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Yale scientists amplify light using sound on a silicon chip

New Haven, Conn. - Yale scientists have found a way to greatly boost the intensity of light waves on a silicon microchip using the power of sound.

Writing in the journal Nature Photonics, a team led by Peter Rakich describes a new waveguide system that harnesses the ability to precisely control the interaction of light and sound waves. This work solves a long-standing problem of how to utilize this interaction in a robust manner on a silicon chip as the basis for powerful new signal-processing technologies.

Research shows Antarctic lakes are a repository for ancient soot

Remote lakes in a perpetually ice-free area of Antarctica show not only the chemical signature of ancient wildfires, but also some much more recent evidence of fossil-fuel combustion, according to National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded research published this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Novel capping strategy improves stability of perovskite nanocrystals

Perovskite materials have shown great promise for use in next-generation solar cells, light-emitting devices (LEDs), sensors, and other applications, but their instability remains a critical limitation.

UChicago physicists first to see behavior of quantum materials in curved space

Light and matter are typically viewed as distinct entities that follow their own, unique rules. Matter has mass and typically exhibits interactions with other matter, while light is massless and does not interact with itself. Yet, wave-particle duality tells us that matter and light both act sometimes like particles, and sometimes like waves.

New material has potential to cut costs and make nuclear fuel recycling cleaner

BERKELEY, Calif. and RICHLAND, Wash.--Researchers are investigating a new material that might help in nuclear fuel recycling and waste reduction by capturing certain gases released during reprocessing. Conventional technologies to remove these radioactive gases operate at extremely low, energy-intensive temperatures. By working at ambient temperature, the new material has the potential to save energy, make reprocessing cleaner and less expensive. The reclaimed materials can also be reused commercially.

Chemicals from wood waste

The present-day chemical industry is based on oil: many chemical products - from plastics through to detergents and solvents to medication and crop protection products - have their origins in oil and its constituents. Since oil reserves are finite, scientists have been looking for ways to manufacture these products from sustainable materials.

Climate consequences of oil price uncertainty could be significant

Sustained high (US$110-120 per barrel) or low (US$40-55 per barrel) oil prices could have an important impact on future carbon dioxide emissions, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Energy. The magnitude of the impact is found to depend not just on oil prices, but also on other uncertainties connected to energy supply and demand technologies, alternative resources and climate policy.

New material has potential to cut costs and make nuclear fuel recycling cleaner

RICHLAND, Wash. and Berkeley, Calif. -- Researchers are investigating a new material that might help in nuclear fuel recycling and waste reduction by capturing certain gases released during reprocessing. Conventional technologies to remove these radioactive gases operate at extremely low, energy-intensive temperatures. By working at ambient temperature, the new material has the potential to save energy, make reprocessing cleaner and less expensive. The reclaimed materials can also be reused commercially.

The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology: Older Americans with diabetes living longer without disability, US study shows

Older Americans with diabetes born in the 1940s are living longer and with less disability performing day to day tasks than those born 10 years earlier, according to new research published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal.

Globalization made economic production more vulnerable to climate change

The susceptibility of the global economic network to workers' heat-stress has doubled in the last decade, a new study published in the journal Science Advances finds. The analysis by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Columbia University shows for the first time how enhanced connectivity of the global network of supply can amplify production losses, as these losses can be spread more easily across countries.

Countdown economist and parasitologist call for efficient and equitable control of NTDs

The continuing permanence of major neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) is leading to a revision of the related research agenda towards current and future control interventions and associated targets. In the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, published 7 June 2016, LSTM's Professors Louis Niessen and Russell Stothard argue for a broad research and implementation approach in an efficient and equitable upscaling of the control of schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Coal ash ponds found to leak toxic materials

DURHAM, N.C. -- A Duke University study of coal ash ponds near 21 power plants in five Southeastern U.S. states has found evidence that nearby surface waters and groundwater are consistently and lastingly contaminated by the unlined ponds.

High levels of toxic heavy metals including arsenic and selenium were found in surface waters or groundwater at all of the sites tested. Concentrations of trace elements in 29 percent of the surface water samples exceeded EPA standards for drinking water and aquatic life.

Can computers do magic?

Magicians could join composers and artists in finding new ideas for their performances by using computers to create new magic effects, according to computer scientists at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL).

Writing in the open access journal Frontiers in Psychology, the scientists, one of whom is also practicing magician, have looked at modelling particular human perceptual quirks and processes, and building computer systems able to search and find designs for new tricks based on these potential responses from the audience.

Light: Information's new friend

The rise of big data and advances in information technology has serious implications for our ability to deliver sufficient bandwidth to meet the growing demand.

Researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) are looking at alternative sources that will be able to take over where traditional optical communications systems are likely to fail in future.

It's not an illusion: Transforming infrared into visible light

Researchers have developed a compound that can transform near-infrared light into broadband white-light, offering a cheap, efficient means to produce visible light. The emitted light is also exceedingly directional, a desirable quality for devices like microscopes that require high spatial resolution, or for applications with high throughput, such as projection systems. Nils Wilhelm Rosemann and colleagues designed their compound of tin and sulfur, and with a diamondoid-like structure, then coating this scaffolding with organic ligands.