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Category: computing – Page 2

Scientists develop ‘full-spectrum’ 6G chip that could transfer data at 100 gigabits per second — 10,000 times faster than 5G

But now, researchers have integrated the entire wireless spectrum covering nine radio-frequency (RF) bands — from 0.5 to 110 GHz — into a chip measuring just 0.07 by 0.43 inches (1.7 by 11 millimeters).

The new chip is also capable of achieving a data transmission rate of more than 100 gigabits per second, including on low bands used in rural areas, where speeds can be notoriously slow. Communication also remained stable across the entire spectrum, the researchers found. They revealed their research in a study published Aug. 27 in the journal Nature.

Ultra-flat optic pushes beyond what was previously thought possible

Cameras are everywhere. For over two centuries, these devices have grown increasingly popular and proven to be so useful, they have become an indispensable part of modern life.

Today, they are included in a vast range of applications—everything from smartphones and laptops to security and to cars, aircraft, and satellites imaging Earth from high above. And as an overarching trend toward miniaturizing mechanical, optical, and electronic products continues, scientists and engineers are looking for ways to create smaller, lighter, and more energy-efficient cameras for these technologies.

Ultra-flat optics have been proposed as a solution for this engineering challenge, as they are an alternative to the relatively bulky lenses found in cameras today. Instead of using a curved lens made out of glass or plastic, many ultra-flat optics, such as metalenses, use a thin, flat plane of microscopic nanostructures to manipulate light, which makes them hundreds or even thousands of times smaller and lighter than conventional camera lenses.

Microscopes can now watch materials go quantum with liquid helium

A new specimen holder gives scientists more control over ultra-cold temperatures, enabling the study of how materials acquire properties useful in quantum computers.

Scientists can now reliably chill specimens near absolute zero for over 10 hours while taking images resolved to the level of individual atoms with an . The new capability comes from a liquid-helium-cooled sample holder designed by a team of scientists and engineers at the University of Michigan and Harvard University.

Conventional instruments can usually maintain such an extreme temperature, about-423 degrees Fahrenheit or 20 degrees above absolute zero, for a few minutes, capping out at a few hours. But longer periods of time are needed to take atomic-resolution images of candidate materials for advanced technologies.

Habitable planet potential increases in the outer galaxy

What can the galactic habitable zone (GHZ), galactic regions where complex life is hypothesized to be able to evolve, teach scientists about finding the correct stars that could have habitable planets?

This is what a recent study accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated a connection between the migration of stars, commonly called stellar migration, and what this could mean for finding habitable planets within our galaxy. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the astrophysical parameters for finding habitable worlds beyond Earth and even life as we know it. The findings are published on the arXiv preprint server.

For the study, the researchers used a series of computer models to simulate how stellar migration could influence the location and parameters of the GHZ. The models included scenarios both with and without stellar migration to ascertain the statistical probabilities for terrestrial (rocky) planets forming around stars throughout the galaxy. The researchers also used a chemical evolution model to ascertain the formation and evolution of our galaxy, specifically regarding its thickness.

Uniting the light spectrum on a single microchip

Focused laser-like light that covers a wide range of frequencies is highly desirable for many scientific studies and for many applications, for instance, quality control of manufacturing semiconductor electronic chips. But creating such broadband and coherent light has been difficult to achieve with anything but bulky, energy-hungry tabletop devices.

Now, a Caltech team led by Alireza Marandi, a professor of electrical engineering and applied physics at Caltech, has created a tiny device capable of producing an unusually wide range of laser-light frequencies with ultra-high efficiency—all on a microchip. The work has potential in areas ranging from communications and imaging to spectroscopy, where the light would aid the detection of atoms and molecules in various settings.

The researchers describe the new nanophotonic device and approach in a paper that appears in the journal Nature Photonics. The lead author of the paper, “Multi-Octave Frequency Comb from an Ultra-Low-Threshold Nanophotonic Parametric Oscillator,” is Ryoto Sekine (Ph. D.), who completed the work while a graduate student in Marandi’s lab.

DNA cassette tapes could solve global data storage problems

Our increasingly digitized world has a data storage problem. Hard drives and other storage media are reaching their limits, and we are creating data faster than we can store it. Fortunately, we don’t have to look too far for a solution, because nature already has a powerful storage medium with DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). It is this genetic material that Xingyu Jiang at the Southern University of Science and Technology in China and colleagues are using to create DNA storage cassettes.

Nano-switch achieves first directed, gated flow of excitons

A new nanostructure acts like a wire and switch that can, for the first time, control and direct the flow of quantum quasiparticles called excitons at room temperature.

The transistor-like switch developed by University of Michigan engineers could speed up or even enable circuits that run on excitons instead of electricity—paving the way for a new class of devices.

Because they have no , excitons have the potential to move without the losses that come with moving electrically charged particles like electrons. These losses drive cell phones and computers to generate heat during use.

Narrow-linewidth laser on a chip sets new standard for frequency purity

A record-breaking development in laser technology could help support the development of smaller, cheaper, more easily-fabricated optical and quantum technologies, its inventors say.

Researchers from the University of Glasgow have designed and built a narrow-linewidth laser on a single, fully integrated microchip that achieves the best performance ever recorded in semiconductor lasers of its type.

It could help overcome many of the barriers which have prevented previous generations of this type of monolithic semiconductor from being more widely adopted.

Rice research team on quest to engineer computing systems from living cells

Rice University biosciences professor Matthew Bennett has received a $1.99 million grant from the National Science Foundation to lead research on engineered bacterial consortia that could form the basis of biological computing systems. The four-year project will also involve co-principal investigators Kirstin Matthews, Caroline Ajo-Franklin and Anastasios Kyrillidis from Rice along with Krešimir Josić from the University of Houston. The research team aims to develop platforms that integrate microbial sensing and communication with electronic networks, paving the way for computing systems constructed from living cells instead of traditional silicon-based hardware.

The project highlights the growing potential of synthetic biology, where microbes are examined not just as living organisms but as processors of information. If successful, Bennett’s research could accelerate medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring and the development of next-generation computing applications.

“Microbes are remarkable information processors, and we want to understand how to connect them into networks that behave intelligently,” Bennett said. “By integrating biology with electronics, we hope to create a new class of computing platforms that can adapt, learn and respond to their environments.”

The Structure And Interpretation Of Quantum Programs

Quantum computers promise revolutionary processing power, but realising this potential requires fundamentally new approaches to programming, and a team led by David Wakeham from Torsor Labs now presents a radical departure from conventional methods. The researchers introduce a programming model based on ‘props and ops’, propositions and operators, which replaces the traditional ‘states and gates’ approach with a framework rooted in operator algebra. This innovative system provides a concise and representation-agnostic foundation for quantum programming, effectively rebuilding core concepts like the Bloch sphere from algebraic principles, and offering a novel way to express and manipulate quantum information. By establishing a robust algebraic substrate, the work paves the way for developing high-level quantum languages and, ultimately, practical software applications that can harness the full power of quantum computation.

Researchers have established a new foundation for quantum computing that replaces traditional programming methods with a system based on operator algebra, offering a more versatile and universal approach to building and programming quantum computers.

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