Science
How A New Solar And Lighting Technology Could Propel A Renewable Energy Transformation
The demand for cheaper, greener electricity means that the energy landscape is changing faster than at any other point in history. This is particularly true of solar-powered electricity and battery storage. The cost of both has dropped at unprecedented rates over the past decade and energy efficient technologies such as LED lighting have also expanded. …
Neuronal Cultures Advance ‘Brain-on-a-chip’ Technology
A Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory team cultured rodent-derived neurons on microelectrode arrays and allowed the cultures to form networks, supplementing them with astrocytes and oligodendrocytes — cell types that play a critical role in neuronal health and function. Pictured is an immunofluorescence image of a complex culture, showing neurons (stained red), astrocytes (cyan) and oligodendrocytes (green). …
Simulating Quantum ‘Time Travel’ Disproves Butterfly Effect In Quantum Realm
Using a quantum computer to simulate time travel, researchers have demonstrated that, in the quantum realm, there is no “butterfly effect.” In the research, information—qubits, or quantum bits—“time travel” into the simulated past. One of them is then strongly damaged, like stepping on a butterfly, metaphorically speaking. Surprisingly, when all qubits return to the “present,” …
The Theory Of Parallel Universes Is Not Just Maths – It Is Science That Can Be Tested
The existence of parallel universes may seem like something cooked up by science fiction writers, with little relevance to modern theoretical physics. But the idea that we live in a “multiverse” made up of an infinite number of parallel universes has long been considered a scientific possibility – although it is still a matter of …
From Virus-Slaying Air Purifiers To Delivery Robots, How University Inventions Are Fighting COVID-19
With the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) sweeping across continents and affecting many millions, health authorities, policy-makers and scientists, innovators around the world are racing to invent ways to contain the further spread of the virus. It is our unwavering belief that universities are – and should always be – contributing to this collective fight against this …
Breakthrough Listen Scans Milky Way Galaxy For beacons Of Civilization
The Breakthrough Listen Initiative released data from the most comprehensive survey yet of radio emissions from the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy and the region around its central black hole, and it is inviting the public to search the data for signals from intelligent civilizations. At a media briefing in Seattle as part of …
How Memories Are Formed And Retrieved By The Brain Revealed In A New Study
Try to remember that last dinner you went out for. Perhaps you can remember the taste of that delicious pasta, the sounds of the jazz pianist in the corner, or that boisterous laugh from the portly gentleman three tables over. What you probably can’t remember is putting any effort into remembering any of these little …
What Are The Ethical Consequences Of Immortality Technology?
Immortality has gone secular. Unhooked from the realm of gods and angels, it’s now the subject of serious investment – both intellectual and financial – by philosophers, scientists and the Silicon Valley set. Several hundred people have already chosen to be ‘cryopreserved’ in preference to simply dying, as they wait for science to catch up …
Neven’s Law: Why It Might Be Too Soon For A Moore’s Law For Quantum Computers
A new disruptive technology is on the horizon and it promises to take computing power to unprecedented and unimaginable heights. And to predict the speed of progress of this new “quantum computing” technology, the director of Google’s Quantum AI Labs, Hartmut Neven, has proposed a new rule similar to the Moore’s Law that has measured …
See How Our Brains Group Words By Meaning In Surprisingly Complex Semantic Maps
A groundbreaking new study from the Gallant Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley is transforming how scientists understand language organisation in the brain. Published in Nature on 28 April 2016, the paper ‘Natural Speech Reveals the Semantic Maps That Tile Human Cerebral Cortex’ reveals that we use our entire brain – and not just the temporal lobe, as once believed – to group …