news 2022

Imagine being able to measure your blood sugar levels, know if you've had too much to drink, and track your muscle fatigue during a workout, all in one small device worn on your skin. Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a prototype of such a wearable that can continuously monitor several health stats—glucose, alcohol, and lactate levels—simultaneously in real-time.

A collaboration with Harvard University has led to the development of a new-generation electro-optic modulator that could stamp out its bulky predecessor through the creation of a smaller, stronger, cooler, faster and cost-effective on-chip system. The new modulator was made possible through the harnessing of a 'difficult' compound - silicon carbide.

Study uncovers first method for producing high-quality, wafer-scale, single-layer hexagonal boron nitride In a discovery that could speed research into next-generation electronics and LED devices, a University of Michigan research team has developed the first reliable, scalable method for growing single layers of hexagonal boron nitride on graphene.

Berkeley Lab-led study shows over 1,300 gigawatts of solar, storage, and wind in interconnection queues - an indicator of a major energy transition underway, even if most proposed projects will not be built New research from Berkeley Lab finds a large number of solar and wind energy projects seeking grid connection.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have created engineered crystal structures that display an unusual physical phenomenon known as negative capacitance. Incorporating this material into advanced silicon transistors could make computers more energy efficient. (UC Berkeley image by Ella Maru Studio) Computers may be growing smaller and more powerful, but they require a great deal of energy to operate.

By Christoph Pelzl One million gigahertz: This is the physical limit of the signal speed in transistors, as a German-Austrian physics team has now discovered. The maximum speed of signal transmission in microchips is about one petahertz (one million gigahertz), which is about 100,000 times faster than current transistors.

Study leverages one of the most powerful magnets on Earth to probe a new model of a mysterious metal A research team has uncovered new clues into the exotic behavior of unconventional superconductors - devices that efficiently carry electrical current with zero resistance in ways that defy our previous understanding of physics.

Researchers have discovered that gadolinium-doped cerium oxide, a compound they created in the lab, could be a promising alternative to certain piezoelectric materials: it has the same proprieties yet may be 100 times more effective. It's also lead-free, unlike the best piezoelectric materials, which means that it could be employed in bio-compatible medical applications.

Just as electrons flow through an electrical conductor, magnetic excitations can travel through certain materials. Such excitations, known in physics as "magnons" in analogy to the electron, could transport information much more easily than electrical conductors. An international research team has now made an important discovery on the road to such components, which could be highly energy-efficient and considerably smaller.

Toward a new kind of superconductivity: An international team of physicists finds joint appearance of intricate quantum phenomena. Toward a new kind of superconductivity: In the past four years scientists have discovered metals whose crystal structure mimics that of a traditional Japanese woven bamboo pattern: kagome metals.

In the spirit of the energy transition, TU Ilmenau is developing a resource-efficient power distribution grid for Germany. Such a power grid, based on direct current technology, will be specifically tailored to the increasing use of renewable energy generated in a large number of decentralized plants and will offer significantly higher operational reliability than the current grid.

A semiconducting material that performed a quantum "flip” from a conductor to an insulator above room temperature has been developed at the University of Michigan. It potentially brings the world closer to a new generation of quantum devices and ultra-efficient electronics. Observed in two-dimensional layers of tantalum sulfide only a single atom thick, the exotic electronic structure that supported this quantum flip was previously only stable at ultra-cold temperatures of -100 degrees Fahrenheit.