As reported online Oct. 2, 2019, by Molecular Cell, a Harvard team was able to use the gene editing tool CRISPR to kill certain viruses, including the influenza virus, in a laboratory dish.
Electronics are increasingly being paired with optical systems, such as when accessing the internet on an electronically run computer through fiber optic cables.
But meshing optics — which relies on particles of light called photons—with electronics—relying on electrons — is challenging, due to their disparate scales. Electrons work at a much smaller scale than light does. The mismatch between electronic systems and optical systems means that every time a signal converts from one to the other, inefficiency creeps into the system.
Now, a team led by a Purdue University scientist has found a way to create more efficient metamaterials using semiconductors and a novel aspect of physics that amplifies the activity of electrons. The study is published in the journal Optica.
In some ways, learning to program a computer is similar to learning a new language. It requires learning new symbols and terms, which must be organized correctly to instruct the computer what to do. The computer code must also be clear enough that other programmers can read and understand it.
In spite of those similarities, MIT neuroscientists have found that reading computer code does not activate the regions of the brain that are involved in language processing.
Instead, it activates a distributed network called the multiple demand network, which is also recruited for complex cognitive tasks such as solving math problems or crossword puzzles.
Fast, ultra-bright photon source brings scalable quantum photonics within reach. Super-fast quantum computers and communication devices could revolutionize countless aspects of our lives — but first, researchers need a fast, efficient source of the entangled pairs of photons such systems use to tra.
Members of the US Space Force will be known as “guardians”, it was announced on the military service’s first birthday.
US Vice President Mike Pence said: It is my honour, on behalf of the president of the United States, to announce that henceforth the men and women of the United States Space Force will be known as guardians.
Mike Pence says soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and guardians will be defending our nation for generations to come.
Continue reading “‘Guardians’ of the galaxy: US Space Force members get a new name” »
Citizen Lab said Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were likely behind the attacks.
A team of researchers from MIT and several institutions in Korea has found that the speed of magnetic domain wall movement is fundamentally limited. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes testing a theory regarding the maximum speed of domain walls to prove them correct. Matthew Daniels and Mark Stiles with the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the U.S. have published a Perspective piece outlining the work by the researchers in the same journal issue and sum up the implications of their findings.
One of the basic tenets of Einstein’s theory of special relativity is that there is no particle that can travel faster than the speed of light. In this new effort, the researchers have found a similar boundary for magnetic domain walls.
Materials that are magnetic have domains in which ordered spins are separated from one another by boundaries known as domain walls. Prior research has shown that such walls can be moved by applying an electric current. This particular aspect of magnetic materials has formed the basis of research on racetrack memory. And because the speed of movement of the domain walls determines the speed of the memories created using them, scientists have been pushing them faster and faster. Logic suggests that there must be a limit to how fast the domain walls can be pushed, however, thus establishing a limit to how fast such memories can operate. In this new effort, the researchers have found that fundamental limit.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have developed a new family of cathodes with the potential to replace the costly cobalt-based cathodes typically found in today’s lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles and consumer electronics.
The new class called NFA, which stands for nickel-, iron-and aluminum-based cathode, is a derivative of lithium nickelate and can be used to make the positive electrode of a lithium-ion battery. These novel cathodes are designed to be fast charging, energy dense, cost effective, and longer lasting.
With the rise in the production of portable electronics and electric vehicles throughout the world, lithium-ion batteries are in high demand. According to Ilias Belharouak, ORNL’s scientist leading the NFA research and development, more than 100 million electric vehicles are anticipated to be on the road by 2030. Cobalt is a metal currently needed for the cathode which makes up the significant portion of a lithium-ion battery’s cost.
