite the gaps between stitches), much less is known about the form garments made using such techniques can take.

To learn more, they conducted experiments using a nylon yarn and a well-known Jersey knit stitch called the stockinette—a technique that involves forming interlocked loops using knitting needles. They knitted a piece of fabric using 70×70 stitches and attached it to a biaxial tensile machine.

Super-resolution (SR) technology plays a pivotal role in enhancing the quality of images. SR reconstruction aims to generate high-resolution images from low-resolution ones. Traditional methods often result in blurred or distorted images. Advanced techniques such as sparse representation and deep learning-based methods have shown promising results but still face limitations in terms of noise robustness and computational complexity.

In a recent study published in Sensors, researchers from the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences proposed innovative solutions that integrate chaotic mapping into SR image reconstruction process, significantly enhancing the image quality across various fields.

Researchers innovatively introduced circle chaotic mapping into the dictionary sequence solving process of the K-singular value decomposition (K-SVD) dictionary update algorithm. This integration facilitated balanced traversal and simplified the search for global optimal solutions, thereby enhancing the noise robustness of the SR reconstruction.

Scientists at Macquarie University have discovered a novel way to enhance quantum sensor performance using ordinary grapes.

By utilizing the water content and specific size of grapes, they created strong magnetic field hotspots that improve the efficiency of microwave-based quantum sensing.

Supermarket Grapes and Quantum Sensors.

A new study explores the potential consequences of time travel, including the possibility of losing all your memories.

Special multi-layer mirrors guide the light through plates called masks, which hold the intricate patterns of the integrated circuits for semiconductor wafers. The light projects the pattern onto a photoresist layer that is etched away to leave the integrated circuits on the chip, according to a press release by LLNL.

The project also aims to investigate the primary hypothesis that the energy efficiency of existing EUV lithography sources for semiconductor production can be improved with technology developed for the novel petawatt-class BAT laser, which uses thulium-doped yttrium lithium fluoride (Tm: YLF) as the gain medium through which the power and intensity of laser beams are increased, as per the release.

Scientists have planned to conduct a demonstration pairing the compact high-rep-rate BAT laser with technologies that generate sources of EUV light using shaped nanosecond pulses and high-energy x-rays and particles using ultrashort sub-picosecond pulses.