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    New electrical stitches use muscle movement to speed up healing

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    Stitches are getting a shocking upgrade.

    In an experiment in rats, a new strong, flexible thread hastened wound healing by transforming muscle movement into electricity, researchers report October 8 in Nature Communications.

    If the material is eventually deemed safe for use in people, it “could change how we treat injuries,” says materials scientist Chengyi Hou of Donghua University in Shanghai.

    Researchers already knew that pumping electricity through stitches could speed healing, but previous technologies relied on bulky external batteries. The new sutures are powered by the body itself (SN: 3/2/23). More

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    • 125 Shares199 Views

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      A materials scientist seeks to extract lithium from untapped sources

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      Electric vehicles promise to help wean us off of fossil fuels, but they introduce a new problem: how to get enough of the lithium that EV batteries require (SN: 5/7/19).

      Materials scientist Chong Liu of the University of Chicago has some ideas. Existing technology can extract lithium only from sources with highly concentrated ions, like hard rocks or underground deposits of salty water called brines. Not only will those sources not be enough to meet demand, but mining them also comes with environmental consequences (SN: 3/15/22). More

    • 125 Shares129 Views

      in Physics

      A quantum computer corrected its own errors, improving its calculations 

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      For the first time, a quantum computer has improved its results by repeatedly fixing its own mistakes midcalculation with a technique called quantum error correction.

      Scientists have long known that quantum computers need error correction to meet their potential to solve problems that stump standard, “classical” computers (SN: 6/22/20). Quantum computers calculate with quantum bits, or qubits, which are subject to quantum physics but suffer from jitters that result in mistakes. 

      In quantum error correction, multiple faulty qubits are combined to make reliable qubits, called logical qubits, which are then used to perform the calculation. Previous efforts found that error correction made calculations worse, rather than better, or detected errors but didn’t actually fix them (SN: 10/4/21). More

    • 163 Shares129 Views

      in Physics

      Jurassic Park’s amber-preserved dino DNA is now inspiring a way to store data 

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      Sometimes science fiction does inspire science research. À la Jurassic Park’s entombed mosquito, scientists have developed a method to store DNA in an amberlike material and still extract it easily hours later. This storage method is cheaper and faster than existing options, the researchers report in the June Journal of the American Chemical Society.

      If you want to store information for a very long time, possibly forever, DNA is the way to do it, says James Banal, a chemist at MIT and technical director of a biotechnology company called Cache DNA, headquartered in San Carlos, Calif. DNA stores the genetic information of millions of organisms, but it can potentially be used to store any kind of information, including digital data such as text, photos, videos and more (SN: 10/2/19). More

    • 163 Shares189 Views

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      Two real-world tests of quantum memories bring a quantum internet closer to reality

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      In the quest to build a quantum internet, scientists are putting their memories to the test. Quantum memories, that is.

      Quantum memories are devices that store fragile information in the realm of the very small. They’re an essential component for scientists’ vision of quantum networks that could allow new types of communication, from ultra-secure messaging to linking up far-flung quantum computers (SN: 6/28/23). Such memories would help scientists establish quantum connections, or entanglement, throughout a network (SN: 2/12/20). More

    • 125 Shares179 Views

      in Physics

      The neutrino’s quantum fuzziness is beginning to come into focus

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      Neutrinos are known for funny business. Now scientists have set a new limit on a quantum trait responsible for the subatomic particles’ quirkiness: uncertainty.

      The lightweight particles morph from one variety of neutrino to another as they travel, a strange phenomenon called neutrino oscillation (SN: 10/6/15). That ability rests on quantum uncertainty, a sort of fuzziness intrinsic to the properties of quantum objects, such as their location or momentum. But despite the importance of quantum uncertainty, the uncertainty in the neutrino’s position has never been directly measured.  More

    • 125 Shares119 Views

      in Physics

      Artificial intelligence helped scientists create a new type of battery 

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      In the hunt for new materials, scientists have traditionally relied on tinkering in the lab, guided by intuition, with a hefty serving of trial and error.

      But now a new battery material has been discovered by combining two computing superpowers: artificial intelligence and supercomputing. It’s a discovery that highlights the potential for using computers to help scientists discover materials suited to specific needs, from batteries to carbon capture technologies to catalysts. 

      Calculations winnowed down more than 32 million candidate materials to just 23 promising options, researchers from Microsoft and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, or PNNL, report in a paper submitted January 8 to arXiv.org. The team then synthesized and tested one of those materials and created a working battery prototype. More

    • 138 Shares189 Views

      in Physics

      A maverick physicist is building a case for scrapping quantum gravity

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      A rift runs deep through the heart of physics. The general theory of relativity, which describes gravity, clashes with quantum physics. In an effort to seal that physics fissure, untold numbers of physicists have spent their careers working to build a theory of quantum gravity.

      But one physicist is championing a radically different path. Jonathan Oppenheim thinks that gravity might be fundamentally classical, meaning it isn’t quantum at all. It’s an unconventional idea, to say the least.

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      “When we started, maybe 99 percent of our colleagues thought we were crackpots and that’s now down to maybe 70 percent,” quips Oppenheim, of University College London.

      All known forces except gravity are formulated in terms of quantum physics. The prevailing view is that gravity will need to assimilate with its quantum colleagues. But gravity is different, Oppenheim argues. While other forces evolve within a landscape of spacetime, gravity is the warping of spacetime itself. So, Oppenheim says, “it is pretty unclear that it should have a quantum nature, in my view.”

