#Graphene device makes ultrafast light to energy conversion possible Converting light to electricity is one of the pillars of modern electronics, with the process essential for the operation of everything from solar cells and TV remote control receivers through to laser communications
In this vein, researchers from the Institute of Photonic Sciences (Institut de Ciències Fotòniques/ICFO) in Barcelona have demonstrated a graphene-based photodetector they claim converts light into electricity in less than 50 quadrillionths of a second.
the ICFO team in collaboration with scientists from MIT and the University of California, Riverside utilized an arrangement consisting of graphene film layers set up as a p-n (positive-negative) junction semiconductor, a sub-50 femtosecond, titanium-sapphire,
pulse-shaped laser to provide the ultrafast flashes of light, along with an ultra-sensitive pulse detector to capture the speed of conversion to electrical energy.
When this arrangement was fired up and tested the scientists realized that the photovoltage generation time was occurring at a rate of better than 50 femtoseconds (or 50 quadrillionths of a second.
According to the researchers, this blistering speed of conversion is due to the structure of graphene which allows the exceptionally rapid and effective interaction between all of the conduction band carriers contained within it.
they remain in that state and transfer their energy much more rapidly. As such constant laser pulse excitation of an area of graphene quickly results in superfast electron distribution within the material at constantly elevated electron temperatures.
This is because their operation is dependent upon overcoming of the binding electron energy inherent in the material for an incoming photon to dislodge an electron
In the ICFO device, the continued excitation of electrons above this bandgap level results in the much faster and easier movement of them when subjected to incoming photons to create an electric current.
the practical upshot of this research may be in the eventual production of novel types of ultrafast and extremely effective photodetectors and energy harvesting devices.
And, given that the basic operating principles of hot-carrier graphene devices are substantially different from traditional silicon or germanium semiconductors,
an entirely new stream of electronic components that take advantage of this phenomenon may evolve. The findings of this work have recently been published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology h
#IBM's Watson does some culinary computing for its first cookbook These days, it seems like every celebrity comes out with a cookbook at some point,
and IBM's Watson supercomputer is no exception. The newly released Cognitive Cooking with Chef Watson includes 65 recipes, developed with the help of
what's billed as"the world#s first cognitive cooking system, "is the result of a three-year collaboration between IBM Research and chefs at the Institute of culinary education (ICE).
Launched four years ago, Watson can handle extremely large amounts of data as an aid to decision making in medicine, customer service, finance,
and other fields. Chef Watson was conceived as a way to illustrate not only what Watson can do,
Starting out as a food truck, it went on to become an app, and on Tuesday it became a published"author."
"IBM says that Cognitive Cooking is not only a compendium of recipes, but also discusses the evolution of Chef Watson.
This allows it to produce a database of recipes, dish types, cooking styles, human psychology,
According to IBM, what works with food also works with other things, like creating new pharmaceuticals and cancer-fighting proteins.
Cognitive Cooking with Chef Watson retails for US$30. The video below discusses Chef Watson. Source:
#ARC vibrating pen steadies the ship for people with Parkinson's disease The development of tight, cramped cursive as a result of degenerating motor control is a common symptom of Parkinson's disease.
Known as micrographia, this condition can often lead people to put down their pens forever, but a team of British engineers say there might yet be hope for sufferer's of this dispiriting ailment.
but its large form is intended to make it easier to handle for people with Parkinson's disease. Packed inside are high frequency vibration motors
which spur certain muscles in the hand into action to allow better control, while simultaneously making it easier for users to drag the pen across the surface of the paper.
The result, Dopa says, is larger and clearer handwriting for those that wield it. Early trials have been conducted with subjects suffering from micrographia,
and it is currently looking for financial backing and manufacturers to refine its design, along with participants for further testing.
whether it was possible to reduce the energy cost of walking without the use of an external energy source.
The result of eight years of work begun by Steve Collins and Greg Sawicki when they were graduate students together at the University of Michigan in 2007,
the device has been shown to reduce the metabolic cost of walking by around seven percent. The researchers claim this is roughly equivalent to taking off a 10-lb (4. 5 kg) backpack
The researchers analyzed the biomechanics of walking and examined ultrasound imaging studies that showed the calf muscle
not only exerts energy when pushing a person forward, but also when performing a clutch-like action to hold the Achilles tendon taut."
without doing any work, during the stance phase of walking, but still using substantial metabolic energy,
"Collins explained.""This is the opposite of regenerative braking. It's as if every time you push on the brake pedal in your car,
you burn a little bit of gas.""By offloading some of the clutching muscle forces from the calf to the passive-elastic device,
This is accomplished through the use of a mechanical clutch that produces force without consuming any energy.
