Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have come up with a way to manipulate tungsten diselenide (WSe2)—a promising two-dimensional material—to further unlock its potential to enable faster, more efficient computing, and even quantum information processing and storage. Their findings were published today in Nature Communications. Across the globe, researchers have been heavily focused on a class of…
Revolutionary Microfluidics-Enabled Manufacturing of Macroscopic Graphene Fibers
A team of researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has developed a new microfluidics-assisted technique for developing high-performance macroscopic graphene fibers. Graphene fiber, a recently discovered member of the carbon fiber family, has potential applications in diverse technological areas, from energy storage, electronics and optics, electro-magnetics, thermal conductor and thermal management, to structural applications. Their findings…
Light-matter Interaction Improves Electronic and Optoelectronic Devices
A paper published in Nature Communications by Sufei Shi, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, increases our understanding of how light interacts with atomically thin semiconductors and creates unique excitonic complex particles, multiple electrons, and holes strongly bound together. These particles possess a new quantum degree of freedom, called “valley…
Research on Light-Matter Interaction Could Improve Electronic and Optoelectronic Devices
A paper published in Nature Communications by Sufei Shi, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering at Rensselaer, increases our understanding of how light interacts with atomically thin semiconductors and creates unique excitonic complex particles, multiple electrons, and holes strongly bound together. These particles possess a new quantum degree of freedom, called “valley spin.” The…
Success of Blood Test for Autism Affirmed
One year after researchers published their work on a physiological test for autism, a follow-up study confirms its exceptional success in assessing whether a child is on the autism spectrum. A physiological test that supports a clinician’s diagnostic process has the potential to lower the age at which children are diagnosed, leading to earlier treatment.…
Success of Blood Test for Autism Affirmed
One year after researchers published their work on a physiological test for autism, a follow-up study confirms its exceptional success in assessing whether a child is on the autism spectrum. A physiological test that supports a clinician’s diagnostic process has the potential to lower the age at which children are diagnosed, leading to earlier treatment.…
Scientists Uncover Potential Blood Test for Identifying Autism
An algorithm based on levels of metabolites found in a blood sample can accurately predict whether a child is on the Autism spectrum of disorder (ASD), based upon a recent study. The algorithm, developed by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is the first physiological test for autism and opens the door to earlier diagnosis and…
Zooplankton Rapidly Evolve Tolerance to Road Salt
A common species of zooplankton–the smallest animals in the freshwater food web–can evolve genetic tolerance to moderate levels of road salt in as little as two and a half months, according to new research published online today in the journal Environmental Pollution. The study is the first to demonstrate that the animals can rapidly evolve higher…
Extraterrestrial Impact Proceeded Ancient Global Warming Event
A comet strike may have triggered the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), a rapid warming of the Earth caused by an accumulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide 56 million years ago, which offers analogs to global warming today. Sorting through samples of sediment from the time period, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute discovered evidence of the strike…
A New Approach to Building Efficient Thermoelectric Nanomaterials
By doping a thermoelectric material with minute amounts of sulfur, a team of researchers has found a new path to large improvements in the efficiency of materials for solid-state heating and cooling and waste energy recapture. This approach profoundly alters the electronic band structure of the material – bismuth telluride selenide—improving the so-called “figure of…