Showing posts with label crystals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crystals. Show all posts

Monday, June 8, 2026

New Things in Color Tech

 

We have cracked the color-changing codes of both the chameleon and the octopus, we're printing structural color from an inkjet, and making something apparently darker than vantablack. But I'm really just here to say words like nanophotonic metamaterials, and quantum polycrystals. 

'OCTOID,' a soft robot that changes color and moves like an octopus
Dec 2025, phys.org

By precisely controlling the helical molecular arrangement and polymer network structure of this material, they achieved a structure capable of both soft, flexible movement and color changes, just like an actual octopus tentacle.

When an electrical signal is applied, the helical molecular arrangement and polymer network structure of this material's surface undergoes microscopic contraction and expansion, displaying a continuous color change from blue to green to red. It also performs bending and unfolding motions through asymmetric structural changes. Through this process, OCTOID can simultaneously perform three functions - camouflaging, moving, and grabbing - within a single system, just like a real octopus.

via Composite Materials Research Center of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology: Seung Hui Han et al, OCTOID: A Soft Robotic System Featuring Programmable Shape Morphing and Dynamic Structural Coloration, Advanced Functional Materials (2025). DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202520014

Absolutely Completely Unrelated Image Credit: (are we still pretending to care about attribution?)


Chameleon-like nanomaterial can adapt its color to mechanical strain
Dec 2025, phys.org

2D nanophotonic metamaterial - Kirigami-inspired structural color, as different from pigment or dye colors - When the material is stretched, its microscopic patterns move and rotate, changing how light reflects from the surface. As a result, during the stretching, the color of the light reflected from this 'nanoscale chameleon skin' shifts smoothly from green to yellow and finally to red. 

via University fo Amsterdam: Freek van Gorp et al, Nonlocal Mechano-Optical Metasurfaces, ACS Photonics (2025). DOI: 10.1021/acsphotonics.5c01385


Smart material instantly changes colors on demand for use in textiles and consumer products
Dec 202,5 phys.org

They stacked a thin layer of vanadium dioxide on top of a reflective aluminum layer. When heated above a specific temperature, the vanadium dioxide turns from an insulator to a metal, accompanied by a change in its crystalline structure. When light hits this stack, some bounces off the top of the vanadium dioxide, while the rest passes through and bounces off the aluminum below. These two reflected paths of light interfere with each other. The rapid structural change in vanadium dioxide alters the timing of light bouncing from the top and the bottom, making them out of phase. This changes the color that is canceled out, which, in turn, changes the color we see.

via University of Florida: Aritra Biswas et al, Dynamic control of phase for tunable structural colors, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2520990122


Bird-of-paradise inspires darkest fabric ever made
Dec 2025, phys.org

They dyed a white merino wool knit fabric with polydopamine, followed by etching of the material in a plasma chamber to create spiky nanofibrils, to mimic the light-trapping capabilities found on the riflebird's ultrablack feathers.

via Cornell University College of Human Ecology Responsive Apparel Design Lab: Hansadi Jayamaha et al, Ultrablack wool textiles inspired by hierarchical avian structure, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-65649-4


Structural color can now be printed with an inkjet printer
Apr 2026, phys.org

Spherical silicon crystals that reflect color specifically based on their precise size in the range between 100 and 200 nanometers can now be printed at resolutions between 250 and 125 dots per inch onto a flat PET film as well as on a 3D metallic surface.

via Kobe University: Hiroto Yamana et al, Structural Color Inkjet Printing With Mie‐Resonant Silicon Nanoparticles, Advanced Materials (2026). DOI: 10.1002/adma.202523036

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Wednesday, April 2, 2025

The Graphene Zoo

 

From its slightly accidental inception 20 years ago, graphene has now turned into a large branch on the tree of technogenetic life.

Decoding 2D material growth: White graphene insights open doors to cleaner energy and more efficient electronics
Jan 2025, phys.org

White Graphene - the name for hexagonal boron nitride (where you blast out some of the carbon atoms from graphene and fill them with boron nitride instead)

via University of Surrey and Graz University of Technology: Anthony J. R. Payne et al, Unravelling the Epitaxial Growth Mechanism of Hexagonal and Nanoporous Boron Nitride: A First‐Principles Microkinetic Model, Small (2025). DOI: 10.1002/smll.202405404



Graphyne's transformation: A new carbon form with potential for electronics
Feb 2025, phys.org

Graphyne - It's not graphene, it's not carbon like diamonds with its 3-D lattice, it's not like graphite with its 2-D lattice, and it's not graphene with it's 1-D 2-D lattice. It's a 1-D 2-D 3-D lattice. Got it?

via Case Western Reserve University: Ali E. Aliev et al, A planar-sheet nongraphitic zero-bandgap sp2 carbon phase made by the low-temperature reaction of γ-graphyne, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2413194122


Synthetic diamond with hexagonal lattice outshines the natural kind with unprecedented hardness
Feb 2025, phys.org

Synthetic hexagonal diamonds - heating graphene samples to high temperatures while inside a high-pressure chamber. By adjusting the parameters of their setup, the researchers found they could get the graphene to grow into a synthetic diamond with hexagonal lattices.

via Umeå University and materials scientists and engineers affiliated with several institutions in China such as Jilin University: Desi Chen et al, General approach for synthesizing hexagonal diamond by heating post-graphite phases, Nature Materials (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41563-025-02126-9


Olympicene molecular chains create quantum spin systems with spintronics applications
Mar 2025, phys.org

Olympicenes - open-shell nanographenes (shaped like the Olympics logo)

via Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics: Chenxiao Zhao et al, Spin excitations in nanographene-based antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 Heisenberg chains, Nature Materials (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41563-025-02166-1