To offset the initial penalty that sees an increases in energy costs when heavy objects are placed on the legs,
This was done through the use of carbon fiber, which resulted in the device weighing around 1 lb (450 g) per leg."
"As we understand human biomechanics better, we've begun to see wearable robotic devices that can restore
#Canon's new four million ISO video camera leaves nothing in the dark Ever been poking around in low-light with your camera
because such a light-sensitivity would be ludicrous for most users. Well, that hasn't stopped the folks at Canon stepping things up in a big way with its full-frame ME20F-SH, a 4,
000,000 ISO HD video camera that seems sure to bring the noise. The seeds were sewn for Canon's new shooter in 2013,
when the company announced the development of a new 35 mm full-frame CMOS sensor specifically for filming in poorly lit environments.
This sensor has now found its way into a cubed-shaped 4 x 4. 5 x 4. 4 in (10.2 x 11.4 x 11.2 cm) body that weighs approximately 2. 4 lb
The sensor's pixels measure 19 microns, which is more than five times larger than those generally found in high-end DSLRS and amounts to a modest 2. 26 megapixels.
Canon has made efforts to stave off the inevitable noise that will accompany such an insanely high ISO with
what it describes only as proprietary pixel and readout circuitry technologies. The result is, Canon says in lieu of sample footage, the capture of low-noise, color, Full-HD video of subjects with a minimum illumination of less than 0. 0005 lux.
Infrared illumination has made it possible to capture such dim environments previously, but only in black and white.
reality TV and whatever else your mind sees but your eyes do not. It shoots 1080p at 24,30
or 60 fps and features 3g/HD-SDI and HDMI outputs for hooking up to peripherals like recorders and monitors.
With a suggested retail price of US$30, 000, the ME20F-SH is geared certainly more towards professional users than hobbyists trying to get a crisp shot of the night sky.
#World's highest-performance single-molecule diode created As electronics miniaturization heads towards a theoretical physical limit in the tens of nanometers,
new methods of manufacturing are required to produce transistors, diodes, and other fundamental electronic components. In this vein, a new range of molecule-sized devices have been created in the laboratory,
though with varying results in terms of efficiency and practicality. Now a group of researchers from Berkeley Lab and Columbia University claims to have created the highest-performing,
single-molecule diode ever made, which is said to be 50 times better in performance and efficiency than anything previously produced.
Ordinary diodes are constructed usually from silicon with a p-n (positive-negative) junction created at the point of contact between a positively"doped"semiconductor (that is,
one that has had its electrical properties altered with additives) and a negatively doped one. Flanked by connecting electrodes (an anode on one side and a cathode on the other),
the most common function of such a diode is to permit electric current to flow in one direction only,
whilst blocking current from flowing in the reverse direction. As such, a diode used in this way can be seen as a type of flow-control valve that is either"on"or"off".
"Technically, this one-way behavior is known as rectification as it can, for example, be used to rectify alternating current to direct current,
and so these types of diodes are known as rectifiers. This on/off asymmetric behavior in the nascent field of molecule-sized electronics, on the other hand, is achieved usually by the creation of molecules that chemically emulate the p-n junction.
However, these synthesized molecular junctions have resulted generally in poor forward current flow capabilities and inefficient or patchy rectification.
This is where the Columbia university scientists claim to have made significant improvements with their new single-molecule diode."
"Using a single symmetric molecule, an ionic solution and two gold electrodes of dramatically different exposed surface areas,
we were able to create a diode that resulted in a rectification ratio, the ratio of forward to reverse current at fixed voltage, in excess of 200,
which is a record for single-molecule devices, "said Jeffrey Neaton, director of the Berkeley Lab Molecular Foundry and professor at the University of California Berkeley."
"The asymmetry necessary for diode behavior originates with the different exposed electrode areas and the ionic solution.
This leads to different electrostatic environments surrounding the two electrodes and superlative single-molecule device behavior."
