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Category: materials

AI data centers need faster links: A mass-producible optical microchip could help

Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) present a novel component that enables very fast, economical, and reliable data transmission thanks to an advanced manufacturing technology. Their new electro-optical modulator transmits data efficiently through fiber-optic cables and can be manufactured inexpensively in large quantities on standard semiconductor wafers. This is important, as AI applications and growing data traffic are pushing data centers and fiber-optic networks to their performing limits. The researchers present their findings in Nature Communications.

Similar to modern computer chips, the modulator can be manufactured using established semiconductor processes. The researchers combine lithium tantalate —a material that guides light particularly well and serves as the heart of the modulator—with a proven chip manufacturing technique from microelectronics. To date, these two technologies have never been used together. For the first time now, they enable reliable mass production.

Durum wheat lines combine freezing tolerance with high pasta quality

Researchers from Skoltech, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico, the Research Center for Cereal and Industrial Crops in Italy, and other international organizations have developed new durum wheat lines capable of surviving freezing temperatures while maintaining the grain quality required for premium pasta production. The study, published in Frontiers in Plant Science, presents a new breeding framework that could help make durum wheat production more resilient to climate variability.

Durum wheat is the primary raw material used to produce pasta worldwide, yet it remains highly vulnerable to sudden freezing events. As climate variability increases, unpredictable cold spells pose a growing risk to wheat production. At the same time, breeders must preserve the high gluten quality that gives pasta its characteristic texture and cooking properties.

This “Quantum” Material Fooled Scientists — but It’s Actually Something Even Stranger

A material thought to be a quantum spin liquid actually exhibits a newly identified magnetic state caused by competing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions. Materials that enter a quantum spin liquid phase attract significant attention because of their unusual properties and potential

Smart wound dressing delivers antibiotics on-demand, accelerating healing and reducing resistance

Biomedical engineers from Brown University have developed a new wound dressing material that releases antibiotic drugs only when harmful bacteria are present in a wound. In the new study, published in the journal Science Advances, the researchers show that the material could help rapidly clear wound infections to accelerate healing while reducing the unnecessary use of antibiotics—a major driver of antibiotic resistance and hard-to-treat “superbug” infections that claim tens of thousands of lives worldwide each year.

The new material is a smart hydrogel loaded with an antibiotic cargo that can be placed directly on a wound under a bandage. The hydrogel is sensitive to an enzyme produced by many different types of harmful bacteria.

When the enzyme is present, the hydrogel starts to degrade, releasing the antibiotics trapped inside. But when no harmful bacteria are present, the hydrogel stays intact, safely locking its antibiotic cargo away.

How two dim stars came together to shine brightly

Brown dwarfs get a bad rap in the stellar world, often labeled as “failed stars” for their inability to sustain nuclear fusion at their cores. The mass of these objects falls between planets and stars, ranging from 13 to 80 times the mass of Jupiter. Because they aren’t massive enough to sustain fusion, they are far fainter and cooler than their stellar comrades.

Now, a new finding led by researchers at Caltech shows how these dim bulbs can join together to shine brightly. Searching through archival observations captured by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory, researchers have identified a very tight-knit pair of brown dwarfs in which one is actively siphoning material from the other.

Ultimately, the brown dwarfs are expected to merge to form a new star; alternatively, the brown dwarf gaining the extra mass will ignite to become a star. Either way, a pair of failed stars will have created a brilliant new star.

Is glass a solid or a super slow liquid? Physicists create equilibrium glassy phase from rod-shaped particles

Glass appears to be a solid, but in theory it sometimes behaves more like an extremely slow liquid. Physicists in Utrecht now show that glass-like structures can also exist in equilibrium, which is something many theories say should be impossible.

The bottom parts of medieval window panes, such as those in old cathedrals, are often thicker than the top. Has the material slowly flowed downward over the centuries, and does this mean that glass actually flows? This is a persistent myth, and the explanation lies in the way glass was produced in the Middle Ages. Because window panes were made by hand, their structure was often irregular and contained thinner and thicker parts. The panes were usually installed in the frame with the thicker side at the bottom, which made them more stable.

Still, the story touches on a real physics question. What glass actually is, a solid or a very slow liquid, turns out to be more difficult to answer than it seems.

Teaching NeuroImages: Sacral Dural Arteriovenous Fistula With Supply From Bilateral Lateral Sacral Arteries

Teaching NeuroImages case: A 51-year-old man presented with a 3-month history of progressive lower extremity weakness and numbness, starting distally and progressing proximally, accompanied by mild gait difficulty but no bowel/bladder symptom. Read the full case.

Download PDF and Supplementary Material Download is in progress.

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