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NEWS
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Liquid
crystal bifocals
Prototype eyeglasses made with a transparent liquid
crystal material change
focal length on the fly. The glasses could lead to
smart bifocals that let wearers look into the distance
or read using the entire lens. (Switchable electro-optic
diffractive lens with high efficiency for ophthalmic applications,
Procedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
published online April 5, 2006)
Nanodots boost superconductor
Nonsuperconducting nanoparticles added to a superconducting
material pin
down the microscopic magnetic vortices that hinder
the performance of today's not-so-cold superconductor
wires. The advance could lead to more practical superconductor
cables for power transmission trunk lines and for magnetic
levitation trains. (High-Performance High-Tc Superconducting
Wires, Science, March 31, 2006)
Flat lens laser tweezers
Flat negative refraction lenses turn out to be
useful for making
laser tweezers that have highly focused beams that
can move trapped particles without requiring the lens
to move. Laser tweezers are used to temporarily trap cells
and biological molecules for biological research and medical
testing. (Perfect lens makes a perfect trap, Optics
Express, March 2006)
Adjustable passive robot walking
Robot
control software for bipedal bots that walk with minimal
help from motors adjusts the robot's legs to change direction
and handle changes in terrain. Passive-walker robots use
much less power than robots that have motors at every
joint but to date they have had limited mobility. (Exploiting
Natural Dynamics to Reduce Energy Consumption by Controlling
the Compliance of Soft Actuators, International Journal
of Robotics Research, April 2006)
Sponge-based chipmaking
An artificial version of an enzyme from a marine
sponge chemically produces
semiconductor films that could be used in chipmaking.
The technique could lead to cheaper ways of making computer
chips. (Self-assembled bifunctional surface mimics an
enzymatic and templating protein for low-temperature synthesis
of a metal oxide semiconductor, Procedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, published online April 5, 2006)
Nanotube film printing
A printing
technique produces films of highly conductive carbon
nanotubes on glass, plastic and silicon surfaces. The
technique could be used to make optical and electronic
devices on flexible surfaces, including electronic paper.
(A method of printing carbon nanotube thin films, Applied
Physics Letters, March 20, 2006) |
FEATURES
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View
from the High Ground: Cornell's Jon Kleinberg
Six degrees of separation, buying gasoline
by the molecule, the science of popularity, all just getting
along online, intellectual prosthetics, Big Science, making
up questions, and telling stories.
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How
It Works: Quantum computing: qubits
Photons, electrons and atoms, oh my! These particles are
the raw materials for qubits, the basic building blocks
of quantum computers. |
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"In
most areas of science and technology, the origins
of new breakthroughs can still be found in the work
of a small number of people -- or even a single
person -- working at their own pace on their own
questions, pursuing things that interest them. "
- Jon Kleinberg, Cornell University |
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Thanks
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for technical support |
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