"First mooted in 1974 by Mark Ratner and Arieh Aviram, an asymmetric molecule that could act as a rectifier has been a long sought after goal,
particularly as diodes form the basis of many microminiature electronic devices. Since then, a range of devices have been constructed,
including single molecule diodes and transistors. Operating at this nanoscale, though, such devices may emulate their macro counterparts,
but that behavior is merely a simulation; at such scales the electronic operation of these devices is governed more by quantum influences."
"said professor"The efficiency of the tunneling process depends intimately on the degree of alignment of the molecule discrete energy levels with the electrode continuous spectrum.
At the Molecular Foundry we developed an approach to accurately compute energy-level alignment and tunneling probability in single-molecule junctions.
and Zhenfei Liu to understand the diode behavior quantitatively.""Zhenfei Liu a postdoctoral fellow at Berkeley Lab and professor Neaton worked with Latha Venkataraman
and Luis Campos from Columbia University to create their high-performance rectifier diode using junctions prepared from symmetric molecules attached to gold electrodes.
To achieve the necessary asymmetric properties required to operate as a diode, the researchers then altered the surface area of the electrodes as they were exposed to an ionic solution.
As a result, a positive voltage increased the current significantly, whilst a negative voltage reduced current flow in an equally significant manner."
"The ionic solution, combined with the asymmetry in electrode areas, allows us to control the junction electrostatic environment simply by changing the bias polarity,
"said professor Neaton.""In addition to breaking symmetry, double layers formed by ionic solution also generate dipole differences at the two electrodes,
which is the underlying reason behind the asymmetric shift of molecular resonance. The Columbia group experiments showed that with the same molecule and electrode setup,
a nonionic solution yields no rectification at all.""The combined Berkeley Lab-Columbia University research team is convinced that the way they have managed to produce a single-molecule diode sets the benchmark for future nonlinear nanoscale device tuning and development, with applications above and beyond just
junctions of single-molecule components.""We expect the understanding gained from this work to be applicable to ionic liquid gating in other contexts,
and mechanisms to be generalized to devices fabricated from two-dimensional materials, "said professor Neaton.""Beyond devices, these tiny molecular circuits are petri dishes for revealing
and designing new routes to charge and energy flow at the nanoscale. What is exciting to me about this field is its multidisciplinary nature the need for both physics and chemistry and the strong beneficial coupling between experiment and theory.
With the increasing level of experimental control at the single-molecule level, and improvements in theoretical understanding and computational speed and accuracy, wee just at the tip of the iceberg with
what we can understand and control at these small length scales.""The results of this research were published recently in the journal Nature Nanotechnology
#Acer's Cloudbooks offer Windows 10 from just $169 Acer has announced a pair of new laptops that are set to provide access to Windows 10 at a very reasonable price point.
Known as the Aspire One Cloudbook 11 and 14, the systems are designed to used in a similar way to a Chromebook,
Both the 11 and 14-inch versions of the Aspire One Cloudbooks are powered by Windows 10, with Intel Celeron processors, 2 GB RAM and 1, 366 x 768 LED
backlit displays. There's also built-in 802. 11ac wireless a full-sized HDMI port, a pair of USB ports and an SD card slot included.
The systems will ship with a choice of just 16,32 or 64 GB internal storage,
The highest tier internal storage option is reserved for the larger of the two notebooks. These machines are designed essentially to function in the same way as Chromebooks not offering much in the way of internal storage space,
Chromebooks have the benefit of running on Google's stripped-back CHROME OS platform though, meaning they don't need much horsepower to run smoothly.
Acer's Cloudbooks on the other hand, run the more power-hungry Windows 10. While that opens the door to much more local functionality,
we'd expect these machines'performance to hit some roadblocks under stress. Still, with prices starting at just US$169 for the 11-inch model and $199 for the 14-inch, the race to the bottom is alive and well.
The smaller laptop is set to arrive later this month, while the larger machine will hit shelves in September b
#Airbus patents design for Mach 4-plus supersonic jet If there's one area where the 21st century has gone backwards technologically,
it's in supersonic passenger flight. With the grounding of the Concorde fleets in 2013, flying faster than the speed of sound reverted to a military monopoly,
but that hasn't kept engineers from trying for a revival. Now Airbus'Marco Prampolini and Yohann Coraboeuf have been granted a US patent for an"ultra-rapid air vehicle"designed to fly at 20 km (12.4 mi) higher than conventional aircraft and over four times the speed of sound twice the speed of Concorde.
