Recent Comments

    A 3D Memristor-based Circuit for Brain-inspired Computing

    May 4, 2020, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    An image of the 3D circuit created by the researchers, captured using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Credit: Lin et al.

    Researchers at the University of Massachusetts and the Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate have recently created a 3D computing circuit that could be used to map and implement complex machine learning algorithms, such convolutional neural networks (CNNs). This 3D circuit, presented in a paper published in Nature Electronics, comprises eight layers of memristors; electrical components that regulate the electrical current flowing in a circuit and directly implement neural network weights in hardware.

    “Previously, we developed a very reliable memristive device that meets most requirements of in-memory computing for artificial neural networks, ...

    Read More

    Possibly Active Tectonic System on the Moon

    May 4, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Infrared (upper left) and other images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter revealed strange bare spots where the Moon’s ubiquitous dust is missing. The spots suggest an active tectonic process. 

    Researchers have discovered a system of ridges spread across the nearside of the Moon topped with freshly exposed boulders. The ridges could be evidence of active lunar tectonic processes, the researchers say, possibly the echo of a long-ago impact that nearly tore the Moon apart.

    “There’s this assumption that the Moon is long dead, but we keep finding that that’s not the case,” said Peter Schultz, a professor in Brown University’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences and co-author of the research, which is published in the journal Geology...

    Read More

    Nanodevices for the Brain could thwart formation of Alzheimer’s Plaques

    May 2, 2020, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) images of the porous silica nanodevices. The exposed amount of surface area provides high opportunity to attach the peptide-attracting antibody fragments. (Image by Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory.)
    Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) images of the porous silica nanodevices. The exposed amount of surface area provides high opportunity to attach the peptide-attracting antibody fragments. (Image by Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory.)

    Researchers designed a nanodevice with the potential to prevent peptides from forming dangerous plaques in the brain in order to halt development of Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, affecting one in 10 people over the age of 65. Scientists are engineering nanodevices to disrupt processes in the brain that lead to the disease.

    People who are affected by Alzheimer’s disease have a specific type of plaque, made of self-assembled molecules called β-amyloid (Aβ) pep...

    Read More

    Astronomers capture Rare Images Planet-forming Disks around Stars

    May 2, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The protoplanetary disks around the R CrA (left) and HD45677 (right) stars, captured with ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer. The orbits are added for reference. The star serves the same purpose, since its light was filtered out to get a more detailed image of the disk. Credit: Jacques Kluska et al.

    An international team of astronomers has captured fifteen images of the inner rims of planet-forming disks located hundreds of light years away. These disks of dust and gas, similar in shape to a music record, form around young stars. The images shed new light on how planetary systems are formed. They were published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

    To understand how planetary systems, including our own, take shape, you have to study their origins...

    Read More