Tech

Quantum computers are largely hypothetical devices that could perform some calculations much more rapidly than conventional computers can. Instead of the bits of classical computation, which can represent 0 or 1, quantum computers consist of quantum bits, or qubits, which can, in some sense, represent 0 and 1 simultaneously.

The first peer-reviewed study to directly quantify how emissions from oil and gas activities influence summertime ozone pollution in the Colorado Front Range confirms that chemical vapors from oil and gas activities are a significant contributor to the region's chronic ozone problem.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Fire tornados, or 'fire whirls,' pose a powerful and essentially uncontrollable threat to life, property, and the surrounding environment in large urban and wildland fires. But now, a team of researchers in the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering say their discovery of a type of fire tornado they call a 'blue whirl' could lead to beneficial new approaches for reducing carbon emissions and improving oil spill cleanup.

WASHINGTON, DC -- Climate change could remobilize abandoned hazardous waste thought to be buried forever beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet, new research finds.

Camp Century, a U.S. military base built within the Greenland Ice Sheet in 1959, doubled as a top-secret site for testing the feasibility of deploying nuclear missiles from the Arctic during the Cold War. When the camp was decommissioned in 1967, its infrastructure and waste were abandoned under the assumption they would be entombed forever by perpetual snowfall.

DENVER - Dating shows, dating apps - they all strive to make sure none of us end up uncoupled forever. But it turns out many single people embrace their single lives, and are likely to experience more psychological growth and development than married people, according to a psychologist who presented at the American Psychological Association's 124th Annual Convention.

Dmitry Fedyanin from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and Mario Agio from the University of Siegen and LENS have predicted that artificial defects in the crystal lattice of diamond can be turned into ultrabright and extremely efficient electrically-driven quantum emitters. Their work published in New Journal of Physics demonstrates the potential for a number of technological breakthroughs, including the development of quantum computers and secure communication lines, which, in contrast to previously proposed schemes, would be able to operate at room temperature.

Here's the scene: a suspicious package is found in a public place. The police are called in and clear the area. Forced to work from a distance and unable to peer inside, they fear the worst and decide to detonate the package.

Groundwater discharge into the oceans may impair water quality along one-fifth of the coastal United States, a new study reports. While rivers are a visible and clear example of delivery of freshwater to the ocean, a much less obvious form of water transportation occurs underground. Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) is the flow of underground water, which can contain ions and dissolved chemicals, from continents to oceans, and its spatial distribution affects coastal water quality.

Rather than applying mass amounts of antibiotics to vats of biofuel-producing microorganisms to keep control these cultures, researchers have developed a new technique using modified strains that outcompete other possible contaminating microbes. The modified strains consume xenobiotic nutrients, which are not naturally produced or degraded by most microorganisms, so only the biofuel-producing microbes can use them to grow. The use of biofuels is poised as a more sustainable energy source compared to traditional, oil- or gas-based ones, yet mass production of biofuels remains challenging.

There's a new tool in the push to engineer rechargeable batteries that last longer and charge more quickly. An X-ray microscopy technique recently developed at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has given scientists the ability to image nanoscale changes inside lithium-ion battery particles as they charge and discharge. The real-time images provide a new way to learn how batteries work, and how to improve them.

Better batteries that charge quickly and last a long time are a brass ring for engineers. But despite decades of research and innovation, a fundamental understanding of exactly how batteries work at the smallest of scales has remained elusive.

BROOKLYN, New York - A team of researchers from Google and the New York University Tandon School of Engineering next week will offer the first public view into shady practices that deliver unwanted advertising and software bundled with legitimate downloads - a problem that occurs far more often than malware attempts. Their research suggests that some of the affiliates that distribute such software may be complicit in the scheme, which provides layers of deniability that they are installing unwanted software.

AMES, Iowa - Self-destructing electronic devices could keep military secrets out of enemy hands. Or they could save patients the pain of removing a medical device. Or, they could allow environmental sensors to wash away in the rain.

Making such devices possible is the goal of a relatively new field of study called "transient electronics." These transient devices could perform a variety of functions - until exposure to light, heat or liquid triggers their destruction.

August 4, 2016 --Even after working 40 or more hours a week, thousands of Florida parents would need to earn nearly double the state's current hourly minimum wage in order to break even, according to policy analyses conducted by researchers at the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Findings from NCCP's latest brief, on Florida's minimum wage, underscore the importance of considering the consequences of policies--and policy interactions--on the lives of working families.

MADISON, Wis. -- University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers have created high-performance, micro-scale solar cells that outshine comparable devices in key performance measures. The miniature solar panels could power myriad personal devices -- wearable medical sensors, smartwatches, even autofocusing contact lenses.