Electron microscopy in the age of automation

"Many of the greatest challenges of our time, from clean energy to environmental justice, require new approaches to the craft of scientific experimentation. This is exceedingly apparent in the field of electron microscopy. As researchers utilize this powerful window to peer into the atomic machinery behind today's technologies, they are increasingly inundated with data and constrained by traditional operating models. We must leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning in our scientific instruments if we are to unlock breakthrough discoveries."

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Ultracold transistors serve as their own memory devices

Digital transistors—assembled by the billions in today's computer chips—act as near-perfect electronic switches. In the "on" position, achieved when an above-threshold voltage is applied to the device, the transistor allows current to flow. When the switch is off, the transistor prevents the flow of current. The on/off positions of the switch translate into the 1s and 0s of digital computation.

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Searching for dark matter inside the Earth

Dark matter remains one of the greatest mysteries in science. Despite decades of astronomical evidence for its existence, no one has yet been able to find any sign of it closer to home. There have been dozens of efforts to do so, and one of the most prominent just hit a milestone—the release and analysis of eight years of data. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory will soon be releasing results from those eight years, but for now let's dive in to what exactly they are looking for.

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Engineers bend light to enhance wavelength conversion

Electrical engineers from the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering have developed a more efficient way of converting light from one wavelength to another, opening the door for improvements in the performance of imaging, sensing and communication systems.

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AI learns physics to optimize particle accelerator performance

Machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence, vastly speeds up computational tasks and enables new technology in areas as broad as speech and image recognition, self-driving cars, stock market trading and medical diagnosis.

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New exotic matter particle, a tetraquark, discovered

Today, the LHCb experiment at CERN is presenting a new discovery at the European Physical Society Conference on High Energy Physics (EPS-HEP). The new particle discovered by LHCb, labeled as Tcc+, is a tetraquark—an exotic hadron containing two quarks and two antiquarks. It is the longest-lived exotic matter particle ever discovered, and the first to contain two heavy quarks and two light antiquarks.

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Spin-sonics: Acoustic wave gets the electrons spinning

Researchers have detected the rolling movement of a nano-acoustic wave predicted by the famous physicist and Nobel prize winner Lord Rayleigh in 1885. This phenomenon can find applications in acoustic quantum technologies or in so-called "phononic" components, which are used to control the propagation of acoustic waves.

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Berkeley Lab's CAMERA leads international effort on autonomous scientific discoveries

Experimental facilities around the globe are facing a challenge: their instruments are becoming increasingly powerful, leading to a steady increase in the volume and complexity of the scientific data they collect. At the same time, these tools demand new, advanced algorithms to take advantage of these capabilities and enable ever-more intricate scientific questions to be asked—and answered. For example, the ALS-U project to upgrade the Advanced Light Source facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) will result in 100 times brighter soft X-ray light and feature superfast detectors that will lead to a vast increase in data-collection rates.

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A single-molecule laser nanospectroscopy technique with micro-electron volt energy resolution

When molecules are excited, they can give rise to a variety of energy conversion phenomena, such as light emission and photoelectric or photochemical conversion. To unlock new energy conversion functions in organic materials, researchers should be able to understand the nature of a material's excited state and control it.

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Chaotic electrons heed 'limit' in strange metals

Electrons in metals try to behave like obedient motorists, but they end up more like bumper cars. They may be reckless drivers, but a new Cornell-led study confirms this chaos has a limit established by the laws of quantum mechanics.

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Northern English verbal mannerisms being lost

Within just 45 years south eastern English pronunciations will be used across the UK, according to new research from the Universities of Portsmouth and Cambridge.

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Why beer mats do not fly in a straight line

Anyone who has ever failed to throw a beer mat into a hat should take note: physicists at the University of Bonn have discovered why this task is so difficult. However, their study also suggests how to significantly increase accuracy and range. The results are being publishing in the European Physical Journal Plus.

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Under pressure, 'squishy' compound reacts in remarkable ways

Remarkable things happen when a "squishy" compound of manganese and sulfide (MnS2) is compressed in a diamond anvil, say researchers from the University of Rochester and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).

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ATLAS reports first observation of WWW production

The ATLAS Collaboration at CERN announces the first observation of "WWW production": The simultaneous creation of three massive W bosons in high-energy Large Hadron Collider (LHC) collisions.

