Why can't robots outrun animals?

Robotics engineers have worked for decades and invested many millions of research dollars in attempts to create a robot that can walk or run as well as an animal. And yet, it remains the case that many animals are capable of feats that would be impossible for robots that exist today.

"A wildebeest can migrate for thousands of kilometres over rough terrain, a mountain goat can climb up a literal cliff, finding footholds that don't even seem to be there, and cockroaches can lose a leg and not slow down," says Dr. Max Donelan, Professor in Simon Fraser University's Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology. "We have no robots capable of anything like this endurance, agility and robustness."

To understand why, and quantify how, robots lag behind animals, an interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers from leading research universities completed a detailed study of various aspects of running robots, comparing them with their equivalents in animals, for a paper published in Science Robotics. The paper finds that, by the metrics engineers use, biological components performed surprisingly poorly compared to fabricated parts. Where animals excel, though, is in their integration and control of those components.

Alongside Donelan, the team comprised Drs. Sam Burden, Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Washington; Tom Libby, Senior Research Engineer, SRI International; Kaushik Jayaram, Assistant Professor in the Paul M Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder; and Simon Sponberg, Dunn Family Associate Professor of Physics and Biological Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The researchers each studied one of five different "subsystems" that combine to create a running robot -- Power, Frame, Actuation, Sensing, and Control -- and compared them with their biological equivalents. Previously, it was commonly accepted that animals' outperformance of robots must be due to the superiority of biological components.

"The way things turned out is that, with only minor exceptions, the engineering subsystems outperform the biological equivalents -- and sometimes radically outperformed them," says Libby. "But also what's very, very clear is that, if you compare animals to robots at the whole system level, in terms of movement, animals are amazing. And robots have yet to catch up."

More optimistically for the field of robotics, the researchers noted that, if you compare the relatively short time that robotics has had to develop its technology with the countless generations of animals that have evolved over many millions of years, the progress has actually been remarkably quick.

"It will move faster, because evolution is undirected," says Burden. "Whereas we can very much correct how we design robots and learn something in one robot and download it into every other robot, biology doesn't have that option. So there are ways that we can move much more quickly when we engineer robots than we can through evolution -- but evolution has a massive head start."

More than simply an engineering challenge, effective running robots offer countless potential uses. Whether solving 'last mile' delivery challenges in a world designed for humans that is often difficult to navigate for wheeled robots, carrying out searches in dangerous environments or handling hazardous materials, there are many potential applications for the technology.

Read more at Science Daily

Real-time wearable human emotion recognition technology developed

A groundbreaking technology that can recognize human emotions in real time has been developed by Professor Jiyun Kim and his research team in the Department of Material Science and Engineering at UNIST. This innovative technology is poised to revolutionize various industries, including next-generation wearable systems that provide services based on emotions.

Understanding and accurately extracting emotional information has long been a challenge due to the abstract and ambiguous nature of human affects such as emotions, moods, and feelings.

To address this, the research team has developed a multi-modal human emotion recognition system that combines verbal and non-verbal expression data to efficiently utilize comprehensive emotional information.

At the core of this system is the personalized skin-integrated facial interface (PSiFI) system, which is self-powered, facile, stretchable, and transparent.

It features a first-of-its-kind bidirectional triboelectric strain and vibration sensor that enables the simultaneous sensing and integration of verbal and non-verbal expression data.

The system is fully integrated with a data processing circuit for wireless data transfer, enabling real-time emotion recognition.

Utilizing machine learning algorithms, the developed technology demonstrates accurate and real-time human emotion recognition tasks, even when individuals are wearing masks.

The system has also been successfully applied in a digital concierge application within a virtual reality (VR) environment.

The technology is based on the phenomenon of "friction charging," where objects separate into positive and negative charges upon friction.

Notably, the system is self-generating, requiring no external power source or complex measuring devices for data recognition.

Professor Kim commented, "Based on these technologies, we have developed a skin-integrated face interface (PSiFI) system that can be customized for individuals." The team utilized a semi-curing technique to manufacture a transparent conductor for the friction charging electrodes.

Additionally, a personalized mask was created using a multi-angle shooting technique, combining flexibility, elasticity, and transparency.

The research team successfully integrated the detection of facial muscle deformation and vocal cord vibrations, enabling real-time emotion recognition.

The system's capabilities were demonstrated in a virtual reality "digital concierge" application, where customized services based on users' emotions were provided.

Jin Pyo Lee, the first author of the study, stated, "With this developed system, it is possible to implement real-time emotion recognition with just a few learning steps and without complex measurement equipment. This opens up possibilities for portable emotion recognition devices and next-generation emotion-based digital platform services in the future."

The research team conducted real-time emotion recognition experiments, collecting multimodal data such as facial muscle deformation and voice.

The system exhibited high emotional recognition accuracy with minimal training.

Its wireless and customizable nature ensures wearability and convenience.

Furthermore, the team applied the system to VR environments, utilizing it as a "digital concierge" for various settings, including smart homes, private movie theaters, and smart offices.

The system's ability to identify individual emotions in different situations enables the provision of personalized recommendations for music, movies, and books.

Professor Kim emphasized, "For effective interaction between humans and machines, human-machine interface (HMI) devices must be capable of collecting diverse data types and handling complex integrated information. This study exemplifies the potential of using emotions, which are complex forms of human information, in next-generation wearable systems."

Read more at Science Daily

Spiral-shaped lens provides clear vision at a range of distances and lighting conditions

Researchers have developed a spiral-shaped lens that maintains clear focus at different distances in varying light conditions. The new lens works much like progressive lenses used for vision correction but without the distortions typically seen with those lenses. It could help advance contact lens technologies, intraocular implants for cataracts and miniaturized imaging systems.

"Unlike existing multifocal lenses, our lens performs well under a wide range of light conditions and maintains multifocality regardless of the size of the pupil," said Bertrand Simon from Photonics, Numerical and Nanosciences Laboratory (LP2N), a joint research unit between the Institut d'Optique Graduate School, the University of Bordeaux and the CNRS in France.

"For potential implant users or people with age-related farsightedness, it could provide consistently clear vision, potentially revolutionizing ophthalmology."

In Optica, Optica Publishing Group's journal for high-impact research, the researchers describe the new lens, which they call the spiral diopter.

Its spiraling features are arranged in a way that creates many separate points of focus -- much like having multiple lenses in one.

This makes it possible to see clearly at various distances.

"In addition to ophthalmology applications, the simple design of this lens could greatly benefit compact imaging systems," said Simon.

"It would streamline the design and function of these systems while also offering a way to accomplish imaging at various depths without additional optical elements. These capabilities, coupled with the lens's multifocal properties, offer a powerful tool for depth perception in advanced imaging applications"

Creating a vortex of light

The inspiration for the spiral lens design came when the paper's first author, Laurent Galinier from SPIRAL SAS in France, was analyzing the optical properties of severe corneal deformations in patients.

This led him to conceptualize a lens with a unique spiral design that causes light to spin, like water going down a drain.

This phenomenon, known as an optical vortex, creates multiple clear focus points, which allow the lens to provide clear focus at different distances.

"Creating an optical vortex usually requires multiple optical components," said Galinier.

"Our lens, however, incorporates the elements necessary to make an optical vortex directly into its surface. Creating optical vortices is a thriving field of research, but our method simplifies the process, marking a significant advancement in the field of optics."

The researchers created the lens by using advanced digital machining to mold the unique spiral design with high precision.

They then validated the lens by using it to image a digital 'E,' much like those used on an optometrist's light-up board.

The authors observed that the image quality remained satisfactory regardless of the aperture size used.

They also discovered that the optical vortices could be modified by adjusting the topological charge, which is essentially the number of windings around the optical axis.

Volunteers using the lenses also reported noticeable improvements in visual acuity at a variety of distances and lighting conditions.

Crossing disciplines

Bringing the new lens to fruition required combining the intuitively crafted design with advanced fabrication techniques through a cross-disciplinary collaboration.

"The spiral diopter lens, first conceived by an intuitive inventor, was scientifically substantiated through an intensive research collaboration with optical scientists," said Simon.

"The result was an innovative approach to creating advanced lenses."

The researchers are now working to better understand the unique optical vortices produced by their lens.

They also plan to perform systematic trials of the lens' ability to correct vision in people to comprehensively establish its performance and advantages in real-world conditions.

In addition, they are exploring the possibility of applying the concept to prescription eyeglasses, which could potentially offer users clear vision across multiple distances.

Read more at Science Daily

Potent greenhouse gas produced by industry could be readily abated with existing technologies

Researchers have found that one method of reducing greenhouse gas emissions is available, affordable, and capable of being implemented right now. Nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas and ozone-depleting substance, could be readily abated with existing technology applied to industrial sources.

"The urgency of climate change requires that all greenhouse gas emissions be abated as quickly as is technologically and economically feasible," said lead author Eric Davidson, a professor with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. "Limiting nitrous oxide in an agricultural context is complicated, but mitigating it in industry is affordable and available right now. Here is a low-hanging fruit that we can pluck quickly."

When greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere, they trap the heat from the sun, leading to a warming planet. In terms of emissions, nitrous oxide is third among greenhouse gases, topped only by carbon dioxide and methane. Also known as laughing gas, it has a global warming potential nearly 300 times that of carbon dioxide and stays in the atmosphere for more than 100 years. It also destroys the protective ozone layer in the stratosphere, so reducing nitrous oxide emissions provides a double benefit for the environment and humanity.

Nitrous oxide concentration in the atmosphere has increased at an accelerating rate in recent decades, mostly from increasing agricultural emissions, which contribute about two-thirds of the global human-caused nitrous oxide. However, agricultural sources are challenging to reduce. In contrast, for the industry and energy sectors, low-cost technologies already exist to reduce nitrous oxide emissions to nearly zero.

Industrial nitrous oxide emissions from the chemical industry are primarily by-products from the production of adipic acid (used in the production of nylon) and nitric acid (used to make nitrogen fertilizers, adipic acid, and explosives). Emissions also come from fossil fuel combustion used in manufacturing and internal combustion engines used in cars and trucks.

"We know that abatement is feasible and affordable. The European Union's emissions trading system made it financially attractive to companies to remove nitrous oxide emissions in all adipic acid and nitric acid plants," said co-author Wilfried Winiwarter of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. "The German government is also helping to fund abatement of nitrous oxide emissions from nitric acid plants in several low-income and middle-income countries."

The private sector could also play a key role in nitrous oxide emissions reduction, encouraged by trends in consumer preferences for purchasing climate-friendly products. For example, 65% of the nitrous emissions embodied in nylon products globally are used in passenger cars and light vehicles. Automobile manufacturers could require supply chains to source nylon exclusively from plants that deploy efficient nitrous oxide abatement technology.

Read more at Science Daily

Recyclable mobile phone batteries a step closer with rust-busting invention

Mobile phone batteries with a lifetime up to three times longer than today's technology could be a reality thanks to an innovation led by engineers at RMIT University.

Rather than disposing of batteries after two or three years, we could have recyclable batteries that last for up to nine years, the team says, by using high-frequency sound waves to remove rust that inhibits battery performance.

Only 10% of used handheld batteries, including for mobile phones, are collected for recycling in Australia, which is low by international standards. The remaining 90% of batteries go to landfill or are disposed of incorrectly, which causes considerable damage to the environment.

The high cost of recycling lithium and other materials from batteries is a major barrier to these items being reused, but the team's innovation could help to address this challenge.

The team are working with a nanomaterial called MXene, a class of materials that they say promises to be an exciting alternative to lithium for batteries in the future.

Leslie Yeo, Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and lead senior researcher, said MXene was similar to graphene with high electrical conductivity.

"Unlike graphene, MXenes are highly tailorable and open up a whole range of possible technological applications in the future," said Yeo from RMIT's School of Engineering.

The big challenge with using MXene was that it rusted easily, thereby inhibiting electrical conductivity and rendering it unusable, he said.

"To overcome this challenge, we discovered that sound waves at a certain frequency remove rust from MXene, restoring it to close to its original state," Yeo said.

The team's innovation could one day help to revitalise MXene batteries every few years, extending their lifetime up to three times, he said.

"The ability to prolong the shelf life of MXene is critical to ensuring its potential to be used for commercially viable electronic parts," Yeo said.

The research is published in Nature Communications.

How the innovation works

Co-lead author Mr Hossein Alijani, a PhD candidate, said the greatest challenge with using MXene was the rust that forms on its surface in a humid environment or when suspended in watery solutions.

"Surface oxide, which is rust, is difficult to remove especially on this material, which is much, much thinner than a human hair," said Alijani from RMIT's School of Engineering.

"Current methods used to reduce oxidation rely on the chemical coating of the material, which limits the use of the MXene in its native form.

"In this work, we show that exposing an oxidised MXene film to high-frequency vibrations for just a minute removes the rust on the film. This simple procedure allows its electrical and electrochemical performance to be recovered."

The potential applications of the team's work

The team says their work to remove rust from Mxene opens the door for the nanomaterial to be used in a wide range of applications in energy storage, sensors, wireless transmission and environmental remediation.

Associate Professor Amgad Rezk, one of the lead senior researchers, said the ability to quickly restore oxidised materials to an almost pristine state represented a gamechanger in terms of the circular economy.

"Materials used in electronics, including batteries, generally suffer deterioration after two or three years of use due to rust forming," said Rezk from RMIT's School of Engineering.

"With our method, we can potentially extend the lifetime of battery components by up to three times."

Read more at Science Daily

Light-based tech could inspire Moon navigation and next-gen farming

Super-thin chips made from lithium niobate are set to overtake silicon chips in light-based technologies, according to world-leading scientists in the field, with potential applications ranging from remote ripening-fruit detection on Earth to navigation on the Moon.

They say the artificial crystal offers the platform of choice for these technologies due to its superior performance and recent advances in manufacturing capabilities.

RMIT University's Distinguished Professor Arnan Mitchell and University of Adelaide's Dr Andy Boes led this team of global experts to review lithium niobate's capabilities and potential applications in the journal Science.

The international team, including scientists from Peking University in China and Harvard University in the United States, is working with industry to make navigation systems that are planned to help rovers drive on the Moon later this decade.

As it is impossible to use global positioning system (GPS) technology on the Moon, navigation systems in lunar rovers will need to use an alternative system, which is where the team's innovation comes in.

By detecting tiny changes in laser light, the lithium-niobate chip can be used to measure movement without needing external signals, according to Mitchell.

"This is not science fiction -- this artificial crystal is being used to develop a range of exciting applications. And competition to harness the potential of this versatile technology is heating up," said Mitchell, Director of the Integrated Photonics and Applications Centre.

He said while the lunar navigation device was in the early stages of development, the lithium niobate chip technology was "mature enough to be used in space applications."

"Our lithium niobate chip technology is also flexible enough to be rapidly adapted to almost any application that uses light," Mitchell said.

"We are focused on navigation now, but the same technology could also be used for linking internet on the Moon to the internet on Earth."

What is lithium niobate and how can it be used?

Lithium niobate is an artificial crystal that was first discovered in 1949 but is "back in vogue," according to Boes.

"Lithium niobate has new uses in the field of photonics -- the science and technology of light -- because unlike other materials it can generate and manipulate electro-magnetic waves across the full spectrum of light, from microwave to UV frequencies," he said.

"Silicon was the material of choice for electronic circuits, but its limitations have become increasingly apparent in photonics.