Even in its heyday civilian supersonic flight held on by the skin of its teeth.
Concorde may have carried the wealthy and glamorous across the Atlantic in under three hours, but only 20 were built ever after an Anglo-french development program in the 1960s that was compared to the Apollo Moon landings in cost and complexity.
and the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s made the Concorde economically unviable and it ended up as a tiny fleet, only flying with British airways and Air france because of French and British government pressure.
the Soviet union's TUPOLEV TU-144"Concordski"had an extremely short career after a fatal crash at the Paris Air Show in 1973.
The Airbus patent takes the idea of the Concorde, boosts the performance and reduces the impact of the infamous sonic boom.
According to Airbus, the craft is essentially a flying tanker with most of the fuselage made up of liquid oxygen and ecofriendly liquid hydrogen.
These not only take on the tasks of a conventional tail's rudder and elevators, but also alter the center of pressure as the fuel
But what really sets the Airbus dsign apart is its suite of propulsion systems used to keep it aloft.
and the aircraft cruises along its flight path and can cover a range of 9, 000 km (5, 600 mi) in three hours the equivalent of Tokyo to Los angeles or Paris to San francisco. Meanwhile,
Airbus says that the supersonic passenger craft can operate from conventional airports so long as they can supply the cryogenic propellants.
It wouldn't interfere with existing air corridors, would operate in all weather, and only the rocket motor requires special maintenance.
It's highly unlikely that the Airbus supersonic will ever be built, but if it is,
the craft could also have military applications as a fast strike craft invulnerable to conventional antiaircraft weapons and interceptors,
yet capable of operating over long distances to employ EMP weapons against high-value targets r
#New blood clot-busting nanocapsule promises immediate care for heart attacks When blood clots form in the aftermath of a heart attack or stroke,
medications can be deployed to break them apart, but delivery is tricky. Getting the medicine to the clot takes some guesswork
and there's no guarantee it will arrive in the right dosage, with complications like hemorrhaging a real possibility.
A team of Australian scientists has developed a new approach that sees the drugs carried safely inside a nanocapsule, opening up the treatment to more patients and lessening the chance of side effects.
It works by creating the cross links between clots to make them stronger. But the new approach being developed by scientists from the Baker IDI Heart
and Diabetes Institute and the University of Melbourne looks to use its powers for good. It sees an already approved clot-busting medication called urokinase (upa) loaded into a newly-developed type of nanocapsule.
As the capsule makes its way through the bloodstream, a carefully designed exterior formed with layers of peptide sequences protects its payload from breaking down.
But when it reaches the clot site, the thrombin bursts open the capsule's coating
It could be given in a heart attack straight away, in the ambulance as soon as there are symptoms.""Tissue plasminogen activator (tpa) is another common form of blood-clot medication.
We have seen the development of a similar vehicle intended to deliver tpa, which involved loading the drug into nanoparticles to improve the speed at
which is destroys clots. But the Australian researchers are focusing on upa, which they say is safer
and has better potential as a drug for immediate treatment.""We prefer it to tpa
#Google just became part of a new company called Alphabet Today Google, the company, is smaller
while the Google universe seems to be expanding with the announcement by CEO Larry page of a new umbrella company called Alphabet,
which will include a stripped down Google focused on search and Internet products and other companies like Calico operating as subsidiaries of the new company.
The announcement came in a post on the Google company blog by Page that is also cross-posted on the new,
otherwise barren Alphabet home page.""Our company is operating well today, but we think we can make it cleaner and more accountable.
In essence, what yesterday was Google today is called Alphabet, but under the umbrella of the new name is owned a wholly subsidiary that will still be named Google focusing on Internet products.
Alongside the new, smaller Google within Alphabet will be a number of other companies working on disparate projects like the aforementioned longevity company, Calico,
a life sciences company working on a glucose-sensing contact lens, the lab formerly known as Google X and investment arms Google Ventures and Google Capital,
just for starters. Page will be CEO of Alphabet and Sergey Brin will be President. Sundar Pichai, who has been in charge of products at Google,
including Android, Chrome and Maps, will be the new CEO of the new, stripped-down Google. Although Page doesn't say so specifically,
it seems that some of the company's biggest properties like Android and Youtube will remain a part of the smaller Google.
