Category Physics

Fumbling to find flashlights during blackouts may soon be a distant memory, as quantum computing and artificial intelligence could learn to decipher an electric grid’s problematic quirks and solve system hiccups so fast, humans may not notice.

Rather than energy grid faults turning into giant problems—such as voltage variations or widespread blackouts—blazing fast computation blended with artificial intelligence could rapidly diagnose trouble and find solutions in tiny splits of seconds, according to Cornell research forthcoming in Applied Energy (Dec. 1, 2021).

“Energy power system failures are an old problem and we are still using classic computational methods to resolve them,” said Fengqi You, the Roxanne E. and Michael J...

Researchers at the University of Bath in the UK have found a way to make ‘single-crystal flake’ devices that are so thin and free of defects, they have the potential to outperform components used today in quantum computer circuits. The study is published this month in the journal Nano Letters.

The team from the university’s Department of Physics made its discovery while exploring the junction between two layers of the superconductor niobium diselenide ( NbSe₂) after these layers had been cleaved apart, twisted about 30 degrees with respect to one another, then stamped back together...

When you shrink down to very small scales, heat doesn’t always behave the way you think it should. Now, new findings from the nano realm could help researchers to gain a better handle on the flow of heat in electronic devices.

A team of physicists at CU Boulder has solved the mystery behind a perplexing phenomenon in the nano realm: why some ultra-small heat sources cool down faster if you pack them closer together. The findings, published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), could one day help the tech industry design faster electronic devices that overheat less.

“Often, heat is a challenging consideration in designing electronics...

The new device can be folded into complex 3D structures such as butterflies, airplanes, and pyramids...