Information Technologies
Researchers call for marine observation network
April 11, 2013 3:31 am | News | CommentsA comprehensive marine biodiversity observation network could be established with modest funding within five years, according to a recently published assessment from a team led by J. Emmett Duffy of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Such a network, they say, would fill major gaps in scientists' understanding of the global distribution of marine organisms.
Doctors use brain scans to “see” and measure pain
April 11, 2013 3:24 am | by Marilynn Marchione, AP Chief Medical Writer | News | CommentsIn a provocative new study, scientists reported Wednesday that they were able to "see" pain on brain scans and, for the first time, measure its intensity and tell whether a drug was relieving it. Though the research is in its early stages, it opens the door to a host of possibilities. For example, scans might be used someday to tell when pain is hurting a baby, someone with dementia, or a paralyzed person unable to talk.
Widely used index may have overestimated drought
April 8, 2013 6:26 pm | News | CommentsFor decades, scientists have used sophisticated instruments and computer models to predict the nature of droughts. The majority of these models have steadily predicted an increasingly frequent and severe global drought cycle. But a recent study from a team of researchers in the United State and Australia suggests that one of these widely used tools—the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI)—may be incorrect.
Thin, low Arctic clouds an important key to Greenland Ice Sheet melt
April 5, 2013 6:06 pm | News | CommentsAccording to a new study by scientists funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), clouds over the central Greenland Ice Sheet last July were "just right" for driving surface temperatures there above the melting point. The 2012 melt illustrates the often-overlooked role that clouds play in climate change. Current models don’t do enough, says researchers, to account for their effects.
MRI-guided laser treatment for brain tumors is promising
April 5, 2013 4:37 pm | News | CommentsThe NeuroBlate Thermal Therapy System is a new device that uses a minimally invasive, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided laser system to coagulate, or heat and kill, brain tumors. The MRI basically "cooks" brain tumors in a controlled fashion to destroy them. The first-in-human study of the system finds that it appears to provide a new, safe and minimally invasive procedure for treating recurrent glioblastoma, a malignant type of brain tumor.
Supercomputer assists in crunching LHC data
April 5, 2013 9:42 am | News | CommentsGordon, the unique supercomputer launched last year by the San Diego Supercomputer Center at the University of California, San Diego, recently completed its most data-intensive task so far: rapidly processing raw data from almost one billion particle collisions as part of a project to help define the future research agenda for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Camera system creates high-resolution 3D images from up to a kilometer away
April 4, 2013 12:35 pm | News | CommentsA standard camera takes flat, 2D pictures. To get 3D information, such as the distance to a far-away object, scientists can bounce a laser beam off the object and measure how long it takes the light to travel back to a detector. The technique, called time-of-flight (ToF) has a relatively short range and struggles to image objects that do not reflect laser light well. A team of Scotland-based physicists has recently tackled these limitations.
Scientists use cloud of atoms as optical memory device
April 4, 2013 9:11 am | News | CommentsTalk about storing data in the cloud. Scientists at the Joint Quantum Institute of NIST and the University of Maryland have taken this to a whole new level by demonstrating that they can store visual images within quite an ethereal memory device—a thin vapor of rubidium atoms. The effort may prove helpful in creating memory for quantum computers.
Quantum tricks drive magnetic switching into the fast lane
April 4, 2013 9:00 am | News | CommentsResearchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, Iowa State University, and the University of Crete in Greece have found a new way to switch magnetism that is at least 1000 times faster than currently used in magnetic memory technologies. Magnetic switching is used to encode information in hard drives, magnetic random access memory, and other computing devices.
Extreme algae blooms the new normal?
April 4, 2013 7:36 am | News | CommentsIn 2011, Lake Erie experienced a record-breaking algae bloom that began in the lake's Western region in mid-July and eventually covered an area of 230 square miles. At its peak in October, the bloom had expanded to more than 1,930 square miles, three times greater than any other bloom on record. According to recent research, the bloom was triggered by long-term agricultural practices coupled with extreme precipitation, followed by weak lake circulation and warm temperatures.
ORNL microscopy uncovers “dancing” silicon atoms in graphene
April 3, 2013 4:17 pm | News | CommentsJumping silicon atoms are the stars of an atomic scale ballet featured in a new Nature Communications study from the U.S. Department of Energy(DOE)'s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The ORNL research team documented the atoms' unique behavior by first trapping groups of silicon atoms, known as clusters, in a single-atom-thick sheet of carbon called graphene.
Open Photonics, VTT collaborate on spectral engine technologies
April 3, 2013 3:09 pm | News | CommentsOrlando-based photonics technology acceleration company Open Photonics Inc. and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland have announced a partnership to accelerate the commercialization of VTT’s advanced Fabry-Perot visible and infrared spectroscopy and spectral imaging technologies.
Manipulating ultrafast spin at terahertz frequencies
April 3, 2013 10:46 am | News | CommentsThe use of femtosecond light pulses—the fastest man-made event—with photon energies ranging from X-rays (as used for instance at the HZB femto-slicing facility) to terahertz spectral range has proved to be an indispensable tool in ultrafast spin and magnetization dynamics studies. Researchers have recently demonstrated a simple but powerful way of manipulating the spins at these unprecedented speeds.
