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Unlike computers, cells in the brain use digital and analog signals at the same time to communicate with each other, researchers have found.

The finding contradicts the belief that nerve cells in the brain communicate with each other using digital code only.

In an analog system, signals can vary continuously, while digital systems represent signals by a series of pulses. The brain uses a mixture of the two to transmit signals among cells, researchers say.

The downscaling of electronic devices, such as transistors, has reached a plateau, posing challenges for semiconductor fabrication. However, a research team led by materials scientists from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) recently discovered a new strategy for developing highly versatile electronics with outstanding performance using transistors made of mixed-dimensional nanowires and nanoflakes.

This innovation paves the way for simplified chip circuit design, offering versatility and low power dissipation in future electronics. The findings, titled “Multifunctional anti-ambipolar electronics enabled by mixed-dimensional 1D GaAsSb/2D MoS₂ heterotransistors,” were published in the journal Device.

In recent decades, as the continuous scaling of transistors and integrated circuits has started to reach physical and economic limits, fabricating semiconductor devices in a controllable and cost-effective manner has become challenging. Further scaling of transistor size increases current leakage and thus power dissipation. Complex wiring networks also have an adverse impact on power consumption.

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Generating quantum correlations between light and microwaves.

Non-classical microwave–optical photon pair generation with a chip-scale transducer.

A transducer that generates microwave–optical photon pairs is demonstrated. This could provide an interface between optical communication networks and superconducting quantum devices that operate at microwave frequencies.

Argonne’s Science 101 series takes you back to the basics, with plain-language explanations of the scientific concepts behind our pivotal discoveries and our biggest innovations.

In this Science 101 video, postdoctoral researchers Gillian Beltz-Mohrmann and Florian Kéruzoré explore two of the biggest mysteries in science: dark matter and dark energy. These strange influences seem to be stretching the universe apart and clumping stuff together in unexpected ways. Together, they make up a whopping 95% of the universe, but because we can’t see or touch them, we don’t know what they are.

Continue reading “Science 101: What are Dark Matter and Dark Energy?” »

The increasing demand for ever-faster information processing has ushered in a new era of research focused on high-speed electronics operating at frequencies nearing terahertz and petahertz regimes. While existing electronic devices predominantly function in the gigahertz range, the forefront of electronics is pushing towards millimeter waves, and the first prototypes of high-speed transistors, hybrid photonic platforms, and terahertz metadevices are starting to bridge the electronic and optical domains.

However, characterizing and diagnosing such devices pose a significant challenge due to the limitations of available diagnostic tools, particularly in terms of speed and spatial resolution. How shall one measure a breakthrough device if it’s the fastest and smallest of its kind?

In response to this challenge, a team of researchers from the University of Konstanz now proposes an innovative solution: They create femtosecond electron pulses in a transmission electron microscope, compress them with infrared laser light to merely 80 femtosecond duration, and synchronize them to the inner fields of a laser-triggered electronic transmission line with the help of a photoconductive switch. Then, using a pump-probe approach, the researchers directly sense the local electromagnetic fields in their electronic devices as a function of space and time.

Scientists from the University of California San Diego and CEA-Leti have created a revolutionary piezoelectric-based DC-DC converter that unifies all power switches onto a single chip to increase power density. This new power topology, which extends beyond existing topologies, blends the advantages of piezoelectric converters with capacitive-based DC-DC converters.

The power converters the team developed are much smaller than the huge, bulky inductors currently used for this role. The devices could eventually be used for any type of DC-DC conversation, in everything from smartphones, to computers, to server farms and AR/VR headsets.

An exotic electronic state observed by MIT physicists could enable more robust forms of quantum computing.

The electron is the basic unit of electricity, as it carries a single negative charge. This is what we’re taught in high school physics, and it is overwhelmingly the case in most materials in nature.

But in very special states of matter, electrons can splinter into fractions of their whole. This phenomenon, known as “fractional charge,” is exceedingly rare, and if it can be corralled and controlled, the exotic electronic state could help to build resilient, fault-tolerant quantum computers.

Recycling previous metals from electronic waste is very expensive and, at a large scale, often requires exorbitant amounts of power and very expensive machines to recycle efficiently. However, scientists have discovered a food byproduct, whey protein, capable of recovering gold from electronic waste, making the recycling process substantially more efficient than it once was. With this byproduct, the energy cost of the entire recycling process can be 50 times lower than the value of the gold extracted from electronic components. The team found they could extract around 450mg of gold from 20 motherboards using this method.

This magical organic material comes in the form of whey proteins, a byproduct of dairy. Scientist Raffaele Mezzenga from the Department of Health Sciences and Technology discovered that an organic sponge made from whey proteins is exceptionally good at extracting metals from electronic components. To make this sponge, the scientists denature whey proteins under an acidic bath and high temperatures so the substance turns into a gel. Then, the scientists dry the gel, creating a sponge out of the whey protein fibrils.

But before the sponge can be used, the electronic waste must be prepared so it can do its job. First, electronic waste is dissolved in an acid bath to ionize the metals; then, the sponge is placed in the metal ion solution. Once in the bath, the ionized metals attach to the protein sponge, like a magnet picking up metal shavings. Mezzenga and his team of scientists discovered that most metal ions can adhere to the sponge, but gold ions do so a lot more efficiently.