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Now in 3D: Deep learning techniques help visualize X-ray data in three dimensions

Computers have been able to quickly process 2D images for some time. Your cell phone can snap digital photographs and manipulate them in a number of ways. Much more difficult, however, is processing an image in three dimensions, and doing it in a timely manner. The mathematics are more complex, and crunching those numbers, even on a supercomputer, takes time.

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Scientists discover how high-energy electrons strengthen magnetic fields

More than 99% of the visible universe exists in a superheated state known as plasma—an ionized gas of electrons and ions. The motion of these charged particles produces magnetic fields that form an interstellar magnetic web. These magnetic fields are important for a wide range of processes, from the shaping of galaxies and the formation of stars to controlling the motion and acceleration of high-energy particles like cosmic rays—protons and electrons that zoom through the universe at nearly the speed of light.

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Acoustic tweezers can pick up objects without physical contact

Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have developed a new technology which allows non-contact manipulation of small objects using sound waves. They used a hemispherical array of ultrasound transducers to generate a 3D acoustic field that stably trapped and lifted a small polystyrene ball from a reflective surface. Their technique employs a method similar to laser trapping in biology, but adaptable to a wider range of particle sizes and materials.

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To de-ice planes on the fly, researchers aim to control rather than combat ice formation

How do you control ice formation on a plane, even when it's in flight? Jonathan Boreyko, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, is leading a team working with Collins Aerospace to develop an approach using ice itself. In a study published in Physical Review Letters, they created a de-icing method that exploits how frost grows on pillar structures to suspend ice as it forms into a layer that's easier to remove.

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The mechanics of puncture finally explained

The feeling of a needle piercing skin is familiar to most people, especially recently as COVID-19 vaccinations gain momentum. But what exactly happens when a needle punctures skin? The answer is revealed in a new paper published recently in the Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids.

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Nobel prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg dies at 88

Physicist Steven Weinberg, who won the Nobel prize in 1979 with two other scientists for their separate contributions unlocking mysteries of tiny particles and their electromagnetic interaction, has died at 88, the University of Texas at Austin said Saturday.

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The science of underwater swimming: How staying submerged gives Olympians the winning edge

To win swimming gold in Tokyo, swimmers not only have to generate incredible power with their arms and legs to propel themselves through the water; they also have to overcome the relentless pull of the water's drag while doing so.

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A device that cracks milk protein

After gaining world attention by 'unboiling' egg protein, Flinders University scientists have now used an Australian-made novel thin film microfluidic device to manipulate Beta-lactoglobulin (β-lactoglobulin), the major whey protein in cow, sheep and other mammal milks.

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Exploring topology in biology

When can we say that a certain property of a system is robust? Intuitively, robustness implies that, even under the effect of external perturbations on the system, no matter how strong or random, said property remains unchanged. In mathematics, properties of an object that are robust against deformations are called topological. For example, the letters s, S, and L can be transformed into each other by stretching or bending their shape. The same holds true for letters o, O, and D. However, it is impossible to turn an S into an O without a discontinuous operation, such as cutting the O apart or sticking the two ends of the S together. Therefore, we say that the letters s, S and L have the same topology—as do the letters o, O and D—whereas the two groups of letters have different topologies. But how does topology relate to biology?

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A curvy and shape-adaptive imager based on printed optoelectronic pixels

Curved imagers that can adjust their shape could have many valuable applications, for instance, aiding the development of more advanced medical imaging tools and cameras. Most existing flexible curvy imagers, however, are either not compatible with tunable focal surfaces or can only capture images with low resolutions and pixel fill factors.

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Imaging tool under development exposes concealed detonators—and their charge

Behold the neutron, the middle child of subatomic particles. At times overshadowed by its electrically charged siblings the proton and the electron, neutrons quietly play important roles in national security. They start nuclear reactions for weapons and power plants. They bombard materials for nuclear safety tests. And now they have a new skill: telling whether a concealed, electric detonator is charged.

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Glass sponges reveal important properties for the design of ships, skyscrapers and planes of the future

The remarkable structural properties of the Venus flower basket sponge (E. aspergillum) might seem fathoms removed from human-engineered structures. However, insights into how the organism's latticework of holes and ridges influences the hydrodynamics of seawater in its vicinity could lead to advanced designs for buildings, bridges, marine vehicles and aircraft, and anything that must respond safely to forces imposed by the flow of air or water.

