Category Technology/Electronics

Ion–photon entanglement scheme and quantum-state tomography.

Physicists have succeeded in entangling a single atom with a single photon in the telecom wavelength range. This constitutes a basic building block for transmission of quantum information over long distance with low loss. Communication using quantum states offers ultimate security, because eavesdropping attempts perturb the signal and would therefore not remain undetected. For the same reason, though, long-distance transmission of that information is difficult. In classical telecommunication, the increasing attenuation of the signal is counteracted by measuring, amplifying and re-sending it in so-called repeater stations, but this turns out to be as detrimental to the quantum information as an eavesdropper.

Therefore, a differe...

A digital clock continues to run as damaged circuits instantaneously heal themselves, rerouting electrical signals without interruption. Credit: Nature Materials

Many natural organisms have the ability to repair themselves. Now, manufactured machines will be able to mimic this property. In findings published this week in Nature Materials, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have created a self-healing material that spontaneously repairs itself under extreme mechanical damage.

This soft-matter composite material is composed of liquid metal droplets suspended in a soft elastomer. When damaged, the droplets rupture to form new connections with neighboring droplets and reroute electrical signals without interruption...

A human-like 3D-printed smart gel walks underwater. Credit: Daehoon Han/Rutgers University-New Brunswick

New technology has biomedical, soft robot and other applications. Engineers have created a 3D-printed smart gel that walks underwater and grabs objects and moves them. The watery creation could lead to soft robots that mimic sea animals like the octopus, which can walk underwater and bump into things without damaging them. It may also lead to artificial heart, stomach and other muscles, along with devices for diagnosing diseases, detecting and delivering drugs and performing underwater inspections.

Soft materials like the smart gel are flexible, often cheaper to manufacture than hard materials and can be miniaturized...

Dr. Cao-Thang Dinh, left, and Dr. Md Golam Kibria (both ECE) demonstrate their new catalyst. In a paper published today in Science, their team demonstrated most efficient and stable process for converting climate-warming carbon dioxide into the building blocks for plastics, all powered using renewable electricity. Credit: Laura Pedersen

Engineering team designs most efficient and stable process for converting climate-warming CO2 into a key chemical building block. A new technology from U of T Engineering is taking a substantial step towards enabling manufacturers to create plastics out of two key ingredients: sunshine and pollution...