In a future where most things in our everyday life are connected through the internet, devices and sensors will need to run without wires or batteries. Researchers present a new type of dye-sensitized solar cells that harvest light from indoor lamps. The Internet of Things, or IoT, refers to a network of physical devices and…

Researchers working on complicated problems in agriculture, ecology and medicine have developed a mathematical model to enable faster solutions. Questions about intervention, how strong and how long, are just some of the judgment calls faced by doctors and scientists during everyday decision-making. From crop production to chemotherapy, new research published in Journal of the Royal…

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, has discovered three new worlds that are among the smallest, nearest exoplanets known to date. The planets orbit a star just 73 light years away and include a small, rocky super-Earth and two sub-Neptunes — planets about half the size of our own icy giant. The sub-Neptune furthest…

One way that scientists seek to bring to Earth the fusion process that powers the stars is trapping plasma within a twisting magnetic coil device shaped like a breakfast cruller. But the device, called a stellarator, must be precisely engineered to prevent heat from escaping the plasma core where it stokes the fusion reactions. Now,…

Current methods for anonymizing data leave individuals at risk of being re-identified, according to new research. The researchers say their paper, published today in Nature Communications, demonstrates that allowing data to be used — to train AI algorithms, for example — while preserving people’s privacy, requires much more than simply adding noise, sampling datasets, and…

Researchers have created a new version of optical tweezer technology that fixes a heating problem, a development that could open the already highly regarded tools to new types of research and simplify processes for using them today. However, optical tweezers do have flaws. The prolonged interaction with the laser beam can alter molecules and particles…

Classic computers use binary values (0/1) to perform. By contrast, our brain cells can use more values to operate, making them more energy-efficient than computers. This is why scientists are interested in neuromorphic (brain-like) computing. Physicists have used a complex oxide to create elements comparable to the neurons and synapses in the brain using spins,…

UCLA engineers have demonstrated successful integration of a novel semiconductor material into high-power computer chips to reduce heat on processors and improve their performance. The advance greatly increases energy efficiency in computers and enables heat removal beyond the best thermal-management devices currently available. The research was led by Yongjie Hu, an associate professor of mechanical…

There are two sound velocities in a Bose-Einstein condensate. In addition to the normal sound propagation there is second sound, which is a quantum phenomenon. Scientists have put forth a new theory for this phenomenon. These liquids are referred to as classical liquids, examples for one of the primary states of matter. But if we…

Researchers have built a way that lidar could achieve higher-resolution detection of nearby fast-moving objects through mechanical control and modulation of light on a silicon chip. The autonomous vehicle industry is exploring «frequency modulated continuous wave» (FMCW) lidar to solve this problem. Researchers have built a way that this type of lidar could achieve higher-resolution…