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Research out of New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering has found a new method for developing electronics at the atomic scale — and it’s difficult to get much smaller than that.

Scientists and engineers have previously tried developing electronics using two-dimensional or monolayer electronic materials like graphene to make transistors, but found that the material’s lack of an energy band gap poses difficulties for semiconductor applications.

The new research by assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering Davood Shahrjerdi and doctoral student Abdullah Alharbi, has shown that using a monolayer of tungsten disulfide might be the key to unlocking the potential in nano-scale electronics.

Continue reading “New Monolayer Material Could Unlock Nano-Scale Electronics” »

Researchers from Case Western Reserve University, Dayton Air Force Research Laboratory and China have developed a new dry adhesive that bonds in extreme temperatures—a quality that could make the product ideal for space exploration and beyond.

The gecko-inspired adhesive loses no traction in temperatures as cold as liquid nitrogen or as hot as molten silver, and actually gets stickier as heat increases, the researchers report.

The research, which builds on earlier development of a single-sided dry adhesive tape based on vertically aligned carbon nanotubes, is published in the journal Nature Communications (“Carbon nanotube dry adhesives with temperature-enhanced adhesion over a large temperature range”). As far as the researchers know, no other dry adhesive is capable of working at such temperature extremes.

TOKYO — Leading information technology companies are rushing to create systems that use artificial intelligence to defend against cyberattacks. The goal is to commercialize AI software to detect even ingeniously designed attacks, identify the perpetrators, and quickly mount a defense.

However, research is also taking place in the U.S. and elsewhere on ways to harness AI for cyberwarfare, and the trend suggests there will come a time when the battles in cyberspace pit AI against AI, leaving humans sidelined.

Fujitsu Laboratories, the R&D unit of Japanese IT giant Fujitsu, has begun to develop an AI system to protect corporate information systems from cyberattack. The system would learn to recognize regular patterns of network activity so deviant behavior stands out. The company aims to have a commercial product ready in two to three years that could uncover and respond to attacks even from hackers who intentionally space out their login attempts so they are difficult to discover.

Continue reading “Cybersecurity companies adopting AI, but so are hackers” »

You know that whole chaos theory idea (okay, we saw it in an Ashton Kutcher movie) about how a butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world can trigger a hurricane in another?

Well, the 2016 equivalent is a project where scientists in Russia wear an exoskeleton to control a connected robot in Germany.

Continue reading “Wearable exoskeleton lets researchers in Russia control a robot in Germany” »

Lawmakers are struggling on how to improve the security of internet-connected devices.

Diamonds are a computer’s best friend.

Different kinds of quantum computers encode information using their own wavelengths of light, but a device that modifies their photons could allow them to network.

Nice.

Kenji Ohmori (Institute for Molecular Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Japan) has collaborated with Matthias Weidemüller (University of Heidelberg), Guido Pupillo (University of Strasbourg), Claudiu Genes (University of Innsbruck) and their coworkers to develop the world’s fastest simulator that can simulate quantum mechanical dynamics of a large number of particles interacting with each other within one billionths of a second.

Researchers have developed scalable, electrically driven photon sources to drive powerful quantum technologies, outlines a new report.

A team of researchers from the University of Manchester announced Monday they had taken a significant step forward in the creation of viable quantum computers. In a study published in the latest edition of the journal Chem, the researchers provided evidence that large molecules made of nickel and chromium could be used as qubits — the quantum computing equivalent of the bits used to store and process information in conventional computers.

According to the study, it is possible, at least in theory, to use molecular chemistry to connect these molecules, thereby creating several stable qubits that can then be used to create two-qubit logic gates.

“We have shown that the chemistry is achievable for bringing together two-qubit gates — the molecules can be made and the gates can be assembled,” lead author Richard Winpenny said in a statement. “The next step is to show that they work.”

Continue reading “Quantum Computing: Large Molecules Can Be Used To Create Stable Qubit Gates, Manchester University Researchers Say” »