Computers

Researchers demonstrate a new technique for suppressing back reflections of light, leading to better signal quality for sensing and information technology. Microresonators are small glass structures in which light can circulate and build up in intensity. Due to material imperfections, some amount of light is reflected backwards, which is disturbing their function. Researchers … [Read more...] about Trapping light without back reflections

Scientists at Japan's Nagoya University and the National Institute for Materials Science have found that a simple one-drop approach is cheaper and faster for tiling functional nanosheets together in a single layer. If the process, described in the journal ACS Nano, can be scaled up, it could advance development of next-generation oxide electronics. "Drop casting is one of the … [Read more...] about Nanosheet-based electronics could be one drop away

Computer-based artificial intelligence can function more like human intelligence when programmed to use a much faster technique for learning new objects, say two neuroscientists who designed such a model that was designed to mirror human visual learning. In the journal Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, Maximilian Riesenhuber, PhD, professor of neuroscience, at Georgetown … [Read more...] about Tweaking AI software to function like a human brain improves computer’s learning ability

Imagine you gave the exact same art pieces to two different groups of people and asked them to curate an art show. The art is radical and new. The groups never speak with one another, and they organize and plan all the installations independently. On opening night, imagine your surprise when the two art shows are nearly identical. How did these groups categorize and organize … [Read more...] about Why independent cultures think alike when it comes to categories: It’s not in the brain: In contrast to prior hypotheses, this experiment shows that people are not born with category systems already in their brains

The leaf vasculature of plants plays a key role in transporting solutes from where they are made -- for example from the plant cells driving photosynthesis -- to where they are stored or used. Sugars and amino acids are transported from the leaves to the roots and the seeds via the conductive pathways of the phloem. Phloem is the part of the tissue in vascular plants that … [Read more...] about Comprehensive characterization of vascular structure in plants

Rice University engineers hope to make life better for those with replacement joints by modeling how artificial hips are likely to rub them the wrong way. The computational study by the Brown School of Engineering lab of mechanical engineer Fred Higgs simulates and tracks how hips evolve, uniquely incorporating fluid dynamics and roughness of the joint surfaces as well as … [Read more...] about Computational model offers help for new hips: Unique study incorporates fluid dynamics and more to evaluate, enhance future implants

An international team of researchers, including Professor Roberto Morandotti of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), just introduced a new photonic processor that could revolutionize artificial intelligence, as reported by the  journal Nature. Artificial neural networks, layers of interconnected artificial neurons, are of great interest for machine … [Read more...] about Using light to revolutionize artificial intelligence: An international team of researchers just introduced a new photonic processor

University at Buffalo researchers are reporting an advancement of a chemical sensing chip that could lead to handheld devices that detect trace chemicals -- everything from illicit drugs to pollution -- as quickly as a breathalyzer identifies alcohol. The chip, which also may have uses in food safety monitoring, anti-counterfeiting and other fields where trace chemicals are … [Read more...] about Researchers report quantum-limit-approaching chemical sensing chip: Study shows improvements to chemical sensing chip that aims to quickly and accurately identify drugs and other trace chemicals

Smartwatches and other battery-powered electronics would be even smarter if they could run AI algorithms. But efforts to build AI-capable chips for mobile devices have so far hit a wall -- the so-called "memory wall" that separates data processing and memory chips that must work together to meet the massive and continually growing computational demands imposed by … [Read more...] about Engineers create hybrid chips with processors and memory to run AI on battery-powered devices

To perform calculations, quantum computers need qubits to act as elementary building blocks that process and store information. Now, physicists have produced a new type of qubit that can be switched from a stable idle mode to a fast calculation mode. The concept would also allow a large number of qubits to be combined into a powerful quantum computer, as researchers from the … [Read more...] about Electrically switchable qubit can tune between storage and fast calculation modes: A tiny germanium; silicon nanowire takes a big step towards a scalable quantum computer