"Lithium niobate has come back into vogue because of its superior capabilities, and advances in manufacturing mean that it is now readily available as thin films on semiconductor wafers."

A layer of lithium niobate about 1,000 times thinner than a human hair is placed on a semiconductor wafer, Boes said.

"Photonic circuits are printed into the lithium niobate layer, which are tailored according to the chip's intended use. A fingernail-sized chip may contain hundreds of different circuits," he said.

How does the lunar navigation tech work?

The team is working with the Australian company Advanced Navigation to create optical gyroscopes, where laser light is launched in both clockwise and anticlockwise directions in a coil of fibre, Mitchell said.

"As the coil is moved the fibre is slightly shorter in one direction than the other, according to Albert Einstein's theory of relativity," he said.

"Our photonic chips are sensitive enough to measure this tiny difference and use it to determine how the coil is moving. If you can keep track of your movements, then you know where you are relative to where you started. This is called inertial navigation."

Potential applications closer to home

This technology can also be used to remotely detect the ripeness of fruit.

"Gas emitted by ripe fruit is absorbed by light in the mid-infrared part of the spectrum," Mitchell said.

"A drone hovering in an orchard would transmit light to another which would sense the degree to which the light is absorbed and when fruit is ready for harvesting.

"Our microchip technology is much smaller, cheaper and more accurate than current technology and can be used with very small drones that won't damage fruit trees."

Read more at Science Daily

New studies suggest social isolation is a risk factor for dementia in older adults, point to ways to reduce risk

In two studies using nationally representative data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study gathered on thousands of Americans, researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health have significantly added to evidence that social isolation is a substantial risk factor for dementia in community-dwelling (noninstitutionalized) older adults, and identified technology as an effective way to intervene.

Collectively, the studies do not establish a direct cause and effect between dementia and social isolation, defined as lack of social contact and interactions with people on a regular basis. But, the researchers say, the studies strengthen observations that such isolation increases the risk of dementia, and suggest that relatively simple efforts to increase social support of older adults -- such as texting and use of email -- may reduce that risk. In the United States, an estimated 1 in 4 people over age 65 experience social isolation, according to the National Institute on Aging.

"Social connections matter for our cognitive health, and it is potentially easily modifiable for older adults without the use of medication," says Thomas Cudjoe, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and senior author of both of the new studies.

The first study, described Jan. 11 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, used data collected on a group of 5,022 Medicare beneficiaries for a long-term study known as the National Health and Aging Trends, which began in 2011. All participants were 65 or older, and were asked to complete an annual two-hour, in-person interview to assess cognitive function, health status and overall well-being.

At the initial interview, 23% of the 5,022 participants were socially isolated and showed no signs of dementia. However, by the end of this nine-year study, 21% of the total sample of participants had developed dementia. The researchers concluded that risk of developing dementia over nine years was 27% higher among socially isolated older adults compared with older adults who were not socially isolated.

"Socially isolated older adults have smaller social networks, live alone and have limited participation in social activities," says Alison Huang, Ph.D., M.P.H., senior research associate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "One possible explanation is that having fewer opportunities to socialize with others decreases cognitive engagement as well, potentially contributing to increased risk of dementia."

Interventions to reduce that risk are possible, according to results of the second study, published Dec. 15 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Specifically, researchers found the use of communications technology such as telephone and email lowered the risk for social isolation.

Researchers for the second study used data from participants in the same National Health and Aging Trends study, and found that more than 70% of people age 65 and up who were not socially isolated at their initial appointment had a working cellphone and/or computer, and regularly used email or texting to initiate and respond to others. Over the four-year research period for this second study, older adults who had access to such technology consistently showed a 31% lower risk for social isolation than the rest of the cohort.

"Basic communications technology is a great tool to combat social isolation," says Mfon Umoh, M.D., Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow in geriatric medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "This study shows that access and use of simple technologies are important factors that protect older adults against social isolation, which is associated with significant health risks. This is encouraging because it means simple interventions may be meaningful."

Social isolation has gained significant attention in the past decade, especially due to restrictions implemented for the COVID-19 pandemic, but more work needs to be done to identify at-risk populations and create tools for providers and caregivers to minimize risk, the researchers say. Future research in this area should focus on increased risks based on biological sex, physical limitations, race and income level.

Read more at Science Daily

Smelling in VR environment possible with new gaming technology

An odor machine, so-called olfactometer, makes it possible to smell in VR environments. First up is a "wine tasting game" where the user smells wine in a virtual wine cellar and gets points if the guess on aromas in each wine is correct. The new technology that can be printed on 3D printers has been developed in collaboration between Stockholm University and Malmö University. The research, funded by the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation, was recently published in the International Journal of Human -- Computer Studies.

"We hope that the new technical possibilities will lead to scents having a more important role in game development, says Jonas Olofsson, professor of psychology and leader of the research project at Stockholm University.

In the past, computer games have focused mostly on what we can see -- moving images on screens. Other senses have not been present. But an interdisciplinary research group at Stockholm University and Malmö University has now constructed a scent machine that can be controlled by a gaming computer. In the game, the participant moves in a virtual wine cellar, picking up virtual wine glasses containing different types of wine, guessing the aromas. The small scent machine is attached to the VR system's controller, and when the player lifts the glass, it releases a scent.

"The possibility to move on from a passive to a more active sense of smell in the game world paves the way for the development of completely new smell-based game mechanics based on the players' movements and judgments," says Simon Niedenthal, interaction and game researcher at Malmö University.

The olfactometer consists of four different valves each connected to a channel. In the middle there is a fan sucking the air into a tube. With the help of the computer, the player can control the four channels so that they open to different degrees and provide different mixtures of scent. Scent blends that can mimic the complexity of a real wine glass. The game has different levels of difficulty with increasing levels of complexity.

"In the same way that a normal computer game becomes more difficult the better the player becomes; the scent game can also challenge players who already have a sensitive nose. This means that the scent machine can even be used to train wine tasters or perfumers," says Jonas Olofsson.

All code, blueprints and instructions for the machine are openly available online, as is code for the virtual wine tasting game. The research group, Sensory Cognitive Interaction Laboratory, which is located at the Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, now hopes that scented computer games can become useful for other purposes.

"For those who, for example, lost their sense of smell after COVID-19 or for other reasons, the new technology can mean an opportunity to regain their sense of smell with the help of game-based training," says Jonas Olofsson, research team leader.

Smell training is a method recommended by doctors for those who lose their sense of smell after colds and other viruses, but according to Jonas Olofsson, many people stop training because it becomes too boring.

"I hope that the fact that drawings and code are openly available as "open source" will lead to an opportunity for game companies to start creating new, commercial products for scent training using the new technology," says Jonas Olofsson.

According to Simon Niedenthal, "open source" leads to promoting accessibility, reproducibility and comparison of results in research. It also contributes to creating a cohesive research and design community within the game development field.

"But it also means that the costs of the equipment are greatly reduced, which makes it available to more people. To us that is important," says Simon Niedenthal.

"We believe in open science, that research results should be made available to the public and that other researchers should be able to repeat our results. With the help of our research, others can build scent machines and explore new ways of using scents in games," says Jonas Olofsson.

Read more at Science Daily

On-site reactors could affordably turn CO2 into valuable chemicals

New technology developed at the University of Waterloo could make a significant difference in the fight against climate change by affordably converting harmful carbon dioxide (CO2) into fuels and other valuable chemicals on an industrial scale.

Outlined in a study published today in the journal Nature Energy, the system yields 10 times more carbon monoxide (CO) -- which can be used to make ethanol, methane and other desirable substances -- than existing, small-scale technologies now limited to testing in laboratories.

Its individual cells can also be stacked to form reactors of any size, making the technology a customizable, economically viable solution that could be installed right on site, for example, at factories with CO2 emissions.

