Category archives: Technology

A working molecular electronic switch

A working molecular electronic switch

ChemistryComputer scienceCondensed matterMaterialsPhysics

By DIPC

A visionary perspective of molecular electronics is the use of single molecules as functional entities in electronic devices. In this context, some of the most important components are molecular switches, which are molecules that can be interconverted reversibly between at least two stable states, one for the OFF and one for the ON. In order […]

Semiconductors

Semiconductors

Condensed matterMaterialsPhysics

By DIPC

The most prevalent use today of semiconductors is forming them into transistors, the basic electronic building blocks of all “solid-state electronics” and computer microchips. Semiconductors are the most important materials in the burgeoning revolution in computers and other electronic devices today. Such applications also arose, beginning in the 1930s, from the quantum mechanics of the […]

MI weekly selection #169

MI weekly selection #169

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Disks can store information for billions of years A new five-dimensional data storage method has been developed that researchers say can last up to 13.8 billion years, withstand extreme heat and hold all sorts of information. The data are encoded into minuscule nanostructures in small glass discs. The Verge New carbon structure can hold liquids […]

Impurities and spin Hall effects in graphene

Impurities and spin Hall effects in graphene

Condensed matterMaterialsPhysicsQuantum physics

By DIPC

The interactions between moving charges and magnetic fields can be quite complicated; more if we consider the quantum effects. One example is the collection of Hall effects. There are analogues of these effects for spin and the detection of the most sophisticated one in graphene, where, at least, it should not be strong, is something […]

Dealing with fire in microgravity

Dealing with fire in microgravity

ChemistryPhysics

By Silvia Román

All we know about fire under Earth´s gravity must be questioned in microgravity. In fact, most of the well-known characteristics of fire behavior are driven by the effects of gravity. That´s why the science of combustion in low-gravity environments is an important field of knowledge for NASA studies when evaluating spacecraft safety. And, contrary to […]

MI weekly selection #168

MI weekly selection #168

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Gravitational waves predicted by Einstein heard by LIGO Gravitational waves from the collision of two black holes about 1.3 billion years ago have been detected by Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, confirming a prediction Albert Einstein made a century ago in his general theory of relativity. The sound came through as a chirp first […]

MI weekly selection #167

MI weekly selection #167

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Unusual nasal dome allowed ancient beast to trumpet like a dinosaur An ancient wildebeest-like creature that lived during the Ice Age had an unusual skull shape that enabled it to bellow like a dinosaur, according to researchers who found the skull fossils on what is now Kenya’s Rusinga Island. Rusingoryx atopocranion, which lived between 75,000 […]