SciGlow | All Science News In One Place
SciGlow is a newsletter of science stories from the major research labs. Headlines link to in-depth articles and editorials. SciGlow keeps scientists and others up-to-date on current research.
Optical fibres are our global nervous system, transporting terabytes of data across the planet in the blink of an eye. As that information travels at the speed of light across the globe, the energy of the light waves bouncing around inside the silica and polymer fibres create tiny vibrations that lead to feedback packets of … Read more
A new chip-based platform developed by researchers at UC Santa Cruz integrates nanopores and optofluidic technology with a feedback-control circuit to enable an unprecedented level of control over individual molecules and particles on a chip for high-throughput analysis. In a paper published August 16 in Nature Communications, the researchers reported using the device to control the … Read more
Scientists, mainly from Zhejiang University led by Professor Haohua Wang and Institute of Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences led by Professors Heng Fan and Dongning Zheng, have successfully created Schrödinger cat states of up to 20 qubits with a superconducting quantum processor. In addition, they show that the generated 18-qubit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state is … Read more
Pores at the surface of neurons and muscle cells control your every thought, movement; the very beating of your heart. The way the pores behave – that is open, close, or lock for a short time (inactivate) depending on voltage – shapes signals in the form of ions moving across the cell surface. For the first … Read more
It seems the days are gone when just tossing a smart watch on your wrist makes you look cool. The wearable biotech industry has recently revealed its insatiable hunger for futuristic items. Pain relief goggles that monitor brain waves, vital sign monitoring stickers, and even mind reading glasses. They are just few of the latest … Read more
Soft robots have a distinct advantage over their rigid forebears: they can adapt to complex environments, handle fragile objects and interact safely with humans. Made from silicone, rubber or other stretchable polymers, they are ideal for use in rehabilitation exoskeletons and robotic clothing. Soft bio-inspired robots could one day be deployed to explore remote or … Read more
Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed the thinnest optical device in the world—a waveguide that is three layers of atoms thin. The work is a proof of concept for scaling down optical devices to sizes that are orders of magnitude smaller than today’s devices. It could lead to the development of … Read more
A thin film that reflects light in intriguing ways could be used to make road signs that shine brightly and change color at night, according to a study that will be published on Aug. 9 in Science Advances. The technology could help call attention to important traffic information when it’s dark, with potential benefits for both … Read more
Researchers have found a way to use polymer printing to stretch and flatten twisted molecules so that they conduct electricity better. A team led by chemical and biomolecular engineers from the University of Illinois report their findings in the journal Science Advances. Conjugated polymers are formed by the union of electron-rich molecules along a backbone of … Read more
Modern light microscopic techniques provide extremely detailed insights into organs, but the terabytes of data they produce are usually nearly impossible to process. New software, developed by a team led by MDC scientist Dr. Stephan Preibisch and now presented in Nature Methods, is helping researchers make sense of these reams of data. It works almost like … Read more