Power plants, factories, car engines—everything that consumes energy produces heat, much of which is wasted. Thermoelectric devices could capture this wasted heat and convert it into electricity, but their production has been prohibitively costly and complex.
Yanliang Zhang, the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Collegiate Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, and colleagues from a multi-institutional team have devised an ink-based manufacturing method making feasible the large-scale and cost-effective manufacturing of highly efficient thermoelectric devices.
Their finding were recently published in Energy & Environmental Science.
Accurate models of real-world scenarios are important for bringing theoretical and experimental research together in meaningful ways. Creating these realistic computer models, however, is a very large undertaking. Significant amounts of data, code, and expertise across a wide range of intricate areas are needed to create useful and comprehensive software.
Dr. Norbert Lütkenhaus, executive director of the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) and a professor in the University of Waterloo’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, alongside his research group, have spent the last several years developing accurate software models for research in quantum key distribution (QKD).
QKD is a process for cryptography that harnesses fundamental principles of quantum mechanics to exchange secret keys, which can then be used to ensure secure communication.
Little more than a handful of corroded bronze wheels and heavily encrusted gears now remains of the ancient artifact called the Antikythera mechanism, leaving archaeologists to speculate over its functionality and purpose.
After decades of study, it’s largely agreed that the millennia-old device was something of an analog computer capable of keeping track of celestial movements. Yet with only fractured fragments to go by, researchers can only guess at the more intricate methods of its operation.
Researchers from the University of Glasgow in the UK have now used statistical modeling techniques borrowed from the study of gravitational waves to extrapolate missing details of a critical dial on Antikythera mechanism.
Researchers have developed a novel 3D stretchable electronic strip which is expected to open up a range of new possibilities in wearable electronic textiles.
A team at Nottingham Trent University’s Medical Technologies Innovation Facility has led the work, which has paved the way for a new generation of electronic devices which could be embedded in clothing for possible use in health care and elite sports settings.
The research, which also involved industry partner Kymira Ltd, is published in Scientific Reports.
For nearly 50 years, physicists have dreamed of the secrets they could unlock by raising the energy state of an atom’s nucleus using a laser. The achievement would allow today’s atomic clocks to be replaced with a nuclear clock that would be the most accurate clock to ever exist, allowing advances like deep space navigation and communication. It would also allow scientists to measure precisely whether the fundamental constants of nature are, in fact, really constant or merely appear to be because we have not yet measured them precisely enough.
Now, an effort led by Eric Hudson, professor of physics and astronomy at UCLA, has accomplished the seemingly impossible. By embedding a thorium atom within a highly transparent crystal and bombarding it with lasers, Hudson’s group has succeeded in getting the nucleus of the thorium atom to absorb and emit photons like electrons in an atom do. The astonishing feat is described in a paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
This means that measurements of time, gravity and other fields that are currently performed using atomic electrons can be made with orders of magnitude higher accuracy. The reason is that atomic electrons are influenced by many factors in their environment, which affects how they absorb and emit photons and limits their accuracy. Neutrons and protons, on the other hand, are bound and highly concentrated within the nucleus and experience less environmental disturbance.
#aliens #robots Welcome to an extraordinary exploration of artificial intelligence and its cosmic counterpart, the astro-chicken! Join me in this mind-blowing video where we delve into the captivating concept of interstellar colonization. You can find my book Gravity: From Falling Apples to Supermassive Black Holes here on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gravity-Fall… The Cosmic Mystery Tour here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cosmic-Myste… Artificial intelligences offers the only way to explore the stars. Humans are very delicate and not at all suited to interstellar travel. After all, it is a long long way to the stars. The nearest star is 40 trillion kilometres away. The distance between the stars is too great for it to be feasible to travel so far within human lifespans. The limitations of our biology will prevent us from exploring deep space in person. Although we might like to fantasize about traveling from star system to star system with Captain Kirk, it is almost inconceivable that any humans will ever reach the stars. But maybe there is another way to colonize the galaxy. The British theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson certainly thought so. In the 1960s Dyson, who was one of the architects of quantum electrodynamics — our best theory of electromagnetism — speculated that any sufficiently advanced civilisation would explore the galaxy by launching fleets of autonomous self-replicating robots. There are, of course, many advantages to sending robots rather than humanoids. Robots are more robust than organic lifeforms, they never get bored, and they require far less in the way of maintenance and life support systems. They can survive in harsh environments, and they are adaptable — they can be upgraded. Robots equipped with artificial intelligence could operate autonomously and perform tasks that are impossible for humans, and they could survive indefinitely. Robots could also be miniaturized so they would require far less propulsion to send them on their way. Dyson’s robots would take a blueprint or template that would enable them to create more self-replicating robots. On arrival at a suitable asteroid or planet they would establish a base and set up a means of generating and storing energy. They would then extract and refine minerals and eventually build factories with assembly lines for creating more autonomous robots, each with its own copy of the blueprint, and a propulsion system for the colonization of other star systems. Dyson called these robots astro-chickens. They would travel between the stars as cosmic eggs, hatch on arrival at a suitable destination, then create and disperse the next generation of cosmic eggs. There is no reason, in principle, why super-advanced civilizations could not create such robot explorers. They could attain high speeds as cosmic eggs using some sort of nuclear fusion engine, perhaps. The diameter of our galaxy is about 100,000 light years. Traveling between stars at a significant fraction of the speed of light, the astro-chickens could colonize the entire galaxy in under one million years, which is not long by astronomical or evolutionary time-scales. So where are the astro-chickens? No artefact of an alien civilization has ever been discovered. But, if alien civilizations exist, it might be easier to find their robot descendants than the original aliens. Maybe they are closer than we think. In fact, I have already created my own design for an autonomous, self-replicating robot, which you can witness here on my laptop. Prepare to be enthralled!
Researchers have suspected for some time that the link between our gut and brain plays a role in the development of Parkinson’s disease.
A new study just identified gut microbes likely to be involved and linked them with decreased riboflavin (vitamin B2) and biotin (vitamin B7), pointing the way to an unexpectedly simple treatment that may help: B vitamins.
“Supplementation of riboflavin and/or biotin is likely to be beneficial in a subset of Parkinson’s disease patients, in which gut dysbiosis plays pivotal roles,” Nagoya University medical researcher Hiroshi Nishiwaki and colleagues write in their published paper.
