Lifeboat Foundation

In an advance they consider a breakthrough in computational chemistry research, University of Wisconsin–Madison chemical engineers have developed model of how catalytic reactions work at the atomic scale. This understanding could allow engineers and chemists to develop more efficient catalysts and tune industrial processes—potentially with enormous energy savings, given that 90% of the products we encounter in our lives are produced, at least partially, via catalysis.

Catalyst materials accelerate chemical reactions without undergoing changes themselves. They are critical for refining petroleum products and for manufacturing pharmaceuticals, plastics, food additives, fertilizers, green fuels, industrial chemicals and much more.

Scientists and engineers have spent decades fine-tuning catalytic reactions—yet because it’s currently impossible to directly observe those reactions at the extreme temperatures and pressures often involved in industrial-scale catalysis, they haven’t known exactly what is taking place on the nano and atomic scales. This new research helps unravel that mystery with potentially major ramifications for industry.

Simulating a wormhole has long been a goal in quantum physics. But current quantum computers don’t have enough qubits to teleport particles.

Samsung Electronics plans to cut back memory chip production as its operating profit in the first quarter of 2023 is expected to plummet about 96% from the previous year. This will be the lowest profit posted by the South Korean tech giant since Q1 2009.

The global macroeconomic slowdown, memory chip oversupply and sluggish demand have hurt its profit, the world’s largest memory chip maker said in its preliminary earnings release on Friday.

“Samsung is adjusting to lower its memory production to a meaningful level,” it noted. Samsung claims to optimize line operations to secure enough memory chip volume for future demand. The tech company added that it will continue to invest in infrastructure and research and development to strengthen its tech leadership in the industry.

The resulting materials could be used for capturing greenhouse gases.

MIT researchers have used a computational model to identify about 10,000 possible metal-organic framework MOF structures that they classify as “ultrastable.” These states make them good candidates for applications such as converting methane gas to methanol.

“When people come up with hypothetical MOF materials, they don’t necessarily know beforehand how stable that material is,” said in a statement published on Tuesday Heather Kulik, an MIT associate professor of chemistry and chemical engineering and the senior author of the study.

Putting two forms of semiconductor material called gallium oxide together seems to make it completely resistant to radiation.

By Alex Wilkins

The molecules in our bodies are in constant communication. Some of these molecules provide a biochemical fingerprint that could indicate how a wound is healing, whether or not a cancer treatment is working or that a virus has invaded the body. If we could sense these signals in real time with high sensitivity, then we might be able to recognize health problems faster and even monitor disease as it progresses.

Now Northwestern University researchers have developed a new technology that makes it easier to eavesdrop on our body’s inner conversations.

While the body’s chemical signals are incredibly faint—making them difficult to detect and analyze—the researchers have developed a new method that boosts signals by more than 1,000 times. Transistors, the building block of electronics, can boost weak signals to provide an amplified output. The new approach makes signals easier to detect without complex and bulky electronics.

Mixed reality (MR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies merge the real world with computer-generated elements, allowing users to interact with their surroundings in more engaging ways. In recent years, these technologies have enhanced education and specialized training in numerous fields, helping trainees to test their skills or make better sense of abstract concepts and data.

Researchers at University of Calgary have been trying to develop interfaces and systems that could enhanced MR visualizations. In a paper set to be presented at CHI 2023 LBW, they introduced HoloTouch, a system that can augment mixed reality graphics and charts using smartphones as physical proxies.

“To me, this paper was inspired for the most part by a work that I published during my final undergraduate year,” Neil Chulpongsatorn, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Tech Xplore “They both originated from my interest in mixed reality interactions for data representations.”

In a demonstration that promises to help scale up quantum computers based on tiny dots of silicon, RIKEN physicists have succeeded in connecting two qubits—the basic unit for quantum information—that are physically distant from one another.

Many big IT players—including the likes of IBM, Google and Microsoft—are racing to develop quantum computers, some of which have already demonstrated the ability to greatly outperform conventional computers for certain types of calculations. But one of the greatest challenges to developing commercially viable quantum computers is the ability to scale them up from a hundred or so qubits to millions of qubits.

In terms of technologies, one of the front-runners to achieve large-scale quantum computing is silicon quantum dots that are a few tens of nanometers in diameter. A key advantage is that they can be fabricated using existing silicon fabrication technology. But one hurdle is that, while it is straightforward to connect two quantum dots that are next to each other, it has proved difficult to link quantum dots that are far from each other.

The first SPAD camera.

TOKYO, April 3, 2023—Canon Inc. announced today that the company is developing the MS-500, the world’s first¹ ultra-high-sensitivity interchangeable-lens camera (ILC) equipped with a 1.0 inch Single Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) sensor² featuring the world’s highest pixel count of 3.2 megapixels³. The camera leverages the special characteristics of SPAD sensors to achieve superb low-light performance while also utilizing broadcast lenses that feature high performance at telephoto-range focal lengths. Thanks to such advantages, the MS-500 is expected to be ideal for such applications as high-precision monitoring.