Non-Toxic Quantum Dots pave the way towards CMOS Shortwave Infrared Image Sensors for Consumer Electronics

Yongjie Wang (left) and Julian Schreier (right) holding non-toxic quantum dots sample and the fabricated photodevices

ICFO and Qurv researchers have fabricated a new high-performance shortwave infrared (SWIR) image sensor based on non-toxic colloidal quantum dots. In their study published in Nature Photonics, they report on a new method for synthesizing functional high-quality non-toxic colloidal quantum dots integrable with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology.

Invisible to our eyes, shortwave infrared (SWIR) light can enable unprecedented reliability, function and performance in high-volume, computer vision first applications in service robotics, automotive and consumer electronics markets...

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Face to Face with Sun-Eclipsing Proba-3

Face to face with sun-eclipsing Proba-3
Proba-3’s pair of satellites will be in a highly elliptical orbit around Earth, performing formation flying maneuvers as well as scientific studies of the solar corona. The occulter satellite will have solar panels on its sun-facing side. Credit: ESA-P. Carril

Through exquisite, millimeter-scale, formation flying, the dual satellites making up ESA’s Proba-3 will accomplish what was previously a space mission impossible: Cast a precisely held shadow from one platform to the other, in the process blocking out the fiery sun to observe its ghostly surrounding atmosphere on a prolonged basis.

Ahead of the Proba-3 pair launching together later this year, the scientists who will make use of Proba-3 observations were able to see the satellites with their own eyes...

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Newly discovered Genetic Mutation Protects against Parkinson’s disease and offers hope for New Therapies

genetic mutation
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

A previously unidentified genetic mutation in a small protein provides significant protection against Parkinson’s disease and offers a new direction for exploring potential treatments, according to a new USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology study.

The variant, located in a mitochondrial microprotein dubbed SHLP2, was found to be highly protective against Parkinson’s disease; individuals with this mutation are half as likely to develop the disease as those who do not carry it. The variant form of the protein is relatively rare and is found primarily in people of European descent.

The findings appear in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

First discovered by Pinchas Cohen at the USC Leonard Davis School in 2016, SHLP2 is made within the cell’s...

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New AI Tool brings Precision Pathology for Cancer and Beyond into Quicker, Sharper Focus

New AI tool brings precision pathology for cancer and beyond into quicker, sharper focus

A new artificial intelligence tool that interprets medical images with unprecedented clarity does so in a way that could allow time-strapped clinicians to dedicate their attention to critical aspects of disease diagnosis and image interpretation.

The tool, called iStar (Inferring Super-Resolution Tissue Architecture), was developed by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, who believe they can help clinicians diagnose and better treat cancers that might otherwise go undetected.

The imaging technique provides both highly detailed views of individual cells and a broader look at the full spectrum of how people’s genes operate, which would allow doctors and researchers to see cancer cells that might otherwise have been virtually invisible...

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