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Friday, January 10, 2025

Everything is Everywhere All of the Sudden


I usually don't post artist renderings like this, but this is what I see when imagining everything made of computers, using ambient energy like light to control different particles each designed to take it and do different things with it but all in one jumble of matter, like an intelligent matter: Above image: An artistic depiction of a wavelength-multiplexed diffractive optical processor for 3D quantitative phase imaging. Credit: UCLA Engineering Institute for Technology Advancement [link]

On what could be called "ubiquitous computing", a legend of artificial intelligence (Hinton) describes it really well:
(What's next in computing?) My last years at Google I was thinking about analog computing ... run these big language models in analog hardware ... if you're gonna use that low power analog computation, every piece of hardware is gonna be a bit different. And the idea is that the learning is gonna make use of the specific properties of that hardware.
--Geoffrey Hinton interview, "On Working w Ilya, Choosing Problems, and the Power of Intuition", July 2024 30min?

Researchers use 'smart' rubber structures to carry out computational tasks
May 2024, phys.org

"We now know how to design simple materials so they can process information."

The research team created a rubber computer that can act as a two-bit binary counter using slender rubber elements as mechanical bits, and assembling multiple bits together in a metamaterial.

Note: The title of their demonstration video is "Can Rubber Compute?" and I now see it all as a series of experiments like the Will It Blend series, where they just do it to everything - can crystals compute? (Yes, we already know that) Can light compute? (Yes we already know that too) Can slime mold compute? But can salt compute? (Actually yes, like in a gradient of fresh water and salt water, but I was talking about a pile of table salt.) Can my sneakers compute? (I mean obviously) Can my front door compute? (Also obvious, its whole thing is to open and close like 1/0) I'm not talking about a computer screwed on top of my doorknob, I mean the door itself, the whole thing, is a computer, just by the way its materials are put together.  The garbage can? Definitely garbage cans will compute. 

via Leiden University and AMOLF: Jingran Liu et al, Controlled pathways and sequential information processing in serially coupled mechanical hysterons, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2308414121


Using DNA origami, researchers create diamond lattice for future semiconductors of visible light
May 2024, phys.org

With headlines like that, there is no further explanation. 

via Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich: Gregor Posnjak et al, Diamond-lattice photonic crystals assembled from DNA origami, Science (2024). DOI: 10.1126/science.adl2733

Also: Hao Liu et al, Inverse design of a pyrochlore lattice of DNA origami through model-driven experiments, Science (2024). DOI: 10.1126/science.adl5549


Mechanical computer relies on kirigami cubes, not electronics
Jun 2024, phys.org

It's a mechanical computer, one that doesn't use electronics. Is that all we need to call it? A mechanical computer?

Historically, these mechanical components have been things like levers or gears. But cubes can have five or more different states. Theoretically, that means a given cube can convey not only a 1 or a 0, but also a 2, 3 or 4.

When any of the cubes are pushed up or down, this changes the geometry—or architecture—of all of the connected cubes. This can be done by pushing up or down on one of the cubes with a magnetic field. These 64-cube functional units can be grouped together into increasingly complex metastructures that allow for storing more data or for conducting more complex computations.

The cubes are connected by thin strips of elastic tape. To edit data, you have to change the configuration of functional units. That requires users to pull on the edges of the metastructure, which stretches the elastic tape and allows you to push cubes up or down. When you release the metastructure, the tape contracts, locking the cubes—and the data—in place.

"One potential application for this is that it allows for users to create three-dimensional, mechanical encryption or decryption"

via North Carolina State University: Yanbin Li et al, Reprogrammable and reconfigurable mechanical computing metastructures with stable and high-density memory, Science Advances (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ado6476 , www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ado6476


New material paves the way to on-chip energy harvesting
Jul 2024, phys.org

They utilize the waste heat generated during operation and convert it back into electrical energy, called "on-chip energy harvesting", and it works because they put tin in the germanium (Ge+Sn). 

via Forschungszentrum Jülich and IHP—Leibniz Institute for High Performance Microelectronics in Germany, University of Pisa, University of Bologna, University of Leeds: Omar Concepción et al, Room Temperature Lattice Thermal Conductivity of GeSn Alloys, ACS Applied Energy Materials (2024). DOI: 10.1021/acsaem.4c00275


A first physical system to learn nonlinear tasks without a traditional computer processor
Jul 2024, phys.org

They made a contrastive local learning network where components evolve on their own based on local rules without knowledge of the larger structure, similar to how neurons in the human brain don't know what other neurons are doing and yet learning emerges.

"It can learn, in a machine learning sense, to perform useful tasks, similar to a computational neural network, but it is a physical object."

(Physical object, that's the key)

"Because the way that it both calculates and learns is based on physics, it's way more interpretable. You can actually figure out what it's trying to do because you have a good handle on the underlying mechanism. That's kind of unique because a lot of other learning systems are black boxes where it's much harder to know why the network did what it did.

via University of Pennsylvania: Sam Dillavou et al, Machine learning without a processor: Emergent learning in a nonlinear analog network, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2319718121

The optical era of science reporting where every picture has rainbows in it: Artistic depiction of diffractive information processing - Ozcan Lab at UCLA - Jul 2024

Scientists demonstrate chemical reservoir computation using the formose reaction
Jul 2024, phys.org

Good explanation by the writeup author here, Tejasri Gururaj: The field of molecular computing interests researchers who wish to harness the computational power of chemical and biological systems. In these systems, the chemical reactions or molecular processes act as the reservoir computer, transforming inputs into high-dimensional outputs. ...

The formose reaction is the only example of a self-organizing reaction network with a highly non-linear topology, containing numerous positive and negative feedback loops.

