Communications
Physicists entangle artificial atom with light particle
November 26, 2012 12:57 pm | by Fabio Bergamin | News | CommentsA team of researchers in Switzerland has succeeded in entangling an “artificial” atom and a light particle for the first time in a semiconductor system. Though impractical for use in actual semiconductor devices, the successful demonstration of entanglement of a stationary atom is a promising step toward a new form of telecommunication based on quantum physics.
Smartphones, labs to reveal health effects of environmental pollutants
November 20, 2012 10:27 am | News | CommentsA major new initiative in the European Union is being launched to build a complete picture of how environmental pollutants influence health. Researchers are being asked to use smartphones equipped with GPS and environmental sensors to monitor study participants and their exposure to potential hazards. This information will be combined with blood and urine analysis to investigate whether exposure to risk factors leaves chemical fingerprints that can be detected in bodily fluids.
Antenna-on-a-chip rips the light fantastic
November 16, 2012 3:08 pm | News | CommentsA device that looks like a tiny washboard may clean the clocks of current commercial products used to manipulate infrared light. New research from a Rice University laboratory has produced a micron-scale spatial light modulator like those used in sensing and imaging devices, but with the potential to run orders of magnitude faster. Unlike other devices in 2D semiconducting chips, the Rice chips work in 3D "free space."
Stanford researchers take first step toward quantum cryptography
November 16, 2012 9:53 am | News | CommentsQuantum mechanics offers the potential to create absolutely secure telecommunications networks by harnessing a fundamental phenomenon of quantum particles. Now, a team of Stanford University physicists has demonstrated a crucial first step in creating a quantum telecommunications device that could be built and implemented using existing infrastructure.
Researchers find way to boost WiFi performance
November 14, 2012 8:05 am | News | CommentsAs many WiFi users know, WiFi performance is often poor in areas where there are a lot of users, such as airports or coffee shops. But researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a new software program, called WiFox, which can be incorporated into existing networks and expedites data traffic in large audience WiFi environments—improving data throughput by up to 700%.
Toyota tests cars that communicate with each other
November 12, 2012 4:45 pm | by Yuri Kageyama, AP Business Writer | News | CommentsToyota Motor Corp. is testing car safety systems that allow vehicles to communicate with each other and with the roads they are on in a just completed facility in Japan. The size of three baseball stadiums, the Intelligent Transport System site hosts a fleet of cars that receive information from sensors and transmitters installed on the streets. The sensors help to minimize the risk of accidents in situations such as missing a red traffic light, cars advancing from blind spots, and pedestrians crossing the street.
Big noise about light's quantum breakthrough
November 12, 2012 11:22 am | News | CommentsResearch physicists have demonstrated the first device capable of amplifying the information in a single particle of light without adding noise. The research team was able to amplify the noisy quantum state of a single photon subjected to loss, without adding noise in the process; in fact, their amplification reduced the noise in the quantum state.
Mobile app helps migraine suffers track, analyze pain
November 6, 2012 9:42 am | News | CommentsA new iPhone app developed at the University of Michigan lets migraine or facial pain patients easily track and record their pain, which in turn helps the treating clinician develop a pain management plan.
Soundtrack to history: 1878 Edison audio unveiled
October 25, 2012 10:29 am | by Chris Carola, Associated Press | News | CommentsThe modern masses can now listen to what experts say is the oldest playable recording of an American voice and the first-ever capturing of a musical performance, thanks to digital advances that allowed the sound to be transferred from flimsy tinfoil to computer. The 78-second recording was originally made on a Thomas Edison-invented phonograph, and features both music and the first recorded blooper.
Neutron experiments give unprecedented look at quantum oscillations
October 23, 2012 12:03 pm | News | CommentsResearchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have found that nitrogen atoms in the compound uranium nitride exhibit unexpected, distinct vibrations that form a nearly ideal realization of a physics textbook model known as the isotropic quantum harmonic oscillator.
Google opens window into secretive data centers
October 17, 2012 3:40 pm | by Michael Liedtke, AP Technology Writer | News | CommentsThrough a new website unveiled Wednesday, Google is opening a virtual window into the secretive data centers where an intricate maze of computers process Internet search requests, show YouTube video clips, and distribute email for millions of people. The photographic access to Google's data centers coincides with the publication of a Wired magazine article about how the company builds and operates them.
Training light to cool the material it strikes
October 17, 2012 9:30 am | News | CommentsLight might one day be used to cool the materials through which it passes, instead of heating them, thanks to a breakthrough by engineers at Lehigh and Johns Hopkins Universities. The discovery could lead to smaller, lighter, and cheaper communication devices with faster switching times, increased output, and higher operating voltages.
