ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Big step toward quantum computing: Efficient and tunable interface for quantum networks
• Taking solar technology up a notch: New inexpensive, environmentally friendly solar cell shines with potential
• Elusive quasiparticles realized: Repulsive polarons in an ultracold quantum gas
• Wind-driven Mars tumbleweed rover to roll through rocky terrain?
• Two-dimensional layered materials for high-performance electronics
• Artificial leaf device produces hydrogen in water using only sunlight
• Nomads of the Galaxy: What does it mean to have quadrillions of planets adrift in Milky Way?
• How ion bombardment reshapes metal surfaces
• Undergraduate science and engineering teaching needs improvement
• Reversible doping: Hydrogen flips switch on vanadium oxide
• Quantum computing: The light at the end of the tunnel may be a single photon
• Return of the vacuum tube

Big step toward quantum computing: Efficient and tunable interface for quantum networks Posted: 23 May 2012 10:55 AM PDT Quantum computers may someday revolutionize the information world. But in order for quantum computers at distant locations to communicate with one another, they have to be linked together in a network. While several building blocks for a quantum computer have already been successfully tested in the laboratory, a network requires one additonal component: A reliable interface between computers and information channels. Austrian physicists now report the construction of an efficient and tunable interface for quantum networks.

Taking solar technology up a notch: New inexpensive, environmentally friendly solar cell shines with potential Posted: 23 May 2012 10:32 AM PDT The limitations of conventional and current solar cells include high production cost, low operating efficiency and durability, and many cells rely on toxic and scarce materials. Researchers have now developed a new solar cell that, in principle, will minimize all of these solar energy technology limitations. In particular, the device is the first to solve the problem of the Grätzel cell, a promising low-cost and environmentally friendly solar cell with a significant disadvantage: it leaks. The dye-sensitized cell's electrolyte is made of an organic liquid, which can leak and corrode the solar cell itself.

Elusive quasiparticles realized: Repulsive polarons in an ultracold quantum gas Posted: 23 May 2012 10:31 AM PDT In quantum physics physical processes in condensed matter and other many-body systems can often be described with quasiparticles. For the first time physicists have succeeded in experimentally realizing a new quasiparticle – a repulsive polaron -- in an ultracold quantum gas.

Wind-driven Mars tumbleweed rover to roll through rocky terrain? Posted: 23 May 2012 08:48 AM PDT New research shows that a wind-driven "tumbleweed" Mars rover would be capable of moving across rocky Martian terrain -- findings that could also help with designing the best possible vehicle.

Two-dimensional layered materials for high-performance electronics Posted: 23 May 2012 08:46 AM PDT Researchers have developed a method to build graphene-based transistors compatible with semiconductor industry processes. This technology shows a 2-3x performance enhancement over the current approach to graphene transistors.

Artificial leaf device produces hydrogen in water using only sunlight Posted: 23 May 2012 07:20 AM PDT Scientists have developed, using nanotechnology, a device with semiconductor materials which generate hydrogen independently in water using only sunlight.  This technology, which has been named artificial photosynthesis, was inspired by photosynthesis which occurs naturally. The device is submerged in an aqueous solution which, when illuminated with a light source, forms hydrogen gas bubbles.

Nomads of the Galaxy: What does it mean to have quadrillions of planets adrift in Milky Way? Posted: 23 May 2012 07:18 AM PDT Planets simply adrift in space may not only be common in the cosmos; in the Milky Way Galaxy alone, their number may be in the quadrillions. Three experts discuss what this may mean, including how it is conceivable for a nomad planet to sustain life.

How ion bombardment reshapes metal surfaces Posted: 22 May 2012 05:08 PM PDT Ion bombardment of metal surfaces is an important, but poorly understood, nanomanufacturing technique. New research using sophisticated supercomputer simulations has shown what goes on in trillionths of a second. The advance could lead to better ways to predict the phenomenon and more uses of the technique to make new nanoscale products.

Undergraduate science and engineering teaching needs improvement Posted: 21 May 2012 08:57 AM PDT Discipline-based education research has generated insights that could help improve undergraduate education in science and engineering, but these findings have not yet prompted widespread changes in teaching practice, says a new report.

Reversible doping: Hydrogen flips switch on vanadium oxide Posted: 21 May 2012 07:42 AM PDT If you are not a condensed matter physicist, vanadium oxide may be the coolest material you've never heard of. It's a metal. It's an insulator. It's a window coating and an optical switch. And thanks to a new study by physicists, scientists have a new way to reversibly alter VO2's electronic properties by treating it with one of the simplest substances -- hydrogen.

Quantum computing: The light at the end of the tunnel may be a single photon Posted: 18 May 2012 10:26 AM PDT Semiconductors are the foundation of modern computer technology. Now a photon's literal quantum leap may point the way to a semiconductor-based quantum computer.

Return of the vacuum tube Posted: 18 May 2012 10:26 AM PDT Retro technology makes a comeback in a nanoscale transistor that is lightweight, low cost, and long lasting.

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