Aalto University scientists have broken the world record by fourteen fold in the energy resolution of thermal photodetection. The record was made using a partially superconducting microwave detector. The discovery may lead to ultrasensitive cameras and accessories for the emerging quantum computer. The first of the two key enabling developments is the new detector design…
Discovery Could Better Predict How Semiconductors Weather Abuse
Mimicking nature is not easy, but new insights by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) could help create a viable artificial system of photosynthesis. One of the major challenges for scientists working to create systems that efficiently convert sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into fuel is finding materials that…
An App Knows if a Beer Has Gone Stale
Chemists at the Complutense University of Madrid have developed a method that allows brewers to measure the freshness of beer, using a polymer sensor that changes colour upon detecting furfural, a compound that appears when this beverage ages and gives it a stale flavour. The sensor can be controlled from a smartphone app also created…
Finger-Specific Key Presses Could Speed Up Computer Interaction
If you’re looking for a way to use a computer more efficiently, researchers at the University of Waterloo’s David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science may have a solution for you. Master’s candidate Jingjie Zheng and Professor Daniel Vogel have recently filed a patent that would allow computer users to trigger different shortcut commands by…
Crop Advances Grow With Protection
Most people are aware of open-source computer programs. These free programs, accessible by anyone, spread technology to distant corners of the world. Cutting-edge innovations, however, come at a price. As a result, many software companies license their work. These same concerns exist within the seed-development arena. Some plant researchers support the free exchange of new…
6 Fascinating Free Science Caches You Won’t Want to Miss
Here are just a few excellent online repositories that provide free viewing and downloads of fascinating scientific information, ranging from Einstein transcripts to NASA posters, from personal papers and letters to Feynman lectures, from Darwin manuscripts to high-resolution space program photos, and from diaries to virtual worlds. Nearly 3 Million Astonishing Earth Images NASA has…
Spikes of Silence: Anechoic Foam Covering
These spiky foam wedges, seen here in ESA’s Maxwell test chamber, cover the walls of facilities that simulate the endless void of space. This ‘anechoic’ foam absorbs radio signals, enabling radio-frequency testing without any distorting reflections from the chamber walls. In addition, it also absorbs sound — making these chambers eerily quiet places to work.…
Stephen Hawking Joins Futuristic Bid to Explore Outer Space
NEW YORK (AP) — With famed physicist Stephen Hawking at his side, an Internet investor announced April 12, 2016, that he’s spending $100 million on a futuristic plan to explore far outside our solar system. Yuri Milner said the eventual goal is sending hundreds or thousands of tiny spacecraft, each weighing far less than an…
Reprieve for NASA’s Planet-hunting Kepler Spacecraft
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL (AP) — To astronomers’ relief, NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has won another reprieve. The spacecraft — responsible for detecting thousands of planets beyond our solar system — slipped into emergency mode last week nearly 75 million miles from Earth. Ground controllers managed to stabilize the probe on Sunday, April 10, 2016, and…
12 Remarkable Robotics Reads
A new era of robotics is upon us, bring with it stories of science-fantasy robots; doctorless hospitals; learning how to tame robots; automatically controlling a 600-robot swarm; searching for electronic immortality; crowd-sourced flood data; humanoid robots; transferring real-time data from fire scenes; human-robot emergency response; falling in love with a robot; and establishing trust in…
Can I Trust My Robot? And Should My Robot Trust Me?
