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Electrical signals play a critical role in governing numerous functions within the human body, including transmitting messages between brain neurons, triggering the heart's muscle contractions, and enabling movement in the hands and feet, among other vital processes. To monitor or influence these signals for medical purposes, researchers have recently created a biocompatible and biodegradable optical fiber made from agar, a substance derived from Gracilaria seaweed. The study was [...]

Phonons are collective atomic vibrations, or quasiparticles, that act as the main heat carriers in a crystal lattice. Under certain circumstances, their properties can be modified by electric fields or light. But until now, nobody noticed they can respond to magnetic fields as well.  That may be because it takes a powerful magnet. Rice University scientists led by physicist Junichiro Kono and postdoctoral researcher Andrey Baydin triggered the [...]

Electromagnetic (EM) waves and gravitational waves are the only available means to study the Universe on a large scale. For millennia, only the former could be used, in naked-eye astronomical observations by the ancients based on the reception of visible light, or present-day super telescopes operating in various bands of the EM spectrum, from radio waves to gamma rays. Gravitational effects can be inferred from the relative movements of celestial bodies. The first direct measurement of [...]

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) using chlorin e-6, a photosensitizer marketed in several countries, is an effective auxiliary treatment for dental caries. The technique can be used in the consulting room. A study by Brazilian researchers demonstrated its antimicrobial action in vitro, via inhibition of the activity of bacterial plaque biofilm containing several types of cariogenic microorganisms, including Streptococcus mutans, one of the most common bacteria found in the human oral cavity. The [...]

Researchers at the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands and the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil have shown that information encoded in a quantum bit (qubit) consisting of a single photon can be teleported to the mechanical motion of an optomechanical device comprising billions of atoms. The achievement offers extraordinary prospects of technological applications, such as the creation of signal repeaters in a future quantum internet. An article reporting the [...]

In December 2019 Ancient Origins reported that Dr. Joseph Saleh, an aerospace engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States, had published a study in the online journal Nature about the lifespans of the many Roman emperors. According to Phys.org, the 2019 study showed that “of the 69 rulers of the unified Roman Empire, 43 (62%) suffered violent deaths either by assassination, suicide or during combat.” Now, a new study has upped these figures showing only [...]

Perovskite is one of the most widely studied materials because of its many potential applications. A particularly promising field is photovoltaics, which involves devices that efficiently convert light into electricity. The conversion efficiency of hybrid perovskite is now around 25.2%, surpassing that of commercial silicon-based solar cells. An example of hybrid perovskite is methylammonium lead iodide (CH3NH3PbI3). It is called hybrid because the iodine atom's three negative ions (I-) [...]

Diodes are widely used electronic devices that act as one-way switches for current. A well-known example is the LED (light-emitting diode), but there is a special class of diodes designed to make use of the phenomenon known as "quantum tunneling". Called resonant-tunneling diodes (RTDs), they are among the fastest semiconductor devices and are used in countless practical applications, such as high-frequency oscillators in the terahertz band, wave emitters, wave detectors, and logic [...]

The activity of enzymes in industrial processes, laboratories, and living beings can be remotely controlled using light. This requires their immobilization on the surface of nanoparticles and irradiation with a laser. Near-infrared light can penetrate living tissue without damaging it. The nanoparticles absorb the energy of the radiation and release it back in the form of heat or electronic effects, triggering or intensifying the enzymes' catalytic activity. This configures a new field of [...]