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Blog – Page 9102

Circa 2018

Based at the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Russia), a research team led by Prof. Yuri Rakovich has developed a tunable micro-resonator for hybrid energy states between light and matter using light to control the chemical and biological properties of molecules. The results have been published in the Review of Scientific Instruments.

The micro-resonator is a two-mirror trap for the , with the mirrors facing each other within several hundred nanometers. A photon caught in the trap would form a localized state of an electromagnetic wave. By modifying the resonator’s form and size, operators can control the spatial distribution of the wave, as well as the duration of the photon’s life in the resonator.

The new invention makes it possible to control chemical and biological properties of molecules with the help of light. The micro-resonator can serve as the basis for new-generation instruments that can be used in biological and chemical sensing as well as to control the speed of and energy transfer efficacy.

Continue reading “Scientists develop unique trap for light” | >

Yale researchers have discovered how metastasis, the spread of cancer cells throughout the body, is triggered on the molecular level, and have developed a tool with the potential to detect those triggers in patients with certain cancers. The discovery could lead to new ways for treating cancer.

The study was led by Andre Levchenko, the John C. Malone Professor of Biomedical Engineering and director of the Yale Systems Biology Institute at Yale’s West Campus. It was published June 26 in the journal Nature Communications. Levchenko is a member of the Yale Cancer Center.

One way metastasis occurs is through (EMT), a process that breaks neighboring apart from each other and sets them in motion. It’s been long assumed that chemical signals or in the cells trigger EMT. But Levchenko’s research team found that it could be caused by a simple change in the texture of the extracellular matrix (ECM), which acts as a scaffold for cells. They discovered that an alignment of the matrix’s fibers (a common biological occurrence) can trigger the EMT process without or other stimuli.

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China isn’t the only country with a draconian “social credit score” system — there’s one quite a bit like it operating in the U.S. Except that it’s being run by American businesses, not the government.

There’s plenty of evidence that retailers have been using a technique called “surveillance scoring” for decades in which consumers are given a secret score by an algorithm to give them a different price — but for the same goods and services.

But the practice might be illegal after all: a California nonprofit called Consumer Education Foundation (CEF) filed a petition yesterday asking for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to look into the shady practice.

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Scientists in Japan reported seeing two radioactive weather phenomena at the same time, for the first time, according to a new paper. The observation establishes a link between the two, adding to our knowledge of the wild physics that takes place inside thunderstorms.

The researchers reported the “unequivocal simultaneous detection” of a minute-long “gamma-ray glow” followed by a powerful, millisecond-long “terrestrial gamma-ray flash,” or TGF. Though scientists have observed these two events before, they don’t quite understand the connection between—the glows and flashes have never been observed together. That is, until now.

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Blizzard and Snowflake, an albino alligator couple, are proud parents to the world’s first batch of albino alligator eggs, according to Wild Florida Airboats and Gator Park.

The park, which is located in Kenansville, Florida, announced that caretakers discovered eggs inside the pair’s exhibit, WFTV 9 News reported. The Wild Florida Airboats and Gator Park’s “Croc Squad” gathered the 19 albino alligator eggs and transported them to a secure space, FOX 10 News noted. A video on Facebook captured footage of the 19 rare eggs, which were super small in size.

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To work, quantum computers have to be freezing cold, which makes connecting them to one another a challenge.

Now, for the first time, a team of researchers has found a way to create entangled radiation using a physical object — a move that could help connect future quantum computer systems to the outside world.

“What we have built is a prototype for a quantum link,” Shabir Barzanjeh, the engineer who led the project, said in a press release. “The oscillator that we have built has brought us one step closer to a quantum internet.”

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