Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers at Dartmouth College have built the world’s first superfluid circuit that uses pairs of ultracold electron-like atoms, according to a study published in Physical Review Letters.

The laboratory test bed gives physicists control over the strength of interactions between atoms, providing a new way to explore the phenomena behind exotic materials such as superconductors.

“Much of modern technology revolves around controlling the flow of electrons around circuits,” said Kevin Wright, assistant professor of physics at Dartmouth and senior researcher of the study. “By using electron-like atoms we can test theories in ways that were not possible before.”

Newly discovered Fermi arcs that can be controlled through magnetism could be the future of electronics based on electron spins.

These new Fermi arcs were discovered by a team of researchers from Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University, as well as collaborators from the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom. During their investigation of the rare-earth monopnictide NdBi (neodymium-bismuth), the research team discovered a new type of Fermi arc that appeared at low temperatures when the material became antiferromagnetic, i.e., neighboring spins point in opposite directions.

Fermi surfaces in metals are a boundary between energy states that are occupied and unoccupied by electrons. Fermi surfaces are normally closed contours forming shapes such as spheres, ovoids, etc. Electrons at the Fermi surface control many properties of materials such as electrical and thermal conductivity, optical properties, etc. In extremely rare occasions, the Fermi surface contains disconnected segments that are known as Fermi arcs and often are associated with exotic states like superconductivity.

The Essential Beauty exhibition of Obel Award-winning architect Anna Heringer’s work is currently on show at Madrid’s Museo ICO. Here, curator Luis Fernández-Galiano selects five highlights from the exhibition.

First opened in February as part of the 2022 edition of Madrid Design Festival, the retrospective exhibition curated by Spanish architect Luis Fernández-Galiano showcases the breadth of German architect Heringer’s work.

Working across the world, she aims to use architecture as a tool to improve lives – using local materials and labour to support and empower communities and people.

In recent years, more and more environmentally friendly projects are being developed in many countries all around the world. Similar to earlier successful projects, like for example the Netherlands-based Print your City, R3direct from Italy is now also starting to use additive manufacturing as an eco-friendly option to develop street furniture. By using plastic waste as their main material and with the help of modern technology, the company is now 3D printing benches. And the first example of this is already installed in the heart of Lucca, Italy. Called USE (Urban Safety Everyday), these benches are intended to show that technologies can make it possible to significantly reduce plastic waste by reusing the recycled material.

Italian manufacturing company introduces new, eco-friendly public benches made of recycled plastic using 3D printing technologies.

InAs nanowires are emerging as go-to materials in a variety of applications ranging from optoelectronics to nanoelectronics, yet a consensus on their mechanical properties is still lacking. The mechanical properties of wurtzite InAs nanowires are here investigated via a multitechnique approach, exploiting electron microscopies, ultrafast photoacoustics, and finite element simulations. A benchmarked elastic matrix is provided and a Young modulus of 97 GPa is obtained, thus clarifying the debated issue of InAs NW elastic properties. The validity of the analytical approaches and approximations commonly adopted to retrieve the elastic properties from ultrafast spectroscopies is discussed. The mechanism triggering the oscillations is unveiled. Nanowire oscillations in this system arise from a sudden expansion of the supporting substrate rather than the nanowire itself.

Researchers have developed a new fabrication process that allows infrared (IR) glass to be combined with another glass and formed into complex miniature shapes. The technique can be used to create complex infrared optics that could make IR imaging and sensing more broadly accessible.

“Glass that transmits IR wavelengths is essential for many applications, including spectroscopy techniques used to identify various materials and substances,” said research team leader Yves Bellouard from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. “However, infrared glasses are difficult to manufacture, fragile and degrade easily in the presence of moisture.”

In the journal Optics Express, the researchers describe their new technique, which can be used to embed fragile IR glasses inside a durable silica matrix. The process can be used to create virtually any interconnected 3D shape with features measuring a micron or less. It works with a wide variety of glasses, offering a new way to fine-tune the properties of 3D optics with subtle combinations of glass.

And it could mean signs of the war will remain for a long time. Reports are in that Russian forces are laying “smart” landmines in Ukraine that are only able to target soldiers. Called the POM-3 “Medallion” landmine, these anti-personal weapons are activated, allegedly, specialist seismic target sensors.

Once the conflict ends, it is important to begin the process of “demining.” The goal is to clear the land of any explosive devices that pose a risk to the population. Currently, there are an estimated 110 million landmines scattered across dozens of war-torn countries, and approximately 26,000 people per year (or roughly 70 people per day) die due to these devices.

Many die while trying to collect parts of the metal mines for scrap, or by accidentally triggering the mines. Here’s a look at a few different technologies, both old and new, that are working to clear affected areas of these destructive weapons.

Continue reading “The Real Minesweepers Are Changing Lives and Saving Limbs” »

A follow-up to his series focused on the glow of LED-lit greenhouses, Tom Hegen’s new collection peers down on the landscape of Spain’s Almería peninsula. The German photographer is broadly interested in our impact on the earth and gears his practice toward the aerial, offering perspectives that illuminate the immense scale of human activity.

In The Greenhouse Series II, Hegen captures the abstract topographies of the world’s largest agricultural production center of its kind, which stretches across 360-square kilometers of rugged, mountainous terrain in the southern part of the country. The sun-trapping structures house plants like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and watermelons that provide fresh produce to much of Europe year-round.

While 30 times more productive than typical farmland in the region, the facilities also function at a cost to the local ecosystems. “Groundwater is being polluted with fertilisers and pesticides. Some 30,000 tons of plastic waste are created each year,” Hegen tells Colossal, noting that the greenhouses are made almost entirely of plastic foil, which is shredded and discarded nearby once it’s no longer useful. “From there, wind and erosion transport it to the (Mediterranean Sea).”

“An engineering team from MIT collaborated with students from Rhode Island School of Design to create a textile that can hear and (eventually) interpret what’s happening on and inside our bodies.”

A new fiber made from a piezoelectric material and a conductor can register sound as mechanical waves and convert it into electrical waves, helping monitor bodies.