The researchers used a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) to implement the formose reaction. The input concentrations of four reactants—formaldehyde, dihydroxyacetone, sodium hydroxide, and calcium chloride—are controlled to modulate the reaction network's behavior.

The output molecule is identified using a mass spectrometer, which allows them to track up to 106 molecules. 

This setup can be used to do calculations, with the reactant concentrations being the input value to any function that needs to be computed.

The team showed that it could predict the behavior of a complex metabolic network model of E. coli, accurately capturing both linear and nonlinear responses to fluctuating inputs across various concentration ranges.

Furthermore, the system demonstrated the ability to forecast future states of a chaotic system (the Lorenz attractor), accurately predicting two out of three input dimensions several hours into the future.

via Institute for Molecules and Materials at Radboud University: Mathieu G. Baltussen et al, Chemical reservoir computation in a self-organizing reaction network, Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07567-x

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Tuesday, July 23, 2024

The Multisensory Multiplex Measures More Than You Think


This title means absolutely nothing, but it's unsettling to think "time" is as malleable as it is. 

Physicists develop highly robust time crystal
Feb 2024, phys.org

It's made of indium gallium arsenide, in which the nuclear spins act as a reservoir for the time crystal. The crystal is continuously illuminated so that a nuclear spin polarization forms through interaction with electron spins. And it is precisely this nuclear spin polarization that then spontaneously generates oscillations, equivalent to a time crystal.

A periodic time crystal was demonstrated in 2022 in a Bose-Einstein condensate but lived for just a few milliseconds. This one lasted for 40 minutes, or 10 million times longer. 

via TU Dortmund University: A. Greilich et al, Robust continuous time crystal in an electron–nuclear spin system, Nature Physics (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-023-02351-6



The intricate dance of time and touch: Insights from the somatosensory cortex
Feb 2024, phys.org

The perception of time is intricately intertwined with touch, emerging within the tactile sensory representation.

Optogenetic intervention influenced perceived intensity in rats trained to assess vibration intensity while disregarding duration. Conversely, optogenetic intervention influenced perceived duration in animals trained to evaluate vibration duration while disregarding intensity.

"Since both percepts involve an overlapping set of neurons, we describe the two signals as 'multiplexed' in the somatosensory cortex.

via International School of Advanced Studies SISSA: Sebastian Reinartz et al, Direct contribution of the sensory cortex to the judgment of stimulus duration, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45970-0


White House wants Moon to have its own time zone
Apr 2024, BBC News

The White House wants US space agency Nasa to develop a new time zone for the Moon - Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC).

Because of the different gravitational field strength on the Moon, time moves quicker there relative to Earth - 58.7 microseconds every day.

This might not seem like much, but it can have a significant impact when trying to synchronise spacecraft.

Time is currently measured on Earth by hundreds of atomic clocks stationed around our planet which measure the changing energy state of atoms to record time to the nanosecond. If they were placed on the Moon, over 50 years they would be running one second faster.


Image viewing experiments challenge theory of universal internal clock
Apr 2024, phys.org

The Universal Internal Clock (does not exist)

  • 170 volunteers participated
  • In the first two experiments, volunteers looked at photographs with varying degrees of size and clutter, and were asked how long they believed they had been looking at the images.
  • In the second two experiments, volunteers also estimated how memorable the photos were.
  • The took a memory test the following day.

  • Volunteers tended to overestimate the amount of time they viewed cluttered scenes, while underestimating the amount of time they viewed tidy areas.
  • Perception of time varied depending on the memorability of an image.
  • Volunteers were more accurate in their assessment of how much time had passed for the most memorable images
  • Experiments suggest that time perception is influenced by sensory perception.

via George Mason University: Alex C. Ma et al, Memorability shapes perceived time (and vice versa), Nature Human Behaviour (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-01863-2


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Wednesday, January 10, 2024

The Atoms Themselves Are a Computer


Skepticism about Microsoft results regarding robust quantum bits
May 2023, phys.org

Correction -- "Researchers at the University of Basel have now dampened expectations of using Majorana particles for computation in the near future ... results published by Microsoft in 2022, according to which Majorana particles had been detected in the labs of the company, may not hold water"

Just a general reminder that not everything is true just because science says so, sometimes the true things get retracted too -- "both the current anomaly and the superconducting properties can be reproduced by a small amount of disorder from impurities inside the nanowire."

Also a reminder that Majorana fermions are an irresistible paradox of nature in that they contain both their own particle and anti-particle. They're expected to exist, but they've never been found. 

via University of Basel: Richard Hess et al, Trivial Andreev Band Mimicking Topological Bulk Gap Reopening in the Nonlocal Conductance of Long Rashba Nanowires, Physical Review Letters (2023). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.207001



Quantum matter breakthrough - Tuning density waves
May 2023, phys.org

Cold atomic gas can be programmed, so the atoms themselves are a computer because of the way they interact. In this case, the atoms are lithium, which were cooled, trapped in an optical cavity, and turned into a crystal, although how can a crystal be a wave, right? Quantum something.

via EPFL Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne: Jean-Phillipe Brantut, Density-wave ordering in a unitary Fermi gas with photon-mediated interactions, Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06018-3.


Unveiling quantum gravity - New results from IceCube and Fermi data
Jun 2023, phys.org

Researchers examined a quantum-gravity model of particle propagation in which the speed of ultrarelativistic particles decreases with rising energy -- they used gamma-ray bursts observed by the Fermi telescope and ultra-high-energy neutrinos detected by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, testing the hypothesis that some neutrinos and some gamma-ray bursts might have a common origin but are observed at different times as a result of the energy-dependent reduction in speed.

