Tiny, individual, flexible ribbons of crystalline phosphorus have been made by UCL researchers in a world first, and they could revolutionise electronics and fast-charging battery technology. Since the isolation of 2-dimensional phosphorene, which is the phosphorus equivalent of graphene, in 2014, more than 100 theoretical studies have predicted that new and exciting properties could emerge by producing…
Developing A Secure, Un-Hackable Net
A method of securely communicating between multiple quantum devices has been developed by a UCL-led team of scientists, bringing forward the reality of a large-scale, un- hackable quantum network. To date, communicating via quantum networks has only been possible between two devices of known provenance that have been built securely. With the EU and UK…
AI Predicts Outcomes Of Human Rights Trials
The judicial decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) have been predicted to 79% accuracy using an artificial intelligence (AI) method developed by researchers in UCL, the University of Sheffield and the University of Pennsylvania. The method is the first to predict the outcomes of a major international court by automatically analysing case…
Accelerating Research into Dark Energy
A quick method for making accurate, virtual universes to help understand the effects of dark matter and dark energy has been developed by UCL and CEFCA scientists. Making up 95% of our universe, these substances have profound effects on the birth and lives of galaxies and stars and yet almost nothing is known about their…
Strong ‘Electric Wind’ Strips Planets of Oceans, Atmospheres
Venus has an ‘electric wind’ strong enough to remove the components of water from its upper atmosphere, which may have played a significant role in stripping the planet of its oceans, according to a new study by NASA and UCL researchers. “It’s amazing and shocking,” said Glyn Collinson, previously at UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory…
Mars’ Surface Revealed in Unprecedented Detail
The surface of Mars — including the location of Beagle-2 — has been shown in unprecedented detail by UCL scientists using a revolutionary image stacking and matching technique. Exciting pictures of the Beagle-2 lander, the ancient lakebeds discovered by NASA’s Curiosity rover, NASA’s MER-A rover tracks and Home Plate’s rocks have been released by the…
Solar Storms Trigger Jupiter’s ‘Northern Lights’
Solar storms trigger Jupiter’s intense ‘Northern Lights’ by generating a new X-ray aurora that is eight times brighter than normal and hundreds of times more energetic than Earth’s aurora borealis, finds new UCL-led research using NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory. It is the first time that Jupiter’s X-ray aurora has been studied when a giant storm…
Real-Time Tracking Shows How Batteries Degrade
How disposable Lithium batteries degrade during normal use has been tracked in real-time by a UCL-led team using sophisticated 3D imaging, giving a new way to non-invasively monitor performance loss and guide the development of more effective commercial battery designs. The team recently used the same technique to show how rechargeable Lithium-ion batteries fail when…
Composite Materials Can Be Designed in a Supercomputer ‘Virtual Lab’
UCL scientists have shown how advanced computer simulations can be used to design new composite materials. Nanocomposites, which are widely used in industry, are revolutionary materials in which microscopic particles are dispersed through plastics. But their development until now has been largely by trial and error. The ‘virtual lab’ developed using supercomputer simulations greatly improves…
Quantum State World Record Smashed
A normally fragile quantum state has been shown to survive at room temperature for a world record 39 minutes, overcoming a key barrier towards building ultrafast quantum computers. The research, published in the journal Science, was led by Mike Thewalt (Simon Fraser University, Canada), with involvement from researchers at UCL and Oxford University, and material…
Characterizing Entangled States
Two researchers at UCL Computer Science and the University of Gdansk present a new method for determining the amount of entanglement – a quantum phenomenon connecting two remote partners, and crucial for quantum technology – within part of a one-dimensional quantum system. In their paper, published this week in Nature Physics, Dr Fernando Brandão (UCL…