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Tag Archives: photonics
Nanobeam: Monitoring cells from the inside
A nanobeam probe (handle showing) inserted into a cell……credit: Gary Shambat, Stanford School of Engineering Scientists, like journalists, like to get the inside story. In the case of biologists, it amounts to an unending push to get inside the workings of living things and see what ‘really’ goes on. For example, how great it would [...]
Posted in Impact: Photonics Also tagged biological cell, cell biology, nanobeam, nanocavity, photonic crystal, protein detection, quantum dots, sensor Comments closed
Quantum Teleportation: Step 4, 150 Kilometers
It’s a race of sorts. It’s a race to be the first research team to use quantum teleportation to transmit messages to and from orbiting satellites. The distance of this transmission will be about 500 kilometers. The latest ‘leg’ of this race was just completed by a team of European physicists and published at arXiv [...]
Posted in News: Photonics Also tagged communications, messaging, photons, physics, quantum mechanics, quantum teleportation Leave a comment
Plasmonic nanostructures make graphene viable for super-fast communications
On the one hand graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms in a honeycomb pattern, can move electrons (electricity) very fast and efficiently. On the other hand graphene is lousy at absorbing energy, specifically from sunlight; only about 3% is absorbed. Sounds like graphene, a wonder material in many accounts, isn’t cut out for solar [...]
Posted in News: Photonics Also tagged Geim, graphene, nanowire, Novoselov, optoelectronics, plasmonic nanostructure 1 Comment
Better communications: One laser – 26 Terabits per second, a new record
Imagine transmitting the content of the entire Library of Congress in ten seconds. Yes, that’s fast. That communication speed translates to 26 terabits per second, which is, for now, the fastest speed attained by a communication system using a single laser beam and optical fiber. Actually not so long ago people could barely imagine transmitting [...]
Posted in News: Communications Also tagged communications, FFT, frequency comb, Karlsruhe, laser, Leuthold, optics, Terabit Leave a comment
NEWS: Short List
Restraining and studying molecules, two at a time – Photonics | The usual way of studying how molecules react to a catalyst is to put them into a solution and observe – typically huge numbers of reactions. This works to a point, the point being the amount of detail that can be surmised from so [...]
Posted in News: Also tagged Agol, Bada, exogenous life, life origin, Miller, nanomedicine Leave a comment
NEWS: Short List
Targeting cancer with magnetic microcarrier – Nanomedicine | As a rule chemotherapy is like using a blunderbuss against cancer. ‘Chemo’ is administered through the bloodstream, which of course goes everywhere in the body. While the anti-cancer chemistry can be targeted to a certain extent, it almost always has toxic side effects with other organs and [...]
Posted in News: Also tagged computer power, H1N1, microcarrier, nanomedicine, Nanotiles, pandemics, processor, quantum switch, swine flu, synthetic biology, synthetic urethra, W.H.O. Leave a comment
NEWS: Short List
3-D Printing of living tissues – Synthetic Biology | Perhaps you’ve heard of three-dimensional (3-D) printing. The printing devices lay down one thin layer of a material (usually a plastic) at a time, and guided by computer they can build-up a fully three-dimensional object. This technology is already used commercially. It’s not a stretch of [...]
Posted in News: Also tagged degrading oceans, major disease cures, scientific instruments, synthetic biology Leave a comment
NEWS: Short List
Tunable antilaser good for a switch – Photonics | In science (as in life) it’s sometimes useful to go against the flow, to experiment with the reverse. Take lasers, for example. Excite some atoms into making a beam of photons and you’ve got a laser. Now go the other way: Start with a laser beam; [...]
Posted in News: Also tagged BCI, Body Implants, online information, overpopulation, quantum effects, virtual reality, VR Leave a comment
NEWS: Short List
Transcranial direct current stimulation: Stoking the brain with electricity – Brain Enhancement | While most likely the majority of neuroscientists conduct experiments to read the electrical activity in the brain, there are some interested in stimulating the brain with electricity. With modern techniques this stimulation has become more precise, and the monitoring of reactions (that’s [...]
Posted in News: Also tagged alternative energy, brain enhancement, nanotechnology, origin of life, synthetic biology Leave a comment
Technology advances: Powering space elevators with laser beams
As serendipity would have it, there is a mini-flood of sci-tech news concerning the use of light (lasers mostly) just when SciTechStory introduces a new impact area – photonics – the study of energy in the bandwidth of light. Here are the two most recent posts: Transformation optics: The light fantastic Optogenetics: Controlling live neurons [...]
Posted in News: Space Exploration Also tagged laser, NASA, optogenetics, space elevator, space exploration, Tsiolkovsky 1 Comment
Optogenetics: Controlling live neurons with light
“We can activate or inactivate individual neurons or muscle cells, essentially turning the worm into a virtual biorobot.” Dr. Aravinthan D. T. Samuel, professor of physics at Harvard Center for Brain Science (Massachusetts, USA) is talking about optogenetics, one of the newest fields in science. The pioneer work was done around 2002. The name, optogenetics, [...]
Posted in News: Neuroscience Also tagged biorobot, C. elegans, genetic modification, genetics, GM, laser, neuron, optical control, optics, optogenetics Leave a comment
Excited quantum dots may lead to photonic computers
The push for faster computers…more powerful computers however that is defined…proceeds along several lines: Traditional (in silicon semiconductors), quantum (several forms of quantum computing), biological (based on organic chemistry), and optical (using photons of light instead of electrons). Almost every year advances are made along each line of research. Eventually the advances will add up [...]
Posted in News: Computer Power Also tagged computers, optical computing, photonic crystals, quantum, quantum dots, semiconductors Leave a comment
It’s a spaser (as in laser)
Lasers, masers, and other photonic (light-based) electronic devices have already produced a major impact on our lives (CDs, DVDs among many). The uses of finely tuned rays of the electromagnetic spectrum are used in communications, medicine, and manufacturing in myriad ways. Scientists continually try to add to the armamentarium and are now working on expanding [...]
Micro-endoscope: A visual probe as thin as hair