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 Post subject: The Worlds Most Sensitive Scale Can Weigh Single Protons
PostPosted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 6:51 am 
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Atom, With Protons Wikimedia Commons
Accurate to one yoctogram

A group of scientists at the Catalan Institute of Nanotechnology have created a new scale (and process for weighing) that increases the accuracy of small-scale, um, scales to new heights. Their new scale, which uses brief nanotubes at very low temperatures, was capable to measure the vibration of items down to a single yoctogram, one septillionth of a gram. For some (possible helpful) scale (that word again!), a single proton weighs 1.7 yoctograms. The scale could be used in the future for medical diagnostics as well as research. [via Nature]




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 Post subject: Carbon Nanotubes Generate The Smallest 3-D Hologram Pixels E
PostPosted: Thu Sep 27, 2012 2:08 am 
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Carbon Nanotubes Generate The Smallest 3-D Hologram Pixels Ever

Cambridge, Holographically Dr. Haider Butt
Ever-tinier pixels mean ever-higher resolutions and a wider angle of belief for the holographic systems of the future.

Holography is one of those "its-2012-where-is-my-holodeck" kind of sciences--long promised by science fiction, still far from a practical communications tool. But the field is moving forward in fits and starts, even if a complete technology package that will beam moving holograms onto our tabletops, Princess Leia-style, is still on some far horizon. Example: Researchers at Cambridge in the U.K. have recently generated holograms with carbon nanotubes for the first time, generating the smallest hologram pixels ever.


These small pixels translate directly to higher resolution holograms as well as holograms with a wider field of belief. "Smaller pixels allow the diffraction of light at larger angles - increasing the field of belief. Essentially, the smaller the pixel, the higher the resolution of the hologram," said Dr. Haider Butt, a researcher at Cambridges Centre of Molecular Materials for Photonics and Electronics, in a press release.


If small is what youre going for, carbon nanotubes are perfection. Just a few nanometers across, the carbon nanotubes used by the Cambridge lab are something like 700 times thinner than the average human hair. They are essentially used as diffractive elements that project the individual pixels that make up the hologram. Prearranged in the correct way, they are capable to generate static holograms of the highest resolution ever seen.


Of course, these are just static holograms. The real holy grail in this field is realtime holographic motion--the ability to generate holographic video and even broadcast it live, in realtime, across the Web. Researchers at the University of Arizona have for the past couple of years been demonstrating small but significant advances in video holography, as have researchers at MIT and elsewhere. Butt says the next steps for his lab follow the same trajectory: Find a cheaper alternative to carbon nanotubes that can generate these kinds of tiny pixels, and explore possible means of creating moving holograms at this high resolution.


[Cambridge via IEEE Spectrum]




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 Post subject: How I Hacked An Electronic Voting Machine
PostPosted: Tue Nov 06, 2012 12:31 pm 
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A simple non-cyber attack on an electronic voting machine Vulnerability Assessment Team at Argonne National Lab
What do you need to rig an election? A basic knowledge of electronics and $30 worth of RadioShack gear, professional hacker Roger Johnston reveals. The good news: we can stop it.

Roger Johnston is the head of the Vulnerability Assessment Team at Argonne National Laboratory. Not long ago, he and his colleagues launched security attacks on electronic voting machines to demonstrate the startling ease with which one can steal votes. Even more startling: Versions of those machines will appear in polling places all over America on Tuesday. The touchscreen Diebold Accuvote-TSX will be used by more than 26 million voters in 20 states; the push-button Sequoia AVC Voting Machine will be used by almost 9 million voters in four states, Harpers magazine reported recently (subscription required). Here, Johnston reveals how he hacked the machines--and why anyone, from a high-school kid to an 80-year-old grandmother, could do the same.--Ed


The Vulnerability Assessment Team at Argonne National Laboratory looks at a wide variety of security devices-- locks, seals, tags, access control, biometrics, cargo security, nuclear safeguards--to try to find vulnerabilities and locate potential fixes. Unfortunately, theres not much funding available in this country to study election security. So we did this as a Saturday afternoon type of project.



