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Feb 22, 2016
Quantum Phase Transition Underpins Superconductivity in Copper Oxides
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: materials, quantum physics
Physicists have zoomed in on the transition that could explain why copper-oxides have such impressive superconducting powers.
Settling a 20-year debate in the field, they found that a mysterious quantum phase transition associated with the termination of a regime called the “pseudogap” causes a sharp drop in the number of conducting electrons available to pair up for superconductivity. The team hypothesizes that whatever is happening at this point is probably the reason that cuprates support superconductivity at much higher temperatures than other materials—about half way to room temperature.
“It’s very likely that the reason superconductivity grows in the first place, and the reason it grows so strongly, is because of that critical point,” CIFAR Senior Fellow Louis Taillefer (Université de Sherbrooke) says. The new findings are published in Nature.
Feb 22, 2016
RMIT Researchers Examine Environmental and Health Risks Posed by 3D Printing
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: 3D printing, computing, health, materials
3D Printing hazardous to the environment due to toxins.
Three-dimensional (3D) printing, also known as additive manufacturing, refers to those technologies capable of developing 3D objects from raw materials, like metals and polymers based on computerized 3D parametric models.
Feb 22, 2016
Breaking Through the Bacteria Barrier
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, genetics
Breaking the bacteria barriers.
If that field is at just the right magnitude, it will open up pores within the cell membrane, through which DNA can flow. But it can take scientists months or even years to figure out the exact electric field conditions to reversibly unlock a membrane’s pores.
A new microfluidic device developed by MIT engineers may help scientists quickly home in on the electric field “sweet spot” — the range of electric potentials that will harmlessly and temporarily open up membrane pores to let DNA in. In principle, the simple device could be used on any microorganism or cell, significantly speeding up the first step in genetic engineering.
Feb 22, 2016
Water bear don’t care: watch these tardigrades wake up after being frozen for 30 years
Posted by Sean Brazell in category: life extension
Feb 22, 2016
A different picture of quantum surrealism
Posted by Andreas Matt in categories: particle physics, quantum physics
New research supports an old, more intuitive theory of how sub-atomic particles behave. Cathal O’Connell explains.
Feb 22, 2016
Eating chocolate regularly can ‘improve brain function’ according to a new study
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: food, neuroscience
Good news for chocolate lovers: eating the sweet treat has been found to have a positive association with cognitive performance, according to a new study.
Published in the journal Appetite, researchers used data collected from a Maine-Syracuse Longitudinal Study (MSLS), in which 968 people aged between 23 and 98 were measured for dietary intake and cardiovascular risk factors, as well as cognitive function.
The researchers found that regularly eating chocolate was significantly associated with cognitive function “irrespective of other dietary habits”.
Feb 22, 2016
This Room-Size VR Game Makes You Into an Actual Action Hero
Posted by Sean Brazell in categories: entertainment, virtual reality
Thanks to “room-scale” VR, full-body gaming is coming. WIRED’s Peter Rubin tries out “Raw Data,” a first-person shooter that turns players into jumping, shooting, crouching, katana-slicing action heroes. Your living room will never be the same again.
Feb 22, 2016
This 4.7-Inch Organic LCD Wraps Right Around Your Wrist
Posted by Sean Brazell in categories: electronics, wearables
Your smartwatch screen may soon be rather more impressive: This 4.7-inch organic LCD display is flexible enough to wrap right around a wrist.
Produced by FlexEnable from the UK, the screen squeezes a full-color organic LCD onto a sheet that measures just one hundredth of an inch thick, which makes it highly conformable. The company claims that it can easily run vivid colour and smooth video content, which is a sight better than most wearables.
It’s not the first flexible display, of course. LG already has an 18-inch OLED panel that has enough flexibility to roll into a tube that’s an inch across. But this concept—which, sadly, is all it is right now—is the first large, conformable OLCD designed for wearables that we’ve seen.
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Feb 22, 2016
Here’s All the Cool Stuff From Mobile World Congress (So Far)
Posted by Sean Brazell in categories: mobile phones, virtual reality
We’ve just wrapped up the second day of Mobile World Congress, the annual mobile technology conference in Barcelona. We’ve seen smartphones, VR headsets, and some batshit crazy stuff (see photo above)—and almost all of it has been awesome. Here are some of our favorites: