Technology
Here we bring you all the latest technological news both here on Earth and in space.
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Scientists Just Built a Quantum Battery That Charges Almost Instantly
By University of Melbourne – SciTechDaily
Scientists have built a quantum battery that could make charging almost instant.
Australian researchers have achieved a major milestone in energy storage by designing and testing what is believed to be the world’s first proof-of-concept quantum battery.
Scientists say this emerging technology could reshape how energy is stored and delivered, potentially leading to devices that charge at extremely high speeds.
First Quantum Battery Breakthrough: The project was led by CSIRO in partnership with the University of Melbourne and RMIT, with the findings published in Nature Light: Science & Applications. Researchers from the University of Melbourne, including Associate Professor James Hutchison and Professor Trevor Smith, played key roles in the work.
“Similar to conventional batteries, quantum batteries charge, store, and discharge energy. Read more here.
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Breakthrough Crystal Lets Scientists “Write” Nanoscale Patterns With Light
XPANCEO / SciTechDaily
A team of scientists has uncovered a crystal that can be reshaped and programmed using ordinary light, opening a new path for building optical technology.
Researchers at the XPANCEO Emerging Technologies Research Center, working alongside Nobel Laureate Prof. Konstantin Novoselov (University of Manchester and the National University of Singapore), have identified unusual optical behavior in arsenic trisulfide (As2S3), a crystalline van der Waals semiconductor. Their work shows that this material can be permanently altered by light and even shaped at the nanoscale using simple continuous-wave (CW) light. This approach eliminates the need for expensive cleanroom lithography or advanced femtosecond laser systems.
Understanding Refractive Index and Photorefractivity… A key property behind this discovery is the refractive index, which determines how much a material bends or slows light. Materials with higher refractive indices are better at guiding light through optical systems. In some cases, light itself can change this property. This effect is called photorefractivity, where exposure to light modifies the refractive index. Read more here.
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The Atomic Gap That Could Cost the Semiconductor Industry Billions
By SciTechDaily
For decades, the steady shrinking of electronic components has powered faster, more efficient technology. Engineers now hope to push that trend even further with 2D materials, atomically thin sheets that promise unprecedented control at the smallest scales.
But a new study from TU Wien shows that many of these once promising materials may not work as expected. The issue is not just the material itself. It is also how it interacts with other components. When a 2D material is paired with an insulating layer, a tiny gap forms between them, significantly reducing performance. Identifying which materials avoid this problem could help the semiconductor industry steer clear of costly dead ends.
It’s not just the material—it’s the interface: “For many years, researchers have quite rightly been fascinated by the remarkable electronic properties of novel 2D materials such as graphene or molybdenum disulfide,” says Prof. Mahdi Pourfath, who carried out the research together with Prof. Tibor…Read more here.
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These Tiny Robots 50x Smaller Than a Hair Can Hunt and Move Bacteria
Lutz Ziegler, University of Würzburg / SciTEchDaily
Photon-driven nanorobots can steer, capture, and move bacteria with precision, enabling controlled manipulation in microscopic environments and offering new tools for microbiology.
Tiny robots about 50 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair are opening new possibilities for working at very small scales. They allow scientists to precisely manipulate objects far beyond the reach of human hands, moving closer to the long-standing goal of directly interacting with the microscopic world.
This is especially important for biological materials in liquid environments, such as single cells or bacteria. Controlling these tiny objects with precision has been a major challenge, but these nanorobots show that tasks like collecting and relocating bacteria can now be done.
One of the biggest hurdles is how to power and guide machines at such a small scale. At Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU), a team led by Professor Bert Hecht has developed a solution using the recoil of individual photons to move micrometer-sized devices known as microdrones. Read more here.
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