Its called a man-in-the-middle attack. Its a classic attack on security devices. You implant a microprocessor or some other electronic device into the voting machine, and that lets you control the voting and turn cheating on and off. Were basically interfering with transmitting the voters intent.


We used a logic analyzer. Digital communication is a series of zeros and ones. The voltage goes higher, the voltage goes lower. A logic analyzer collects the oscillating voltages between high and low and then will display for you the digital data in a variety of formats. But there all kinds of way to do it. You can use a logic analyzer, you can use a microprocessor, you can use a computer--basically, anything that lets you see the information thats being exchanged and then lets you know what to do to mimic the information.


Ive been to high school science fairs where the kids had more sophisticated microprocessor projects.So we listened to the communications going on between the voter, who in the case of one machine is pushing buttons (its a push-button voting machine) and in the other is touching things on a touchscreen. Then we listened to the communication going on between the smarts of the machine and the voter. Lets say Im trying to make Jones win the election, and you might vote for Smith. Then my microprocessor is going to tell the smarts of the machine to vote for Jones if you try to vote for Smith. But if youre voting for Jones anyway, Im not going to tamper with the communications. Sometimes you block communications, sometimes you tamper with information, sometimes you just look at it and let it pass on through. Thats essentially the idea. Figure out the communications going on, then tamper as needed, including with the information being sent back to the voter.


We can do this because most voting machines, as far as I can tell, are not encrypted. Its just open standard format communication. So its pretty easy to figure out information being exchanged. Anyone who does digital electronics--a hobbyist or an electronics fan--could figure this out.


The device we implanted in the touchscreen machine was essentially $10 retail. If you wanted a deluxe version where you can control it remotely from a half a mile away, itd cost $26 retail. Its not big bucks. RadioShack would have this stuff. Ive been to high school science fairs where the kids had more sophisticated microprocessor projects than the ones needed to rig these machines.


Because theres no funding for this type of security-testing, we relied on people who buy used machines on eBay [in this case the touchscreen Diebold Accuvote TS Electronic Voting Machine and the push-button Sequoia AVC Advantage Voting Machine]. Both of the machines were a little out-of-date, and we didnt have user manuals and circuit diagrams. But we figured things out, in the case of the push-button machine, in under two hours. Within 2 hours we had a viable attack. The other machine took a little longer because we didnt fully understand how touchscreen displays worked. So we had learning time there. But that was just a couple days. Its like a magic trick. Youve got to practice a lot. If we practiced a lot, or even better, if we got someone really good with his hands who practiced a lot for two weeks, were looking at 15 seconds to 60 seconds go execute these attacks.


I want to move it to the point where grandma cant hack elections. Were really not there.The attacks require physical access. This is easy for insiders, who program the machines for an election or install them. And we would argue its typically not that hard for outsiders. A lot of voting machines are sitting around in the church basement, the elementary school gymnasium or hallway, unattended for a week or two before the election. Usually they have really cheap cabinet locks anyone can pick; sometimes they dont even have locks on them. No one signs for the machines when they show up. No ones responsible for watching them. Seals on them arent much different from the anti-tamper packaging found on food and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals. Think about tampering with a food or drug product: You think thats challenging? Its really not. And a lot of our election judges are little old ladies who are retired, and God bless them, theyre what makes the elections work, but theyre not necessarily a fabulous workforce for detecting subtle security attacks.


Give people checking the seals a little training as to what to look for, and now they have a chance to detect a reasonably sophisticated attack. Do good background checks on insiders, and that insider threat would be much less of a concern. Overall, theres a lack of a good security culture. We can have flawed voting machines, but if we have a good security culture, we can still have good elections. On the other hand, we can have fabulous machines, but if the security culture is inadequate, it doesnt really matter. Weve really got to look at a bigger picture. Our view is: Its always going to be hard to stop James Bond. But I want to move it to the point where grandma cant hack elections, and were really not there.


