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New transistor brings high voltage to microchip scale

Inside every electronic device, the flow of electricity is controlled by a switch called a transistor. For decades, these switches were made from silicon. More recently, engineers have turned to a material called gallium nitride (GaN), which enables small, efficient devices like smartphone chargers.

However, at very high voltages, electric fields inside these transistors can concentrate at specific points, causing them to fail prematurely. As a result, today’s GaN devices still struggle to perform at the highest voltage levels achieved by silicon.

To overcome this limitation, researchers in the Power and Wide-band-gap Electronics Research Lab (POWERlab) in EPFL’s School of Engineering have introduced a new class of GaN transistor: the intrinsic polarization superjunction, or iPSJ.

Magnetic memory could make edge AI faster while reducing energy use

Texas engineers teamed up with the world’s largest semiconductor foundry to fabricate and test an emerging memory technology that could help meet the increasing energy demand of artificial intelligence.

Together with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), researchers tested SOT-MRAM, a type of memory that can retain information even when power is off. It uses magnetic properties, making it faster while also consuming less energy than other memory technologies.

“The unique combination of speed, energy efficiency and endurance makes SOT-MRAM perfectly suited for AI applications, especially in devices where resources like power and memory are limited,” said Sam Liu, the first author of the new paper published in Science Advances and a recent UT Austin Ph.D. graduate. “SOT-MRAM hasn’t been considered for AI hardware since it can only hold two states, but we designed it so we can take advantage of the binary state while still being accurate.”

A Google-like search engine for single-cell RNA data could answer previously impossible questions

Imagine doctors could understand exactly which cells caused a patient’s cancer or whether pathogens contributed to the disease. They could then use the information to tailor a treatment plan to the patient’s specific cancer. But answering such questions would mean wading through data from thousands of experiments locked in massive databases around the globe. Moreover, the search would take at least several days.

Now, researchers at the Berlin Institute of Medical Systems Biology of the Max Delbrück Center (MDC-BIMSB) present a search engine that radically simplifies such tasks: “Malva.” It is the first platform that can quickly sort through massive single-cell data using sequence information only, explains Daniel León-Periñán, first author of the study in Nature. León-Periñán is a doctoral student in the Systems Biology of Gene Regulatory Elements lab of Dr. Nikolaus Rajewsky, director of MDC-BIMSB.

“Like Google did for the internet 30 years ago, Malva allows scientists and AI tools to search across millions of cells in seconds—without downloading huge files, needing a reference genome or having deep computational expertise,” adds Rajewsky, senior author of the paper. “Malva transforms static transcriptomic atlases into dynamic resources, which will further our understanding of RNA biology. It could also be transformative in helping researchers understand how health slides into disease or how and which cells respond to specific medical treatments.”

Nano-antennas make living cells light up brighter and faster

Researchers at Delft University of Technology have demonstrated for the first time that nano-antennas can enhance the fluorescence of proteins in living human and other mammalian cells. Scientists already use smart fluorescent proteins that light up when the electrical voltage across a nerve cell changes. By placing nano-antennas close to these light-emitting proteins, researchers can monitor processes inside cells with much greater precision. The discovery adds a new tool for revealing electrical signals in the brain through nanotechnology as well as genetic engineering. The research has been published in Advanced Materials.

Monitoring signals in the brain requires both high resolution and rapid imaging. “Existing methods for visualizing voltage changes in cells often do not produce enough light, or they do not respond quickly or strongly enough to the small electrical pulses that occur at synapses,” says principal investigator Daan Brinks.

First authors Marco Locarno and Qiangrui Dong achieved a breakthrough by placing nano-antennas extremely close to fluorescent voltage-sensitive proteins. This made the proteins up to six times brighter, allowing researchers to monitor processes in living mammalian cells with much greater precision. Importantly, the cells remained alive and continued to function normally throughout the measurements.

Quantum Simulators Put a 40-Year-Old Physics Theory to the Test

Physicists used advanced quantum technologies to test predictions from a decades-old theory.

At the point where matter changes from one phase to another, very different materials can suddenly begin following the same mathematical rules. Water approaching a boil and a magnet losing its magnetism are familiar examples of phase transitions.

“Physicists call this trait universality—the messy, microscopic details wash out and only a few essential features survive,” explains Jason Alicea, William K. Davis Professor of Theoretical Physics. Physicists describe much of this universal behavior using a mathematical framework known as conformal field theory.

Attackers Chain Two PaperCut Flaws to Execute Code Without Authentication

The development comes after PaperCut released a second emergency patch that it said includes “additional hardening beyond the original emergency patch.” The Australian company has yet to share details about the nature of the malicious activity weaponizing the flaws.

“At this time, we don’t have enough evidence to determine the threat actors’ ultimate end goal,” John Hammond, senior principal security researcher at Huntress, told The Hacker News. “Based on what we observed, the activity appears consistent with early-stage reconnaissance or validation, including commands to identify the victim’s user account and operating system.”

According to preemptive exposure management firm watchTowr, attackers are chaining together both vulnerabilities to bypass authentication and gain remote code execution on affected instances.

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