news 2017

Imperial scientists have successfully taught robots to perform a challenging brain technique only previously mastered by a handful of humans. Whole-cell patch clamp electrophysiology, or whole-cell recording (WCR), is the gold-standard technique for studying the behaviour of brain cells called neurons under different brain states such as stress or learning.

Berkeley Lab-led team also provides most precise band gap measurement yet for hotly studied monolayer moly sulfide Two-dimensional materials are a sort of a rookie phenom in the scientific community. They are atomically thin and can exhibit radically different electronic and light-based properties than their thicker, more conventional forms, so researchers are flocking to this fledgling field to find ways to tap these exotic traits.

Research is showing that among superconducting materials in high magnetic fields, the phenomenon of electronic symmetry breaking is common. "These heavy fermion materials have a different hierarchy of energy scales than is found in transition metal and organic materials, but they often have similar complex and intertwined physics coupling spin, charge and lattice degrees of freedom." Common phenomenon could be key to understanding mechanism of unconventional superconductivity LOS ALAMOS, N.M. Aug.

A newly discovered collective rattling effect in a type of crystalline semiconductor blocks most heat transfer while preserving high electrical conductivity - a rare pairing that scientists say could reduce heat buildup in electronic devices and turbine engines, among other possible applications.

Magnetic quantum objects in superconductors, so-called "fluxons", are particularly suitable for the storage and processing of data bits. Computer circuits based on fluxons could be operated with significantly higher speed and, at the same time, produce much less heat dissipation. Physicists around Wolfgang Lang at the University of Vienna and their colleagues at the Johannes-Kepler-University Linz have now succeeded in producing a "quantum egg-box" with a novel and simple method.

In a discovery that concludes an 80-year quest, Stanford and University of California researchers found evidence of particles that are their own antiparticles. These 'Majorana fermions'  could one day help make quantum computers more robust. See video here. In 1928, physicist Paul Dirac made the stunning prediction that every fundamental particle in the universe has an antiparticle - its identical twin but with opposite charge.

It took EPFL researchers only three minutes to detect and locate a short circuit triggered intentionally in the power grid serving Fribourg Canton.

By Andreas Wimmer In order to meet ambitious environmental goals, research around the world must rise to the challenge of developing innovative and sustainable solutions in the areas of mobility, transportation and power generation. The question often arises in connection with electric mobility whether there will be any need to conduct research on internal combustion engines in the future.

EPFL researchers have found a way around what was considered a fundamental limitation of physics for over 100 years. They were able to conceive resonant systems that can store electromagnetic waves over a long period of time while maintaining a broad bandwidth. At EPFL, researchers challenge a fundamental law and discover that more electromagnetic energy can be stored in wave-guiding systems than previously thought.

Flexible electronic parts could significantly improve medical implants. However, electroconductive gold atoms usually hardly bind to silicones.

The 'quantized magneto-electric effect' has been demonstrated for the first time in topological insulators at TU Wien, which is set to open up new and highly accurate methods of measurement. A light wave sent through empty space always oscillates in the same direction. However, certain materials can be used to rotate the direction in which the light is oscillating when placed in a magnetic field.

EPFL researchers use a mechanical micrometer-size drum cooled close to the quantum ground state to amplify microwaves in a superconducting circuit. Image: Photograph of the chip used in the experiment to couple a microwave cavity to a micrometer-size drum (the sharp purple pencil tip is placed as a scale).

Gases in the environment can be spectroscopically probed fast and precisely using so-called dual frequency combs. Researchers at ETH have now developed a method by which such frequency combs can be created much more simply and cheaply than before. In contrast to the light emitted by a simple lamp, laser light has a very precisely defined frequency.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — If viewing your latest medical test results on your doctor's online portal leaves you scratching your head and wondering whether to start planning your 100th-birthday bash or begin writing your will, you're not alone. Imagine how different that experience might be if instead you were able to view a video in which a physician explained your test results to you in layman's terms, and used graphics to compare your test scores with ideal scores and convey your risks of having a heart attack, stroke or other serious health condition.

Research news Scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed a holographic imaging process that depicts the radiation of a Wi-Fi transmitter to generate three-dimensional images of the surrounding environment. Industrial facility operators could use this to track objects as they move through the production hall.

In normal conductive materials such as silver and copper, electric current flows with varying degrees of resistance, in the form of individual electrons that ping-pong off defects, dissipating energy as they go. Superconductors, by contrast, are so named for their remarkable ability to conduct electricity without resistance, by means of electrons that pair up and move through a material as one, generating no friction.

Over two decades of observations by five radar satellites show the acceleration of ice loss of 30 glaciers in Western Palmer Land in the southwest Antarctic Peninsula. The study in Geophysical Research Letters combines over 24 years of radar data from satellites including ESA's Envisat and ERS missions, as well as from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission.

Nowadays we communicate via radio signals and send electrical pulses through long cables. This could change soon, however: Scientists have been working intensely on developing methods for quantum information transfer. This would enable tap-proof data transfer or, one day, even the linking of quantum computers.

Scientists have uncovered a method for improving short-term working memory, by stimulating the brain with electricity to synchronise brain waves. Researchers at Imperial College London found that applying a low voltage current can bring different areas of the brain in sync with one another, enabling people to perform better on tasks involving working memory.

New research offers insights into how crystal dislocations - a common type of defect in materials - can affect electrical and heat transport through crystals, at a microscopic, quantum mechanical level. Dislocations in crystals are places where the orderly three-dimensional structure of a crystal lattice - whose arrangement of atoms repeats with exactly the same spacing - is disrupted.