Read more about elections security here.




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 Post subject: FYI: What Material Is Most Afraid Of Water?
PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2012 3:01 am 
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Macroscopic Droplets Courtesy Kripa Varanasi
"Water can slide off like ketchup."

Researchers have been trying to create ultra-hydrophobic materials--materials that repel water--because condensation of vapor can interfere with the energy efficiency of industrial processes. That includes nuclear power generation, water harvesting, transportation, desalination and air conditioning. But with the right material, those resource-heavy processes could become less costly.


Enter MIT. Researchers there developed Lubricant Impregnated Surfaces (LIS), a material that is so hydrophobic, droplets of water slide right off of it. "We can show that water can slide off like ketchup," direct researcher Kripa Varanasi says. If youve ever eaten a hot dog, you know that this must be one slippery material.





















Even calling it a material is, well, slippery. LIS is more accurately defined as an interaction between two materials: a lubricant, such as oil, and a hydrophobic surface. The surface is covered with microscopic bumps, each about the size of a red blood cell. The lubricant then fills the space between the bumps, and together, they repel condensing water 10,000 times faster than a surface that features only hydrophobic patterning.


So is LIS the most hydrophobic material--or whatever you want to call it--in the world? Well... thats complicated, too. There are multiple ways to measure hydrophobicity, and different kinds of experiments to show it. Take this this extremely hydrophobic nanotube material. Water bounces off of it. Notice:



Those nanotubes must be way more hydrophobic than LIS, right? After all, they instantly repel water, whereas with LIS, water just clumps up and slides off.


Not so brisk. The carbon nanotubes are tested in static conditions, whereas LIS has been tested while water is moving--more specifically, while it is condensing. Therein lies the labyrinth of defining hydrophobicity. Were looking at two different things here. If were measuring contact angles as a droplet bounces off a surface, you would say that the nanotubes were the most hydrophobic. But if were measuring the roll-off angle conducted during a condensation experiment, LIS would win. (To measure roll-off angle, you tilt the surface and measure the angle at which the droplet starts to move.)



The MIT researchers hope that their plan, which appeared in the August 2012 issue of ACS Nano, will be applicable to multiple substrates and lubricants. "What makes this attractive is that you can texture condensing tubes made out of steel or titanium. You can apply this to metals or ceramics or plastics," Varanasi says. "If you make sure the surface and lubricant are compatible, you can accomplish this."




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 Post subject: To Make Steam Without Boiling Water, Just Add Sunlight And N
PostPosted: Fri Nov 23, 2012 5:50 pm 
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To Make Steam Without Boiling Water, Just Augment Sunlight And Nanoparticles

Everything You Need For A Steam Generator tim.perdue via Flickr
A mixture of common water, nanoparticles, and sunlight can convert water into steam without ever even bringing it to a boil

Today in mind-bendingly cool stuff that nanoparticles can do: A team of researchers at Rice University in Texas has demonstrated a mechanism by which they can create steam in just seconds by focusing sunlight on a mixture of water and nanoparticles. This isnt just some artificial means of lowering boiling point either; this solar powered "boiler" can produce steam before the water even gets warm to the touch, without ever bringing the aggregate water to a boil.


Right now this research is very much still in the lab, and the researchers arent yet sure exactly how far they can push it. But it doesnt take much to imagine the possibilities for a steam generator that runs solely on water and sunlight.


The technology works by mixing a small amount of either carbon or gold-coated silicon dioxide nanoparticles, each just one-tenth the diameter of a single human hair, with water in a glass vessel. Their small diameters--smaller than the wavelength of visible light--means that they can absorb most of a light waves energy rather than scattering it. So when sunlight is focused on the vessel with a lens, the particles quickly become quite hot--hot enough to vaporize the water directly surrounding it.


