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Researchers looking to synthesize a brighter and more stable nanoparticle for optical applications found that their creation instead exhibited a more surprising property: bursts of superfluorescence that occurred at both room temperature and regular intervals. The work could lead to the development of faster microchips, neurosensors, or materials for use in quantum computing applications, as well as a number of biological studies.

Superfluorescence occurs when atoms within a material synchronize and simultaneously emit a short but intense burst of light. The property is valuable for quantum optical applications, but extremely difficult to achieve at room temperatures and for intervals long enough to be useful.

The material in question—lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticle, or UCNP—was synthesized by the research team in an effort to create a “brighter” optical material. They produced hexagonal ceramic crystals ranging from 50 nanometers (nm) to 500 nm in size and began testing their lasing properties, which resulted in several impressive breakthroughs.

Single-wall carbon nanotubes are made of carbon with diameters less than 100 nanometers. Here, the authors engineer an analogue tube with a diameter 1,000,000 times larger with the aim to explore topological properties including unusual acoustic edge states.

A study of Li-metal batteries by the research team led by Dr. Byung Gon Kim at Next-Generation Battery Research Center of Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) was published as a cover paper in the international journal ACS Nano.

While the current Li-ion batteries generate energy by taking Li-ions in and out of the graphite anode based on the intercalation mechanism, the Li-metal battery does not rely on this bulky and heavy graphite but uses metallic Li itself as the anode. As the Li-metal shows 10 times higher theoretical capacity (3,860 mAh/g) than graphite (372 mAh/g), it has steadily gained much attention from areas that need high-capacity batteries, such as electric vehicles and energy storage systems.

Despite this advantage, Li can grow in the shape of a tree branch, called a Li dendrite, if it is not uniformly and effectively stored when cycling process, leading to large volume expansion of the electrode, which in turn may shorten the battery’s cycle life and cause safety issue such as fire and explosion triggered by internal short-circuits.

Were you unable to attend Transform 2022? Check out all of the summit sessions in our on-demand library now! Watch here.

As the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry is undergoing a staggering growth in the creation of data, organizations need to place a strong focus on data governance best practices.

That is one of the findings of a new study of the AEC sector that reveals it has experienced a 31.2% compound growth rate in data storage since 2017. The amount of new data being captured or created is staggering, but getting full value from it depends on how the data is managed, stored, accessed and protected.

A team of researchers at the University of Vienna, the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the University of Duisburg-Essen have found a new mechanism that fundamentally alters the interaction between optically levitated nanoparticles. Their experiment demonstrates previously unattainable levels of control over the coupling in arrays of particles, thereby creating a new platform to study complex physical phenomena. The results are published in this week’s issue of Science.

Imagine dust particles randomly floating around in the room. When a laser is switched on, the particles will experience forces of light and once a particle comes too close it will be trapped in the focus of the beam. This is the basis of Arthur Ashkin’s pioneering Nobel prize work of optical tweezers. When two or more particles are in the vicinity, light can be reflected back and forth between them to form standing waves of light, in which the particles self-align like a crystal of particles bound by light. This phenomenon, also called optical binding, has been known and studied for more than 30 years.

It came as quite a surprise to the researchers in Vienna when they saw a completely different behavior than was expected when studying forces between two glass nanoparticles. Not only could they change the strength and the sign of the binding force, but they could even see one particle, say the left, acting on the other, the right, without the right acting back on the left. What seems like a violation of Newton’s third law (everything that is being acted upon acts back with same strength but opposite sign) is so-called non-reciprocal behavior and occurs in situations in which a system can lose energy to its environment, in this case the laser. Something was obviously missing from our current theory of optical binding.

The T. dohrnii can turn itself from a full-grown jellyfish all the way back to its juvenile stage as a polyp on the seafloor.

Some humans can detect the Earth’s magnetic field — via a neurological feature called magnetoreceptors — according to a recent study, reports Popular Mechanics.

RELATED: A NEW TYPE OF MAGNET HAS BEEN DISCOVERED

Dr. Asha M. George, DrPH (https://biodefensecommission.org/teams/asha-m-george-drph/) is Executive Director, Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense, which was established in 2014 to assess gaps in and provide recommendations to improve U.S. biodefense. The Panel determines where the United States is falling short of addressing biological attacks and emerging and reemerging infectious diseases.

Dr. George is a public health security professional whose research and programmatic emphasis has been practical, academic, and political. She served in the U.S. House of Representatives as a senior professional staffer and subcommittee staff director at the House Committee on Homeland Security in the 110th and 111th Congress. She has worked for a variety of organizations, including government contractors, foundations, and non-profits. As a contractor, she supported and worked with all Federal Departments, especially the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services.

Continue reading “Dr Asha M George, DrPH — Building Defenses Against Bio-Terrorism And (Re)Emerging Infectious Disease” »

First-year students have been left without accommodation at several universities as they prepare to start degrees next month.

Undergraduates at the University of Glasgow, Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) and the University of the West of England in Bristol (UWE) were told this month that they would have to find their own accommodation owing to a lack of space in halls, according to the Financial Times.

At UWE, students were offered accommodation in Newport, Wales, nearly an hour away from the main campus in Bristol. It mirrored a situation last year at universities including York, which was forced to offer students accommodation in Hull.