Silver Nanoparticles Show Promise in Fighting Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria
In a new study, scientists with the University of Florida have found that a combination of silver nanoparticles and antibiotics is effective against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The researchers hope to turn this discovery into viable treatment for some types of antibiotic-resistant infections. Antibiotic-resistant infections kill more than a million people globally each year. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: Garrett Ellward
|
|
Optical Coating Approach Prevents Fogging and Unwanted Reflections
Researchers have developed an optical coating system that combines antifogging and antireflective properties. The new technology could help boost the performance of lidar systems and cameras. The authors describe how they combined a polymer coating that prevents fogging with porous silicon dioxide nanostructures that reduce reflections. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: Anne Gärtner, Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering and Friedrich Schiller University Jena
|
|
Scientists Develop a Cool New Method of Refrigeration
Adding salt to a road before a winter storm changes when ice will form. Researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have applied this basic concept to develop a new method of heating and cooling. The technique, which they have named "ionocaloric cooling," is described in a paper published Dec. 23 in the journal Science. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: Jenny Nuss, Berkely Lab
|
|
SETI: Alien Hunters Get a Boost As AI Helps Identify Promising Signals from Space
An international team of researchers looking for signs of intelligent life in space have used artificial intelligence (AI) to reveal eight promising radio signals in data collected at a U.S. observatory. The results of their research are remarkable. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: Shutterstock
|
|
New Semiconducting Borophene Paves the Way for the Lightest High-Performance Transistor
By Sirsha Guha, Arnab Kabiraj, and Santanu Mahapatra in phys.org
In the year 1808, French chemists Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac and Louis-Jacques Thenard, and independently, English chemist Humphry Davy, discovered the fifth element of the periodic table—boron. In crystalline form, boron primarily possesses three polymorphs, i.e., three distinct unit cell configurations: α-rhombohedral, β-rhombohedral, and β-tetragonal, among 16 possible bulk allotropes. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: Santanu Mahapatra
|
|
Is Each Snowflake Really Unique? Why Is Some Snow Light and Fluffy or Heavy? The Amazing Science of Snow
In northern communities, seasonal snow plays a central role in day-to-day activities. For some, it means a day off from school. For others, it's a signal that skiing season is starting. Or maybe it's a harbinger of an extra long commute to work. It's remarkable how many memories and emotions can be evoked by a few billion tiny ice crystals. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: Damien McCoig, Unsplash
|
|
Pumping Mississippi River Water West: Solution or Dream?
Waves of torrential rainfall drenched California into the new year. Snowpacks in the Sierra Nevada Mountains have swelled to more than 200% their normal size, and snowfall across the rest of the Colorado River Basin is trending above average, too. While the much-needed water has improved conditions in the parched West, experts warn against claiming victory. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain
|
|
New Research Computes First Step Toward Predicting Lifespan of Electric Space Propulsion Systems
Electric space propulsion systems use energized atoms to generate thrust. The high-speed beams of ions bump against the graphite surfaces of the thruster, eroding them a little more with each hit, and are the systems' primary lifetime-limiting factor. When ion thrusters are ground tested in an enclosed chamber, the ricocheting particles of carbon from the graphite chamber walls can also redeposit back onto the thruster surfaces. This changes the measured performance characteristics of the thruster. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
|
|
Powering Wearable Technology with MXene Textile Supercapacitor 'Patch'
Researchers at Drexel University are one step closer to making wearable textile technology a reality. Recently published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, materials scientists from Drexel's College of Engineering, in partnership with a team at Accenture Labs, have reported a new design of a flexible wearable supercapacitor patch. It uses MXene, a material discovered at Drexel University in 2011, to create a textile-based supercapacitor that can charge in minutes and power an Arduino microcontroller temperature sensor and radio communication of data for almost two hours. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: Drexel University
|
|
Deflecting Lightning with a Laser Lightning Rod
Forest fires, power cuts and damaged infrastructure…lightning fascinates and destroys in equal measure, causing as many as 24,000 deaths a year worldwide not to mention widespread destruction. Even today, the lightning rod invented by Benjamin Franklin is the best form of protection. And yet, these rods do not always provide optimal protection for sensitive sites. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: Xavier Ravinet - UNIGE
|
|
Will Recent Storms Save California from a Brutal Fire Season?
It's something of a Golden State paradox: Dry winters can pave the way for dangerous fire seasons fueled by dead vegetation, but wet winters—like the one the state has seen so far—can also spell danger by spurring heaps of new growth that can later act as fuel for flames. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain
Originally published in The Los AngelesTimes
|
|
Perseverance Takes a Selfie to Show Off Some of Its Samples
One of the main jobs for the Perseverance Mars rover past few weeks has been collecting carefully selected samples of Mars rock and soil. These samples have been placed and sealed in special sample tubes and left in well-identified places so that a future sample return mission can collect them and bring the Martian samples back to Earth. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
|
|
Scientists Grow 'Perfect' Atom-Thin Materials on Industrial Silicon Wafers
True to Moore's Law, the number of transistors on a microchip has doubled every year since the 1960s. But this trajectory is predicted to soon plateau because silicon—the backbone of modern transistors—loses its electrical properties once devices made from this material dip below a certain size. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: Jeehwan Kim, Ki Seok Kim, et. al
|
|
Sandia Work at the Heart of Next-Generation Nuclear Reactor
A team of researchers working on the reactor at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility is testing materials to make the next generation of fusion reactors, in the quest to develop more carbon-free energy sources. These magnetic confinement fusion reactors, called tokamaks, use magnetic fields to shape plasma into a donut shape that generates power from nuclear fusion. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: Jonathan Coburn
|
|
New Insights into Why Improvements to Chesapeake Bay Remain a Challenge
A new look at the history of water quality in the Chesapeake Bay sheds light on how the estuary has responded to nutrient reduction efforts and why improvements have remained a major challenge. Researchers looked at the Bay's historic response to efforts to reduce nutrients to minimize dead zones—areas with too little oxygen to support marine life—and found there is a pollution threshold after which it takes twice the effort to make a change. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: Science of The Total Environment (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160650
|
|
Expert Discusses the Past, Present and Future of Legalized Sports Betting
For many fans, sports betting is most associated with the glare of television screens broadcasting every sporting event imaginable in a glitzy casino in Las Vegas—for decades, one of the only places in the U.S. where spectators could legally place wagers. But today, we're not alone: Since 2018, federal law changes have prompted 36 states to join Nevada in legalizing bets on some of America's favorite pastimes, and another three could get in the game this year. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: Josh Hawkins/UNLV
|
|
Humidity May Be the Key to Super-Lubricity 'Switch'
Sometimes friction is good, such as the friction between a road and a car's tires to prevent the vehicle from skidding. But sometimes friction is bad—if you did not put oil in that very same car, there would be so much friction in the bearings of the engine that the car could not operate. A material state known as super-lubricity, where friction between two contacting surfaces nearly vanishes, is a phenomenon that materials researchers have studied for years due to the potential for reducing the energy cost and wear and tear on devices, two major drawbacks of friction. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: Elizabeth Flores-Gomez Murray, Penn State, and Zhe Chen, Zhejiang University
|
|
New Detector Could Enable High-Speed Quantum Communication
Researchers have developed a new detector that can precisely measure single photons at very high rates. The new device could help make high-speed quantum communication practical. Quantum communication uses light at the single photon level to send encoded quantum information such as encryption keys in quantum key distribution. READ FULL ARTICLE.
Media credits: Ryan Lannom, JPL-Caltech/NASA
|
|
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.
|
|
Society of Vacuum Coaters | PO Box 10628, Albuquerque, NM 87184
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
