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    Novel ‘Converter’ heralds breakthrough in Ultra-fast Data Processing at Nanoscale

    October 21, 2017, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

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    A research team led by Associate Professor Christian Nijhuis from the Department of Chemistry at the NUS Faculty of Science (second from right) has recently invented a novel “converter” that can harness the speed and small size of plasmons for high frequency data processing and transmission in nanoelectronics.

    Invention bagged 4 patents and could potentially make microprocessor chips work 1000X faster. Advancement in nanoelectronics has been fueled by the ever-increasing need to shrink the size of electronic devices in a bid to produce smaller, faster and smarter gadgets such as computers, memory storage devices, displays and medical diagnostic tools.

    While most advanced electronic devices are powered by photonics – which involves the use of photons to transmit information – photonic e...

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    Scientists Dig into the Origin of Organics on Dwarf Planet Ceres

    October 21, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    SwRI scientists are studying the geology associated with the organic-rich areas on Ceres. Dawn spacecraft data show a region around the Ernutet crater where organic concentrations have been discovered (background image). The color coding shows the surface concentration of organics, as inferred from the visible and near infrared spectrometer. The inset shows a higher resolution enhanced color image of the Ernutet crater acquired by Dawn’s framing camera. Regions in red indicate higher concentration of organics. Credit: Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/ASI/INAF/MPS/DLR/IDA

    SwRI scientists are studying the geology associated with the organic-rich areas on Ceres. Dawn spacecraft data show a region around the Ernutet crater where organic concentrations have been discovered (background image). The color coding shows the surface concentration of organics, as inferred from the visible and near infrared spectrometer. The inset shows a higher resolution enhanced color image of the Ernutet crater acquired by Dawn’s framing camera. Regions in red indicate higher concentration of organics. Credit: Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/ASI/INAF/MPS/DLR/IDA

    Organic materials are probably native to the planet...

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    Noxious Ice Cloud on Saturn’s moon Titan

    October 21, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This view of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is among the last images the Cassini spacecraft sent to Earth before it plunged into the giant planet's atmosphere. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

    This view of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is among the last images the Cassini spacecraft sent to Earth before it plunged into the giant planet’s atmosphere. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

    Researchers with NASA’s Cassini mission found evidence of a toxic hybrid ice in a wispy cloud high above the south pole of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. The finding is a new demonstration of the complex chemistry occurring in Titan’s atmosphere – in this case, cloud formation in the giant moon’s stratosphere – and part of a collection of processes that ultimately helps deliver a smorgasbord of organic molecules to Titan’s surface.

    Invisible to the human eye, the cloud was detected at infrared wavelengths by the Composite Infrared Spectrometer, or CIRS, on the Cassini spacecraft...

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    Integrated Lab-on-a-Chip uses Smartphone to quickly Detect Multiple Pathogens

    October 21, 2017, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    The system uses a commercial smartphone to acquire and interpret real-time images of an enzymatic amplification reaction that takes place in a silicon microfluidic chip that generates green fluorescence and displays a visual read-out of the test. The system is composed of an unmodified smartphone and a portable 3-D-printed cradle that supports the optical and electrical components, and interfaces with the rear-facing camera of the smartphone. Credit: Micro & Nanotechnology Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

    The system uses a commercial smartphone to acquire and interpret real-time images of an enzymatic amplification reaction that takes place in a silicon microfluidic chip that generates green fluorescence and displays a visual read-out of the test. The system is composed of an unmodified smartphone and a portable 3-D-printed cradle that supports the optical and electrical components, and interfaces with the rear-facing camera of the smartphone. Credit: Micro & Nanotechnology Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

    A multidisciplinary group that includes the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Washington at Tacoma has developed a novel platform to diagnose infectious disease at the point-of-care, using a smartphone as the detection instrument in con...

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