Lifeboat Foundation

In laser-based manufacturing, accommodating non-flat, or changing surfaces has traditionally been labor-intensive, involving complex focus mapping procedures and or ex-situ characterization. This often results in repositioning errors and extended processing times.

To address these issues, ultra-high-speed auto-focusing in laser processing has been developed. Whereas most auto-focusing techniques still require the mechanical motion of a motorized stage. This mechanical movement in the beam propagation axis can be significantly slower than the lateral speed, slowing down the process of surface detection and re-alignment. Furthermore, it requires feedback, control, and sensing methods in order to determine the optical focal position.

In a new paper published in Light: Science & Applications, a team of researchers, led by Professor Craig B. Arnold from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University, U.S., developed a fast method to simultaneously track the specific location of a surface and adjust the focus of an optical system. They employed axial varifocal optics, specifically a TAG lens, which operates at 0.1−1 MHz, bypassing delays from the mechanical motion in the beam propagation direction.

Glass is a material that appears simple in its transparency and rigidity but is, in fact, highly complex and intriguing. Its transformation from a liquid to glass, known as the “glass transition,” is marked by a significant slowdown in its dynamics, giving glass its distinctive properties.

This transformation has been a subject of scientific curiosity for years. A particularly interesting aspect of this process is the emergence of “dynamical heterogeneities.” As the liquid cools and nears the glass transition temperature, its dynamics become more correlated and intermittent.

An open-source advanced supercomputer algorithm predicts the patterning and dynamics of living materials, allowing for the exploration of their behaviors across space and time.

Biological materials consist of individual components, including tiny motors that transform fuel into motion. This process creates patterns of movement, leading the material to shape itself through coherent flows driven by constant energy consumption. These perpetually driven materials are called “active matter.”

The mechanics of cells and tissues can be described by active matter theory, a scientific framework to understand the shape, flows, and form of living materials. The active matter theory consists of many challenging mathematical equations.

Quantum scientists have discovered a phenomenon in purple bronze, a one-dimensional metal, that allows it to switch between insulating and superconducting states. This switch, triggered by minimal stimuli like heat or light, is due to ’emergent symmetry’. This groundbreaking finding, initiated by research into the metal’s magnetoresistance, could lead to the development of perfect switches in quantum devices, a potential milestone in quantum technology.

Quantum scientists have discovered a phenomenon in purple bronze that could be key to the development of a ‘perfect switch’ in quantum devices which flips between being an insulator and superconductor.

The research, led by the University of Bristol and published in Science, found these two opposing electronic states exist within purple bronze, a unique one-dimensional metal composed of individual conducting chains of atoms.

Artificial intelligence (AI) not only delivers impressive performance but also demands significant energy. The more complex the tasks it undertakes, the greater the energy consumption. Scientists Víctor López-Pastor and Florian Marquardt from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen, Germany, have developed a method for more efficient AI training. Their method utilizes physical processes, diverging from traditional digital artificial neural networks.

Open AI, the company responsible for the development of GPT-3, the technology powering ChatGPT, has not disclosed the amount of energy needed for the training of this advanced and knowledgeable AI Chatbot.

According to the German statistics company Statista, this would require 1,000 megawatt hours – about as much as 200 German households with three or more people consume annually. While this energy expenditure has allowed GPT-3 to learn whether the word ‘deep’ is more likely to be followed by the word ‘sea’ or ‘learning’ in its data sets, by all accounts it has not understood the underlying meaning of such phrases.

The DOE’s shipment of 0.5 kilograms of plutonium-238 to Los Alamos National Laboratory marks a milestone in producing fuel for NASA

Established in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government that succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). It is responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. Its vision is “To discover and expand knowledge for the benefit of humanity.” Its core values are “safety, integrity, teamwork, excellence, and inclusion.” NASA conducts research, develops technology and launches missions to explore and study Earth, the solar system, and the universe beyond. It also works to advance the state of knowledge in a wide range of scientific fields, including Earth and space science, planetary science, astrophysics, and heliophysics, and it collaborates with private companies and international partners to achieve its goals.

Researchers using ALMA

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is the largest ground-based facility for observations in the millimeter/submillimeter regime in the world. ALMA comprises 66 high-precision dish antennas of measuring either 12 meters across or 7 meters across and spread over distances of up to 16 kilometers. It is an international partnership between Europe, the United States, Japan, and the Republic of Chile.

Researchers have manipulated light to exhibit quantum backflow, a step towards understanding complex quantum mechanics and its practical applications in precision technologies.

Scientists at the University of Warsaw’s Faculty of Physics have superposed two light beams twisted in the clockwise direction to create anti-clockwise twists in the dark regions of the resultant superposition. The results of the research have been published in the prestigious journal Optica. This discovery has implications for the study of light-matter interactions and represents a step towards the observation of a peculiar phenomenon known as a quantum backflow.

“Imagine that you are throwing a tennis ball. The ball starts moving forward with positive momentum. If the ball doesn’t hit an obstacle, you are unlikely to expect it to suddenly change direction and come back to you like a boomerang,” notes Bohnishikha Ghosh, a doctoral student at the University of Warsaw’s Faculty of Physics. “When you spin such a ball clockwise, for example, you similarly expect it to keep spinning in the same direction.”

A groundbreaking study by University of Leeds scientists proposes that Be stars are part of triple star systems, not binary systems as previously thought. This finding, derived from Gaia satellite data, challenges conventional star formation theories and could impact our knowledge of black holes, neutron stars, and gravitational waves.

Gravitational waves are distortions or ripples in the fabric of space and time. They were first detected in 2015 by the Advanced LIGO detectors and are produced by catastrophic events such as colliding black holes, supernovae, or merging neutron stars.