(Findings are preliminary, but) "By combining data from IceCube and Fermi, we found preliminary evidence supporting quantum gravity models that predict this effect. This marks a significant milestone in the field of quantum gravity research since it is the first time that such a level of quantum gravity-supportive statistical evidence is found," says corresponding author, Professor Giovanni Amelino-Camelia of the University of Naples on behalf of the team.

"Supportive statistical evidence" never sounded so science fiction.

via University of Naples Federico II, University of Wroclaw, and University of Bergen: Giovanni Amelino-Camelia et al, Could quantum gravity slow down neutrinos?, Nature Astronomy (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-023-01993-z

AI Art - Tiny Machines - 2023

New device opens door to storing quantum information as sound waves
Jun 2023, phys.org

"Phonon" -- the sound equivalent of a light particle called a photon

To understand how a sound wave can store information, imagine an extremely echoey room. Now, let's say you need to remember your grocery list for the afternoon, so you open the door to that room and shout, "Eggs, bacon, and milk!" and shut the door. An hour later, when it's time to go to the grocery store, you open the door, poke your head inside, and hear your own voice still echoing, "Eggs, bacon, and milk!" You've just used sound waves to store information.

I mean if you can store light, you can store sound right?

via California Institute of Technology: Alkim Bozkurt et al, A quantum electromechanical interface for long-lived phonons, Nature Physics (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-023-02080-w


Could quantum gravity models arising from holography explain cosmological acceleration?
Jun 2023, phys.org

"We now have fully consistent models of quantum gravity via an approach called holography, where the gravitational physics is encoded in a simpler, lower dimensional non-gravitational quantum system."

"We observed that quantum gravity models arising from holography can naturally explain cosmological acceleration in a novel way, with a changing dark energy that eventually becomes negative," Van Raamsdonk said. "We don't know for sure if our universe works this way, but it's something that we can look for in cosmological observations."

via University of Maryland and University of British Columbia: Stefano Antonini et al, Accelerating Cosmology from a Holographic Wormhole, Physical Review Letters (2023). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.221601


Scientists edge toward scalable quantum simulations on a photonic chip
Jun 2023, phys.org

Oh no you didn't! "quantum-correlated synthetic crystal"

What he really means: "Scientists have made an important step toward developing computers advanced enough to simulate complex natural phenomena at the quantum level. While these types of simulations are too cumbersome or outright impossible for classical computers to handle, photonics-based quantum computing systems could provide a solution."

via University of Rochester: Usman A. Javid et al, Chip-scale simulations in a quantum-correlated synthetic space, Nature Photonics (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41566-023-01236-7

AI Art - Many Parts High Tech - 2023

Scientists observe first evidence of 'quantum superchemistry' in the laboratory
Aug 2023, phys.org

In the experiments, the scientists cooled down cesium atoms and coaxed them into the same quantum state. Next, they watched as the atoms reacted to form molecules.

In ordinary chemistry, the individual atoms would collide, and there's a probability for each collision to form a molecule. However, quantum mechanics predicts that atoms in a quantum state perform actions collectively instead.

"You are no longer treating a chemical reaction as a collision between independent particles, but as a collective process," explained Chin. "All of them are reacting together, as a whole."

One consequence is that the reaction happens faster than it would under ordinary conditions. In fact, the more atoms in the system, the faster the reaction happens.

And also, the reaction was taking place as a three-body interaction more often than as a two-body interaction (three atoms would collide; two would form a molecule, and the third remained single).

via James Franck Institute, Enrico Fermi Institute and U of Chicago: Zhendong Zhang et al, Many-body chemical reactions in a quantum degenerate gas, Nature Physics (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-023-02139-8


Research team simulates super diffusion on a quantum computer
Aug 2023, phys.org

We are actually using quantum computers now, that's it -- 

Quantum physicists have successfully simulated super diffusion in a system of interacting quantum particles on a quantum computer consisting of 27 superconducting qubits and is physically located in IBM's lab in Yorktown Heights in New York and programmed remotely from Dublin.

"We were interested in a particular regime where something called super-diffusion occurs due to the underlying physics being governed by something called the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation. This is an equation which typically describes the stochastic growth of a surface or interface like how the height of snow grows during a snowstorm, how the stain of a coffee cup on cloth grows with time, or how a fluff fire grows. The propagation is known to give super diffusive transport." (follow the link above for a cool video of a poplar or cottonwood fluff fire)

"Consider the 27 qubits on this particular device. In quantum mechanics the state of such a system is described mathematically by an object called a wave function. In order to use a standard computer to describe this object you require a huge number of coefficients to be stored in memory and the demands scale exponentially with the number of qubits; roughly 134 million coefficients, in the case of this simulation."

"As you grow the system to say 300 qubits you would need more coefficients than there are atoms in the observable universe to describe such a system and no classical computer will be able to exactly capture the system's state. In other words we hit a wall when simulating quantum systems," Goold said.

via Trinity College of Dublin and IBM Dublin: Nathan Keenan et al, Evidence of Kardar-Parisi-Zhang scaling on a digital quantum simulator, npj Quantum Information (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41534-023-00742-4


Researchers advance effort to turn diamonds into a quantum simulator
Oct 2023, phys.org

They bombarding diamonds with nitrogen atoms meant to dislodge the carbon atoms, creating flaws in an otherwise perfect crystal, that are then filled with electrons that have their own spin and magnetism, which are quantum properties that can be measured and manipulated for a wide range of applications.

via Washington University in St. Louis: Guanghui He et al, Quasi-Floquet Prethermalization in a Disordered Dipolar Spin Ensemble in Diamond, Physical Review Letters (2023). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.130401

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Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Words, for the Corpus That Has It All


The following update to the 'list of crazy words you read when scanning science press headlines', 6 months from April 2023 to October 2023. This one is a big list, an avalanche of verbal programming; start your semantic engines.

