Category Physics

In order to achieve better brain signal transmission quality, the researchers apply contact gel. Credit: Michael Veit

Several groups from the Freiburg excellence cluster BrainLinks-BrainTools led by neuroscientist Dr. Tonio Ball are showing how ideas from computer science could revolutionize brain research. They illustrate how a self-learning algorithm decodes human brain signals that were measured by an electroencephalogram (EEG). It included performed movements, but also hand and foot movements that were merely thought of, or an imaginary rotation of objects...

NASA’s Human Research Program aims to mitigate the harmful effects of the space radiation environment on astronaut health outside of the relative protection of the Earth’s magnetosphere. Credit: NASA/SOHO

NASA’s Human Research Program (HRP) is studying the effects radiation plays on the human body and developing ways to monitor and protect against this silent hazard. High-energy galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) which are remnants from supernovas and solar storms like solar particle events (SPEs) and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the sun can cause harm to the body and spacecraft. These are all components of space weather

“Dosimeters and modeling techniques are used to determine how much energy is deposited in the space explorer’s bodies along with inflight tools to try to estimate what type...

Self-healing rubber links permanent covalent bonds (red) with reversible hydrogen bonds (green). Credit: Image courtesy of Peter and Ryan Allen/Harvard SEAS

Potential applications include durable tires, wearable electronics, medical devices. Imagine a tire that could heal after being punctured or a rubber band that never snapped. Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a new type of rubber that is as tough as natural rubber but can also self-heal.

Self-healing materials aren’t new – researchers at SEAS have developed self-healing hydrogels, which rely on water to incorporate reversible bonds that can promote healing...

Columbia researchers wired a single molecular cluster to gold electrodes to show that it exhibits a quantized and controllable flow of charge at room temperature.
Credit: Bonnie Choi/Columbia University

Researchers are first to reproducibly achieve the current blockade effect using atomically precise molecules at room temperature, a result that could lead to shrinking electrical components + boosting data storage + computing power. Current blockade is the ability to switch a device from the insulating to the conducting state where charge is added and removed one electron at a time.

Bonnie Choi, a graduate student in the Roy group created a single cluster of geometrically ordered atoms with an inorganic core made of just 14 atoms – resulting in a diameter of about 0...