Lifeboat Foundation

The continued growth of wireless and cellular data traffic relies heavily on light waves. Microwave photonics is the field of technology that is dedicated to the distribution and processing of electrical information signals using optical means. Compared with traditional solutions based on electronics alone, microwave photonic systems can handle massive amounts of data. Therefore, microwave photonics has become increasingly important as part of 5G cellular networks and beyond. A primary task of microwave photonics is the realization of narrowband filters: The selection of specific data, at specific frequencies, out of immense volumes that are carried over light.

Many microwave photonic systems are built of discrete, separate components and long optical fiber paths. However, the cost, size, power consumption and production volume requirements of advanced networks call for a new generation of microwave photonic systems that are realized on a chip. Integrated microwave photonic filters, particularly in silicon, are highly sought after. There is, however, a fundamental challenge: Narrowband filters require that signals are delayed for comparatively long durations as part of their processing.

“Since the speed of light is so fast,” says Prof. Avi Zadok from Bar-Ilan University, Israel, “we run out of chip space before the necessary delays are accommodated. The required delays may reach over 100 nanoseconds. Such delays may appear to be short considering daily experience; however, the optical paths that support them are over ten meters long. We cannot possibly fit such long paths as part of a silicon chip. Even if we could somehow fold over that many meters in a certain layout, the extent of optical power losses to go along with it would be prohibitive.”

In new research, Texas A&M University scientists have for the first time revealed a single microscopic defect called a “twin” in a soft-block copolymer using an advanced electron microscopy technique. This defect may be exploited in the future to create materials with novel acoustic and photonic properties.

“This defect is like a black swan—something special going on that isn’t typical,” said Dr. Edwin Thomas, professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. “Although we chose a certain polymer for our study, I think the twin defect will be fairly universal across a bunch of similar soft matter systems, like oils, surfactants, biological materials and natural polymers. Therefore, our findings will be valuable to diverse research across the soft matter field.”

Continue reading “Unexpected ‘Black Swan’ defect discovered in soft matter for first time” »

A group of “ethical hackers” has obtained access to sensitive systems and proprietary online data hosted by the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in the US after accessing multiple unsecured entry points in late April and early May. The group – Sakura Samurai – discovered configuration data for the lab’s NoVa experiment and more than 4500 “tickets” for tracking internal projects.

The Sakura Samurai team has previous experience probing the vulnerabilities of scientific and educational organizations, which hold critical information that if leaked could put those institutions at risk. “Fermilab was no different,” Sakura Samurai leader Robert Willis told Physics World. “Oversharing can be very dangerous, especially when it’s sharing credentials that could enable a malicious actor to take over a server with the potential to move across their network to access items that the organization wouldn’t even think of being vulnerable.”

Circa 2020

Astronomers have found one of the largest structures in the known universe—a “wall” of galaxies that’s at least 1.4 billion light-years long. And given how close it is to us, it’s remarkable that we haven’t seen it before now.

What happened: An international team of scientists reported the discovery of the South Pole Wall in a paper published Thursday in the Astrophysical Journal. The structure is basically a curtain that stretches across the southern border of the universe (from the perspective of Earth) and consists of thousands of galaxies, along with huge amounts of gas and dust.

Continue reading “Astronomers found a giant ‘wall’ of galaxies hiding in plain sight” »

GMG and the University of Queensland presented a graphene aluminum-ion cell that charges faster than Li-ion batteries. It also requires no cooling.

The tech giant says its “dermatology assist” tool can recognise 288 different skin ailments.

www.iBiology.org.

Dr. Kate Adamala describes what synthetic cells are and how they can teach us the fundamental principles of life.

Continue reading “Kate Adamala (U of M) 1: Synthetic Cells: Building Life to Understand It” »

China is only the 2nd nation to successfully soft-land on Mars.

China has released the first photographs taken by its Zhurong rover, which touched down on Mars late on Friday (May 14) as part of the country’s Tianwen-1 mission.

Register for free to the 2021 Space Renaissance Congress.

June 26 — 30 virtual on zoom+attendify+youtube.

https://2021.spacerenaissance.space/index.php/registration/