Appropriately illustrated by artificial intelligence engine-generated images of Dental Art, starting with the above image, prompted by the words "Hyperrealistic pink tissue bloody gums slippery glistening" but I just call it Dental Art.


Researchers develop the first-ever ingestible electroceutical device to control appetite by hormone modulation
Apr 2023, phys.org

"Electroceuticals" - for the neuromodulation of the gut-brain axis 

via NYU: Khalil Ramadi et al, Bioinspired, ingestible electroceutical capsules for hunger-regulating hormone modulation, Science Robotics (2023). DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.ade9676.


Meteosat-12: Europe's new weather satellite takes first photos
Apr 2023, BBC News

"Nowcasting" - (like forecasting but better) the ability to say with greater confidence that violent winds, lightning, hail or heavy downpours are about to strike a particular area; Europe's new weather satellite Meteosat-12 flies 36,000km above the Earth and takes pictures every 10 minutes

And the word nowcasting, in the wild: "The insights gained from linking lightning intensity to eruptive activity can provide better monitoring and nowcasting of aviation-related hazards during a large volcanic eruption, including ash cloud development and movement," Van Eaton said." -New study shows Tonga's Hunga eruption produced the most intense lightning ever recorded. Jun 2023. phys.org
https://phys.org/news/2023-06-tonga-hunga-eruption-intense-lightning.html ; and via American Geophysical Union: Alexa R. Van Eaton et al, Lightning Rings and Gravity Waves: Insights Into the Giant Eruption Plume From Tonga's Hunga Volcano on 15 January 2022, Geophysical Research Letters (2023). DOI: 10.1029/2022GL102341. https://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2022GL102341


'Bioprospecting' technique uncovers viruses that can kill deadly superbugs
May 2023, phys.org

"Bioprospecting" for viruses known as phages that can kill deadly superbugs; like "bioprospector" will be a word on someone's resume soon

via Monash University: Rhys A. Dunstan et al, Epitopes in the capsular polysaccharide and the porin OmpK36 receptors are required for bacteriophage infection of Klebsiella pneumoniae, Cell Reports (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112551


DarkBERT learns language of the Dark Web
May 2023, phys.org

Fucking "DarkBERT" - A Language Model for the Dark Side of the Internet

FYI - "Surface Web content" (as opposed to "Dark Web content") I think what this is saying, without saying it, is that the internet is English, but the Dark Web is not, so they can't use the internet as their training model like we do with all the others.

via Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology: Youngjin Jin et al, DarkBERT: A Language Model for the Dark Side of the Internet, arXiv (2023). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2305.08596



Combining twistronics with spintronics could be the next giant leap in quantum electronics
Jun 2023, phys.org

I try to keep up, but -- "Twistronics", "spintronics", and "tunable moiré magnetism"

via Tohoku University: Guanghui Cheng et al, Electrically tunable moiré magnetism in twisted double bilayers of chromium triiodide, Nature Electronics (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41928-023-00978-0


Researchers grow bio-inspired polymer brains for artificial neural networks
Jul 2023, phys.org

Neuromorphic "wetware" - based on memristive devices via electropolymerization aka growing wires

via Osaka University and Hokkaido University: Naruki Hagiwara et al, Fabrication and Training of 3D Conductive Polymer Networks for Neuromorphic Wetware, Advanced Functional Materials (2023). DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202300903


New study reveals why defense against brain corrosion declines in people with Alzheimer's disease
Jul 2023, phys.org

"Brain corrosion" - Why yes, oxidative stress corrodes the brain, and that's called oxidative damage. Some might even call it "rust", brain rust. 

via Case Western Reserve University: Sara Cazzaro et al, Slingshot homolog-1–mediated Nrf2 sequestration tips the balance from neuroprotection to neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2023). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2217128120



Photonic time crystals could open the door to a new branch of optics
Jul 2023, phys.org

"Photonic Time Crystals" - they are the temporal version of photonic crystals, and in the optical domain could have profound implications for the science of light, enabling truly disruptive applications in the future

Just for background, and because this will all become the new computers of the next technological revolution -- "photonic crystals have a refractive index that oscillates periodically in space causing iridescence of precious minerals and insect wings for example."

via Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel, and Purdue University:  Eran Lustig et al, Time-refraction optics with single cycle modulation, Nanophotonics (2023). DOI: 10.1515/nanoph-2023-0126


Researchers put a new twist on graphite
Jul 2023, phys.org

"Interdimensional" - mixed dimensional materials, like embedding 2D graphene into 3D graphite

via University of Washington, Osaka University and the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan: Matthew Yankowitz, Mixed-dimensional moiré systems of twisted graphitic thin films, Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06290-3.


Spontaneous quasi-crystal self-assembly observed using tiny vibrating magnetic spheres
Jul 2023, phys.org

"Spontaneous Crystals" aka "Spontaneous Quasi-Crystal Self-Assembly" - discovered sort of by accident

via Université Paris-Saclay: Andrea Plati et al, Quasi-crystalline order in vibrated granular matter, arXiv (2023). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2307.01643


Zentropy and the art of creating new ferroelectric materials
Aug 2023, phys.org

"Zentropy" - The "Z" in zentropy stands for the German word Zustandssumm, meaning "sum over states" of entropy, and alternatively considered a play on the term "zen" from Buddhism, and the idea is to consider how entropy can occur over multiple scales within a system to help predict potential outcomes of the system when influenced by its surroundings. It's also a parameter-free pathway to predicting how advanced materials behave. And in other words, it can integrate top-down statistical and bottom-up quantum mechanics to predict experimental measures of the system without "fitting parameters" to closely match real-world variables.

