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Blog – Page 23

By Chuck Brooks

Dear Friends and Colleagues, this issue of the Security & Insights newsletter focuses on cybersecurity and the convergence of devices and networks. The convergence of the Internet of Things, industrial control systems (ICS), operational technology (OT), and information technology (IT) has revealed vulnerabilities and expanded attack surfaces. They are prime targets for hackers, who frequently look for unprotected ports and systems on internet-connected industrial devices. Because they provide several avenues of entry for attackers and because older OT systems were not built to withstand cyberattacks, IT/OT/ICS supply chains in continuous integration (CI) are especially vulnerable. Below is a collection of articles that address the challenges and threats of cybersecurity for connected devices and people.

Thanks for reading and stay safe! Chuck Brooks

Growing cyberthreats to the internet of things.

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IN A NUTSHELL 🌌 Black holes traditionally feature singularities, points of infinite density that challenge existing physics. 🔭 New models propose regular black holes and mimickers that eliminate the need for singularities. 🌀 Regular black holes replace singularities with a finite-density core, maintaining a consistent spacetime geometry. 🚀 These innovative models open new avenues for

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A new study using direct brain recordings reveals that human economic decision-making is not localized to a single brain region. Instead, multiple areas work together, with high-frequency activity encoding risk, reward probability, and the final choice itself.

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Engineers have developed a water-based battery that could help Australian households store rooftop solar energy more safely, cheaply and efficiently than ever before.

Their next-generation “flow battery” opens the door to compact, high-performance battery systems for homes and is expected to be much cheaper than current $10,000 lithium-ion systems.

Flow batteries have been around for decades but have traditionally been used in large-scale energy storage due to their large size and slow charge speeds.

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One of the most profound open questions in modern physics is: “Is gravity quantum?” The other fundamental forces—electromagnetic, weak, and strong—have all been successfully described, but no complete and consistent quantum theory of gravity yet exists.

“Theoretical physicists have proposed many possible scenarios, from being inherently classical to fully quantum, but the debate remains unresolved because we’ve never had a clear way to test gravity’s quantum nature in the lab,” says Dongchel Shin, a Ph.D. candidate in the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering (MechE).

“The key to answering this lies in preparing that are massive enough to feel gravity, yet quiet enough—quantum enough—to reveal how gravity interacts with them.”

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Professor Andrei Khlobystov, School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, said, “We have investigated the ultimate limit for nanowire size while preserving useful . This is possible for selenium because the phenomenon of quantum confinement can be effectively balanced by distortions in the atomic structure, thus allowing the band gap to remain within a useful range.”

The researchers hope that these new materials will be incorporated into electronic devices in the future. Accurately tuning the band gap of by changing the diameter of the nanowire could lead to the design of a variety of customized electronic devices using only a single element.

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Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, have developed a new, easily manufacturable solid-state thermoelectric refrigeration technology with nano-engineered materials that is twice as efficient as devices made with commercially available bulk thermoelectric materials.

As global demand grows for more energy-efficient, reliable and compact cooling solutions, this advancement offers a scalable alternative to traditional compressor-based refrigeration.

In a paper published in Nature Communications, a team of researchers from APL and refrigeration engineers from Samsung Electronics demonstrated improved heat-pumping efficiency and capacity in refrigeration systems attributable to high-performance nano-engineered thermoelectric materials invented at APL known as controlled hierarchically engineered superlattice structures (CHESS).

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A novel thin-film material capable of simultaneously enhancing the efficiency and durability of tandem solar cells has been developed.

Led by Professor BongSoo Kim from the Department of Chemistry at UNIST, in collaboration with Professors Jin Young Kim and Dong Suk Kim from the Graduate School of Carbon Neutrality at UNIST, the team developed a multi-functional hole-selective layer (mHSL) designed to significantly improve the performance of perovskite/organic tandem solar cells (POTSCs). Their study is published in Advanced Energy Materials.

Tandem solar cells are advanced photovoltaic devices that stack two different types of cells to absorb a broader spectrum of sunlight, thereby increasing overall energy conversion efficiency. Among these, combinations of perovskite and organic materials are particularly promising for producing thin, flexible solar panels suitable for wearable devices and building-integrated photovoltaics, positioning them as next-generation energy sources.

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Scientists at the University of Surrey have made a breakthrough in eco-friendly batteries that not only store more energy but could also help tackle greenhouse gas emissions. Lithium–CO2 “breathing” batteries release power while capturing carbon dioxide, offering a greener alternative that may one day outperform today’s lithium-ion batteries.

Until now, lithium-CO2 batteries have faced setbacks in efficiency—wearing out quickly, failing to recharge and relying on expensive rare materials such as platinum.

However, researchers from Surrey have found a way to overcome these issues by using a low-cost catalyst called cesium phosphomolybdate (CPM). Using computer modeling and , tests showed this simple change allowed the battery to store significantly more energy, charge with far less power and run for over 100 cycles.

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