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Archive for the ‘materials’ category: Page 172

Dec 8, 2020

Team develops component for neuromorphic computer

Posted by in categories: materials, robotics/AI

Neural networks are some of the most important tools in artificial intelligence (AI): they mimic the operation of the human brain and can reliably recognize texts, language and images, to name but a few. So far, they run on traditional processors in the form of adaptive software, but experts are working on an alternative concept, the ‘neuromorphic computer.’ In this case, the brain’s switching points—the neurons—are not simulated by software but reconstructed in hardware components. A team of researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) has now demonstrated a new approach to such hardware—targeted magnetic waves that are generated and divided in micrometer-sized wafers. Looking to the future, this could mean that optimization tasks and pattern recognition could be completed faster and more energy efficiently. The researchers have presented their results in the journal Physical Review Letters.

The team based its investigations on a tiny disc of the magnetic material iron nickel, with a diameter just a few micrometers wide. A gold ring is placed around this disc: When an alternating current in the gigahertz range flows through it, it emits microwaves that excite so-called in the disc. “The electrons in the iron nickel exhibit a spin, a sort of whirling on the spot rather like a spinning top,” Helmut Schultheiß, head of the Emmy Noether Group “Magnonics” at HZDR, explains. “We use the microwave impulses to throw the electron top slightly off course.” The electrons then pass on this disturbance to their respective neighbors—which causes a spin wave to shoot through the material. Information can be transported highly efficiently in this way without having to move the electrons themselves, which is what occurs in today’s computer chips.

Back in 2019, the Schultheiß group discovered something remarkable: under certain circumstances, the spin wave generated in the magnetic vortex can be split into two waves, each with a reduced frequency. “So-called non-linear effects are responsible for this,” explains Schultheiß’s colleague Lukas Körber. “They are only activated when the irradiated microwave power crosses a certain threshold.” Such behavior suggests spin waves as promising candidates for artificial neurons because there is an amazing parallel with the workings of the brain: these neurons also only fire when a certain stimulus threshold has been crossed.

Dec 7, 2020

Researchers Invent Material That Could Create Invisibility Cloak

Posted by in categories: cyborgs, materials

Cloak engaged.

Dec 6, 2020

“It was a beautiful fireball”: Japan space capsule carrying astroid samples lands in Australia

Posted by in categories: materials, space

It’s only the second time pristine astroid material has been brought back to Earth.


A Japanese space capsule carrying asteroid samples landed in a remote area of Australia as planned Saturday, Japan’s space agency, JAXA, said.

Why it matters via Axios’ Miriam Kramer: It’s only the second time pristine asteroid material has been brought back to Earth. Sample return missions like this one are incredibly valuable to scientists.

Continue reading “‘It was a beautiful fireball’: Japan space capsule carrying astroid samples lands in Australia” »

Dec 5, 2020

JAXA’s Hayabusa2 asteroid sample return capsule lands in Australia

Posted by in categories: materials, space

Hayabusa2’s sample return capsule has landed in Woomera, Australia, today, 5 December — or 6 December local time at Woomera. The exact landing location is now being determined, but a tweet from the mission’s official account says an estimated location of landing has been identified and teams are en route to recover it.

The craft returned not just asteroid surface material, but subsurface material (at first) as well, and will be met by Japanese scientists after completing its six-year mission to the asteroid 162173 Ryugu.

Continue reading “JAXA’s Hayabusa2 asteroid sample return capsule lands in Australia” »

Dec 4, 2020

Room Temperature Superconductors Will Change Everything

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, materials

From ultra high speed levitating trains to lifesaving MRI machines, superconductors are key to some of the world’s most cutting edge technology. But they require extremely low temperatures to work and have remained too expensive for everyday use. Now that could be about to change. With superconductors that work at room temperature, our technological ability is posed to make a giant leap forward.

Check out VICE News for more: http://vicenews.com.

Continue reading “Room Temperature Superconductors Will Change Everything” »

Dec 3, 2020

How to make Tesla Tower at home

Posted by in categories: energy, materials

Transmit Electricity wirelessly and surprise everyone. Make your own Tesla tower to transmit power wireless. The tower uses a tesla coil that is based on the concept of Electromagnetic force and resonance to transmit energy.
However, it doesn’t actually transmit electricity, all it does is excite the electrons on the walls of fluorescent or neon lights to make them glow.

For principle of operation and material links visit:
https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-a-Mini-Tesla-Tower/

Continue reading “How to make Tesla Tower at home” »

Dec 2, 2020

Physicists Observe Trippy ‘Vortex Rings’ in a Magnetic Material For The First Time

Posted by in categories: materials, physics

Wherever you have fluid, there you can also find vortex rings.

Now, scientists have found vortex rings somewhere fascinating — inside a tiny pillar made of a magnetic material, the gadolinium-cobalt intermetallic compound GdCo2.

If you’ve seen smoke rings, or bubble rings under water, you’ve seen vortex rings: doughnut-shaped vortices that form when fluid flows back on itself after being forced through a hole.

Dec 1, 2020

Camel Fur-Inspired Aerogel Cooling Material Uses No Electricity

Posted by in category: materials

MIT scientists developed a camel-fur-inspired material that could keep items cool in hot regions without using electricity.

Nov 26, 2020

Direct Visualization of Quantum Dots Reveals Shape of Quantum Wave Function of the Trapped Electrons

Posted by in categories: materials, quantum physics

Researchers used a scanning tunneling microscope to visualize quantum dots in bilayer graphene, an important step toward quantum information technologies.

Trapping and controlling electrons in bilayer graphene quantum dots yields a promising platform for quantum information technologies. Researchers at UC Santa Cruz have now achieved the first direct visualization of quantum dots in bilayer graphene, revealing the shape of the quantum wave function of the trapped electrons.

The results, published on November 23, 2020, in Nano Letters, provide important fundamental knowledge needed to develop quantum information technologies based on bilayer graphene quantum dots.

Nov 21, 2020

Hubble Captures a Black Hole’s ‘Shadow Beams’, Yawning Across Space

Posted by in categories: cosmology, materials

In images from the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists have spotted an entirely new phenomenon. Reaching tens of thousands of light-years into the void of space, vast shadows stretch from the centre of the galaxy IC 5063, as though something is blocking the bright light from therein.

You’ve probably seen something very like it before – bright beams from the Sun when it’s just below the horizon and clouds or mountains only partially block its light, known as crepuscular rays. According to astronomers, the shadows from IC 5063 could be something very similar. They’re just a whole lot bigger – at least 36,000 light-years in each direction.

IC 5063, a galaxy 156 million light-years away, is a Seyfert galaxy. This means it has an active nucleus; the supermassive black hole at its centre is busily guzzling down material from a dense accretion disc and torus of dust and gas around it.