Many real-world complex systems include macroscopic subsystems which influence one another. This arises, for example, in competing or mutually reinforcing neural populations in the brain, spreading dynamics of viruses, and elsewhere. It is therefore important to understand how different types of inter-system interactions can influence overall collective behaviors. In 2010 substantial progress was made when the theory…
Optical Fiber Sensors Protected by ‘Jacket’ Coating
Optical fibers enable the Internet, and they are practically everywhere: underground and beneath the oceans. Fibers can do more than just carry information: they are also fantastic sensors. Hair-thin optical fibers support measurements over hundreds of km, may be embedded in almost any structure, operate in hazardous environments and withstand electro-magnetic interference. Recently a major…
Pressure Tuned Magnetism Paves the Way for Novel Electronic Devices
Researchers Map Light and Sound Wave Interactions in Optical Fibers
Optical fibers make the internet happen. They are fine threads of glass, as thin as a human hair, produced to transmit light. Optical fibers carry thousands of Giga bits of data per second across the world and back. The same fibers also guide ultrasound waves, somewhat similar to those used in medical imaging. These two…
Nano Eye Drops Improve Nearsightedness and Farsightedness
A revolutionary, cutting-edge technology, developed by researchers at Bar-Ilan University’s Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials (BINA), has the potential to provide a new alternative to eyeglasses, contact lenses, and laser correction for refractive errors. The technology, known as Nano-Drops, was developed by Dr. David Smadja (Ophthalmologist from Shaare Zedek Medical Center), Professor Zeev Zalevsky,…
Forging a Quantum Leap in Quantum Communication
Quantum communication, which ensures absolute data security, is one of the most advanced branches of the “second quantum revolution”. In quantum communication, the participating parties can detect any attempt at eavesdropping by resorting to the fundamental principle of quantum mechanics – a measurement affects the measured quantity. Thus, the mere existence of an eavesdropper can…
Researchers Discover a New Type of Memory Effect in Transition Metal Oxides
Transition metal oxides (TMO) are extensively studied, technologically important materials, due to their complex electronic interactions, resulting in a large variety of collective phenomena. Memory effects in TMO’s have garnered a huge amount of interest, being both of fundamental scientific interest and technological significance. Dr. Amos Sharoni of Bar-Ilan University’s Department of Physics, and Institute…
Scientists Create a Nano-Trampoline to Probe Quantum Behavior
A research group from Bar-Ilan University, in collaboration with French colleagues at CNRS Grenoble, has developed a unique experiment to detect quantum events in ultra-thin films. This novel research, to be published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, enhances the understanding of basic phenomena that occur in nano-sized systems close to absolute zero temperature. Transitions,…
Genome of 6K Year-Old Barley Grains Sequenced for First Time
An international team of researchers has succeeded for the first time in sequencing the genome of Chalcolithic barley grains. This is the oldest plant genome to be reconstructed to date. The 6,000-year-old seeds were retrieved from Yoram Cave in the southern cliff of Masada fortress in the Judean Desert in Israel, close to the Dead…