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Capturing electrons in space

Interstellar clouds are the birthplaces of new stars, but they also play an important role in the origins of life in the Universe through regions of dust and gas in which chemical compounds form. The research group, molecular systems, led by ERC prize winner Roland Wester at the Institute for ion physics and applied physics at the University of Innsbruck, has set itself the task of better understanding the development of elementary molecules in space. "Put simply, our ion trap allows us to recreate the conditions in space in our laboratory," explains Roland Wester. "This apparatus allows us to study the formation of chemical compounds in detail." The scientists working with Roland Wester have now found an explanation for how negatively charged molecules form in space.

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Laser improves the time resolution of CryoEM

In 2017, Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank, and Richard Henderson won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their contributions to cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM), an imaging technique that can capture pictures of biomolecules such as proteins with atomic precision.

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The realization of curved relativistic mirrors to reflect high-power laser pulses

One of the topics investigated in recent physics studies is strong-field quantum electrodynamics (SF-QED). So far, this area has rarely been explored before, mainly because the experimental observation of SF-QED processes would require extremely high light intensities (>1025W/cm2), over three orders of magnitude higher than those attained using the most intense PetaWatt (PW)-class lasers available today.

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Test of Lord Kelvin's isotropic helicoid ideas fail to prove theory correct

A small team of researchers from Wesleyan University, Aix Marseille University and Gothenburg University has attempted to test Lord Kelvin's isotropic helicoid theory by building several test objects and dropping them in a tub of water. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes how they constructed their objects, how they tested them and what they observed.

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New method found for moving tiny artificial swimmers

Princeton researchers have debuted a novel way of generating and potentially controlling locomotion in tiny objects called artificial swimmers. These swimmers have sparked considerable interest for their potential applications in medicine, industry and other sectors.

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Emergent magnetic monopoles isolated using quantum-annealing computer

Using a D-Wave quantum-annealing computer as a testbed, scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have shown that it is possible to isolate so-called emergent magnetic monopoles, a class of quasiparticles, creating a new approach to developing "materials by design."

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Physicists discover simple propulsion mechanism for bodies in dense fluids

A team of researchers from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), the University of Liège and the Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energy have developed a micro-swimmer that appears to defy the laws of fluid dynamics: Their model, consisting of two beads connected by a linear spring, is propelled by completely symmetrical oscillations. The scallop theorem states that this cannot be achieved in fluid microsystems. The findings have now been published in the academic journal Physical Review Letters.

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Producing memory from speckle patterns

A team of researchers has developed a way to significantly increase the memory of speckle patterns, the very complex patterns that result from shining a laser light onto an opaque sheet, such as paper, biological tissue, or fog.

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Improving low-loss dielectric measurement technique

Scientists from NPL have developed improvements to a technique for measuring dielectric permittivity and loss of materials at MHz frequencies. The method used is named after two NPL scientists who developed in the 1930, Hartshorn and Ward. The findings are presented in the team's paper, "Low loss dielectric measurements in the frequency range 1—70MHz by using a Vector Network Analyser," recently published in Measurement Science and Technology. This method allows the permittivity and loss of a sheet of dielectric material placed between the plates of a capacitor to be determined by resonating it with a coil inductor. The value of the technique is that very low losses can be determined from measurement of small changes in Q-factor.

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Thruster research to help propel spacecraft

Faster space maneuvers and safer, more sustainable, propellants may soon be possible thanks to a new three-year partnership between The Australian National University and French propulsion company ThrustMe.

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Scientists find way to navigate a heavy uphill climb

A team of scientists has uncovered how heavy, motorized objects climb steep slopes—a newly discovered mechanism that also mimics how rock climbers navigate inclines.

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Simulating microswimmers in nematic fluids

Artificial microswimmers have received much attention in recent years. By mimicking microbes which convert their surrounding energy into swimming motions, these particles could soon be exploited for many important applications. Yet before this can happen, researchers must develop methods to better control the trajectories of individual microswimmers in complex environments. In a new study published inEPJ E, Shubhadeep Mandal at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (India), and Marco Mazza at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organisation in Göttingen (Germany) and Loughborough University (UK), show how this control could be achieved using exotic materials named 'nematic liquid crystals' (LCs)—whose viscosity and elasticity can vary depending on the direction of an applied force.

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A more efficient method for modeling electrons in materials

One of the most significant challenges in the global R&D effort towards better energy technologies—efficient and accurate material simulation—may be one step closer to being solved, based on new techniques released by UK-based quantum software startup Phasecraft.

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Neutron-clustering effect in nuclear reactors demonstrated for first time

For the first time, the long-theorized neutron-clustering effect in nuclear reactors has been demonstrated, which could improve reactor safety and create more accurate simulations, according to a new study recently published in the journal Nature Communications Physics.

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Seeing with radio waves

Scientists from the Division of Physics at the University of Tsukuba used the quantum effect called 'spin-locking' to significantly enhance the resolution when performing radio-frequency imaging of nitrogen-vacancy defects in diamond. This work may lead to faster and more accurate material analysis, as well as a path towards practical quantum computers.

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New method to measure loss of signal in far-infrared instruments

After carefully observing dim objects in the night sky, you don't want to waste any precious signal on its way from the telescope dish to the detector. But in the case of far-infrared astronomy, it's not as easy as it sounds to transport the signal efficiently. In fact, it's even an endeavor to measure the exact amount of signal that gets lost. Scientists from SRON and TU Delft have now found a new, easier way to determine the signal loss. In the process they designed a signal-carrying microstrip for the DESHIMA-2 instrument that loses only 1 in 4,900 photons. The results are published in Physical Review Applied.

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Record-breaking simulations of turbulence's smallest structures

When you pour cream into a cup of coffee, the viscous liquid seems to lazily disperse throughout the cup. Take a mixing spoon or straw to the cup, though, and the cream and coffee seem to quickly and seamlessly combine into a lighter color and, at least for some, a more enjoyable beverage.

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Infrared cameras and artificial intelligence uncover the physics of boiling

Boiling is not just for heating up dinner. It's also for cooling things down. Turning liquid into gas removes energy from hot surfaces, and keeps everything from nuclear power plants to powerful computer chips from overheating. But when surfaces grow too hot, they might experience what's called a boiling crisis.

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New clues to why there's so little antimatter in the universe

Imagine a dust particle in a storm cloud, and you can get an idea of a neutron's insignificance compared to the magnitude of the molecule it inhabits.

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Scientists discover support for disputed universal truth of particle physics

A measurement of a fundamental principle of the standard model of particle physics—lepton flavour universality—captured by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider, is reported in a paper published in Nature Physics.

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Scientists propose new source for rare subatomic particles

A paper based on joint research by Prof. Yuan Changzheng from Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Prof. Marek Karliner from Tel Aviv University of Israel, was published in Physical Review Letters. It points out a new abundant source of antineutrons and hyperons. These rare subatomic particles are essential for studying forces governing the behavior of matter at the smallest distances, from atomic nuclei to neutron stars.

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The first commercially scalable integrated laser and microcomb on a single chip

Fifteen years ago, UC Santa Barbara electrical and materials professor John Bowers pioneered a method for integrating a laser onto a silicon wafer. The technology has since been widely deployed in combination with other silicon photonics devices to replace the copper-wire interconnects that formerly linked servers at data centers, dramatically increasing energy efficiency—an important endeavor at a time when data traffic is growing by roughly 25% per year.

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A crystal made of electrons

Researchers at ETH Zurich have succeeded in observing a crystal that consists only of electrons. Such Wigner crystals were already predicted almost ninety years ago but could only now be observed directly in a semiconductor material.

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Taking cues from nature, breakthrough 'cellular fluidics' technology could have sweeping impacts

Inspired by the way plants absorb and distribute water and nutrients, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have developed a groundbreaking method for transporting liquids and gases using 3D-printed lattice design and capillary action phenomena.

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Physicists observationally confirm Hawking's black hole theorem for the first time

There are certain rules that even the most extreme objects in the universe must obey. A central law for black holes predicts that the area of their event horizons—the boundary beyond which nothing can ever escape—should never shrink. This law is Hawking's area theorem, named after physicist Stephen Hawking, who derived the theorem in 1971.

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Deep Space Atomic Clock moves toward increased spacecraft autonomy

Spacecraft that venture beyond our Moon rely on communication with ground stations on Earth to figure out where they are and where they're going. NASA's Deep Space Atomic Clock is working toward giving those far-flung explorers more autonomy when navigating. In a new paper published today in the journal Nature, the mission reports progress in their work to improve the ability of space-based atomic clocks to measure time consistently over long periods.

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