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Blog – Page 183

What if robots could work together like ants to move objects, clear blockages, and guide living creatures? Discover more!

Scientists at Hanyang University in Seoul, South Korea, have developed small magnetic robots that work together in swarms to perform complex tasks, such as moving and lifting objects much more significant than themselves. These microrobot swarms, controlled by a rotating magnetic field, can be used in challenging environments, offering solutions for tasks like minimally invasive treatments for clogged arteries and guiding small organisms.

The researchers tested how microrobot swarms with different configurations performed various tasks. They discovered that swarms with a high aspect ratio could climb obstacles five times higher than a single robot’s body length and throw themselves over them. In another demonstration, a swarm of 1,000 microrobots formed a raft on water, surrounding a pill 2,000 times heavier than a single robot, allowing the swarm to transport the drug through the liquid. On land, a swarm moved cargo 350 times heavier than each robot, while another swarm unclogged tubes resembling blocked blood vessels. Using spinning and orbital dragging motions, the team also developed a system where robot swarms could guide the movements of small organisms.

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Time is vital to the functioning of our everyday lives: from the watches on our wrists to the GPS systems in our phones. Communication systems, power grids, and financial transactions all rely on precision timing. Seconds are the vital units of measurement in timekeeping.

Surprisingly, there is still debate over the definition of the second. But recent advances in the world’s most accurate forms of timekeeping may have just changed the game.

Accurate timekeeping has always been part of humankind’s social evolution. At the Neolithic monument of Newgrange in Ireland, a special opening above an entrance allows sunlight to illuminate the passage and chamber on the shortest days of the year, around December 21st, the winter solstice.

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Researchers have discovered magnetic fields deep within the merging galaxy Arp 220, suggesting these fields might be crucial for efficient star formation, acting like a cosmic lid that prevents the “boiling over” of star-forming materials.

This breakthrough, observed using the Submillimeter Array in Hawaii, could explain why some galaxies produce stars more effectively than others.

Star Formation Secrets Unveiled

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Scientists have found a way to directly convert sunlight into laser beams in space.

In the future, spacecraft could get rid of the limited fuel problem by tapping into the limitless energy of the sun.

Scientists have identified a way to directly convert sunlight into laser beams in space. This approach would make it possible to transmit power over huge distances, from satellites to lunar bases and even to Earth.

Continue reading “Solar-powered lasers could usher a new era of space exploration” | >

The research team, led by physics professor Nuh Gedik, concentrated on a material called FePS₃, a type of antiferromagnet that transitions to a non-magnetic state at around −247°F. They hypothesized that precisely exciting the vibrations of FePS₃’s atoms with lasers could disrupt its typical antiferromagnetic alignment and induce a new magnetic state.

In conventional magnets (ferromagnets), all atomic spins align in the same direction, making their magnetic field easy to control. In contrast, antiferromagnets have a more complex up-down-up-down spin pattern that cancels out, resulting in zero net magnetization. While this property makes antiferromagnets highly resistant to stray magnetic influences – an advantage for secure data storage – it also creates challenges in intentionally switching them between “0” and “1” states for computing.

Gedik’s innovative laser-driven approach seeks to overcome this obstacle, potentially unlocking antiferromagnets for future high-performance memory and computational technologies.

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