Category Physics

A new semiconductor architecture integrates traditional electronics with photonic, or light, components could have application in advanced radar, satellites, wireless networks and 6G telecommunications. And it provides a pathway for a local semiconductor industry.

Researchers at the University of Sydney Nano Institute have invented a compact silicon semiconductor chip that integrates electronics with photonic, or light, components. The new technology significantly expands radio-frequency (RF) bandwidth and the ability to accurately control information flowing through the unit.

Expanded bandwidth means more information can flow through the chip and th...

Researchers at Tufts University and Harvard University’s Wyss Institute have created tiny biological robots that they call Anthrobots from human tracheal cells that can move across a surface and have been found to encourage the growth of neurons across a region of damage in a lab dish.

The multicellular robots, ranging in size from the width of a human hair to the point of a sharpened pencil, were made to self-assemble and shown to have a remarkable healing effect on other cells...

Long before researchers discovered the electron and its role in generating electrical current, they knew about electricity and were exploring its potential. One thing they learned early on was that metals were great conductors of both electricity and heat.

And in 1853, two scientists showed that those two admirable properties of metals were somehow related: At any given temperature, the ratio of electronic conductivity to thermal conductivity was roughly the same in any metal they tested.

This so-called Wiedemann-Franz law has held ever since — except in quantum materials, where electrons stop behaving as individual particles and glom together into a sort of electron soup.

Experimental measurements have indicated that the 170-year-old law breaks down in these quantum material...

A common truism among statisticians is that “the data don’t lie.” However, recent findings by Italian researchers may make those who study data think twice before making such assumptions.

Giuseppe Giannaccare, an eye surgeon at the University of Cagliari in Italy, reports that ChatGPT has conjured reams of persuasive phony data to support one surgical eye procedure over another.

“GPT-4 created a fake dataset of hundreds of patients in a matter of minutes,” Giannaccare said. “This was a surprising—yet frightening—experience.”

There have been countless stories of ChatGPT’s great achievements and potential since the model was unveiled to the world a year ago...