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Archive for the ‘electronics’ category: Page 12

Dec 8, 2023

Evaluating Sampling Methods for Finding Life Beyond Earth

Posted by in categories: alien life, electronics

Can amino acids, the key building blocks of life, survive high-speed impacts from a spacecraft orbiting another world? This is what a recent study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) hopes to find out as a team of researchers at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) conducted laboratory experiments to see if biosignature molecules identified in the plumes of Saturn’s icy moon, Enceladus, by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft could survive hypervelocity impacts experienced by Cassini passing through the plumes. This study is a first-of-its-kind to investigate how extraterrestrial plumes can be analyzed and holds the potential to help researchers develop more efficient techniques for finding extraterrestrial life beyond Earth.

For the study, the researchers used the custom-built Hypervelocity Ice Grain Impact Mass Spectrometer to investigate if ice grains being shot out of Enceladus’s plumes at 800 mph (400m/s) could have survived after striking Cassinis’ detectors, which were estimated between 4 to 10.9 mi/s (6.5 to 17.5 km/s). For the tests, the team shot water through a needle at a high voltage, which caused it to break down into droplets followed by them entering a vacuum where they freeze, and the team used the spectrometer to measure the results of the grains impacting a microchannel plate detector. The results demonstrated that amino acids within ice grains could survive up to impacts of 2.6 miles per second (4.2 km/s), which the team says could serve as a baseline for sampling such plumes.

“To get an idea of what kind of life may be possible in the solar system, you want to know there hasn’t been a lot of molecular fragmentation in the sampled ice grains, so you can get that fingerprint of whatever it is that makes it a self-contained life form,” said Dr. Robert Continetti, who is a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCSD and a co-author on the study. “Our work shows that this is possible with the ice plumes of Enceladus.”

Nov 30, 2023

Google’s Nest cameras can now tell you when your garage door is left open

Posted by in categories: electronics, security

Google’s adding a new garage door detection feature to its Nest security cameras that will alert you if your garage door has been left open. The company is also bringing the first-gen Google Nest Outdoor Cam to the Google Home app and finally allowing Nest Cam users to create custom clips in the Google Home app.

These new features are part of the Google Home app’s public preview and are rolling out this week. Adina Roth, product manager of Google Home & Nest, announced the updates in a blog post on Wednesday.

Nov 30, 2023

First 360-degree cameras in space capture incredible images of Earth

Posted by in categories: electronics, satellites

The first 360-degree cameras sent to space have captured incredible, high-definition images of Earth like never before seen.

Chinese tech company Insta360 recently unveiled the breathtaking photos of the blue planet against the deep darkness of space which were taken by its two cameras attached to satellites orbiting Earth.

Insta360 launched the satellites with the 360-degree action cameras attached about 310 miles into space on Jan. 16 after beginning the project in July 2021.

Nov 23, 2023

PhD student engineers potato plant that sniffs out nuclear radiations

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, electronics

The bioengineered potato plant provides a reliable indicator of potentially hazardous radiation levels without requiring complicated sensor machines or monitoring methods.


UTIA

Referred to as a phytosensor, it is a type of sensor or detector that detects certain compounds or environmental conditions by using plants (phyto-meaning plant).

Nov 15, 2023

Single molecule makes a sensitive pressure and force sensor

Posted by in category: electronics

Researchers detect and control how a single piezoresisitive molecule changes shape when a mechanical force is applied to it.

Nov 15, 2023

Elusive egg-laying mammal caught on camera for the first time

Posted by in category: electronics

Rediscovered after 60 years, the funky critter is named for Sir Richard Attenborough and is one of only five species of monotreme remaining on Earth.

Oct 30, 2023

Biosynthesis of magnetic sensor in magnetic bacteria revealed through expression of foreign proteins

Posted by in categories: electronics, particle physics

A German-French research team led by Bayreuth microbiologist Dirk Schüler presents new findings on the functionality of proteins in magnetic bacteria in the journal mBio. The research is based on previous results published recently in the same journal.

In this study, the Bayreuth scientists used of the species Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense to decipher the function of genes that are presumably involved in the biosynthesis of magnetosomes in other magnetic bacteria that are difficult to access.

Magnetic bacteria contain consisting of nanocrystals of an iron mineral inside their cells. These organelle-like particles are known in research as magnetosomes. Like links in a chain, well over 20 of these particles are regularly lined up one after the other. The magnetic moments of the individual crystals add up so that the chain—similar to a compass needle—has the function of a magnetic sensor: It aligns the bacterial cell in the relatively weak magnetic field of the Earth.

Oct 19, 2023

Researchers test seafloor fiber optic cable as an earthquake early warning system

Posted by in category: electronics

One of the biggest challenges for earthquake early warning systems (EEW) is the lack of seismic stations located offshore of heavily populated coastlines, where some of the world’s most seismically active regions are located.

In a new study published in The Seismic Record, researchers show how unused telecommunications fiber can be transformed for offshore EEW.

Jiuxun Yin, a Caltech researcher now at SLB, and colleagues used 50 kilometers of a submarine telecom cable running between the United States and Chile, sampling at 8,960 channels along the cable for four days. The technique, called Distributed Acoustic Sensing or DAS, uses the tiny internal flaws in a long optical fiber as thousands of seismic sensors.

Oct 13, 2023

Matching a Measurement to a Quantum State

Posted by in categories: electronics, quantum physics

A new method identifies the most sensitive measurement that can be performed using a given quantum state, knowledge key for designing improved quantum sensors.

A quantum sensor is a device that can leverage quantum behaviors, such as quantum entanglement, coherence, and superposition, to enhance the measurement capabilities of a classical detector [1–5]. For example, the LIGO gravitational-wave detector employs entangled states of light to improve the distance-measurement capabilities of its interferometer arms, allowing the detection of distance changes 10,000 times smaller than the width of a proton. Typically, quantum sensors use systems prepared in special quantum states known as probe states. Finding the ideal probe state for a given measurement is a focus of many research endeavors. Now Jarrod Reilly of the University of Colorado Boulder and his colleagues have developed a new framework for optimizing this search [6].

Oct 6, 2023

Bill Gates and Samsung develop toilet that combusts waste “into ashes”

Posted by in category: electronics

Year 2022 This toilet looks promising essentially turning waste into ashes.


Billionaire Bill Gates has partnered with electronics company Samsung to create a prototype waterless toilet for household use that turns solid waste into ashes.

The toilet was developed as part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Reinvent the Toilet Challenge – an initiative that started in 2011 that sought proposals for toilets that safely and effectively manage human waste.

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