via Penn State: Zi-Kui Liu et al, Parameter-free prediction of phase transition in PbTiO3 through combination of quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics, Scripta Materialia (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.scriptamat.2023.115480



Researchers use 'topological gardening' to achieve unexpected spin transport
Aug 2023, phys.org

Fastest forming word cluster in the sciences, that's all --

"Topological Gardening" - Although topological insulators conduct electricity only along their edges, and strictly in one direction, new science challenges that view by uncovering a new type of edge transport by manipulating edge states through bulk-edge interactions, similar to the pruning work done in gardening routines.

via Monash University: Yuefeng Yin et al, Extracting unconventional spin texture in two dimensional topological crystalline insulator bismuthene via tuning bulk-edge interactions, Materials Today Physics (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.mtphys.2023.101168

Also: Qile Li et al, Localized Wannier function based tight-binding models for two-dimensional allotropes of bismuth, New Journal of Physics (2021). DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/ac04c9


This fish doesn't just see with its eyes, it also sees with its skin
Aug 2023, phys.org

"Skin Vision" -- Hogfish can change color, and carry a gene for a light-sensitive protein called opsin that is activated in their skin, and that this gene is different from the opsin genes found in their eyes. Their skin is made of cells called chromatophores which contain pigment, with opsin proteins residing in a previously unknown cell type right underneath the chromatophore, which means that light striking the skin must pass through the pigment-filled chromatophores first before it reaches the light-sensitive layer, suggesting that their skin acts like internal Polaroid film, capturing changes in the light, so that they can "literally take a photo of their own skin from the inside".

via Duke University: Lorian Schweikert, Dynamic light filtering over dermal opsin as a sensory feedback system in fish color change, Nature Communications (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40166-4.


Scientists develop finger sweat test to detect antipsychotic drugs in patients
Aug 2023, phys.org

"Finger Sweat Test" - Scientists have now discovered a way to test the levels of common antipsychotic drugs (clozapine, quetiapine, or olanzapine) in the sweat from patients' fingerprints (and because blood tests are invasive and uncomfortable).

via University of Surrey: Noninvasive drug adherence monitoring of antipsychotic patients via finger sweat testing, Frontiers in Chemistry (2023). DOI: 10.3389/fchem.2023.1245089


Researchers prep fentanyl, heroin vaccines for human trials
Aug 2023, phys.org

"Heroin Vaccine" - Just the words heroin vaccine.

via University of Montana: Bethany Crouse et al, A TLR7/8 agonist increases efficacy of anti-fentanyl vaccines in rodent and porcine models, npj Vaccines (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41541-023-00697-9


Crack vaccine research on rats could help babies of mothers who use cocaine—and reduce addiction
Oct 2023, phys.org

"Crack Vaccine" - Also. I have a feeling it doesn't end here. 

via Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil: Rachel J. Stephenson et al, Anti-cocaine Vaccine Development: Where Are We Now and Where Are We Going?, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (2023). DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.3c00366



Team simulates collective movement of worm blobs for future swarm robotic systems
Sep 2023, phys.org

"Swarm Ball", "Worm Ball", or "Swarm Robot Worm Ball" - systems of many individual components that must work collectively, using soft-bodied agents

(click on the article above for some high octane nightmare fuel)

via Tohoku University and Hiroshima University: Taishi Mikami et al, Elongating, entwining, and dragging: mechanism for adaptive locomotion of tubificine worm blobs in a confined environment, Frontiers in Neurorobotics (2023). DOI: 10.3389/fnbot.2023.1207374


Vulnerability to different COVID-19 mutations depends on previous infections and vaccination, study suggests
Oct 2023, phys.org

"Antigenic Cartography" - compares the similarity of different variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to measure how well human antibodies formed in response to infection with one virus respond to infection with a variant of that virus (and because they found that a person's immune response to SARS-CoV-2 depends on the variant they were previously exposed to)

via University of Cambridge's Center for Pathogen Evolution in the Department of Zoology: Samuel H. Wilks et al, Mapping SARS-CoV-2 antigenic relationships and serological responses, Science (2023). DOI: 10.1126/science.adj0070.



Next-generation printing: Precise and direct, using optical vortices
Oct 2023, phys.org

An "Optical Vortex Laser" - "Using a special laser beam known as an optical vortex, we have achieved stable printing of high-viscosity liquids that allows for the fabrication of microdroplet laser arrays and the micropatterning of conductive nanoinks, as well as bioinks for cell scaffolds, leading to the establishment of next-generation printed photonic or electronic devices."

via Osaka Metropolitan University:  Ken-ichi Yuyama et al, Fabrication of an Array of Hemispherical Microlasers Using Optical Vortex Laser-Induced Forward Transfer, ACS Photonics (2023). DOI: 10.1021/acsphotonics.3c01005


Photonic crystals bend light as though it were under the influence of gravity
Oct 2023, phys.org

"Pseudogravity" - replicating the effects of gravity

Also, they don't say moiré but they describe it: Kitamura and her colleagues modified photonic crystals by introducing lattice distortion; gradual deformation of the regular spacing of elements, which disrupted the grid-like pattern of protonic crystals. This manipulated the photonic band structure of the crystals, resulting in a curved beam trajectory in-medium—just like a light-ray passing by a massive celestial body such as a black hole.

via Tohoku University: Kanji Nanjyo et al, Deflection of electromagnetic waves by pseudogravity in distorted photonic crystals, Physical Review A (2023). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.108.033522


Sabotage tool takes on AI image scrapers
Oct 2023, phys.org

"Data poisoning" - the tool named Nightshade manipulates image pixels that will alter the output during training but are not visible to the naked eye prior to processing. The tool is meant to "poison" graphics appropriated by AI companies to train image-generating models. "A moderate number of Nightshade attacks can destabilize general features in a text-to-image generative model, effectively disabling its ability to generate meaningful images," Zhao said. 

via University of Chicago: Shawn Shan et al, Prompt-Specific Poisoning Attacks on Text-to-Image Generative Models, arXiv (2023). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2310.13828

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Monday, May 1, 2023

The Photonic Phreakout


Optical this and photon that, opto-genetics, opto-electronics, opto-dildonics. Optical quantum computers made of crystals and light, the fastest computers you can imagine, tuned lasers that can bleep your brain through your retina and treat depression, and optical tractor beams, that's right, aka quantum tweezers.