      Physicists have devised several “no-go” theorems that seemingly forbid a classical theory of gravity. Such theorems highlight inconsistencies, apparently fatal to the idea, that arise when classical gravity is applied to quantum particles. But it’s possible to get around those prohibitions by adding some randomness to the way that spacetime bends in response to quantum particles, Oppenheim reports December 4 in Physical Review X.

      Consider the famous double-slit experiment of quantum physics (SN: 5/3/19). Particles are sent toward a detector, separated by a barrier with two slits in it. When those particles arrive at the detector, they create a stripy pattern called an interference pattern. That pattern arises because, in quantum physics, the particle isn’t constrained to pass through one slit or the other. Instead, it can exist in a superposition, taking a quantum combination of both possible routes. If a scientist makes a measurement to determine which slit the particle passed through, that pattern disappears.

      When particles, in this case particles of light called photons, are sent toward a barrier with two slits in it, the particles produce an interference pattern (stripes) due to quantum effects.Dorling Kindersley/Getty Images

      If a standard classical picture of gravity were correct, it would be possible to measure the gravitational field of that particle so precisely that you could determine which slit the particle went through. This possibility would destroy the interference pattern, even without actually doing the measurement. Because scientists do observe interference patterns in the lab, that’s a big blow for a standard classical theory of gravity.

      But the randomness baked into Oppenheim’s theory means that, instead of a particle having a determined gravitational field, the field fluctuates. That means, unlike for the standard version of classical gravity, it’s not possible to determine which slit a particle went through by precisely measuring its gravitational field. Particles can pass through the slits in a superposition, and the interference pattern is saved, restoring the possibility gravity could be classical.

      Experiments can test this theory by searching for evidence of those random gravitational fluctuations, Oppenheim and colleagues report December 4 in Nature Communications. “Essentially, you very precisely measure the response of a mass to a gravitational field,” says study coauthor Zach Weller-Davies, who completed the work at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada.

      This is not the first time scientists have proposed a way to make classical gravity comport with quantum physics. But Oppenheim has been “leading a renaissance,” says physicist Vivishek Sudhir of MIT. Sudhir hopes to test the theory with another type of experiment, measuring the correlations between the motions of two masses that interact gravitationally, he and a colleague report September 16 at arXiv.org.

      However, the theory has features some physicists might find unsatisfying. For example, the randomness involved means that the theory is not reversible: Unlike other theories, there’s no way to start from the endpoint of an interaction and trace its steps backward.

      Still, even some quantum gravity believers think that the work has merit.

      “The reason why this work is interesting for me is not really because I would believe that gravity is classical,” says Flaminia Giacomini of ETH Zurich. The result, she says, is interesting regardless of whether gravity is found to be classical or quantum. That’s because, in order for an experiment to confidently proclaim that gravity is quantum, scientists need to understand the possibilities for classical gravity. “Only in that way will we be able to prove in a strong way that gravity is not compatible with a classical description.” More

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      in Physics

      Salty sweat helps one desert plant stay hydrated

      by

      Sweat keeps some animals cool in scorching heat. Salty secretions also serve one desert shrub a refreshing sip of water. 

      The Athel tamarisk uses a special selection of salts excreted from its leaves to pull water from the air, researchers report October 30 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This study provides new insights into the clever chemical strategies that plants have evolved to survive in harsh environments.

      The Athel tamarisk (Tamarix aphylla) thrives in the arid, salt-rich soils of coastal flats across the Middle East. That’s because the tamarisk is a halophyte, a type of plant that secretes excess salt in concentrated droplets from glands in its leaves. The moisture from these briny excretions dissipates in the heat of the day, leaving the tamarisk encrusted in white crystals that shake off in the wind.

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      While driving through the hot, humid deserts of the United Arab Emirates, materials scientist Marieh Al-Handawi of New York University Abu Dhabi noticed water condensing on these crystals. There are lots of plants with leaf structures adapted to attract liquid water from fog. But Al-Handawi, who looks to nature for strategies to tackle water scarcity, suspected that the chemical composition of the excreted salts might have something to do with the dew.

      To investigate, Al-Handawi and her team recorded time-lapse videos of Athel tamarisk plants in their natural habitat. These recordings showed that salt crystals that form from daytime excretions swell with water at night. Back in the lab, the researchers found that at 35° Celsius and 80 percent relative humidity, a naturally encrusted branch collected 15 milligrams of water on its leaves after two hours, while a washed branch yielded only about one-tenth as much.

      “This result was conclusive to us,” Al-Handawi says, “because it proved salts are the main contributor to the water harvesting, and it’s not the surface of the plant.” What’s more, the researchers observed dew form on the crystals down to just 50 percent relative humidity. 

      When the scientists scrutinized the mineral makeup of the tamarisk’s saline sprinkles, they found more than 10 different types of salt all crystallized together. These crystals are made mostly of sodium chloride and gypsum. Yet the researchers also spotted traces of a secret ingredient: lithium sulfate. This mineral is exceptionally good at taking in water and at much lower humidity than either sodium chloride or gypsum. While sodium chloride and gypsum bring in the largest volumes of water, the addition of lithium sulfate to the mineral mélange, the researchers say, helps explain how the tamarisk collects water even at low humidity.

      “This paper provides a new level of detailed understanding of how some desert plants can both excrete salt and use it to take up water from the air into leaves,” says plant physiologist and ecologist Lawren Sack of UCLA, who was not involved in the study.

      He is excited to see the chemical complexity of the salts involved. Desert plants have evolved intricate chemical strategies to squeeze every last drop of water from the environment, he says, and most of those systems await discovery.

      Al-Handawi agrees, noting that the salt recipe may differ across regions and seasons. It makes her hopeful, she says, that there are other exciting water-harvesting materials waiting to be found in the desert. More