Best of Last Week – Earth's invisible shield, a sound loud enough to bend...
(Phys.org) —It was a big week for discovery as a Star Trek-like invisible shield was found thousands of miles above Earth—it's in the Van Allen radiation belt and appears to protect the planet below...
View ArticleAn Internet of Things reality check
Connecting different kinds of devices, not just computers and communications devices, to the Internet could lead to new ways of working with a wide range of machinery, sensors, domestic and other...
View ArticleTeam uses nanotechnology to help cool electrons with no external sources
A team of researchers has discovered a way to cool electrons to −228 °C without external means and at room temperature, an advancement that could enable electronic devices to function with very little...
View ArticleEngineers make sound loud enough to bend light on a computer chip
During a thunderstorm, we all know that it is common to hear thunder after we see the lightning. That's because sound travels much slower (768 miles per hour) than light (670,000,000 miles per hour).
View ArticleEngineers build time cloak that hides messages in laser light
(Phys.org)—A team of engineers at Purdue University has succeeded in building a time cloak based on dual laser broadcast communications channels sent through a common medium. In their paper published...
View ArticleDoing more with less: Steering a quantum path to improved internet security
Research conducted at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia, may lead to greatly improved security of information transfer over the internet.
View ArticleNew research points way to less vulnerable computer memory
(Phys.org)—Have you ever been working on a document on your computer and it suddenly crashes? Maybe the power goes out or there's a software glitch that causes it to freeze and you lose everything...
View ArticleImprovements in transistors will make flexible plastic computers a reality
Researchers at Japan's National Institute for Materials Science revealed that improvements should soon be expected in the manufacture of transistors that can be used, for example, to make flexible,...
View ArticleThree-dimensional opto-electric integration
Three-dimensional (3D) integration of various materials on top of bulk silicon could be the best answer for cost-effectively marrying optical devices with electronics. A*STAR researchers have used this...
View ArticleUltra-reliable internet will make the impossible possible
Cars will coordinate on their own who yields to whom with tomorrow's ultra-reliable and massively widespread wireless Internet. Such is the prediction from Professor Petar Popovski of Aalborg...
View ArticleUtilisation of smartwatches in situations requiring alerts
VTT Technical Research of Centre Ltd has developed various kinds of software for smartwatches that utilise speech recognition in social communication and show smart traffic data on the watch display....
View ArticleQuantization of 'surface Dirac states' could lead to exotic applications
Researchers from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science in Japan have uncovered the first evidence of an unusual quantum phenomenon—the integer quantum Hall effect—in a new type of film, called a...
View ArticleResearchers create first hidden, real-time, screen-camera communication
Opening the way for new applications of smart devices, Dartmouth researchers have created the first form of real-time communication that allows screens and cameras to talk to each other without the...
View ArticleInnovations from the wild world of optics and photonics
Traditional computers manipulate electrons to turn our keystrokes and Google searches into meaningful actions. But as components of the computer processor shrink to only a few atoms across, those same...
View ArticleSuccessful boron-doping of graphene nanoribbon
Physicists at the University of Basel succeed in synthesizing boron-doped graphene nanoribbons and characterizing their structural, electronic and chemical properties. The modified material could...
View ArticleThe future of encryption
If you want to protect valuable information, wouldn't you keep it under lock and key?
View ArticleGraphene proves a perfect fit for wearable devices
Cheap, flexible, wireless graphene communication devices such as mobile phones and healthcare monitors can be directly printed into clothing and even skin, University of Manchester academics have...
View ArticleA fish may hold the key to more efficient wireless networks
As wireless networks become more crowded with devices and more taxed by the demand for anytime, anywhere access, these networks are susceptible to radio frequency interference and jamming. It's a...
View ArticleDutch police hack into 'uncrackable' Blackberry
Dutch police confirmed Wednesday they have found a way to hack into messages on Blackberry data-encrypted smartphones, which claim to be the world's most secure communications devices.
View ArticleSome college kids spend a fifth of class time on digital devices
(HealthDay)—College students spend one-fifth of their time in class using digital devices—such as smartphones—for non-educational purposes, new research reveals.
View ArticleMultilingual circuit: 'Optomechanical transducer' links sound, light, radio...
Researchers working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a "piezo-optomechanical circuit" that converts signals among optical, acoustic and radio waves. A system...
View ArticleFinding solitude in an era of perpetual contact
Being alone has many benefits. It grants freedom in thought and action. It boosts creativity. It offers a terrain for the imagination to roam. Solitude also enriches our connections with others by...
View ArticleAmazon launches videoconferencing for cloud customers
US online giant Amazon on Tuesday announced the launch of a "unified communications service" which offers video and audio conferencing through its cloud computing service.
View ArticleObservation of skyrmion breathing motion with X-ray technique
Skyrmions are swirling spin structures with spiral shapes described in 2009. They have attracted attention in academia as representing a possible basic unit of ultra-high-density next-generation memory...
View ArticleFlexible batteries power the future of wearable technology
The rapid development of wearable technology has received another boost from a new development using graphene for printed electronic devices.
View ArticlePhysicists develop new design for fast, single-photon guns
Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and the University of Siegen have explained the mechanism of single-photon generation in diamond diodes. Their findings, published in...
View ArticleMini Crypto chip is a self-contained encryption engine
The Air Force's new Mini Crypto chip will secure communications and data between systems like unmanned aerial vehicles and explosive ordnance disposal robots, while being "losable."
View ArticleThis nanoelectronics breakthrough could lead to more efficient quantum devices
Researchers from Concordia have made a breakthrough that could help your electronic devices get even smarter.
View ArticleDiscovery clears way for human body to work as robust communication network...
A group of Purdue University researchers have discovered a new way to use the human body as a robust communication medium for networking electronic devices in and on the body that promises to be far...
View ArticleCalifornia company gets FCC approval for at-a-distance device charging
Energous, a San Jose, Calif., company, is the first firm to receive federal approval for a wireless charging system purported to power devices from up to 3 feet away, the company said.
View Article