This creates a bubble of steam that envelopes the nanoparticle, which is now insulated from the cooler liquid water by the steam, which allows it to grow hotter still, vaporizing more of the water immediately around it. At some point the nanoparticle and its steam envelope become large enough to grow buoyant, at which point the whole steam bubble--particle and all--floats to the surface. The steam is released into the air, the particle falls back into the cooler water and sinks back down until it begins to absorb sunlight and heat again, at which point the process starts all over.


Multiply that by the number of nanoparticles in the mixture, and you have something of a simulated boil, but one that doesnt require the entire pot of water to reach boiling point before the first steam bubbles head to the surface. You can ponder of it as a way of micromanaging the boiling process, specifically heating some parts of the water (where it touches the nanoparticles) while leaving the rest of the water cool. And the particles themselves are completely constant--they detain absorbing, heating, cooling, and absorbing again, with no need to replace them.


Pretty nuts, no? It spells an interesting future for solar power in general, but more specifically its easy to see how a cheap and abundant source of steam, even in low explicit volumes, could be used to do anything from generate electricity and heat to lower the energy intensive mood of certain processes like water desalinization. As the WaPo points out, the last time someone came up with a cheap and easy way to generate and harness abundant steam it completely changed the world. So theres that.


[Washington Post]




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 Post subject: A Quantum Internet at the Speed of Light?
PostPosted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 11:29 am 
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1entangled-photons1




The realization of quantum networks is one of the major challenges of modern physics. Now, new research shows how high-quality photons can be generated from solid-state chips, bringing us closer to the quantum internet.The number of transistors on a microprocessor continues to double every two years, amazingly holding firm to a prediction by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore almost 50 years ago. If this is to continue, conceptual and technical advances harnessing the power of quantum mechanics in microchips will need to be investigated within the next decade.





"We are at the dawn of quantum-enabled technologies, and quantum computing is one of many thrilling possibilities," says Dr Mete Atature from University of Cambridge Department of Physics. "Our results in exacting suggest that multiple distant qubits in a distributed quantum network can share a highly coherent and programmable photonic interconnect that is liberated from the detrimental properties of the chips. Consequently, the ability to generate quantum entanglement and perform quantum teleportation between distant quantum-dot spin qubits with very high fidelity is now only a matter of time."

Developing a distributed quantum network is one promising direction pursued by many researchers today. A assortment of solid-state systems are currently being investigated as candidates for quantum bits of information, or qubits, as well as a number of approaches to quantum computing protocols, and the race is on for identifying the best combination.



One such qubit, a quantum dot, is made of semiconductor nanocrystals embedded in a chip and can be controlled electro-optically.

Single photons will form an integral part of distributed quantum networks as flying qubits. First, they are the casual choice for quantum communication, as they carry information quickly and reliably across long distances. Second, they can take part in quantum logic operations, provided all the photons taking part are identical.



Unfortunately, the quality of photons generated from solid-state qubits, including quantum dots, can be low due to decoherence mechanisms within the materials. With each emitted photon being distinct from the others, developing a quantum photonic network faces a major roadblock.



Now, researchers from the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University have implemented a novel technique to generate single photons with tailored properties from solid-state devices that are identical in quality to lasers.



As their photon source, the researchers built a semiconductor Schottky diode device containing individually addressable quantum dots. The transitions of quantum dots were used to generate single photons via resonance fluorescence a technique demonstrated previously by the same team.



Under weak excitation, also known as the Heitler regime, the main contribution to photon generation is through elastic scattering. By operating in this way, photon decoherence can be avoided altogether. The researchers were capable to quantify how similar these photons are to lasers in terms of coherence and waveform it turned out they were identical.



"Our research has added the concepts of coherent photon shaping and generation to the toolbox of solid-state quantum photonics," said Atature who led the research. "We are now achieving a high-rate of single photons which are identical in quality to lasers with the further advantage of coherently programmable waveform - a distinctive paradigm shift to the conventional single photon generation via spontaneous decline."



