Sagar Doshi (left) and Erik Thostenson test an elbow sleeve outfitted with one of their novel sensors.
Credit: Kathy F. Atkinson

Engineers use carbon nanotube composite coatings. A team of engineers at the University of Delaware is developing next-generation smart textiles by creating flexible carbon nanotube composite coatings on a wide range of fibers, including cotton, nylon and wool. Their discovery is reported in the journal ACS Sensors where they demonstrate the ability to measure an exceptionally wide range of pressure – from the light touch of a fingertip to being driven over by a forklift.

Fabric coated with this sensing technology could be used in future “smart garments” where the sensors are slipped into the soles of shoes or stitched into clothing for detecting human motion...

Artist’s view of a sunset over KELT-9b. The nearby warm blue star covers 35° in the planet’s sky, about 70 times the apparent size of the sun in the Earth’s sky. Under this scorching sun, the planet’s atmosphere is warm enough to shine in reddish-orange tones and vaporize heavy metals such as iron and titanium. Credit: Denis Bajram Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-08-iron-titanium-atmosphere-exoplanet.html#jCp

Metal vapors have been detected in the atmosphere of an ‘ultra-hot Jupiter’ by a team of astronomers. Exoplanets, planets in other solar systems, can orbit very close to their host star. When, in addition to this, the host star is much hotter than our Sun, then the exoplanet becomes as hot as a star...

An artist’s rendering incorporates the images of the Müller glia-derived rod photoreceptors. These photoreceptors were structurally no different from real photoreceptors and they became integrated within the circuitry of the visual pathway, from the retina to the brain. Credit: Bo Chen, Ph.D.

New technique generates rod photoreceptors that integrate into the retina and brain. Researchers funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI) have reversed congenital blindness in mice by changing supportive cells in the retina called Müller glia into rod photoreceptors. The findings advance efforts toward regenerative therapies for blinding diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa.

“This is the first report of scientists reprogramming Müller glia to become functional...

This is a nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond with two crossed wires for holonomic quantum gates over the geometric spin qubit with a polarized microwave. Credit: Image courtesy of Yokohama National University

Researchers show holonomic quantum gates under zero-magnetic field at room temperature, which will enable the realization of fast and fault-tolerant universal quantum computers. A quantum computer is a powerful machine with the potential to solve complex problems much faster than today’s conventional computer can. Researchers are currently working on the next step in quantum computing: building a universal quantum computer.

The paper, published in the journal Nature Communications, reports experimental demonstration of non-adiabatic and non-abelian holonomic quantum gates over a ...