"This is a critical bridge to connect CO2 lab technology to industrial applications," said Dr. Zhongwei Chen, a chemical engineering professor at Waterloo. "Without it, it is very difficult for materials-based technologies to be used commercially because they are just too expensive."

The system features devices known as electrolyzers that convert CO2, a major greenhouse gas produced by burning fossil fuels, into CO using water and electricity.

Electrolyzers developed by the researchers have new electrodes and a new kind of liquid-based electrolyte, which is saturated with CO2 and flowed through the devices for conversion into CO via an electrochemical reaction.

Their electrolyzers are essentially 10-centimetre by 10-centimetre cells, many times larger than existing devices, that can be stacked and configured in reactors of any size.

"This is a completely new model for a CO2 reactor," said Chen, the Canada Research Chair in Advanced Materials for Clean Energy. "It makes the whole process economically viable for industrialization and can be customized to meet specific requirements."

The researchers envision on-site reactors at coal-fired power plants and factories, perhaps the size of a house or more, that would be directly fed CO2 emissions, further reducing costs by eliminating the need to capture and collect CO2 first.

They are also developing plans to power the reactors with on-site renewable energy sources such as solar panels, contributing to the environmental benefits.

"I'm excited by the potential of this technology," Chen said. "If we really want to make a difference by reducing emissions, we have to concentrate on reducing costs to make it affordable."

Read more at Science Daily

Can 'random noise' unlock our learning potential?

Though many of us may seek a quiet place in which to study, 'noise' may play a key role in helping some people improve their learning potential.

Edith Cowan University (ECU) has investigated the effects of transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) in a variety of settings and found the technology could have many applications.

Despite its name, tRNS doesn't utilize noise in the everyday, auditory sense of the word.

Rather, it sees electrodes attached to the head so a weak current can pass through specific parts of the brain.

Study lead Dr Onno van der Groen said the study showed tRNS has promise as a tool to assist people with compromised learning capabilities.

"The effect on learning is promising: it can speed up learning and help people with neurological conditions," Dr van der Groen said.

"So, people with learning difficulties you can use it to enhance learning rate, for example.

"It's also been trialled on people with visual deficits, such as after stroke and traumatic brain injury.

"When you add this type of stimulation during learning, you get better performance, faster learning and better attention afterwards as well."

Forming new pathways

Dr van der Groen said tRNS works by allowing the brain to form new connections and pathways, a process known as neuroplasticity.

"If you learn something, there has to be neuroplastic changes in your brain, which allows you to learn this information," he said.

"And this is a tool to enhance this neuroplasticity."

Dr van der Groen said tRNS had two effects on the brain: the 'acute' effect, which allows a person to perform better while undergoing tRNS, and the modulating effect which saw lasting results.

"If you do 10 sessions of a visual perception task with the tRNS and then come back and do it again without it, you'll find you perform better than the control group who hasn't used it," he said.

"Limitless" potential?

The idea of expanding one's learning potential via tech such as tRNS raises many questions.

While it's most pertinent to those with deficiencies and difficulties in learning, it also begs the question as to whether a neurotypical person can take their intelligence to new levels, similar to the concept in the movie 'Limitless'.

Dr van der Groen says the potential is there, but there are also signs it won't create a 'new level' of intelligence.

"The question is, if you're neurotypical, are you already performing at your peak," he said.

"There's a case study where they tried to enhance the mathematical skills of a super mathematician; with him, it didn't have much of an impact on his performance, presumably because he is already a top performer in that area.

"But it could be used if you're learning something new."

Where it's headed

Though the technology is still in its infancy and people are only able to access tRNS by entering controlled trials, Dr van der Groen said its practicality and apparent safety meant there was a lot of potential for a range of applications.

"The concept is relatively simple," he said.

"It's like a battery: the current runs from plus to minus, but it goes through your head as well.

"We're working on a study where we send the equipment to people, and they apply everything themselves remotely.

"So in that regards, it's quite easy to use."

Scientists worldwide are also investigating tRNS' effects on perception, working memory, sensory processing and other aspects of behaviour, with the technology showing promise as a treatment for a range of clinical conditions.

"We're still trying to find out how best we can use it," Dr van der Groen said.

Read more at Science Daily

Ready for its close-up: New technology sharpens images of black holes

When scientists unveiled humanity's historic first image of a black hole in 2019 -- depicting a dark core encircled by a fiery aura of material falling toward it -- they believed even richer imagery and insights were waiting to be teased out of the data.

Simulations predict that, obscured by that bright orange glow, there should exist a thin, bright ring of light created by photons flung around the back of the black hole by its intense gravity.

Now, a team of researchers has combined theoretical predictions and sophisticated imaging algorithms to "remaster" the original imagery of the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy M87*, first captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) in 2019. Their findings, published today in The Astrophysical Journal, are consistent with theoretical predictions and offer new ways to explore these mysterious objects, which are believed to reside at the hearts of most galaxies.

"The approach we took involved leveraging our theoretical understanding of how these black holes look to build a customized model for the EHT data," says Dominic Pesce, a study co-author based at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and member of the EHT collaboration. "Our model decomposes the reconstructed image into the two pieces that we care most about, so that we can study both pieces individually rather than blended together."

The result was made possible because the EHT is a "computational instrument at its heart," says Avery Broderick, who led the study and holds the Delaney Family John Archibald Wheeler Chair at the Perimeter Institute. "It is as dependent on algorithms as it is upon steel. Cutting-edge algorithmic developments have allowed us to probe key features of the image while rendering the remainder in the EHT's native resolution."

To achieve this result, the team employed imaging software they developed called THEMIS, which enabled them to isolate the distinct ring features from the original observations of the M87* black hole -- as well as reveal the telltale footprint of a powerful jet blasting outward from the black hole.

By essentially "peeling off" elements of the imagery, says co-author Hung-Yi Pu, an assistant professor at National Taiwan Normal University, "the environment around the black hole can then be clearly revealed."

Black holes were long considered unseeable until scientists coaxed them out of hiding with a globe-spanning network of telescopes known as the EHT. Using eight observatories on four continents, all pointed at the same spot in the sky and linked together with nanosecond timing, the EHT researchers observed two black holes in 2017.

The EHT collaboration first unveiled the supermassive black hole in M87* in 2019. Later in 2022, they revealed the comparatively small but tumultuous black hole at the heart of our own Milky Way galaxy, called Sagittarius A* (or Sgr A*).

Supermassive black holes occupy the centers of most galaxies, packing an incredible amount of mass and energy into a small space; the M87* black hole, for example, is 2 quadrillion (that's a two followed by 15 zeros) times more massive than Earth.

The M87* image that scientists unveiled in 2019 was a landmark discovery, but the researchers felt that they could still sharpen the image further and glean new insights. By applying their new software technique to the original 2017 data, the team was able to focus the data's constraining power on phenomena that theories and models predict are lurking beneath the surface.

The newly-developed technique is just now showing its promise on the existing EHT data from 2017.

Read more at Science Daily

New chip-based beam steering device lays groundwork for smaller, cheaper lidar

Researchers have developed a new chip-based beam steering technology that provides a promising route to small, cost-effective and high-performance lidar (or light detection and ranging) systems. Lidar, which uses laser pulses to acquire 3D information about a scene or object, is used in a wide range of applications such as autonomous driving, free-space optical communications, 3D holography, biomedical sensing and virtual reality.

"Optical beam steering is a key technology for lidar systems, but conventional mechanical-based beam steering systems are bulky, expensive, sensitive to vibration and limited in speed," said research team leader Hao Hu from the Technical University of Denmark. "Although devices known as chip-based optical phased arrays (OPAs) can quickly and precisely steer light in a non-mechanical way, so far, these devices have had poor beam quality and a field of view typically below 100 degrees."

