Tech

Owing to their unbeatable electro-optical properties and compatibility with existing silicon technology, silicon nanosheets (SiNSs) are one of most exciting recent discoveries. They have been the most promising candidate for use in various applications, such as in the process of manufacturing semiconductors and producing hydrogen.

Ethnicity, socioeconomic status and place of residence in the UK all influence the risk of breaking a bone, a new Southampton study has shown.

Researchers at the Medical Research Council Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, undertook an analysis of the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink database and calculated the risk of an individual experiencing a fracture. They also examined whether this risk varied according to age, sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and place of residence in the UK.

Researchers have developed a new method to overcome one of the main issues in implementing a quantum cryptography system, raising the prospect of a useable 'unbreakable' method for sending sensitive information hidden inside particles of light.

Almost all electronic devices operate by using an electron charge controlled by electrical means. In addition to a charge, an electron has a spin as a magnetic property. A groundbreaking concept for information processing based on electron spins is proposed using electron spins in semiconductors. Quantum computing enables us to exceed the speed of conventional computing and a spin transistor reduces energy consumption.

Researchers from the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) have, for the first time, converted the colour and bandwidth of ultrafast single photons using a room-temperature quantum memory in diamond.

A revolutionary new type of laser developed by the University of Adelaide is promising major advances in remote sensing of greenhouse gases.

Published in the journal Optics Letters, a research team from the University of Adelaide and Macquarie University has shown that the new laser can operate over a large range within the infrared light spectrum.

Washington, DC (April 8, 2016) - On the scale of the "uncanny valley," the humanoid robot registers a positive response with humans just before the dip into repulsion. Its resemblance hovers between C-3PO and Wall-E, a familiar but distinctly non-human robot. A seemingly natural human response to these robots would be to look at them as a friendly, non-threatening computer. Could these robots actually provoke more of an emotional response from humans?

KNOXVILLE-- Professional stock car driver Wendell Scott competed throughout the segregated Jim Crow South during the tense days of the civil rights movement. His fight to move about the racetrack on his own terms is a microcosm of today's continued struggle for equal rights, according to a new study from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Scott's actions also show how ordinary working-class people defy racial discrimination through their daily actions and that resistance can be found in some of the most unexpected places, said UT geographers Derek Alderman and Joshua Inwood.

BINGHAMTON, NY - The combined effects of pesticides and parasites threaten wildlife populations worldwide (e.g. amphibians, honeybees). Pesticides are predicted to exacerbate the effects of parasites on their hosts by reducing the host's ability to defend against parasite infection. Many studies have examined the effects of pesticides on the host organism, but not much attention has been paid to how pesticides directly affect parasites - until now.

BEER-SHEVA, Israel... April 4, 2016 - The world's smallest diode, the size of a single molecule, has been developed collaboratively by U.S. and Israeli researchers from the University of Georgia and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU).

Their study will be published online in Nature Chemistry (DOI: 10.1038/nchem.2480) on April 4, 2016.

Scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have taken a big step toward the practical application of "valleytronics," which is a new type of electronics that could lead to faster and more efficient computer logic systems and data storage chips in next-generation devices.

As reported online April 4 in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, the scientists experimentally demonstrated, for the first time, the ability to electrically generate and control valley electrons in a two-dimensional semiconductor.

Scientists from Japan, India and the U.S. have observed raft domains -- active sections of the cell membrane with special groups of molecules -- in live cells for the first time. Their findings will be published this week in Nature Chemical Biology.

"The existence of special membrane domains, called raft domains, has been assumed for over 25 years, but was never found to actually occur in living cells," said Dr. Naoko Komura of Gifu University, the first author of the paper.

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Most of the world's nations have agreed to make substantial reductions in their greenhouse gas emissions, but achieving these goals is still a considerable technological, economic, and political challenge. The International Energy Agency has projected that, even with the new agreements in place, global coal-fired power generation will increase over the next few decades. Finding a cleaner way of using that coal could be a significant step toward achieving carbon-emissions reductions while meeting the needs of a growing and increasingly industrialized world population.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. and WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- A new study may finally explain why some landslides travel much greater distances than scientists would normally expect. A team of researchers used a sophisticated computer model to show that vibrations generated by large slides can cause tons of rock to flow like a fluid, enabling the rocks to rumble across vast distances.

Not-for-profit organizations throughout North America that were awed by the viral success of the ALS Society's ice bucket fundraising challenge should think twice before using social media as a significant fundraising tool, says Nicola Lacetera, a University of Toronto Mississauga management professor. A campaign may attract attention worldwide without prompting a commensurate spike in fundraising or any significant action to further the cause.