This is not to detract from the renewed interest in the fundamental nature of time, by way of "time crystals", and of something I will call time lasers, because where there's crystals there's lasers, but that idea hasn't been discovered yet. 


Laser attack blinds autonomous vehicles, deleting pedestrians and confusing cars
Oct 2022, phys.org

Expertly timed lasers shined at an approaching lidar system can create a blind spot in front of the vehicle large enough to completely hide moving pedestrians and other obstacles

via University of Florida, the University of Michigan and the University of Electro-Communications in Japan: Yulong Cao et al, You Can't See Me: Physical Removal Attacks on LiDAR-based Autonomous Vehicles Driving Frameworks, arXiv (2022). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2210.09482.

 
Researchers create an optical tractor beam that pulls macroscopic objects
Jan 2023, phys.org

Optical manipulation such as levitation and rotation: Optical tweezers, for example, are commonly used scientific instruments that use laser light to hold and manipulate tiny objects such as atoms or cells. We could also use laser light to create an optical tractor beam.

via QingDao University of Science and Technology in China: Lei Wang et al, Macroscopic laser pulling based on the Knudsen force in rarefied gas, Optics Express (2022). DOI: 10.1364/OE.480019


Deep learning-designed diffractive processor computes hundreds of transformations in parallel
Jan 2023, phys.org

Optical computers use light instead of electricity to perform computations, and now they can make massively parallel, wavelength-multiplexed diffractive processors.

via SPIE International Society for Optics and Photonics and UCLA: Jingxi Li et al, Massively parallel universal linear transformations using a wavelength-multiplexed diffractive optical network, Advanced Photonics (2023). DOI: 10.1117/1.AP.5.1.016003

AI Art - Cymatics - 2022

A new type of photonic time crystal gives light a boost
Apr 2023, phys.org

While some physicists were initially skeptical that time crystals could exist, recent experiments have succeeding in creating them.

"We found that reducing the dimensionality from a 3D to a 2D structure made the implementation significantly easier, ..."

via Aalto University, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and Stanford University: Xuchen Wang et al, Metasurface-Based Realization of Photonic Time Crystals, Science Advances (2023). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adg7541.


Optical switching at record speeds opens door for ultrafast, light-based electronics and computers
Mar 2023, phys.org

Imagine a home computer operating 1 million times faster than the most expensive hardware on the market. Light-based optical computing with optical transistors is a marked improvement from the semiconductor-based transistors that currently run the world.

Data transfer speeds exceeding a petahertz, measured at the attosecond time scale.

via University of Arizona: Dandan Hui et al, Ultrafast optical switching and data encoding on synthesized light fields, Science Advances (2023). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adf1015


Recreating the double-slit experiment that proved the wave nature of light in time, instead of space
Apr 2023, phys.org

Now, a team led by Imperial College London physicists has performed the experiment using "slits" in time rather than space. They achieved this by firing light through a material that changes its properties in femtoseconds (quadrillionths of a second), only allowing light to pass through at specific times in quick succession.

The team next want to explore the phenomenon in a "time crystal," which is analogous to an atomic crystal, but where the optical properties vary in time.

Co-author Professor Stefan Maier said, "The concept of time crystals has the potential to lead to ultrafast, parallelized optical switches."

via Imperial College London: Romain Tirole et al, Double-slit time diffraction at optical frequencies, Nature Physics (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-023-01993-w. 

Light shaped into a twisted smoke ring - Y Shen and Z Zhu at SPIE King's College - 2023

Post Script:
Topology also plays a big part in the coming light hype cycle -- you might know topology as Gödel, Escher, Bach's Eternal Golden Braid, but it also has a strong link to the hyperbolic geometries of hallucinogenic hero doses. They make quantum computers work better, so we're trying to tie light into knots to make mega-sentient intelligentities, faster.

Photonic hopfions: Light shaped as a smoke ring that behaves like a particle
Jan 2023, phys.org

Topology, hyperbolic geometry, toroids, skyrmions, and now -- new, very unusual, structured-light family of 3D topological solitons, the photonic hopfions, where the topological textures and topological numbers can be freely and independently tuned. 

via SPIE International Society for Optics and Photonics, University of Southampton, and King's College London: Yijie Shen et al, Topological transformation and free-space transport of photonic hopfions, Advanced Photonics (2023). DOI: 10.1117/1.AP.5.1.015001


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Thursday, March 2, 2023

In the Future Matter Is Intelligent


Floppy or not: AI predicts properties of complex metamaterials
Nov 2022, phys.org

With infinite options, infinite intelligence?

Also words:
Artificial materials - These are engineered materials whose properties are determined by their geometrical structure rather than their chemical composition [like origami].

I must have missed the part when we started calling them artificial materials, I thought they were all metamaterials.

Designing these materials is a combinatorial problem, which means it's hard. You can't really predict what will happen, you just have to do it. But artificial intelligence can do it virtually, all day, and find the ones that work. 

via University of Amsterdam: Ryan van Mastrigt et al, Machine Learning of Implicit Combinatorial Rules in Mechanical Metamaterials, Physical Review Letters (2022). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.198003



Clear window coating could cool buildings without using energy
Nov 2022, phys.org

A "transparent radiative cooler" could lower the temperature inside buildings, without expending a single watt of energy. 

