Congratulations to our newly elected Treasurer and Directors. Albert Miranda will serve a two-year term (Treasurer) and both Ton Hurkmans and Mark Spaventa will serve a three-year term (Directors). All terms will begin on Monday, May 8, 2023 at the TechCon. We thank them for their service to the success of the SVC!
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Fusion Breakthrough Is a Milestone for Climate, Clean Energy
By Matthew Daly, Michael Phillis, Jennifer McDermott, and Maddie Burakoff in phys.org
Scientists announced Tuesday that they have for the first time produced more energy in a fusion reaction than was used to ignite it—a major breakthrough in the decades-long quest to harness the process that powers the sun. Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California achieved the result last week, the Energy Department said. Known as a net energy gain, the goal has been elusive because fusion happens at such high temperatures and pressures that it is incredibly difficult to control. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
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Gold-Based Passive Heating for Eyewear
Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed an ultrathin, gold-based transparent coating that is able to convert sunlight into heat. It can be applied to glass and other surfaces to prevent them from fogging. Applications for the new coating include eyewear and car windshields. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: ETH Zurich
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Changes in Earth's Orbit May Have Triggered Ancient Warming Event
Changes in Earth's orbit that favored hotter conditions may have helped trigger a rapid global warming event 56 million years ago that is considered an analog for modern climate change, according to an international team of scientists. The scientists analyzed core samples from a well-preserved record of the PETM near the Maryland coast using astrochronology, a technique for dating sediments against orbital patterns that occur over tens to hundreds of thousands of years, known as Milankovitch cycles. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: Penn State
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Scientists Get First-Ever Sound Recording of Dust Devils on Mars
When the rover Perseverance landed on Mars, it was equipped with the first working microphone on the planet's surface. Scientists have used it to make the first-ever audio recording of an extraterrestrial whirlwind. Perseverance's SuperCam, a suite of tools that comprise the rover's "head" that includes advanced remote-sensing instruments with a wide range of spectrometers, cameras and the microphone was used in the discovery. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/ISAE-SUPAERO
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Watching Water Droplets Merge on the International Space Station
Understanding how water droplets spread and coalesce is essential for scenarios in everyday life, such as raindrops falling off cars, planes, and roofs, and for applications in energy generation, aerospace engineering, and microscale cell adhesion. However, these phenomena are difficult to model and challenging to observe experimentally. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: Josh McCraney
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2D Material May Enable Ultra-Sharp Cellphone Photos in Low Light
A new type of active pixel sensor that uses a novel two-dimensional material may both enable ultra-sharp cellphone photos and create a new class of extremely energy-efficient Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, according to a team of Penn State researchers. Most people just snap a photo of a friend, a family gathering, or a sporting event, and never think about what happens "behind the scenes" inside the phone when one snaps a picture. READ FULL ARTICLE.
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Researchers Investigate 'Digital Twin' of Cities to Improve City Planning
A team of researchers has recently published a new study that found using digital twins can improve planning and coordination in cities. Digital twins are digital representations of physical objects or systems, and have been widely used in manufacturing, construction, and maintenance to improve planning and coordination. Now, researchers are exploring how they can be adapted to serve cities and their complex, dynamic ecosystems. READ FULL ARTICLE.
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Light Years Ahead: The Advanced Chip Shaping an Ultrafast Tech Future
Research has developed an accurate method of controlling optical circuits on fingernail-sized photonic integrated circuits. The development builds on the work by the same team who recently created the world's first self-calibrated photonic chip. Photonics, or the use of light particles to store and transmit information, is a burgeoning field, supporting our need to create faster, better, more efficient and more sustainable technology. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: Monash University
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World Cup: This Year's Special Al Rihla Ball Has the Aerodynamics of a Champion, According to a Sports Physicist
As with every World Cup, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar the players will be using a new ball. The last thing competitors want is for the most important piece of equipment in the most important tournament in the world's most popular sport to behave in unexpected ways, so a lot of work goes into making sure that every new World Cup ball feels familiar to players. READ FULL ARTICLE.
