Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog – Page 4

Get the latest international news and world events from around the world.

Log in for authorized contributors

Axial encoding unlocks up to eightfold faster 3D microscopy with less light

A research team from HKU Engineering has pioneered a fundamentally new imaging strategy known as AIMED (Arbitrary illumination microscopy with encoded depth), which utilizes a sub-sampling approach. By integrating innovations in axial optical encoding with advanced computational image reconstruction, the AIMED technology enables a substantial increase in 3D imaging speed while enhancing photon safety, all with minimal additional system complexity. This breakthrough demonstrates significant advantages across efficiency, image quality, and system compatibility.

This work was conducted by the OMEGA laboratory under the leadership of Professor Kenneth K. Y. Wong of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). The study is published in the journal Advanced Photonics.

Mathematician solves origami donut efficiency challenge with fewest folds

Most people wouldn’t think that it would take rigorous mathematical proof to show how many folds it takes to make a donut shape out of paper. Yet, no one could quite figure it out until recently.

In a new paper, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, mathematician Richard Evan Schwartz provides detailed proof of where the line is drawn when it comes to the fewest folds required to construct a torus—the proper name for the shape of a donut—from a piece of paper.

A giant star may have destroyed itself in one of the universe’s rarest explosions

Astronomers may have discovered one of the clearest examples yet of a rare “pair-instability” supernova. It is a catastrophic explosion thought to completely destroy some of the most massive stars in the universe, leaving behind no remnant. The paper outlining the properties of this rare explosion was posted to the arXiv preprint server on May 15.

The event, SN 2023vbw, was first detected by the Zwicky Transient Facility in October 2023 in the outskirts of a small, metal-poor dwarf galaxy about 1.3 billion light-years away. It was tentatively classified as a Type II supernova—the kind produced when a massive star exhausts its nuclear fuel, collapses under gravity, and explodes. But several of its properties refused to fit that picture.

Matter may entangle with light far more easily near quantum critical points

Quantum entanglement is a state in which particles are entwined with each other. In this entwined state, the properties of one particle influence the other, even when they aren’t physically close to each other. This phenomenon has often been observed in small quantum systems with only a few particles in them, where researchers can use it to store and process quantum information. Rice University professor Qimiao Si is interested in understanding and applying quantum entanglement to macroscopic systems with vast numbers of particles.

In a paper recently published in Nature Communications, Si described a method that could lead to not only better understanding of quantum entanglement in quantum materials but also more ready usage of quantum entanglement in macroscopic systems. His theory posits this can be done by coupling quantum materials to quantum light.

“In this theory, by placing matter in a small mirrored cavity and pushing it towards what is called the quantum critical point, we can then introduce photons and induce quantum entanglement in the photon-matter hybrid,” said Si, the Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professor of Physics and Astronomy and director of the Extreme Quantum Materials Alliance.

A retention-aware system turns a computer’s storage chip into a cybersecurity shield

Hackers are ruthless. They can take control of your computer, delete files and disappear without a trace. However, FIU cybersecurity researcher Weidong Zhu has discovered a way to transform a computer’s storage chip into an additional tool for cyber defense. Working with collaborators at the University of Florida, Zhu created a system that makes data on these chips last longer—extending the lifespan of your files in the critical window after your computer is compromised. The work is published in the journal Proceedings of the 2025 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security.

“Our system extends recoverable data history up to 126 days,” said Zhu, an assistant professor at FIU’s Knight Foundation School of Computing & Information Sciences whose work is part of the Center for Integrated Security, Privacy, and Trustworthy AI (CIERTA). “Even if your computer is infected, your data can survive on your drive.”

Storage chips, known as solid-state drives (SSDs), have intrigued cybersecurity researchers for years. As hardware—not software—they offer unique safety benefits during an attack.

‘Molecular movie’ technology reveals a better way to thwart environmental pollutant

The latest production from the “molecular movie” imaging technology developed at Oregon State University is a new, inexpensive way of dealing with a common environmental pollutant. Based on short-pulse lasers, the imaging technology allows chemical and biological actions to be measured as they are occurring, one high-speed frame at a time.

The measurements occur on the level of the femtosecond—one-millionth of one-billionth of a second. A femtosecond is to a second roughly as a second is to 32 million years.

“We’re able to slow down the observation of chemical processes and understand the exact sequences of biochemical reactions,” said Chong Fang, professor of chemistry at OSU, who unveiled the technology in 2014. “It’s a really powerful tool to study, understand and tune biological processes. Now we have extended the tool set to delineate a wide array of chemical processes.”

Space station dust maps slash climate uncertainty over iron-rich particles

New research from a team of scientists led by Cornell is transforming how researchers understand one of the atmosphere’s most abundant and least understood constituents: mineral dust.

Mineral dust, composed of tiny particles lifted from arid regions including the Sahara, Middle East and East Asia, plays a complex role in Earth’s climate system. These particles both scatter and absorb radiation, influence cloud formation and even fertilize ecosystems. But until recently, scientists lacked reliable global data on the surface soils’ mineral composition, particularly on the prevalence of light-absorbing iron oxides.

Using high-resolution data from a NASA mission aboard the International Space Station, the team has reduced long-standing uncertainty about how airborne dust particles affect Earth’s energy balance through interactions with sunlight. The findings are published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Better math discriminates exotic from classical materials

The planar Hall effect is a tabletop diagnostic tool for special quantum properties useful in basic research and technological applications. Or so it was thought, because careful calculation by Kobe University researchers clarifies the conditions under which this effect may also appear in classical materials. This makes the diagnostic more meaningful and enables more purposeful design.

In the hunt for materials with properties that are useful for quantum computing or spintronics, researchers have used the “planar Hall effect” as a tabletop diagnostic tool: The researchers send a current through a thin, flat sample and observe whether an electric voltage is produced in response to a magnetic field in the same plane as the sample.

If it is, the pattern of how the voltage responds to rotating the magnetic field in the plane of the sample tells researchers about the properties of the material.

Fiber optic components enable high-performance 2-µm fiber lasers

Laser systems operating in the 2-micrometer wavelength range open diverse opportunities in medical technology, agriculture, and plastics processing. In the Eurostars project DECOMP, Laser Zentrum Hannover e. V. (LZH) has developed novel fiber optic components that overcome previous technical barriers.

Thulium-doped fiber lasers operate at a wavelength of approximately 2 micrometers, making them particularly well-suited for applications where conventional lasers reach their limits. However, commercially available laser sources that simultaneously offer high beam quality, sufficient laser power, and the necessary reliability in quasi-continuous-wave operation at power levels around 1 kilowatt have been lacking.

In the project, LZH scientists developed novel fiber optic components based on triple-clad fibers that enable a reliable and low-maintenance laser architecture. For the implementation of the final laser system, LZH collaborated with Futonics Laser GmbH as well as South Korean partners COSET, inc. and the Korean Photonics Technology Institute.

/* */