A $9.4 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) could lead to development of a new technique for wirelessly monitoring Internet of Things (IoT) devices for malicious software – without affecting the operation of the ubiquitous but low-power equipment. The technique will rely on receiving and analyzing side-channel signals, electromagnetic emissions that…
Hollow-Fiber Membranes Could Cut Separation Costs, Energy Use
Researchers have developed a microfluidic technique for fabricating a new class of metal-organic framework (MOF) membranes inside hollow polymer fibers that are just a few hundred microns in diameter. The new fabrication process, believed to be the first to grow MOF membranes inside hollow fibers, could potentially change the way large-scale energy-intensive chemical separations are…
Engineered Bacteria Produce Biofuel Alternative for Rocket Fuel
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Joint BioEnergy Institute have engineered a bacterium to synthesize pinene, a hydrocarbon produced by trees that could potentially replace high-energy fuels, such as JP-10, in missiles and other aerospace applications. With improvements in process efficiency, the biofuel could supplement limited supplies of petroleum-based JP-10, and might…
Optimization Modeling Helps Control Electricity Supply Continuity
For boaters, fisherman and others, a lake filled with water is an opportunity for recreation. But for an organization such as Operador Nacional do Sistema Eletrico (ONS) in Brazil, a full lake behind a hydroelectric dam is also an optimization challenge that must be addressed to provide reliable electric power at a stable cost. Brazilian…
Researchers Report First Entanglement between Light and an Optical Atomic Coherence
Using clouds of ultra-cold atoms and a pair of lasers operating at optical wavelengths, researchers have reached a quantum network milestone: entangling light with an optical atomic coherence composed of interacting atoms in two different states. The development could help pave the way for functional, multi-node quantum networks. The research, done at the Georgia Institute…
Star-Shaped Polymer Structures Serve as “Nanoreactors”
Using star-shaped block co-polymer structures as tiny reaction vessels, researchers have developed an improved technique for producing nanocrystals with consistent sizes, compositions, and architectures – including metallic, ferroelectric, magnetic, semiconductor, and luminescent nanocrystals. The technique relies on the length of polymer molecules and the ratio of two solvents to control the size and uniformity of…
Studying Arrangement of Ordered Materials in Non-spherical Spaces
A fried breakfast food popular in Spain provided the inspiration for the development of doughnut-shaped droplets that may provide scientists with a new approach for studying fundamental issues in physics, mathematics and materials. The doughnut-shaped droplets, a shape known as toroidal, are formed from two dissimilar liquids using a simple rotating stage and an injection…
Communicating Among Quantum Computers
Quantum computers promise to perform certain types of operations much more quickly than conventional digital computers. But many challenges must be addressed before these ultra-fast machines become available, among them, the loss of order in the systems – a problem known as quantum decoherence – which worsens as the number of bits in a quantum…
Protecting U.S. Forces by Simulating Hostile Unmanned Aircraft
Today, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are a rapidly growing part of military operations, and forces that aren’t prepared to deal with them are vulnerable. To protect its ground forces, the United States military must be prepared to counter the surveillance technologies aboard hostile unmanned aircraft. As part of its broad-based work in electronic warfare technologies,…