If we are serious about long-term human presence in space, such as manned bases on the moon or Mars, we must figure out how to streamline human-robot interactions. Right now, even the most basic of robots seem to have impenetrable brains. When I bought an autonomous vacuum cleaner, one that roams the house on its…
12 Amazing Modern Maps
We’ve seen some truly amazing stories of late about impressively sophisticated mapping techniques: a new map of the ocean floor based on Earth’s gravity field; entire buildings 3-D mapped in real time with a mobile device; citizen scientists use drones to map flooding; a spectacular new image of the Milky Way at submillimeter wavelengths; volunteer engineers,…
For First Time, Drone Delivers Package to Residential Area
RENO, NV (AP) — A drone has successfully delivered a package to a residential location in a small Nevada town in what its maker and the governor of the state said was the first fully autonomous urban drone delivery in the U.S. Flirtey CEO Matt Sweeney said the six-rotor drone flew about a half-mile along…
Barren Wasteland Transformed into Visually Stunning Representation of the Cosmos
A 55-acre “cosmic landscape worthy of the ancients” now occupies the site of a former open-pit coal mine in southern Scotland. Inspired by the themes of space, astronomy and cosmology, what was once a derelict site is now a truly stunning “artland” presenting a network of paths that navigate features and landforms representing the sun,…
Presidential Candidates Offer Sharp Differences on the Future of Renewable Energy
We are in the middle of a long-term global transition away from fossil fuels and toward more efficient, renewable-based energy systems. This shift will deliver many benefits, including jobs, reduced air pollution, lower greenhouse gas emissions and less exposure to the volatility and risks of extracting, storing and transporting fossil fuels. It also will offer…
Going Interstellar: Imagine Getting to Mars in Just 3 Days
Reaching the stars, or reducing our travel time to Mars and other planets, will require a method of travel that can approach relativistic speeds. Currently, missions launched during the most optimal launch windows, which occur every two years, take several months to reach the Red Planet. However, NASA researchers are working on a new laser…
GPS Accuracy Achieved Down to the Centimeter
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have developed a new, more computationally efficient way to process data from the Global Positioning System (GPS), to enhance location accuracy from the meter level down to a few centimeters. The optimization will be used in the development of autonomous vehicles, improved aviation and naval navigation systems, and…
NASA Envisions Exotic Cosmic Locales
“Imagination is our window into the future,” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) says. The leading U.S. center for the robotic exploration of the solar system, JPL is currently responsible for conducting missions with more than two dozen spacecraft and collaborates with Caltech on projects and missions at five NASA facilities: Infrared Processing and Analysis Center…
Improving Precision of Turbulence Simulations
Turbulence makes life difficult for the designers of cars or aircrafts. It cannot be simulated with absolute precision. Martin Oberlack, head of the Institute of Fluid Dynamics at TU Darmstadt, wants an original solution to the problem. Albert Einstein grins impishly from a poster on the wall in Professor Oberlack‘s office. Perhaps the genius already…
Brains vs. Blizzards: Harvard Students Take on Snow Removal
BOSTON (AP) — Winter is bearing down anew, and Harvard University students have been engineering new ways to deal with it. Eighteen juniors representing several engineering disciplines in professor David Mooney’s problem-solving and design class spent the fall semester inventing a robotic remote-control rooftop snowblower, a superheated icicle cutter and a freeze-resistant doormat. The projects…
Scientists Demonstrate Basics of Nucleic Acid Computing Inside Cells
Using strands of nucleic acid, scientists have demonstrated basic computing operations inside a living mammalian cell. The research could lead to an artificial sensing system that could control a cell’s behavior in response to such stimuli as the presence of toxins or the development of cancer. The research uses DNA strand displacement, a technology that…
NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Breaks Solar Power Distance Record
NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter has broken the record to become humanity’s most distant solar-powered emissary. The milestone occurred at 11 a.m. PST (2 p.m. EST, 19:00 UTC) on Wednesday, January 13, 2016, when Juno was about 493 million miles (793 million kilometers) from the sun. The previous record-holder was the European Space Agency’s Rosetta…
IEEE Women in Engineering Announces Keynote Speakers for Leadership Conference
PISCATAWAY, NJ ― IEEE announced the keynote speakers and agenda for its annual IEEE Women in Engineering International Leadership Conference (WIE ILC). WIE ILC is being held May 23 to 24, 2016 at the San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, CA. Air Force veteran, champion of women’s issues, and Vice Mayor of San Jose, Rose Herrera, will open the event…
Planetary Defense Coordination Office to Coordinate Asteroid Detection, Hazard Mitigation
NASA has formalized its ongoing program for detecting and tracking near-Earth objects (NEOs) as the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO). The office remains within NASA’s Planetary Science Division, in the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The office will be responsible for supervision of all NASA-funded projects to find and characterize asteroids and comets that…
How 3D Printing Threatens our Patent System
Remember Napster or Grokster? Both services allowed users to share computer files — usually digital music — that infringed the copyrights for those songs. Now imagine that, instead of music, you could download a physical object. Sounds like something from a sci-fi movie — push a button and there’s the item! But that scenario is…