In Optica, Optica Publishing Group's journal for high-impact research, Hu and co-author Yong Liu describe their new chip-based OPA that solves many of the problems that have plagued OPAs. They show that the device can eliminate a key optical artifact known as aliasing, achieving beam steering over a large field of view while maintaining high beam quality, a combination that could greatly improve lidar systems.

"We believe our results are groundbreaking in the field of optical beam steering," said Hu. "This development lays the groundwork for OPA-based lidar that is low cost and compact, which would allow lidar to be widely used for a variety of applications such as high-level advanced driver-assistance systems that can assist in driving and parking and increase safety."

A new OPA design

OPAs perform beam steering by electronically controlling light's phase profile to form specific light patterns. Most OPAs use an array of waveguides to emit many beams of light and then interference is applied in far field (away from the emitter) to form the pattern. However, the fact that these waveguide emitters are typically spaced far apart from each other and generate multiple beams in the far field creates an optical artifact known as aliasing. To avoid the aliasing error and achieve a 180° field of view, the emitters need to be close together, but this causes strong crosstalk between adjacent emitters and degrades the beam quality. Thus, until now, there has been a trade-off between OPA field of view and beam quality.

To overcome this trade-off, the researchers designed a new type of OPA that replaces the multiple emitters of traditional OPAs with a slab grating to create a single emitter. This setup eliminates the aliasing error because the adjacent channels in the slab grating can be very close to each other. The coupling between the adjacent channels is not detrimental in the slab grating because it enables the interference and beam formation in the near field (close to the single emitter). The light can then be emitted to the far field with the desired angle. The researchers also applied additional optical techniques to lower the background noise and reduce other optical artifacts such as side lobes.

High quality and wide field of view

To test their new device, the researchers built a special imaging system to measure the average far-field optical power along the horizontal direction over a 180° field of view. They demonstrated aliasing-free beam steering in this direction, including steering beyond ±70°, although some beam degradation was seen.

They then characterized beam steering in the vertical direction by tuning the wavelength from 1480 nm to 1580 nm, achieving a 13.5° tuning range. Finally, they showed the versatility of the OPA by using it to form 2D images of the letters "D," "T" and "U" centered at the angles of -60°, 0° and 60° by tuning both the wavelength and the phase shifters. The experiments were performed with a beam width of 2.1°, which the researchers are now working to decrease to achieve beam steering with a higher resolution and a longer range.

Read more at Science Daily

Archaeologists reveal pre-Hispanic cities in Bolivia with laser technology

More than 20 years ago, Dr. Heiko Prümers from the German Archaeological Institute and Prof. Dr. Carla Jaimes Betancourt from the University of Bonn, at that time a student in La Paz, began archaeological excavations on two "mounds" near the village of Casarabe in Bolivia. The Mojos Plains is a southwestern fringe of the Amazon region. Even though the savannah plain, which flooded several months a year during rainy season, does not encourage permanent settlement, there are still many visible traces of the time before Spanish colonization at the beginning of the 16th century. Next to the "mounds," these traces include mainly causeways and canals that often lead for kilometers in a dead straight line across the savannahs.

"This indicated a relatively dense settlement in pre-Hispanic times. Our goal was to conduct basic research and trace the settlements and life there," says Heiko Prümers. In earlier studies, the researchers already found that the Casarabe culture -- named after the nearby village -- dates to the period between 500 and 1400 AD and, according to current knowledge, extended over a region of around 16,000 square kilometers. The "mounds" turned out to be eroded pyramid stumps and platform buildings.

Initial conventional surveys revealed a terraced core area, a ditch-wall enclosing the site, and canals. In addition, it became apparent that some of these pre-Hispanic settlements were enormous in size. "However, the dense vegetation under which these settlements were located prevented us from seeing the structural details of the monumental mounds and their surroundings," says Carla Jaimes Betancourt from the Department for the Anthropology of the Americas at the University of Bonn.

LIDAR technology used in the Amazon for the first time

To find out more, the researchers used the airborne laser technology LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) for the first time in the Amazon region. This involves surveying the terrain with a laser scanner attached to a helicopter, small aircraft or drone that transmits around 1.5 million laser pulses per second. In a subsequent evaluation step, the vegetation is digitally removed creating a digital model of the earth's surface, which can also be displayed as a 3D image. "The first results were excellent and showed how effective the technology was even in dense rainforest. From that moment on, the desire arose to map the large settlements of the Casarabe culture using LIDAR technology," says study leader Dr. Heiko Prümers.

For the current study, in 2019 the team together with Prof. Dr. José Iriarte and Mark Robinson from the University of Exeter, mapped a total of 200 square kilometers of the Casarabe cultural area. The evaluation done by the company ArcTron3 held a surprise. What came to light were two remarkably large sites of 147 hectares and 315 hectares in a dense four-tiered settlement system. "With a north-south extension of 1.5 kilometers and an east-west extension of about one kilometer, the largest site found so far is as large as Bonn was in the 17th century," says co-author Prof. Dr. Carla Jaimes Betancourt.

It is not yet possible to estimate how many people lived there. "However, the layout of the settlement itself tells us that planners and many active hands were at work here," says Heiko Prümers. Modifications made to the settlement, for example the expansion of the rampart-ditch system, also speak to a reasonable increase in population. "For the first time, we can refer to pre-Hispanic urbanism in the Amazon and show the map of the Cotoca site, the largest settlement of the Casarabe culture known to us so far," Prümers emphasizes. In other parts of the world similar agrarian cities with low population densities had already been found.

LIDAR shows anthropogenically altered landscape

LIDAR mapping reveals the architecture of the settlement's large squares. Stepped platforms topped by U-shaped structures, rectangular platform mounds, and conical pyramids (up to 22 meters high). Causeway-like paths and canals connect the individual settlements and indicate a tight social fabric. At least one other settlement can be found within five kilometers of each of the settlements known today. "So the entire region was densely settled, a pattern that overturns all previous ideas," says Carla James Betancourt, who is a member of the Transdisciplinary Research Area "Present Pasts" at the University of Bonn.

The researchers emphasize that for all the euphoria about the site mappings and the possibilities they offer for reinterpreting the settlements in their geographic setting, the real archaeological work is just beginning. The goal for the future, they say, is to understand how these large regional centers functioned.

Read more at Science Daily

Electronic skin: Physicist develops multisensory hybrid material

The "smart skin" developed by Anna Maria Coclite is very similar to human skin. It senses pressure, humidity and temperature simultaneously and produces electronic signals. More sensitive robots or more intelligent prostheses are thus conceivable.

The skin is the largest sensory organ and at the same time the protective coat of the human being. It "feels" several sensory inputs at the same time and reports information about humidity, temperature and pressure to the brain. For Anna Maria Coclite, a material with such multisensory properties is "a kind of 'holy grail' in the technology of intelligent artificial materials. In particular, robotics and smart prosthetics would benefit from a better integrated, more precise sensing system similar to human skin." The ERC grant winner and researcher at the Institute of Solid State Physics at TU Graz has succeeded in developing the three-in-one hybrid material "smart skin" for the next generation of artificial, electronic skin using a novel process. The result of this pioneering research has now been published in the journal Advanced Materials Technologies.

As delicate as a fingertip

For almost six years, the team worked on the development of smart skin as part of Coclite's ERC project Smart Core. With 2,000 individual sensors per square millimetre, the hybrid material is even more sensitive than a human fingertip. Each of these sensors consists of a unique combination of materials: an smart polymer in the form of a hydrogel inside and a shell of piezoelectric zinc oxide. Coclite explains: "The hydrogel can absorb water and thus expands upon changes in humidity and temperature. In doing so, it exerts pressure on the piezoelectric zinc oxide, which responds to this and all other mechanical stresses with an electrical signal." The result is a wafer-thin material that reacts simultaneously to force, moisture and temperature with extremely high spatial resolution and emits corresponding electronic signals. "The first artificial skin samples are six micrometres thin, or 0.006 millimetres. But it could be even thinner," says Anna Maria Coclite. In comparison, the human epidermis is 0.03 to 2 millimetres thick. The human skin perceives things from a size of about one square millimetre. The smart skin has a resolution that is a thousand times smaller and can register objects that are too small for human skin (such as microorganisms).

