Category Physics

New technology turns paintings into holograms, bringing art to life

New technology turns paintings into holograms, bringing art to life

Artists are always looking for new ways to create and express themselves. A growing trend is the use of multiple layers of see-through materials, such as Plexiglas, to create paintings that have real depth, transforming two-dimensional images into three-dimensional illusions that feel more realistic and lifelike. But can these layered works be made even more immersive?

A new study, published in Royal Society Open Science, answers this question by demonstrating a novel process to transform a multilayer acrylic painting into a fullcolor, three-dimensional hologram. In addition to offering a striking way to experience art, this technique provides a novel method for preserving and reproducing valuable works.

The researchers used a painting of a tiger titled “Taxonomy Test 1” by reno...

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Light-based chip can boost power efficiency of AI tasks up to 100-fold

New light-based chip boosts power efficiency of AI tasks 100 fold
A newly developed silicon photonic chip turns light-encoded data into instant convolution results. Credit: H. Yang (University of Florida)

A team at the University of Florida has developed a new kind of computer chip that uses light with electricity to perform one of the most power-intensive parts of artificial intelligence—image recognition and similar pattern-finding tasks. Using light dramatically cuts the power needed to perform these tasks, with efficiency 10 or even 100 times that of current chips performing the same calculations. Using this approach could help rein in the enormous demand for electricity that is straining power grids while enabling higher performance AI models and systems.

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are increasingly central to technology, powering ...

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Solar breakthrough — hotter panels mean better storage

Solar breakthrough—hotter panels mean better storage
Schematic of PEC cell setup composed of a c-Si device based on a pn+-junction and coated with a 10 nm Pt layer as a photocathode, a Hg/HgSO4 electrode as a reference electrode, and a carbon rod as the counter electrode. Credit: The Journal of Chemical Physics (2025). DOI: 10.1063/5.0283536

Scientists have uncovered a surprising advantage in next-generation solar technology—the hotter it gets, the better it can store energy. Traditionally, heat has been seen as the enemy of solar power. Standard solar panels lose efficiency as temperatures rise.

But a new study, published in The Journal of Chemical Physics, shows that in special “solar-plus-storage” devices, heat can actually boost performance by speeding up the internal chemical reactions that store energy.

The team studied ...

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Lithium-metal batteries can charge in 12 minutes for an 800km drive

Lithium-metal batteries charge in 12 minutes for 800 km drive
Credit: KAIST

Korean researchers have ushered in a new era for electric vehicle (EV) battery technology by solving the long-standing dendrite problem in lithium-metal batteries. While conventional lithium-ion batteries are limited to a maximum range of 600 km, the new battery can achieve a range of 800 km on a single charge, a lifespan of over 300,000 km, and a super-fast charging time of just 12 minutes.

A research team from the Frontier Research Laboratory (FRL), a joint project between Professor Hee Tak Kim from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and LG Energy Solution, has developed a “cohesion-inhibiting new liquid electrolyte” original technology that can dramatically increase the performance of lithium-metal batteries...

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