Category Uncategorized

Background static can carry wireless data without an actively generated radio signal

Thermal noise used to send data without an active signal
Green circuit board with gold connectors mounted on a horn antenna inside a chamber lined with blue foam cones. The experimental setup used to test thermal noise communication. Credit: Jida Zhang

Stanford researchers recently revealed how a seemingly physics-defying wireless communication technology works. The new technology, called thermal noise communication, harnesses background static that normally is the bane of radio, cellular and other wireless signals. In their new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team showed how a transmitter could deliver data to a receiver without any actively produced signal by manipulating tiny oscillations in voltage.

The findings describe how the system works at a fundamental level, opening the door to improv...

Read More

A magnetar can be born when two neutron stars touch

Illustration of a binary neutron star merger just as the two stars make contact. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Illustration of a binary neutron star merger just as the two stars make contact. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

All neutron stars have intense magnetic fields. The typical magnetic field of a neutron star is about 100,000 times stronger than the strongest magnetic fields we can create on Earth. But about 1% of neutron stars have even stronger magnetic fields. Known as magnetars, their magnetic fields can be 1,000 times stronger than a regular magnetic field. They are a likely cause of powerful transient events such as soft gamma-ray repeaters and fast radio bursts. A new study looks at how magnetars might form. The findings are published on the arXiv preprint server.

The work focuses on the mergers of binary neutron stars...

Read More

First comprehensive Mars soil classification offers framework for exploration and future farming

Sydney student creates first map of Martian soils
Ph.D. candidate Daniel Irving at the University of Sydney. Credit: Stephanie Zingsheim

A Ph.D. student at the University of Sydney has produced the first comprehensive classification system and map of Martian soils, creating a new framework that could help scientists compare landscapes across the Red Planet and identify promising locations for future exploration, habitation and food production.

The research, led by Daniel Irving from the Sydney Institute of Agriculture and the Faculty of Science, proposes a new term for Martian soil classes: “areths,” derived from Ares, the Greek name for Mars.

Published in the journal CATENA, the research uses orbital observations and models to classify almost 800 million locations across Mars into a hierarchy of 2,000 soil classes and presents ...

Read More

NASA’s SpaceX CRS-35 mission to launch health research

international space station
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

NASA experiments focused on human and plant health and drug-resistant organisms will travel to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX’s 35th Commercial Resupply Services mission for the agency from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, advancing research that benefits life on Earth and future exploration.

This research supports astronaut health during long-duration missions through four investigations from the agency’s Biological and Physical Sciences division, including 3D models of the human brain, a crop disease study, a faster way to assess astronaut health and an analysis of antibiotic-resistant bacteria aboard the space station.

Tiny brain models, big questions
A new precision health investigation helps address a key question: What h...

Read More