Material processing at the nanoscale

The individual sensor layers are very thin and at the same time equipped with sensor elements covering the entire surface. This was possible in a worldwide unique process for which the researchers combined three known methods from physical chemistry for the first time: a chemical vapour deposition for the hydrogel material, an atomic layer deposition for the zinc oxide and nanoprint lithography for the polymer template. The lithographic preparation of the polymer template was the responsibility of the research group "Hybrid electronics and structuring" headed by Barbara Stadlober. The group is part of Joanneum Research's Materials Institute based in Weiz.

Several fields of application are now opening up for the skin-like hybrid material. In healthcare, for example, the sensor material could independently detect microorganisms and report them accordingly. Also conceivable are prostheses that give the wearer information about temperature or humidity, or robots that can perceive their environment more sensitively. On the path to application,smart skin scores with a decisive advantage: the sensory nanorods -- the "smart core" of the material -- are produced using a vapor-based manufacturing process. This process is already well established in production plants for integrated circuits, for example. The production of smart skin can thus be easily scaled and implemented in existing production lines.

Read more at Science Daily

New method to synchronize devices on Earth makes use of cosmic rays

Various technologies, networks and institutions benefit from or require accurate time keeping to synchronize their activities. Current ways of synchronizing time have some drawbacks that a new proposed method seeks to address. The cosmic time synchronizer works by synchronizing devices around cosmic ray events detected by those devices. This could bring accurate timing abilities to remote sensing stations, or even underwater, places that other methods cannot serve. Early tests show promise, but the real challenge may lie in the adoption of this new technique.

Humanity is intimately connected with the idea of time. Historically, we used the cosmos itself -- stars, the sun, and the moon -- to measure time and coordinate our activities. It's fitting, then, that researchers are looking out to the cosmos again to further develop our ability to keep time. Professor Hiroyuki Tanaka from Muographix at the University of Tokyo devised and tested a way to synchronize multiple devices, so they agree upon the time, that makes use of cosmic rays from deep space. Appropriately, it's called cosmic time synchronization (CTS).

"It's relatively easy to keep time accurately these days. For example, atomic clocks have been doing this for decades now," said Tanaka. "However, these are large and expensive devices that are very easy to disrupt. This is one reason I have been working on an improved way to keep time. The other is that, related to time measurement, position measurement could also be made better. So really, CTS is a precursor to a potential replacement for GPS, but that's still a little further down the line."

The reason it's critical for devices to have a shared sense of time is that certain devices are increasingly important in many aspects of life. Computer networks responsible for financial transactions must agree upon time so that the order of transactions can be ensured. There are sensors that work in unison to observe various physical phenomena which need to agree upon time so that, for example, the origin of a particular reading can be determined. Such sensors could even potentially be part of some kind of disaster warning system.

CTS works thanks to cosmic rays from deep space that strike the atmosphere around 15 kilometers up, creating showers of particles including muons. The muons travel close to the speed of light, reaching the ground almost immediately, they can easily penetrate water or rock, and spread out as they travel to cover a few square kilometers of ground. Independent CTS-enabled devices under the same particle shower can detect the incoming muons, which will have a specific signature unique to the cosmic ray event that generated them. By sharing this information, CTS devices can confer with one another and synchronize their clocks according to when the cosmic ray event took place. The ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray strikes occur frequently enough, about a hundred times per hour over every square kilometer of Earth, for CTS devices to work together in real time.

Read more at Science Daily

Cheaper, more efficient ways to capture carbon

University of Colorado Boulder researchers have developed a new tool that could lead to more efficient and cheaper technologies for capturing heat-trapping gases from the atmosphere and converting them into beneficial substances, like fuel or building materials. Such carbon capture technology may be needed at scale in order to limit global warning this century to 2.7 degrees F (1.5 Celsius) above pre-industrial temperatures and fend off catastrophic impacts of global climate change.

The scientists describe their technique in a paper published this month in the journal iSCIENCE.

The method predicts how strong the bond will be between carbon dioxide and the molecule that traps it, known as a binder. This electrochemical diagnosis can be easily applied to any molecule that is chemically inclined to bind with carbon dioxide, allowing researchers to identify suitable molecular candidates with which to capture carbon dioxide from everyday air.

"The Holy Grail, if you will, is to try to inch toward being able to use binders that can grab carbon dioxide from the air [around us], not just concentrated sources," said Oana Luca, co-author of the new study and assistant professor of chemistry. "Determining the strength of binders allows us to figure out whether the binding will be strong or weak, and identify candidates for future study for direct carbon capture from dilute sources."

The goal of carbon capture and storage technology is to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it safely for hundreds or thousands of years. But while it has been in use in the U.S. since the 1970s, it currently captures and stores a mere 0.1% of global carbon emissions annually. To help meet carbon emissions goals laid out by the IPCC, carbon capture and storage would have to rapidly increase in scale by 2050.

Current industrial facilities around the world rely on capturing carbon dioxide from a concentrated source, such as emissions from power plants. While these methods can bind a lot of carbon dioxide quickly and efficiently using large amounts of certain chemical binders, they are also extraordinarily energy intensive.

This method also is quite expensive at scale to take carbon dioxide and turn it into something else useful, such as carbonates, an ingredient in cement, or formaldehyde or methanol, which can be used as a fuel, according to Luca, fellow-elect of the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI).

Using electrochemical methods instead, such as those detailed in the new CU Boulder-led study, would free carbon capture facilities from being tied to concentrated sources, allowing them to exist almost anywhere.

Being able to easily estimate the strength of chemical bonds also enables researchers to screen for which binders will be best suited -- and offer a cheaper alternative to traditional methods -- for capturing and converting carbon into materials or fuel according to Haley Petersen, co-lead author on the study and graduate student in chemistry.

Creating chemical bonds

The science of chemistry is based on a few basic facts: One, that molecules are made of atoms, and two, that they are orbited by electrons. When atoms bond with other atoms, they form molecules. And when atoms share electrons with other atoms, they form what is called a covalent bond.

Using electricity, the researchers can activate these bonds by using an electrode to deliver an electron to a molecule. When they do that to an imidazolium molecule, like they did in this study, a hydrogen atom is removed, creating a gap in a carbon atom for another molecule to want to bond with it -- such as carbon dioxide.

However, carbon dioxide (CO2) is the kind of molecule that doesn't typically like to create new bonds.

"It's generally unreactive, and in order to react with it, you also have to bend it," said Luca. "So we're in a chemical space that hasn't really been probed before, for CO2 capture."

The method the researchers examines how good a whole family of carbenes (a specific type of molecule, containing a neutral carbon atom), that they can electrochemically generate, are at binding CO2.

Read more at Science Daily

How a two-faced molecule can silence problematic genes

T and B lymphocytes, which are part of a group of immune cells commonly called white blood cells, work together to eliminate foreign invaders in the body such as viruses. However, certain diseases can arise when T and B cells are activated at inappropriate times, including autoimmune disorders and various cancers. In a recent article published in Nature Communications, a team led by researchers at Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) describe a technology called a heteroduplex oligonucleotide (HDO) that they developed to deliver to lymphocytes and regulate their functions.

Gene expression is at the root of controlling cellular activity. Disease can result when certain genes are either improperly turned off or are uncontrollably expressed. Therefore, scientists have aimed to develop therapeutic methods to restore gene expression levels to their healthy state, ideally only in the abnormal cells. One such modality is delivering specifically engineered DNA or RNA molecules that can locate the misexpressed gene messages and direct the cell to lower them back to normal levels. However, the most difficult part of this is ensuring the therapeutic molecules can efficiently reach their proper destination without being degraded by the cell.

