Tech

International team of researchers from Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Australian National University in Canberra created an ultrafast all-optical switch on silicon nanostructures. This device may become a platform for future computers and permit to transfer data at an ultrahigh speed.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- A federal grant of more than $919,000 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration will fund one new course at the University of Illinois and support training for clinicians at area agencies in conducting early interventions with people who abuse substances.

The training will be accomplished using a computer simulation called the Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment protocol, an early intervention often used in hospital emergency rooms and other public health settings to screen people for substance abuse problems.

CORVALLIS, Ore. - A study by engineers at Oregon State University suggests that they have achieved the most realistic robotic implementation of human walking dynamics that has ever been done, which may ultimately allow human-like versatility and performance.

The system is based on a concept called "spring-mass" walking that was theorized less than a decade ago, and combines passive dynamics of a mechanical system with computer control. It provides the ability to blindly react to rough terrain, maintain balance, retain an efficiency of motion and essentially walk like humans do.

A British genetics company is calling for a Code of Conduct to ensure that direct-to-consumer DNA tests operate to ethical standards. The call comes as Google-backed genetics company 23andMe is being allowed to re-launch its consumer product after approval from the US Food and Drink Administration (FDA).

Scientists at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), working with colleagues from the USA and Germany, have developed a new optical detector from graphene which reacts very rapidly to incident light of all different wavelengths and even works at room temperature. It is the first time that a single detector has been able to monitor the spectral range from visible light to infrared radiation and right through to terahertz radiation. The HZDR scientists are already using the new graphene detector for the exact synchronization of laser systems.

A study conducted by Aalto University and the University of Oxford shows that the bodily maps of touch are consistent across a wide range of European cultures.

The recent results obtained by a Finnish-English research group show that the human body has a precisely defined touch maps that are tightly linked to social touch that is allowed in different kinds of human relationships.

In a recent study published in Nature Physics, ICFO researchers Ignacio Martínez, Édgar Roldán, the late Dmitri Petrov and Raúl Rica, in collaboration with the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, have reported on the development of a microscopic motor operating between two thermal baths, that is, a micro Carnot engine.

A new and innovative way to store methane could speed the development of natural gas-powered cars that don't require the high pressures or cold temperatures of today's compressed or liquefied natural gas vehicles.

Substantially smaller and longer-lasting batteries for everything from portable electronic devices to electric cars could be come a reality thanks to an innovative technology developed by University of Waterloo researchers.

Zhongwei Chen, a chemical engineering professor at Waterloo, and a team of graduate students have created a low-cost battery using silicon that boosts the performance and life of lithium-ion batteries. Their findings are published in the latest issue of Nature Communications.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - In a step towards a post-graphene era of new materials for electronic applications, an international team of researchers, including scientists at the University of California, Riverside, has found a new and exciting way to elucidate the properties of novel two-dimensional semiconductors. These materials have unique properties that promise better integration of optical communication with traditional silicon-based devices.

An international team of scientists have observed how a mysterious quantum phenomenon in organic molecules takes place in real time, which could aid in the development of highly efficient solar cells.

UPTON, NY--A team led by researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and Cornell University has characterized a key arrangement of electrons in a high-temperature superconductor, a material that can conduct electricity with almost no energy loss without being ultra-chilled.

Former western North Pacific Ocean typhoon Champi weakened and transitioned into an extra-tropical cyclone and moved east across the Pacific. On October 26, satellite imagery showed the extra-tropical cyclone affecting Alaska, where it was bringing rain, gusty winds and warmer than normal temperatures. NOAA's GOES-West satellite and NASA's RapidScat instrument captured the powerful former typhoon near Alaska.

A new photostable fluorescent dye for super resolution microscopy could serve as a powerful tool to visualize biological events and structural details in living cells at real-time for prolonged recording periods.

Bioimaging by fluorescence microscopy is a useful technique to study the localization and movement of molecules in living cells by fluorescence. Yet, the gradual degradation of fluorescent dyes when exposed to the high intensity light necessary for super resolution microscopy has been a major obstacle for long-term observations.

In the 1971 film Diamonds are Forever, British secret agent James Bond uses fake fingerprints as part of a ploy to assume the identity of a diamond smuggler. At the time, sham prints were purely a futuristic bit of Bond gadgetry, but technology has since caught up.