There are already protocols proposed for quantum computing and communication which rely on this photon generation scheme, and this labor can be extended to other single photon sources as well, such as single molecules, color centres in diamond and nanowires.



The Daily Galaxy via University of Cambridge







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 Post subject: Seek and destroy: New nanobots may become revolutionary in t
PostPosted: Sat Aug 30, 2014 1:43 pm 
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Seek and destroy: New nanobots may become revolutionary in treating cancer

Reuters / Eric Gaillard

While it appears like something out of a SciFi novel at first, University of Californias Davis Cancer Center has already published the study in Mood Communications and provides what is apparently a complete solution through being capable to both detect and detroy.

The nanoparticle is called nanoporphyrin and is equipped to both hunt and destroy cancerous tumors in the human body. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter meaning that the technology is extremely small.

Nanoporphyrins greatly increase the imaging sensitivity for tumor detection through background suppression in blood, as well as preferential accumulation and signal amplification in tumors, the study abstract notes.

Furthermore, nanoporphyrins act as programmable releasing nanocarriers for targeted delivery of drugs or therapeutic radio-metals into tumours.

Additionally, nanoporphyrins have the benefit of making tumors more easily seen on MRI scans.

Cancer is one of the worlds most deadly diseases, killing some 8.2 million people in 2012 with some 14.1 million being diagnosed overall.

Currently, chemotherapy targets all of a certain type of cell rather than specifically targeting cancerous cells, and this new treatment could potentially go around this problem, leaving healthy cells intact.

The idea first gained gravity in December last year when South Korean scientists successfully developed a small robot that could both detect and treat the deadly illness.

However, at that point, the nanobots were only effective in treating solid cancers. While the idea previously existed it has been difficult to accomplish because of the expense and difficulty in manufacturing in large quantities.



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 Post subject: Like Harry Potters? 3D invisibility cloak unveiled by NY sci
PostPosted: Sat Sep 27, 2014 9:10 pm 
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Like Harry Potters? 3D invisibility cloak unveiled by NY scientists (VIDEO)

Still from youtube.com (UniversityRochester)

Scientists from upstate New Yorks University of Rochester have managed to create the device, which looks like a set of optometrists equipment and can bend light around the cloaked object so that it appears invisible.

The lenses used in the process are easily obtainable and inexpensive. However, while cloaking the object, it is not currently in cloaked form, and remains a series of layered lenses which makes the object placed behind appear as if it is not there.

A lot of people have worked on a lot of different aspects of optical cloaking for years,
said John Howell, a professor of physics at the institution.

From what we know, this is the first cloaking device that provides three-dimensional, continuously multidirectional cloaking, added graduate student Joseph Choi.

Previous projects working on concealing objects with invisibility have had limitations in that the illusion only works at a certain angle. Previous methods have also been far more complex and expensive.

The tests have seen the scientists hide a hand, someones face and a ruler. However, one limitation to the device is that it is objects on the edges of the lenses that remain out of sight, whereas those directly in the middle may still be at least partially seen.

However, the scientists maintain that the possibilities as a result of the devices development are endless.

I imagine this could be used to cloak a trailer on the back of a semi-truck so the driver can see directly behind him, Choi said. It can be used for surgery, in the military, in interior plan, art. As with the Harry Potter invisibility cloak, no distortion of background objects occurs.

In February 2013, an invisibility cloak was developed and displayed at a US tech conference by Dr. Baile Zhang, an assistant professor of physics at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. However, it didnt labor from various angles.

Scientists at Londons Imperial College, Duke University and the University of Texas have also been working on similar designs. Scientists for the first time succeeded in cloaking an object in 2006, after which the Imperial College researchers laid out their theory for others to imitate.

In 2011, a physicist at the University of Texas Dallas successfully created a small invention that uses carbon nanotubes to make objects behind it disappear. At Duke, inventors used meta-materials to create a tiny cylinder that bends electromagnetic waves and makes objects vanish.



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