How Huygens landed on Titan
October 16, 2012 12:10 pm | by Jia-Rui Cook/JPL and Daniel Stolte/UANews | News | CommentsScientists have pieced together the sequence of events of the farthest touchdown a man-made spacecraft has ever made on an alien world. Their work in tracking the bounces, wobbles, and skids the probe made before coming to rest on Titan reveals new clues about the Saturn moon’s surface and helps plan future missions to moons and planets.
New software is like a Rosetta Stone for spectrometry data
October 9, 2012 3:46 pm | News | CommentsAfter leading mass spectrometer manufacturers agreed to license technology that has enabled researchers to develop software allows scientists to easily use and share research data collected across proprietary instrument platforms. Called the ProteoWizard Toolkit, this cross-platform set of libraries and applications is expected to bolster large-scale biological research and help improve the understanding of complex diseases like cancer.
Building 3D structures from a 2D template
October 8, 2012 9:36 am | News | CommentsSilicon is used in components, e.g. filters or deflectors, for telecommunications. So far, however, all these components have been flat, or 2D. Researchers have developed a new etching method for these structures that results 3D microstructures in silicon. Suitable for fiber optic communications, their optical properties are adjustable at the micrometer scale.
Research describes longest fiber-optic sensor network yet
October 1, 2012 7:57 am | News | CommentsDesign for remotely monitoring large infrastructures, the longest fiber-optic sensor network yet designed would measure 250 km in length and be equipped with multiplexing technology to allow multiple information channels to be carried. Theorized by a researcher in Spain, the network would allow long-distance analysis with requiring a power source for the sensors.
Module sends wireless data at much higher speeds
October 1, 2012 5:34 am | News | CommentsDigital cameras and camcorders deliver high resolution film sequences that are several gigabytes in size. These can take several minutes to transfer wirelessly to your home computer via Bluetooth. A researcher in Germany has come up with a speedier alternative: a “multi-gigabit communication module” that is six times faster than a USB cable.
Signature of long-sought particle could advance quantum computing
September 26, 2012 3:19 am | News | CommentsA Purdue University physicist, Leonid Rokhinson, has observed evidence of long-sought Majorana fermions, special particles that could unleash the potential of fault-tolerant quantum computing. Rokhinson led a team that is the first to successfully demonstrate the fractional a.c. Josephson effect, which is a signature of the particles.
Automatic building mapping could help emergency responders
September 24, 2012 2:47 pm | by Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office | News | CommentsA prototype sensor array built by Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineers can be worn on the chest and automatically maps the wearer’s environment, recognizing movement between floors. The prototype system is envisioned as a tool to help emergency responders coordinate disaster response.
Study broadens understanding of quantum mechanics
September 24, 2012 4:21 am | News | CommentsFormer and current University of Southern California Dornsife physicists have led a study that represents the first, quantitative account of the universal features of disordered bosons, or quantum particles, in magnetic materials. The study broadens our understanding of quantum mechanics and challenges accepted predication in quantum theory.
New airport system facilitates smoother take-offs and landings
September 19, 2012 9:23 am | News | CommentsFor airline passengers who dread bumpy rides to mountainous destinations, help may be on the way. A new turbulence avoidance system, developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research, has for the first time been approved for use at a U.S. airport and can be adapted for additional airports in rugged settings across the United States and overseas.
New technology for at-home diagnoses of ear infections
September 19, 2012 5:11 am | News | CommentsA new pediatric medical devices being developed by Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University could make life easier for parents who have rushed to the doctor with a child screaming from an ear infection. Soon, parents may be able to skip the doctor's visit and receive a diagnosis without leaving home by using Remotoscope, a clip-on attachment and software app that turns an iPhone into an otoscope.
Accelrys to streamline lab-to-market with process and compliance suite
September 18, 2012 4:35 am | News | CommentsDesigned to improve the way businesses manage the scientific innovation lifecycle, the new Accelrys Process Management and Compliance Suite unifies Accelrys Inc.’s lifecycle management software offerings, covering the ground between product development and process execution. It is geared to help companies bring products to market faster and at a lower cost, while meeting critical quality and regulatory compliance objectives.
New 'ATM' takes old phones and gives back green
September 17, 2012 10:09 am | News | CommentsDeveloped by a company in San Diego, a new automated system that lets consumers trade in cell phones and mobile devices for reimbursement or recycling relies artificial intelliigence and sophisticated machine vision diagnostics. The building blocks for the ecoATM have existed for many years, but none, until now, have been applied to the particular problem of consumer recycling.
The first mammalian “cell phone”
September 17, 2012 5:38 am | by Peter Rüegg | News | CommentsResearchers from in Zurich have literally created a “cell phone” from reprogrammed mammalian cells. Using suitable signal molecules and “devices” constructed from biological components, including genes and proteins, the researchers have achieved a synthetic two-way communication system inside a biological cell that also responds to concentration differences in the signal molecules.