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New Insights Advance Atomic-Scale Manufacturing
Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers serendipitously discovered when they automated the beam of an electron microscope to precisely drill holes in the atomically thin lattice of graphene, the drilled holes closed up. They expected the heat to make atoms easier to remove, but they saw the opposite effect. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: Ondrej Dyck/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
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Airlines Are Finally Admitting Contrails Are an Environmental Problem
Contrails—those lines of wispy white clouds that follow some jets—may not be so harmless. Airlines and scientists are coming to a consensus that the water vapor trails created by airplanes at high altitudes may play a big role in global warming. That's because those contrails, short for condensation trails, create clouds that trap heat in the atmosphere at the critical altitude where airliners fly. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: CC0 Public Domain
Originally published in The Dallas Morning News
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Webb Telescope Spies Hidden Stars in Stellar Graveyard
It was one of the first famous images revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope earlier this year: a stunning shroud of gas and dust illuminated by a dying star at its heart. Now researchers analyzing the data from history's most powerful telescope have found evidence of at least two previously unknown stars hiding in the stellar graveyard. READ FULL ARTICLE.
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Extremely Broadband Source Provides Bright Light Spanning Ultraviolet to Terahertz Wavelengths
Researchers have developed a very bright light source that covers seven optical octaves—from ultraviolet (UV) to terahertz (THz) wavelengths. The tabletop coherent source features a spectral brightness up to five orders of magnitude higher than the brightest synchrotrons, which are large facilities. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: ICFO–The Institute of Photonic Sciences
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How to Fire Projectiles through Materials without Breaking Anything
When charged particles are shot through ultra-thin layers of material, sometimes spectacular micro-explosions occur, and sometimes the material remains almost intact. The reasons for this have now been explained by researchers at the TU Wien. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: Nano Letters (2022). DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c03894
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Let the Lava Flow! Iceland's Volcano Show Is a Hit
In a dark auditorium in Reykjavik, bubbling orange lava flows down a slide to within inches of awe-struck visitors. The flow, contained on both sides by black sand, lights up the room like a sunrise. his is the Lava Show, Iceland's latest tourist attraction, that uses reheated lava from a real eruption of the island's Katla volcano more than 100 years ago. READ FULL ARTICLE.
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New Microscale 3D Printer for Multi-Level Anticounterfeiting Labels
Counterfeiting threatens the global economy and security. According to the report issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in 2020, the value of global counterfeit and pirated products is estimated to be between US$1.7 and 4.5 trillion a year. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: The University of Hong Kong
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New Approaches to the Mystery of Why Ice Is Slippery
By Universidad Complutense de Madrid in phys.org
In contact with a solid the surface of ice melts, forming a lubricant layer which is self-perpetuating, as greater weight and slippage are applied to it. This cooperative phenomenon makes the ice more slippery and more likely to cause skating or car accidents, according to international research led by the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2022). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2209545119
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New Technique Accurately Measures How 2D Materials Expand When Heated
Two-dimensional materials, which consist of just a single layer of atoms, can be packed together more densely than conventional materials, so they could be used to make transistors, solar cells, LEDs, and other devices that run faster and perform better. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: Science Advances (2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abo3783
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NCCAVS 43nd Annual Equipment Exhibition, NCCAVS Technical Symposium and 10th Annual Student Poster Session
February 9, 2023
Fremont Marriott Silicon Valley
The NCCAVS sponsors an Annual Equipment Exhibition to showcase products and services of companies supporting vacuum-related industries. Attracting approximately 100+ exhibitors and over 700 attendees, the NCCAVS Annual Equipment Exhibition is the largest sponsored by any AVS Chapter. The Exhibition is hosted in conjunction with the NCCAVS Technical Symposium and Annual Student Poster Session.
- Speaker events at capacity.
- Extended hours provide ample time to engage all attendees.
- Lunch, Evening Reception and Cocktails at no cost to attendees.
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Society of Vacuum Coaters | PO Box 10628, Albuquerque, NM 87184
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