Category Physics

Now we’re Cooking with Lasers

Chicken being cooked by a blue laser. Light is being directed by two software-controlled mirror galvanometers.

Imagine having your own digital personal chef; ready to cook up whatever you want; able to tailor the shape, texture, and flavor just for you; and it’s all at the push of a button. Columbia engineers have been working on doing just that, using lasers for cooking and 3D printing technology for assembling foods.

Under the guidance of Mechanical Engineering Professor Hod Lipson, the “Digital Food” team of his Creative Machines Lab has been building a fully autonomous digital personal chef. Lipson’s group has been developing 3D-printed foods since 2007...

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Star attraction: Magnetism generated by Star-like Arrangement of Molecules- Atomic-scale ‘kagome’ geometry switches on magnetism in a 2D organic material.

The star-like ‘kagome’ molecular structure of the 2D metal-organic material results in strong electronic interactions and non-trivial magnetic properties (left: STM image, right: non-contact AFM).

A new study demonstrating the emergence of localized magnetism due to a 2D nanomaterial’s unique, star-like atomic-scale structure has potential for applications in next-generation electronics based on organic nanomaterials, where tuning of electronic interactions can lead to a vast range of new electronic and magnetic phases.

A 2D nanomaterial consisting of organic molecules linked to metal atoms in a specific atomic-scale geometry shows non-trivial electronic and magnetic properties due to strong interactions between its electrons.

A new study, published today, shows the emergence...

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A Universal System for Decoding any Type of Data sent across a Network

chip using novel GRAND algorithm graphic
Caption: A new silicon chip can decode any error-correcting code through the use of a novel algorithm known as Guessing Random Additive Noise Decoding (GRAND).
Credits:Image: Jose-Luis Olivares, MIT, with chip courtesy of the researchers

New chip eliminates the need for specific decoding hardware, could boost efficiency of gaming systems, 5G networks, IoT, and more. Every piece of data that travels over the internet — from paragraphs in an email to 3D graphics in a virtual reality environment — can be altered by the noise it encounters along the way, such as electromagnetic interference from a microwave or Bluetooth device. The data are coded so that when they arrive at their destination, a decoding algorithm can undo the negative effects of that noise and retrieve the original data...

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Researchers Develop New Tool for Analyzing Large Superconducting Circuits

Method could help push forward the field of quantum computing. The next generation of computing and information processing lies in the intriguing world of quantum mechanics. Quantum computers are expected to be capable of solving large, extremely complex problems that are beyond the capacity of today’s most powerful supercomputers.

New research tools are needed to advance the field and fully develop quantum computers. Now Northwestern University researchers have developed and tested a theoretical tool for analyzing large superconducting circuits. These circuits use superconducting quantum bits, or qubits, the smallest units of a quantum computer, to store information.

Circuit size is important since protection from detrimental noise tends to come at the cost of increased circu...

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