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Jan 9, 2023

New Imaging Tools for Cryo-Light Microscopy

Posted by in category: climatology

LIGHTNING super-resolution detection concept and TauSense technology facilitate better cryogenic fluorescence imaging for advanced cryo-correlative workflows. The quality of fluorescence microscope images that guide cryo-FIB milling determines the result of the prepared lamella. Here, it is described how image quality is significantly improved by LIGHTNING and how different structures can be discerned using their fluorescence lifetime-based information.

Jan 9, 2023

Researchers discover exploiting microbiome bacteria in patients with lung infections improves low oxygen levels

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health

Newspaper headlines from the U.S. to the U.K. and most places in between highlight the surge in sick patients suffering from respiratory viruses. The so-called “tripledemic” of lung infections including respiratory synclinal virus (RSV), influenza (flu) and COVID-19 (coronavirus) is likely to last throughout the winter season. This explosion of infections requires more treatment options to support overloaded hospitals and overworked medics as they restore people’s health.

It has been known for a long time that intubation of an infant with any , or even an adult with severe COVID-19 using either ventilation or extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), comes with risks and that could cause permanent damage not limited to the lungs. However, hypoxia, which means , is a that is a common complication of severe . If not treated, it can lead to severe disability and even death.

Jan 9, 2023

This backpack deploys into an airbag to keep the cyclists safe from injury

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Cyclists are supposed to wear helmets to protect them from any untoward accidents while riding through the city on their bicycles. While the helmet can protect from serious brain injury, other parts of the body can be exposed to both minor and serious injuries in case they encounter other vehicles and even pedestrians. It would be nice if there’s a sort of airbag that can shield them from injuries in case an accident happens and that said airbag will be portable enough for them to carry around.

Designer: In&Motion.

Jan 9, 2023

Are quantum computers about to break online privacy?

Posted by in categories: computing, encryption, information science, quantum physics

A new algorithm is probably not efficient enough to crack current encryption keys — but that’s no reason for complacency, researchers say.

Jan 9, 2023

By Producing Two Entangled Beams of Light, Researchers Have Achieved a Breakthrough in Quantum Physics

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics

Researchers in Brazil have achieved a quantum breakthrough by succeeding in the creation of a source of illumination that produces two separate entangled beams of light, according to new research.

The achievement was announced by a team of physicists with Brazil’s Laboratory for Coherent Manipulation of Atoms and Light (LMCAL), located at the University of São Paulo’s Physics Institute.

Quantum entanglement is among the most perplexing phenomena observed in modern physics. It involves particles that are linked in such a way that when changes affect the quantum state of one, the other to which it is “entangled” will also be affected. Strangely, such effects even occur over significant distances, a phenomenon first described as “spooky action at a distance” after its discussion in a landmark 1935 paper by Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen.

Jan 9, 2023

Astronomers May Have Solved The Mystery of The Bubbles Towering Over The Milky Way

Posted by in category: space

When the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope entered low-Earth orbit in 2008, it opened our eyes to a whole new Universe of high-energy radiation.

One of its more curious discoveries was the Fermi Bubbles: giant, symmetrical blobs extending above and below the galactic plane, 25,000 light-years on each side from the Milky Way’s center, glowing in gamma-ray light – the highest energy wavelength ranges on the electromagnetic spectrum.

Then, in 2020, an X-ray telescope named eROSITA found another surprise: even bigger bubbles extending over 45,000 light-years on each side of the galactic plane, this time emitting less energetic X-rays.

Jan 9, 2023

An Organism That Can Dine Exclusively on Viruses Has Been Found in a World First

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

A type of freshwater plankton has become the first organism seen thriving on a diet of viruses, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the US.

Viruses are often consumed incidentally by a range wide of organisms, and may even season the diets of certain marine protists. But to qualify as a true step in the food chain – described as virovory – viruses ought to contribute a significant amount of energy or nutrients to their consumer.

The microbe Halteria is a common genus of protist known to flit about as its hair-like cilia propel it through the water. Not only did laboratory samples of the ciliate consume chloroviruses added to its environment, the giant virus fueled Halteria’s growth and increased its population size.

Jan 9, 2023

Watch a SpaceX rocket hurtle to orbit and back in 90 seconds

Posted by in category: space travel

SpaceX has released a video featuring a rocket’s-eye view of a recent orbital mission, all the way from launch to landing.

Jan 9, 2023

The Universe in 90 minutes: Time, free will, God, & more | Sean Carroll

Posted by in categories: cosmology, neuroscience, quantum physics

Everything you ever wanted to know about parallel universes, time, entropy, free will and more, explained by physicist Sean Carroll.

Up next, Michio Kaku: The Universe in a nutshell (Full Presentation) ► https://youtu.be/0NbBjNiw4tk.

Continue reading “The Universe in 90 minutes: Time, free will, God, & more | Sean Carroll” »

Jan 9, 2023

Two Light-Trapping Techniques Combine for the Best of Both Worlds

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics, robotics/AI

Taming rays of light and bending them to your will is tricky business. Light travels fast and getting a good chunk of it to stay in one place for a long time requires a lot of skillful coaxing. But the benefits of learning how to hold a moonbeam (or, more likely, a laser beam) in your hand, or on a convenient chip, are enormous. Trapping and controlling light on a chip can enable better lasers, sensors that help self-driving cars “see,” the creation of quantum-entangled pairs of photons that can be used for secure communication, and fundamental studies of the basic interactions between light and atoms—just to name a few.

Of all the moonbeam-holding chip technologies out there, two stand the tallest: the evocatively named whispering gallery mode microrings, which are easy to manufacture and can trap light of many colors very efficiently, and photonic crystals, which are much trickier to make and inject light into but are unrivaled in their ability to confine light of a particular color into a tiny space—resulting in a very large intensity of light for each confined photon.

Recently, a team of researchers at JQI struck upon a clever way to combine whispering gallery modes and photonic crystals in one easily manufacturable device. This hybrid device, which they call a microgear photonic crystal ring, can trap many colors of light while also capturing particular colors in tightly confined, high-intensity bundles. This unique combination of features opens a route to new applications, as well as exciting possibilities for manipulating light in novel ways for basic research.