The team constructed computer models of TRCs consisting of alternating thin layers of common materials like silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, aluminum oxide or titanium dioxide on a glass base, topped with a film of polydimethylsiloxane. They optimized the type, order and combination of layers using an iterative approach guided by machine learning and quantum computing, which stores data using subatomic particles. 

Cooling accounts for about 15% of global energy consumption; this thing can potentially reduce cooling energy consumption by 31% compared with conventional windows.

via Notre Dame: High-Performance Transparent Radiative Cooler Designed by Quantum Computing, ACS Energy Letters (2022). DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.2c01969


Photovoltaic windows unlock goal of increased energy efficiency for skyscrapers
Nov 2022, phys.org

Energy use climbs when a building has more windows than wall space, yet larger floor-to-floor height coupled with PV glazing reduces building energy use. 

via National Renewable Energy Laboratory: Vincent M. Wheeler et al, Photovoltaic windows cut energy use and CO2 emissions by 40% in highly glazed buildings, One Earth (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.oneear.2022.10.014


New study suggests mobile data collected while traveling over bridges could help evaluate their integrity
Nov 2022, phys.org

I can see a future where we intercept wifi signals from building occupants, and measure their interactions to determine not only the building materials getting hit by the wifi waves, but their changes over time:

"Information about structural health of bridges can be extracted from smartphone-collected accelerometer data"

via MIT: Thomas Matarazzo, Crowdsourcing bridge dynamic monitoring with smartphone vehicle trips, Communications Engineering (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s44172-022-00025-4.

AI Art - Fibonacci Alien Library 1 - 2022

Centimeter-scale multicolor printing with a pixelated optical cavity
Nov 2022, phys.org

"pixelated optical cavity"

The colorful image with multiple color components is first converted to a predefined grayscale pattern and then engraved on the photoresist layer by controlling the exposure dose during the grayscale laser writing process.

Pixelated photoresist spacer layers are sandwiched by two semitransparent sliver thin films to form the Fabry–Perot cavities (pixelated optical cavities). The transmission color can be continuously tuned in the visible spectral regime by finely controlling the thickness of the photoresist layer. 

via Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen: Yu Chen et al, Centimeter scale color printing with grayscale lithography, Advanced Photonics Nexus (2022). DOI: 10.1117/1.APN.1.2.026002


Team creates crystals that generate electricity from heat
Nov 2022, phys.org

This novel synthetic material is composed of copper, manganese, germanium, and sulfur, and it is produced by simple ball-milling and then heating to 600 degrees Celsius. 

It's called a "thermoelectric material" because it converts heat to electricity. 

via Normandie University: V. Pavan Kumar et al, Engineering Transport Properties in Interconnected Enargite‐Stannite Type Cu 2+ x Mn 1− x GeS 4 Nanocomposites, Angewandte Chemie International Edition (2022). DOI: 10.1002/anie.202210600


Mimicking life: A breakthrough in non-living materials
Nov 2022, phys.org

Artificial Life - Ok they're calling them all kinds of things, now including "non-living materials", also related to soft robotics:

New process that uses fuel to control non-living materials at a specified rate, similar to what living cells do

"Ultimately you'd want a robot to be able to control itself. You can program our cycle into a particle in advance, then leave it alone, and it performs its function independently as soon as it encounters a signal to do so."

Particles man.

via Delft University of Technology: Benjamin Klemm et al, Temporally programmed polymer—solvent interactions using a chemical reaction network, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-33810-y


Discovery reveals 'brain-like computing' at molecular level is possible
Nov 2022, phys.org

Brains all the way down:

"Intelligent molecular materials"

Disruptive new alternative to conventional silicon-based digital switches that can only ever be either on or off. It displays all the mathematical logic functions necessary for deep learning.

"The community has long known that silicon technology works completely differently to how our brains work and so we used new types of electronic materials based on soft molecules to emulate brain-like computing networks."

via  University of Limerick's Bernal Institute: Enrique del Barco, Dynamic molecular switches with hysteretic negative differential conductance emulating synaptic behaviour, Nature Materials (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41563-022-01402-2

AI Art - Mobius in an Escher Room with Penrose Triangles - 2022

Self-assembled nanoscale architectures could feature improved electronic, optical, and mechanical properties
Nov 2022, phys.org

Internet of Everything 

"Self-assembly is a really beautiful way to make structures," Yager said. "You design the molecules, and the molecules spontaneously organize into the desired structure."

via Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory's Center for Functional Nanomaterials: Sebastian T. Russell et al, Priming self-assembly pathways by stacking block copolymers, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-34729-0


Breakthrough algorithm expands the exploration space for materials by orders of magnitude
Nov 2022, phys.org

Algorithm that predicts the structure and dynamic properties of any material—whether existing or new—almost instantaneously.

It's called M3GNet and it was used to develop matterverse.ai, a database of more than 31 million yet-to-be-synthesized materials with properties predicted by machine learning algorithms. 

via University of California San Diego: Chi Chen, A universal graph deep learning interatomic potential for the periodic table, Nature Computational Science (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s43588-022-00349-3


Kirigami technique hints at promising outcomes for breast reconstruction
Dec 2022, phys.org

Kirigami boobs

via University of Pennsylvania: Young‐Joo Lee et al, Natural Shaping of Acellular Dermal Matrices for Implant‐Based Breast Reconstruction via Expansile Kirigami, Advanced Materials (2022). DOI: 10.1002/adma.202208088

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