Category Physics

Schematic, working principle and quantum analogue of a physically unclonable function (PUF).

A way to authenticate or identify any object by generating an unbreakable ID based on atoms has been discovered. The technology, which is being patented at Lancaster University and commercialised through the spin-out company Quantum Base, uses next-generation nanomaterials to enable the unique identification of any product with guaranteed security. It uses atomic-scale imperfections that are impossible to clone as they comprise the unmanipulable building blocks of matter.

Jonathan Roberts, PhD said: “The invention involves the creation of devices with unique identities on a nano-scale employing state-of-art quantum technology...

Sherri Burks in Dallas loaded her dishwasher in preparation for the 9 p.m. start of free hours of electricity from TXU Energy. Credit Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times

Something amazing is happening in Texas right now. Wind power has become so cheap and abundant that utilities are actually giving it away for free during night time hours. This has lead to many people conserving power during the day, and running appliances at night, when the wind blows the hardest.

Texas has more wind power than any other state, accounting for roughly 10% of the state’s generation. Alone among the 48 contiguous states, Texas runs its own electricity grid that barely connects to the rest of the country, so the abundance of nightly wind power generated here must be consumed here.

Wind blows most stro...

A microscopic garnet crystal was the key to unlocking the torque-mixing magnetic resonance spectroscopy technique. A focused gallium ion beam sculpted the single-crystal, one micrometer diameter yttrium iron garnet disk from within a much larger starting piece of the magnetic gemstone. The image is an angled-perspective scanning electron micrograph, showing the microdisk before it was placed on the nanomechanical sensor with which precise mechanical torque signatures of magnetic resonance were observed. Credit: D. Vick and F. Fani Sani (National Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Alberta)

Garnet crystal 1 micrometer diam...

Vanderbilt graduate student Anna Douglas holding one of the batteries that she has modified by adding millions of quantum dots made from iron pyrite, fool’s gold. Credit: John Russell, Vanderbilt University

If you add quantum dots – nanocrystals 10,000X smaller than the width of a human hair – to a smartphone battery it will charge in 30 seconds, but the effect only lasts for a few recharge cycles. However some Vanderbilt University researtchers have found a way to overcome this problem: Making the quantum dots out of iron pyrite ie as fool’s gold, can produce batteries that charge quickly and work for dozens of cycles.

Iron pyrite is one of the most abundant materials in the earth’s surface...