What started as a fun experiment to create a decorative diamond “owl” for distinguished guests has evolved into a scalable manufacturing process for electronics.
Researchers at Rice University have developed a bottom-up method for growing patterned diamond surfaces to cool electronics.
The technique enables diamonds to be integrated directly into devices, reducing operating temperatures by 23°C (41°F).
A newly identified cybercrime service known as 1Campaign is enabling threat actors to run malicious Google Ads that remain online for extended periods while evading scrutiny from security researchers.
1Campaign is a cloaking service that passes Google’s screening process and shows malicious content only to real potential victims. Security researchers and automated scanners are served benign white pages.
The operation has been active for at least three years and is managed by a developer using the name ‘DuppyMeister,’ according to a report from data security company Varonis.
With just a transistor and sensor coil, a new DIY motor achieves continuous motion without complex external electronics.
The name “IceCube” not only serves as the title of the experiment, but also describes its appearance. Embedded in the transparent ice of the South Pole, a three-dimensional grid of more than 5,000 extremely sensitive light sensors forms a giant cube with a volume of one cubic kilometer. This unique arrangement serves as an observatory for detecting neutrinos, the most difficult elementary particles to detect.
In order to detect neutrinos, they must interact with matter, creating charged particles whose light can be measured. These light measurements can be used to determine information about the properties of neutrinos. However, the probability of neutrinos interacting with matter is extremely low, so they usually pass through it without leaving a trace, which makes their detection considerably more difficult.
For this reason, a large detector volume is required to increase the probability of interaction, and state-of-the-art technology is crucial for detecting such rare interactions.
Since 2010, the IceCube Observatory at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station has been delivering groundbreaking measurements of high-energy cosmic neutrinos. It consists of many detectors embedded in a volume of Antarctic ice measuring approximately one cubic kilometer. IceCube has now been upgraded with new optical modules to enable it to measure lower-energy neutrinos as well. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) made a significant contribution to this expansion.
IceCube serves to measure high-energy neutrinos in an ice volume of one cubic kilometer. As neutrinos themselves do not emit any signals, the tracks of muons and other secondary particles are measured precisely. Muons are elementary particles sometimes produced by the interaction of neutrinos with ice. Contrary to neutrinos, muons carry an electric charge. On their way through the ice, they produce a characteristic light cone, which is detected by highly sensitive detectors.
Now, 51 researchers from around the world have installed six new strings of novel sensors up to 2,400 meters deep into the eternal ice, thereby expanding the IceCube experiment to also measure low-energy neutrinos.
Researchers demonstrated a broadband infrared frequency comb that can operate stably, efficiently, and accurately without the need for bulky external components. The device could be utilized in a remote sensor or portable mass spectrometer that can track and monitor multiple chemicals in real-time for extended periods.
Once considered an oddity of quantum physics, time crystals could be a good building block for accurate clocks and sensors, according to new calculations.
Researchers have fabricated a hair-thin microphone made entirely of silica fiber that can detect a large range of ultrasound frequencies beyond the reach of the human ear. Able to withstand temperatures up to 1,000°C, the device could eventually be used inside high-voltage transformers to detect early signs of failure before power outages occur.
“Conventional electronic sensors often fail under thermal stress or suffer from severe signal interference,” said Xiaobei Zhang, a member of the research team from Shanghai University. “Our all-fiber microphone can survive in hazardous environments and is completely immune to electromagnetic interference while remaining sensitive enough to hear the subtle early warning signals of equipment failure.”
In an article published in Optics Express, the researchers describe their new microphone, which is sensitive to frequencies from 40 kHz to 1.6 MHz. Unlike traditional microphones that rely on bulky housing, the new microphone is entirely integrated within a fiber just 125 microns in diameter.