Normally news of what is basically a corporate restructuring isn't so interesting except that it involves a company that is,
itself, involved in so many interesting and disparate pursuits. While Page is framing the structural change as a way for Google (erm
Alphabet) to stay on its toes and maintain its innovative spirit as it continues as a mega-corporation,
we have to wonder if there might be myriad and more esoteric legal and financial benefits to this move that aren't immediately apparent to the lay tech enthusiast.
According to one filing, Google and the other new subsidiaries of Alphabet will report separately to investors,
For those who follow Google's moves with interest, the creation of Alphabet could hopefully give more of the company's many diverse projects a fighting chance of reaching fruition by having the support
Google has created a number of products that are shuttered later suddenly to the dismay of their user base (Google Reader, Glass, Buzz, Notebook, Wave, Health. just for starters), usually in the name of greater corporate focus.
Google shareholders will automatically convert to Alphabet shareholders, but the stock will continue to trade under the same GOOG and GOOGL ticker symbols s
#Astronauts chow down on space harvest for the first time The International space station (ISS) was the scene of an historic lunch this week with the crew members of Expedition 44 dining on the first meal harvested in space.
which consisted on leaves of"Outredgeous"red romaine lettuce grown in NASA's"Veggie"zero gravity greenhouse, is part of the space agency's effort to find ways to feed tomorrow's deep-space travelers.
and treated with a citric acid-based, food safe sanitizing wipe. Since the yield consisted of only a few leaves,
the repast was more of a tasting as the three men floated in the experiment module munching on a leaf each.
"The Veg-01 experiment sees plants grown in zero gravity in a plastic greenhouse that consists of a collapsible plastic tent with a controllable atmosphere that is lit by red, blue,
while the green gives the crops a less alien appearance. The seeds themselves are embedded in rooting"pillows"that take the place of soil for root growth and retaining water.
The main purpose of Veg-01 is to test technology that may one day allow astronauts to grow gardens aboard spaceships
However, a carefully selected crop of plants can cut the supply list by recycling air and waste to produce fresh air, water,
In addition, fresh foods can improve nutrition by providing vitamins and antioxidants. According to NASA, crew morale is another factor in the experiment.
such as gardening, combined with the presence of growing plants and periodic fresh food can be a surprisingly effective morale boost
In addition, urban farming may also benefit from the ISS farming experiments. In recent years, vertical farming has attracted a great deal of interest from environmentalists, architects,
and urban planners. Such farms would use a similar artificial lighting and growing media and the earthbound projects could benefit from the experience gathered on the ISS.
In addition to the greenhouse the experiment also included two sets of growing pillows with romaine lettuce seeds and one with zinnias.
A first crop was grown in May of 2014 over a 33 day period, but these were preserved
The second crop was started on July 8 and also harvested after 33 days. One reason the portions for Monday's meal were so small is that half of the tiny crop
along with their root pillows were bagged and preserved for later transportation to Earth, where they will be subjected to scientific analysis. According to NASA,
but the results from the first crop have been positive. The hope is that the experiment will help scientists to gain a better understanding of how to grow plants in a completely artificial environment.
In addition, NASA is working on how to increase the system's yield, so it produces more than a few mouthfuls at a time.
Polymers like hydrogels carry large amounts of water within their structure which gives them the capacity to respond to variations in environmental factors such as acidity,
the team created an L-shaped polymer and changed the temperature repeatedly to observe its response.
Metal-oxide nanosheets were arranged on a single plane using a magnetic field. The nanosheets were fixed then in place using a process called light-triggered in-situ vinyl polymerization
where the light helped to stick them together within the polymer. The nanosheets create electrostatic resistance in one direction,
but not the other. The polymer"legs"not only lengthened and contracted at pace, allowing it to move forward,
but its overall volume also remained the same. This breakthrough, the researchers claim, allows them to create fast-reacting hydrogels that can function in other environments."
"In principle, this hydrogel can walk not only in water, but also in various non-aqueous media including an open-air environment,"Yasuhiro Ishida,
one of the paper authors, tells Gizmag. The L-shaped polymer can walk indefinitely, Ishida says,
as long as the heating and cooling cycle is repeated. The resulting hydrogel is reported to change shape in around one second, with a deformation rate of about 70 percent per second.
Possible applications for the hydrogel include creating artificial muscles that can automatically open and close systems in response to temperature changes,
Biological applications are also possible.""Such water-rich, soft actuators would also find applications as components of artificial internal organs
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