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Sep 5, 2024

UVA Research Cracks the Autism Code, Making the Neurodivergent Brain Visible

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, neuroscience

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A multi-university research team co-led by University of Virginia engineering professor Gustavo K. Rohde has developed a system that can spot genetic markers of autism in brain images with 89 to 95% accuracy.

Their findings suggest doctors may one day see, classify and treat autism and related neurological conditions with this method, without having to rely on, or wait for, behavioral cues. And that means this truly personalized medicine could result in earlier interventions.

Continue reading “UVA Research Cracks the Autism Code, Making the Neurodivergent Brain Visible” »

Sep 5, 2024

Artemis 3 astronauts will walk on the moon with 4G-equipped spacesuits

Posted by in categories: mobile phones, space

For the Artemis 3 mission, we will be able to reach astronauts up to 2 kilometers away from the lander.

Sep 5, 2024

Longevity breakthrough: Scientists uncover key gene that extends lifespan

Posted by in categories: innovation, life extension

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — In the never-ending quest to unlock the secrets of a long and healthy life, researchers at the University of Copenhagen have made a remarkable discovery. Their study has identified a specific gene that plays a crucial role in extending longevity across various species, including humans.

Publishing their work in the journal Cell Reports, researchers say the gene in question is called OSER1, and it encodes a protein that the team has dubbed a “novel pro-longevity factor.”

“We identified this protein that can extend longevity. It is a novel pro-longevity factor, and it is a protein that exists in various animals, such as fruit flies, nematodes, silkworms, and in humans,” says Professor Lene Juel Rasmussen, the senior author behind the study, in a media release.

Sep 4, 2024

China spent more on chipmaking equipment than South Korea, Taiwan, and the U.S. combined — $25B in investments in the first half of the year

Posted by in categories: computing, economics

China’s investment is driven by a need to secure a stable supply of chips critical to various industries, which is why over a dozen Chinese fabs are coming online in 2024 and 2025. Therefore, this surge in spending is not limited to the country’s top-tier manufacturers, such as Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) and Hua Hong, but also includes significant contributions from smaller and mid-sized chipmakers. These investments enabled China to maintain its position as the world’s largest market for chipmaking equipment. Virtually all new Chinese fabs are focused on trailing nodes, as it is hard for Chinese companies to get the advanced tools required to make chips on leading-edge process technologies.

China is the only major market to increase its spending on fab tools compared to the previous year despite a global economic slowdown. In contrast, Taiwan, South Korea, and North America all reduced their investments in wafer fab equipment during the same period.

The spending surge in China has also significantly impacted chipmaking tool makers. Companies like Applied Materials, Lam Research, KLA from the U.S., Tokyo Electron from Japan, and ASML from the Netherlands have all reported increased revenue contributions from Chinese companies. Such contributions range from 32% at Applied to 49% at ASML.

Sep 4, 2024

Major leap for nuclear clock paves way for ultraprecise timekeeping

Posted by in category: physics

The world keeps time with the ticks of atomic clocks, but a new type of clock under development—a nuclear clock—could revolutionize how we measure time and probe fundamental physics.

Sep 4, 2024

Nanostructures enable on-chip lightwave-electronic frequency mixer

Posted by in categories: computing, nanotechnology

Now imagine a frequency mixer that works at a quadrillion (PHz, petahertz) times per second—up to a million times faster. This corresponds to the oscillations of the electric and magnetic fields that make up .

Petahertz-frequency mixers would allow us to shift signals up to and then back down to more conventional electronic frequencies, enabling the transmission and processing of vastly larger amounts of information at many times higher speeds. This leap in speed isn’t just about doing things faster; it’s about enabling entirely new capabilities.

Lightwave electronics (or petahertz electronics) is an emerging field that aims to integrate optical and electronic systems at incredibly high speeds, leveraging the ultrafast oscillations of light fields. The key idea is to harness the electric field of light waves, which oscillate on sub-femtosecond (10-15 seconds) timescales, to directly drive electronic processes.

Sep 4, 2024

Measuring the gamma-ray-to-neutron branching ratio in the deuterium-tritium reaction

Posted by in categories: nuclear energy, sustainability

Magnetic confinement fusion devices are technologies that can attain controlled nuclear fusion reactions, using magnetic fields to confine hot plasmas. These devices could contribute to the ongoing transition towards more sustainable energy production methods.

Sep 4, 2024

Seeing like a butterfly: Optical invention enhances camera capabilities

Posted by in categories: food, nanotechnology, robotics/AI

Butterflies can see more of the world than humans, including more colors and the field oscillation direction, or polarization, of light. This special ability enables them to navigate with precision, forage for food and communicate with one another. Other species, like the mantis shrimp, can sense an even wider spectrum of light, as well as the circular polarization, or spinning states, of light waves. They use this capability to signal a “love code,” which helps them find and be discovered by mates.

Inspired by these abilities in the animal kingdom, a team of researchers at the Penn State College of Engineering has developed an ultrathin optical element known as a metasurface, which can attach to a conventional camera and encode the spectral and polarization data of images captured in a snapshot or video through tiny, antenna-like nanostructures that tailor light properties. A machine learning framework, also developed by the team, then decodes this multi-dimensional visual information in real-time on a standard laptop.

The researchers have published their work in Science Advances.

Sep 4, 2024

Entangled photon pairs enable hidden image encoding

Posted by in categories: nanotechnology, quantum physics

Researchers at the Paris Institute of Nanoscience at Sorbonne University have developed a new method to encode images into the quantum correlations of photon pairs, making it invisible to conventional imaging techniques. The study is published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Sep 4, 2024

Chip that steers terahertz beams sets stage for ultrafast internet of the future

Posted by in categories: computing, internet

Imagine a future where internet connections are not only lightning-fast but also remarkably reliable, even in crowded spaces. This vision is rapidly approaching reality, thanks to new research on terahertz communications technologies. These innovations are set to transform wireless communication, particularly as communications technology advances toward the next generation of networks, 6G.

I’m an engineer who focuses on photonics, the study of how light and other electromagnetic waves are generated and detected. In this research, my colleagues and I have developed a silicon topological beamformer chip. The paper is published in the journal Nature. Topological.

Terahertz frequencies are crucial for 6G, which telecommunications companies plan to roll out around 2030. The radio frequency spectrum used by current wireless networks is becoming increasingly congested. Terahertz waves offer a solution by using the relatively unoccupied portion of the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and infrared. These higher frequencies can carry massive amounts of data, making them ideal for the data-intensive applications of the future.

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