Thursday, May 4
Everyday Routines
Many of us, do the following:
- Wake up
- Use the bathroom/dress
- Eat breakfast
- Work for 1/2 day
- Eat Lunch
- Engage in social media
- Work for 1/2 day
- Return home for dinner
- Evening activities
- Go to bed
- shopping for stuff
- visiting with friends
- going on vacation
- attending parties
- stealing from your employer
- using illegal drugs, sex, alcohol
- avoiding accountability
- waking up
- dressing
- eating
- going somewhere
- doing something
- more eating
- undressing
- sleeping
Graphene-Based Quantum Circuits
Imagine having a building made of stacks of bricks connected by adaptable bridges. You pull a knob that modifies the bridges and the building changes functionality. Wouldn't it be great?
A team of researchers led by Prof. Aitor Mugarza, from the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) and ICREA, together with Prof. Diego Peña from the Center for Research in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Materials of the University of Santiago de Campostela (CiQUS-USC), Dr. Cesar Moreno, formerly a member of ICN2's team and currently a researcher at the University of Cantabria, and Dr. Aran Garcia-Lekue, from the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) and Ikerbasque Foundation, has done something analogous, but at the single-atom scale, with the aim of synthesizing new carbon-based materials with tunable properties.
As explained in a paper just published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) and featured on the cover of the issue, this research is a significant breakthrough in the precise engineering of atomic-thin materials —called "2D materials" due to their reduced dimensionality. The proposed fabrication technique opens exciting new possibilities for materials science, and, in particular, for application in advanced electronics and future solutions for sustainable energy.
The authors of this study synthesized a new nanoporous graphene structure by connecting ultra-narrow graphene strips, known as "nanoribbons", by means of flexible "bridges" made of phenylene moieties (which are portions of larger molecules).
By modifying in a continuous way the architecture and angle of these bridges, the scientists can control the quantum connectivity between the nanoribbon channels and, ultimately, fine-tune the electronic properties of the graphene nanoarchitecture. The tunability could also be controlled by external stimuli, such as strain or electric fields, providing opportunities for different applications.
These ground-breaking findings, resulting from a collaboration between top-tier Spanish institutions (CiQUS, ICN2, University of Cantabria, DIPC) and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), shows that the proposed molecular bridge strategy can have a great impact on the synthesis of new materials with tailored properties and is a powerful tool for the realization of quantum circuits. READ MORE...
Wednesday, May 3
Quantum Secrets from Strange Metals
Scientists have made progress in understanding the behavior of a strange metal called Y-ball, which is central to next-generation quantum materials and could drive future technologies. By using gamma rays in a synchrotron and Mossbauer spectroscopy, the researchers found unusual fluctuations in Y-ball’s electrical charge and discovered that these strange metals may pave the way for high-temperature superconductivity and other quantum applications.
Researchers investigating a compound referred to as “Y-ball,” which belongs to a mysterious class of “strange metals” considered crucial for the development of advanced quantum materials, have discovered novel methods for examining and comprehending its behavior.
The outcomes of the experiments may contribute to the creation of disruptive technologies and devices.
“It’s likely that quantum materials will drive the next generation of technology and that strange metals will be part of that story,” said Piers Coleman, a Distinguished Professor at the Rutgers Center for Materials Theory in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences and one of the theoreticians involved in the study.
Reporting in the journal Science, an international team of researchers from Rutgers, the University of Hyogo, and the University of Tokyo in Japan, the University of Cincinnati, and Johns Hopkins University described details of electron motion that provide new insight into the unusual electrical properties of Y-ball.
BREAKING THE LAW(S) IN AMERICA
While I am not wealthy, I still managed to save enough money to live comfortably...
SO SCREW THE LAWS...
Unfortunately... there are more people like me than are not like me... and, as a result, the USA is rapidly turning into an enviornment where ALL LAWS ARE DISPRECTED AND VIOLATED BY THE PEOPLE...
This is exactly what happens when the majority bands together.
The police cannot stop or catch us all... and, because of that the people will always have the advantage...
The district attorneys are helping us break the laws by not prosecuting crimes that are under a certain value. What a frigging brilliant idea!!!
ALL HANDS ON DECK... we are going to only steal $999... no more...
The only people who get hurt are the companies that manufacture and sell and the companies who provide the insurance.
Americans have turned into ROBIN HOODs... what a great idea and the people who inforce the rules are helping us do this.
It is a great time to be living in the USA...
Pioneerng Nuclear Fusion
To achieve fusion, the U.S. National Ignition Facility focuses its lasers onto a gold cylinder containing a diamond capsule filled with hydrogen isotopes. NIF could need safety upgrades, if its energy yields continue to climb. Credit: UPI/Alamy Stock Photo
Last month, the US National Ignition Facility (NIF) fired its lasers up to full power for the first time since December, when it achieved its decades-long goal of ‘ignition’ by producing more energy during a nuclear reaction than it consumed. The latest run didn’t come close to matching up: NIF achieved only 4% of the output it did late last year. But scientists didn’t expect it to.
Building on NIF’s success, they are now flexing the programme’s experimental muscles, trying to better understand the nuclear-fusion facility’s capabilities. Here, Nature looks at what’s to come for NIF, and whether it will propel global efforts to create a vast supply of clean energy for the planet.
NIF, based at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California, is a stadium-sized facility that fires 192 lasers at a tiny gold cylinder containing a diamond capsule. Inside the capsule sits a frozen pellet of the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium. The lasers trigger an implosion, creating extreme heat and pressure that drive the hydrogen isotopes to fuse into helium, releasing additional energy.
One of the main challenges in getting this scheme to work is fabricating the diamond capsule. Even the smallest defects — bacterium-sized pockmarks, metal contamination or variations in shape and thickness — affect the implosion, and thus the pressure and heat that drive the fusion reactions.
Record-breaking experiments in 2021 and 2022 used the best capsules available, but in March, while waiting for a new batch, NIF scientists ran an experiment with a capsule that was thicker on one side than the other. Modelling suggested that they could offset this imperfection by adjusting the beams coming from the lasers, to produce a more uniform implosion. This was a test of their theoretical predictions, says Richard Town, a physicist who heads the lab’s inertial-confinement fusion science programme at the LLNL.
The results fell short of their predictions, and researchers are now working to understand why. But if this line of investigation pays off, Town says, “it opens up more capsules for us to use and will improve our understanding of implosion”. READ MORE...