Telerobotic system designed to treat bladder cancer
April 3, 2013 9:18 am | by David Salisbury, Vanderbilt University | News | CommentsAlthough bladder cancer is the sixth most common form of cancer in the U.S. and the most expensive to treat, the basic method that doctors use to treat it hasn’t changed much in more than 70 years. A research team may soon be changing that dramatically after having developed a prototype telerobotic platform designed to be inserted through natural orifices—in this case the urethra—that can provide surgeons with a much better view, making it easier to remove tumors.
Project will improve heat dissipation in 3D microelectronic systems
April 2, 2013 1:15 pm | News | CommentsResearchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have won a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract to develop 3D chip-cooling technology able to handle heat loads as much as ten times greater than systems commonly used today. In addition to higher overall chip heat dissipation demands, the new approach will also have to handle on-chip hot-spots that dissipate considerably more power per unit area than the remainder of the device. Such cooling demands may be needed for future generations of high-performance integrated circuits embedded in a wide range of military equipment.
Switch to a power stroke enables tiny marine crustacean to survive
April 2, 2013 12:59 pm | News | CommentsOlympic swimmers aren’t the only ones who change their strokes to escape competitors. To escape from the jaws and claws of predators in cold, viscous water, marine copepods switch from a wave-like swimming stroke to big power strokes, a behavior that has now been revealed thanks to 3D high-speed digital holography.
Nanoengineered plastic film is the future of 3D on-the-go
April 2, 2013 12:40 pm | News | CommentsDitch the 3D glasses. Thanks to a simple plastic filter, mobile device users can now view unprecedented, distortion-free, brilliant 3D content with the naked eye. This latest innovation from researchers in Singapore is the first ever glasses-free 3D accessory that can display content in both portrait and landscape mode, and measures less than 0.1 mm in thickness.
Quantum dot commands light
April 2, 2013 10:06 am | by E. Edwards, JQI | News | CommentsAll computers, even the future quantum versions, use logic operations or “gates,” which are the fundamental building blocks of computational processes. Joint Quantum Institute scientists, led by Professor Edo Waks, have performed an ultrafast logic gate on a photon, using a semiconductor quantum dot. The logic is a Controlled-NOT gate, which is significant because it can serve as the basis for any quantum information protocol.
Another step toward quantum computers: Using photons for memory
April 1, 2013 1:57 pm | News | CommentsScientists at Yale University have found a new way to manipulate microwave signals that could aid the long-term effort to develop a quantum computer, a powerful tool that would revolutionize information processing through unprecedented speed and power. The researchers created an artificial medium in which photons repel photons, allowing for efficient, non-destructive encoding and manipulation of quantum information.
Models will enable safer deepwater oil production
April 1, 2013 11:08 am | News | CommentsRice University researchers are developing a comprehensive model that will predict how brine, oil, and gas drawn from ultradeep wells react to everything encountered on the way up to the surface and to suggest strategies to maintain the flow.
Acoustic time delay device could reduce size, cost of phased-array systems
April 1, 2013 7:51 am | News | CommentsRadar systems today depend increasingly on phased-array antennas, an advanced design in which extensive grids of solid-state components direct signal beams electronically. Phased-array technology is replacing traditional electromechanical radar antennas because stationary solid-state electronics are faster, more precise, and more reliable than moving mechanical parts. Yet phased-array antennas, which require bulky supporting electronics, can be as large as older systems. To address this issue, a research team from the Georgia Institute of Technology has developed a novel device.
High-efficiency neutron imaging detector features new oblique design
March 31, 2013 6:53 pm | News | CommentsTo increase the neutron detection efficiency of bulk-micromegas (MICRO-MEsh GAseous Structure) neutron detectors, researchers from China and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville have proposed three new types of thin-film converters: micro-channel, parallel micro-pillar, and oblique micro-pillar 2D array. When validated using Monte Carlo simulations, the latter design showed a threefold increase in neutron detection efficiencies.
New models predict drastically greener Arctic in coming decades
March 31, 2013 6:48 pm | News | CommentsResearchers from several universities, AT&T Labs, and the American Museum of Natural History have built new models that show a widespread redistribution of Arctic vegetation. They say their findings predict a massive “greening” in the Arctic, as much as 50% in over the next few decades. This transition will help accelerate climate warming, they add.
Scientists in Korea develop low-power 60 GHz RF chip for mobile devices
March 31, 2013 6:44 pm | News | CommentsAs a possible method for accelerating transmission of large data, researchers are studying the adoption of gigabits per second (Gbps) wireless communications operating over the 60 GHz radio frequency (RF) band. But mobile applications have not been developed yet because the 60 GHz RF circuit consumes hundreds of milliwatts of DC power. A new chip developed at KAIST in Korea, however, consumes as little 67 mW of power thanks to newly developed components.
Apple patents iPhone with wraparound display
March 29, 2013 4:47 pm | by PETER SVENSSON - AP Technology Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsApple is seeking a patent for an iPhone that has a display that wraps around the edges of the device, expanding the viewable area and eliminating all physical buttons. The patent application reveals that Apple has put some thought into a device that takes advantage of a new generation of displays, which don't have to be flat and rigid like today's liquid-crystal displays, or LCDs.