"Our team designed a DNA/RNA hybrid molecule called an HDO," says lead author of the study Masaki Ohyagi. "The specific sequence of the HDO can be altered to target a particular gene of interest, while its backbone makes it stable within cells."

A key part of the team's HDO design is the addition of a molecule called α-tocopherol, which is crucial to its proper delivery. Because α-tocopherol is essential for proper lymphocytic immune responses, adding this allows the HDO to be delivered within peripheral blood and directed to lymphocytes. The team designed HDOs for several mouse genes and then intravenously injected them into lab mice.

"We found that our HDO technology was able to specifically silence these genes in mouse lymphocytes more robustly and stably, and also with less toxicity, than other previous versions of this method," states Takanori Yokota, senior author of the article. "Our studies also showed that the HDOs enter these cells through a process called endocytosis."

After finding that their technology was effective at gene silencing, the TMDU team investigated if it could be useful as a disease treatment. They designed an HDO targeting a gene called Itga4, which is central to the pathogenesis of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a mouse model for multiple sclerosis (MS).

"Intravenously injecting these mice with an Itga4-targeting HDO delayed the onset and improved EAE symptoms and reduced both inflammatory cell infiltration and spinal cord demyelination," explains Ohyagi.

Read more at Science Daily

A security technique to fool would-be cyber attackers

Multiple programs running on the same computer may not be able to directly access each other's hidden information, but because they share the same memory hardware, their secrets could be stolen by a malicious program through a "memory timing side-channel attack."

This malicious program notices delays when it tries to access a computer's memory, because the hardware is shared among all programs using the machine. It can then interpret those delays to obtain another program's secrets, like a password or cryptographic key.

One way to prevent these types of attacks is to allow only one program to use the memory controller at a time, but this dramatically slows down computation. Instead, a team of MIT researchers has devised a new approach that allows memory sharing to continue while providing strong security against this type of side-channel attack. Their method is able to speed up programs by 12 percent when compared to state-of-the-art security schemes.

In addition to providing better security while enabling faster computation, the technique could be applied to a range of different side-channel attacks that target shared computing resources, the researchers say.

"Nowadays, it is very common to share a computer with others, especially if you are do computation in the cloud or even on your own mobile device. A lot of this resource sharing is happening. Through these shared resources, an attacker can seek out even very fine-grained information," says senior author Mengjia Yan, the Homer A. Burnell Career Development Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).

The co-lead authors are CSAIL graduate students Peter Deutsch and Yuheng Yang. Additional co-authors include Joel Emer, a professor of the practice in EECS, and CSAIL graduate students Thomas Bourgeat and Jules Drean. The research will be presented at the International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems.

Committed to memory

One can think about a computer's memory as a library, and the memory controller as the library door. A program needs to go to the library to retrieve some stored information, so that program opens the library door very briefly to go inside.

There are several ways a malicious program can exploit shared memory to access secret information. This work focuses on a contention attack, in which an attacker needs to determine the exact instant when the victim program is going through the library door. The attacker does that by trying to use the door at the same time.

"The attacker is poking at the memory controller, the library door, to say, 'is it busy now?' If they get blocked because the library door is opening already -- because the victim program is already using the memory controller -- they are going to get delayed. Noticing that delay is the information that is being leaked," says Emer.

To prevent contention attacks, the researchers developed a scheme that "shapes" a program's memory requests into a predefined pattern that is independent of when the program actually needs to use the memory controller. Before a program can access the memory controller, and before it could interfere with another program's memory request, it must go through a "request shaper" that uses a graph structure to process requests and send them to the memory controller on a fixed schedule. This type of graph is known as a directed acyclic graph (DAG), and the team's security scheme is called DAGguise.

Fooling an attacker

Using that rigid schedule, sometimes DAGguise will delay a program's request until the next time it is permitted to access memory (according to the fixed schedule), or sometimes it will submit a fake request if the program does not need to access memory at the next schedule interval.

"Sometimes the program will have to wait an extra day to go to the library and sometimes it will go when it didn't really need to. But by doing this very structured pattern, you are able to hide from the attacker what you are actually doing. These delays and these fake requests are what ensures security," Deutsch says.

DAGguise represents a program's memory access requests as a graph, where each request is stored in a "node," and the "edges" that connect the nodes are time dependencies between requests. (Request A must be completed before request B.) The edges between the nodes -- the time between each request -- are fixed.

A program can submit a memory request to DAGguise whenever it needs to, and DAGguise will adjust the timing of that request to always ensure security. No matter how long it takes to process a memory request, the attacker can only see when the request is actually sent to the controller, which happens on a fixed schedule.

This graph structure enables the memory controller to be dynamically shared. DAGguise can adapt if there are many programs trying to use memory at once and adjust the fixed schedule accordingly, which enables a more efficient use of the shared memory hardware while still maintaining security.

A performance boost

The researchers tested DAGguise by simulating how itwould perform in an actual implementation. They constantly sent signals to the memory controller, which is how an attacker would try to determine another program's memory access patterns. They formally verified that, with any possible attempt, no private data were leaked.

Then they used a simulated computer to see how their system could improve performance, compared to other security approaches.

"When you add these security features, you are going to slow down compared to a normal execution. You are going to pay for this in performance," Deutsch explains.

While their method was slower than a baseline insecure implementation, when compared to other security schemes, DAGguise led to a 12 percent increase in performance.

Read more at Science Daily

Sending life to the stars

No longer solely in the realm of science fiction, the possibility of interstellar travel has appeared, tantalizingly, on the horizon. Although we may not see it in our lifetimes -- at least not some real version of the fictional warp-speeding, hyperdriving, space-folding sort -- we are having early conversations of how life could escape the tether of our solar system, using technology that is within reach.

For UC Santa Barbara professors Philip Lubin and Joel Rothman, it's a great time to be alive. Born of a generation that saw breathtaking advances in space exploration, they carry the unbridled optimism and creative spark of the early Space Age, when humans first found they could leave the Earth.

"The Apollo moon voyages were among the most momentous events in my life and contemplating them still blows my mind," said Rothman, a distinguished professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, and a self-admitted "space geek."

A mere 50 years have passed since that pivotal era, but humanity's knowledge of space and the technology to explore it have improved immensely, enough for Rothman to join experimental cosmologist Lubin in considering what it would take for living beings to embark on a journey across the vast distance separating us from our nearest neighbor in the galaxy. The result of their collaboration was published in the journal Acta Astronautica.

"I think it's our destiny to keep exploring," Rothman said. "Look at the history of the human species. We explore at smaller and smaller levels down to subatomic levels and we also explore at increasingly larger scales. Such drive toward ceaseless exploration lies at the core of who we are as a species."

Thinking Big, Starting Small

The biggest challenge to human-scale interstellar travel is the enormous distance between Earth and the nearest stars. The Voyager missions have proven that we can send objects across the 12 billion miles it takes to exit the bubble surrounding our solar system, the heliosphere. But the car-sized probes, traveling at speeds of more than 35,000 miles per hour, took 40 years to reach there and their distance from Earth is only a tiny fraction of that to the next star. If they were headed to the closest star, it would take them over 80,000 years to reach it.

That challenge is a major focus of Lubin's work, in which he reimagines the technology it would take to reach the next solar system in human terms. Traditional onboard chemical propulsion (a.k.a. rocket fuel) is out; it can't provide enough energy to move the craft fast enough, and the weight of it and current systems needed to propel it are not viable for the relativistic speeds the craft needs to achieve. New propulsion technologies are required -- and this is where the UCSB directed energy research program of using light as the "propellant" comes in.

"This has never been done before, to push macroscopic objects at speeds approaching the speed of light," said Lubin, a professor in the Department of Physics. Mass is such a huge barrier, in fact, that it rules out any human missions for the foreseeable future.

As a result, his team turned to robots and photonics. Small probes with onboard instrumentation that sense, collect and transmit data back to Earth will be propelled up to 20-30% of the speed of light by light itself using a laser array stationed on Earth, or possibly the moon. "We don't leave home with it," as Lubin explained, meaning the primary propulsion system stays "at home" while spacecraft are "shot out" at relativistic speeds. The main propulsion laser is turned on for a short period of time and then the next probe is readied to be launched.

"It would probably look like a semiconductor wafer with an edge to protect it from the radiation and dust bombardment as it goes through the interstellar medium," Lubin said. "It would probably be the size of your hand to start with." As the program evolves the spacecraft become larger with enhanced capability. The core technology can also be used in a modified mode to propel much larger spacecraft within our solar system at slower speeds, potentially enabling human missions to Mars in as little as one month, stopping included. This is another way of spreading life, but in our solar system.

At these relativistic speeds -- roughly 100 million miles per hour -- the wafercraft would reach the next solar system, Proxima Centauri, in roughly 20 years. Getting to that level of technology will require continuous innovation and improvement of both the space wafer, as well the photonics, where Lubin sees "exponential growth" in the field. The basic project to develop a roadmap to achieve relativistic flight via directed energy propulsion is supported by NASA and private foundations such as the Starlight program and by the Breakthrough Initiatives as the Starshot program.

"When I learned that the mass of these craft could reach gram levels or larger, it became clear that they could accomodate living animals," said Rothman, who realized that the creatures he'd been studying for decades, called C. elegans, could be the first Earthlings to travel between the stars. These intensively studied roundworms may be small and plain, but they are experimentally accomplished creatures, Rothman said.

"Research on this little animal has led to Nobel prizes to six researchers thus far," he noted.

C. elegans are already veterans of space travel, as the subject of experiments conducted on the International Space Station and aboard the space shuttle, even surviving the tragic disintegration of the Columbia shuttle. Among their special powers, which they share with other potential interstellar travelers that Rothman studies, tardigrades (or, more affectionately, water bears) can be placed in suspended animation in which virtually all metabolic function is arrested. Thousands of these tiny creatures could be placed on a wafer, put in suspended animation, and flown in that state until reaching the desired destination. They could then be wakened in their tiny StarChip and precisely monitored for any detectable effects of interstellar travel on their biology, with the observations relayed to Earth by photonic communication.

"We can ask how well they remember trained behavior when they're flying away from their eathly origin at near the speed of light, and examine their metabolism, physiology, neurological function, reproduction and aging," Rothman added. "Most experiments that can be conducted on these animals in a lab can be performed onboard the StarChips as they whiz through the cosmos." The effects of such long odysseys on animal biology could allow the scientists to extrapolate to potential effects on humans.

"We could start thinking about the design of interstellar transporters, whatever they may be, in a way that could ameliorate the issues that are detected in these diminutive animals," Rothman said.

Of course, being able to send humans to interstellar space is great for movies, but in reality is still a far away dream. By the time we get to that point we may have created more suitable life forms or hybrid human-machines that are more resilient.

"This is a generational program," Lubin said. Scientists of coming generations ideally will contribute to our knowledge of interstellar space and its challenges, and enhance the design of the craft as technology improves. With the primary propulsion system being light, the underlying technology is on an exponential growth curve, much like electronics with a "Moore's Law" like expanding capability.

Planetary Protection and Extraterrestrial Propagation

We're bound to our solar system for the forseeable future; humans are fragile and delicate away from our home planet. But that hasn't stopped Lubin, Rothman, their research teams and their diverse collaborators, which include a radiation specialist and a science-trained theologian, to contemplate both the physiological and ethical aspects of sending life to space -- and perhaps even propagating life in space.

"There are the ethics," Lubin explained, "of planetary protection," in which serious thought is given to the possibility of contamination, either from our planet to others or vice versa. "I think if you started talking about directed propagation of life, which is sometimes called panspermia -- this idea that life came from elsewhere and ended up on the earth by comets and other debris, or even intentionally from another civilization -- the idea that we would purposefully send out life does bring up big questions."

So far, the authors contend, there is no risk of forward contamination, as the probes nearing any other planet would burn up in their atmosphere or be obliterated in the collision with the surface. Because the wafercraft are on a one-way trip, there's no risk that any extraterrestrial microbes will return to Earth.

While still somewhat on the fringe, the theory of panspermia seems to be getting some serious, if limited, attention, given how easy it is to propagate life when conditions are right and the discovery of several exoplanets and other celestial bodies that may have been, or could be, supportive of life as we know it.

"Some people have mused and published on ideas such as 'is the universe a lab experiment from some advanced civilization,'" Lubin said. "So people are certainly willing to think about advanced civilizations. Questions are good but answers are better. Right now we simply ponder these questions without the answers yet."

Another issue currently being contemplated in the wider space exploration community: What are the ethics of sending humans to Mars and other distant places knowing they may never come home? What about sending out small micro-organisms or human DNA? These existential inquiries are as old as the first human migrations and seafaring voyages, the answers to which will likely come the moment we're ready to take these journeys.

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Enhanced touch screens could help you 'feel' objects

The next time you buy a new couch, you may not ever have to leave your old one to get a feel for the texture of the new material.

Dr. Cynthia Hipwell, Oscar S. Wyatt Jr. '45 Chair II Professor in the J. Mike Walker '66 Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University, is leading a team working to better define how the finger interacts with a device with the hope of aiding in the further development of technology that goes beyond sensing and reacting to your touch.

The team's research was recently published and featured on the cover of the journal Advanced Materials.

The ultimate goal of furthering this human-machine interface is to give touch devices the ability to provide users with a richer touch-based experience by equipping the technology with the ability to mimic the feeling of physical objects. Hipwell shared examples of potential implementations ranging from a more immersive virtual reality platform to tactile display interfaces like those in a motor vehicle dashboard and a virtual shopping experience that would let the user feel the texture of materials before purchasing them.

"This could allow you to actually feel textures, buttons, slides and knobs on the screen," Hipwell said. "It can be used for interactive touch screen-based displays, but one holy grail would certainly be being able to bring touch into shopping so that you could feel the texture of fabrics and other products while you're shopping online."

Hipwell explained that at its essence, the "touch" in current touch screen technology is more for the screen's benefit than the user. With the emergence and refinement of increasingly sophisticated haptic technology, that relationship between user and device can grow to be more reciprocal.

She added that the addition of touch as a sensory input would ultimately enrich virtual environments and lighten the burden of communication currently carried by audio and visuals.

"When we look at virtual experiences, they're primarily audio and visual right now and we can get audio and visual overload," Hipwell said. "Being able to bring touch into the human-machine interface can bring a lot more capability, much more realism, and it can reduce that overload. Haptic effects can be used to draw your attention to make something easier to find or easier to do using a lower cognitive load."

Hipwell and her team are approaching the research by looking at the multiphysics -- the coupled processes or systems involving multiple physical fields occurring at the same time -- of the interface between the user's finger and the device. This interface is incredibly complex and changes with different users and environmental conditions.

"We're looking at electro-wetting effects (the forces that result from an applied electric field), electrostatic effects, changes in properties of the finger, the material properties and surface geometry of the device, the contact mechanics, the fluid motion, charge transport -- really, everything that's going on in the interface to understand how the device can be designed to be more reliable and higher performing," Hipwell said. "Ultimately, our goal is to create predictive models than enable a designer to create devices with maximum haptic effect and minimum sensitivity to user and environmental variation."

As research into and development of the technology continues to progress, Hipwell said she predicts consumers will begin to see early elements implemented into common devices over the next few years, with some early products already in development.

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