Volume 3, Issue 18 - Defense Innovation Marketplace

Volume 3, Issue 18 ■ 03MAY2013Advanced materials (2)Energy (2)Materials science (6)Quantum science (1)Autonomous systems &robotics (3)Biotechnology (1)Communications technology (2)Environmental science (1)Forecasting (1)Imaging technology (1)Information technology (2)Medical sciences (1)Microelectronics (4)Neuroscience (2)Photonics (1)Science without borders (4)Sensors (2)Feature ArticlesDo atoms of antihydrogen weigh the same as atomsof ordinary hydrogen? Could they even have “negative”weight? Scientists from Berkeley Lab and UCBerkeley have used data from the ALPHA Experimentat CERN to measure antimatter gravitydirectly. (Credit: Illustration by Chukman So)Doesantimatterfall upor down?First directevidenceof howatoms ofantimatterinteract withgravityScience Daily,30APR2013The atoms that make up ordinary matter fall down, sodo antimatter atoms fall up? Do they experience gravitythe same way as ordinary atoms, or is there such a thingas antigravity? If an antihydrogen atom falls downward,its gravitational mass is no more than 110 times greaterthan its inertial mass. If it falls upward, its gravitationalmass is at most 65 times greater. What the results doshow is that measuring antimatter gravity is possible,using an experimental method that points toward muchgreater precision in future. TECHNICAL ARTICLETags: Science without borders, Particle physics, FeaturedArticleJapanese scientists build baseball-playingrobot with 100,000-neuron ‘brain’Wired UK, 29APR2013The robot is equipped with an artificial brain whichmimics the function of about 100,000 neurons, andusing a software platform developed by Nvidia, thescientists have programmed these neurons for the taskat hand. TECHNICAL ARTICLETags: Autonomous systems & robotics, S&T Japan, FeaturedArticlePhysicists Build World’s First “MagneticHose” For Transmitting Magnetic FieldsMIT Technology Review, 29APR2013Researchers in Spain report that a “magnetic hose”consisting of concentric tubes of superconducting andferromagnetic materials ought to transmit about 90 percent of a magnetic field at one end to the other. Indeed,a tube of just 2 concentric rings should transmit about75 per cent. They have tested this idea with a singlesuperconducting tube 7 cm long (made of BiPbSrCaCuO)and filled with a ferromagnetic alloy of cobalt and iron.TECHNICAL ARTICLETags: Materials science, Featured ArticleS&T News ArticlesADVANCED MATERIALSNovel strategy to fabricate large-area graphenefilms and patternsNanowerk Spotlight, 30APR2013Researchers in Singapore report a facile, scalable, andsolution-processable strategy to synchronously reduce andassemble graphene oxide sheets on metal surface into largescale chemically converted graphene films under ambientconditions. This novel processing is low-temperaturewith scalable and high-throughput capability. TECHNICALARTICLETags: Advanced materialsScientists reach the ultimate goal—controllingchirality in carbon nanotubesEurekAlert, 29APR2013An international team of researchers (Finland, Russia,Denmark) has managed to control chirality in carbonnanotubes during their chemical vapor depositionsynthesis. Chirality defines the optical and electronicproperties of carbon nanotubes, so controlling it is a key toexploiting their practical applications. TECHNICAL ARTICLETags: Advanced materials, CNT, Nanotechnology, S&T Finland, S&TRussiacontinued...BACK TO TOP

ASD(R&E) S&T News BulletinAUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS & ROBOTICSResearchers Put Sense of Touch in Reach forRobotsNew York Times, 28APR2013Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology createda robot arm able to reach into a cluttered environmentand use “touch,” along with computer vision, to completeexacting tasks. This ability is vital if robots are to leave theworld of factory automation and begin to undertake tasksin human environments, like patient and elder care orrescue missions during emergencies. TECHNICAL ARTICLETags: Autonomous systems & roboticsVideo Friday: Angry Romibos, Rockets in Flight,and Real Dogs Dropping Robot SnakesIEEE Spectrum, 26APR2013Check out this robotic snake from the Carnegie MellonUniversity Biorobotics Lab exploring a collapsed building.It’s worth watching through to the end to see the caninedeployment system, the most interesting aspect of whichis a dog that seems to care absolutely not that it’s got aROBOTIC SNAKE attached to it.Tags: Autonomous systems & roboticsBIOTECHNOLOGYSynthetic biology research community growssignificantlyScience Daily, 30APR2013The number of private and public entities conductingresearch in synthetic biology worldwide grew significantlybetween 2009 and 2013, according to the latest versionof an interactive map produced by the Synthetic BiologyProject at the Woodrow Wilson International Center forScholars. MAPTags: Biotechnology, Synthetic biologyCOMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGYOptical two-way time and frequency transferover free spaceNature Photonics, 29APR2013Researchers at NSIT demonstrate optical time–frequencytransfer over free space via two-way exchange betweencoherent frequency combs, each phase-locked to the localoptical oscillator. They achieved 1 fs timing deviation,residual instability below 1 × 10−18 at 1,000 s andsystematic offsets below 4 × 10−19, despite frequent signalfading due to atmospheric turbulence or obstructionsacross the 2 km link.Tags: Communications Technology, Government S&T, OpticalcommunicationVolume 3, Issue 18 ■ 03MAY2013NASA mission to study what disrupts radiowavesScience Daily, 27APR2013Violent ionospheric storms can occur in the equatorialF-region a few hours after sunset and if we can betterunderstand what causes these storms, we’ll be ableto better mitigate their effects on communication andnavigation systems.Tags: Communications Technology, EnvironmentENERGYJapanese test coaxes fire from iceNature News, 29APR2013The test, run by oil companies in Japan took place inwaters 1 kilometre deep, where the research drilling shiphad bored through 270 metres of sediment to reach a60-metre-thick methane hydrate reservoir. On 12 March, apump reduced the pressure in the deposit, unlocking thegas from its icy cage. Gas started flowing up from the seafloor to a platform on the ship, where it produced a roaringflame.Tags: Energy, S&T JapanMeasuring the swelling of single siliconparticles in electrodes during chargingNanowerk, 29APR2013Researchers in Japan succeeded in measuring thevolumetric expansion of single particles of silicon, whichis a negative electrode material for lithium ion batteries,accompanying the charging reaction, and demonstratedthe importance of electrode design from the viewpoint ofvolumetric energy density based on this finding.Tags: Energy, BatteryENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCECooling Properties of Atmospheric MoleculeDiscoveredScience Daily, 24APR2013An international team of researchers from the US and theUK has detected the second simplest Criegee intermediatemolecule—acetaldehyde oxide—and measured itsreactivity. They believe Criegee intermediates have thepotential to cool the planet by converting these pollutantsinto sulphate and nitrate compounds that will lead toaerosol and cloud formation. TECHNICAL ARTICLETags: Environmental sciencecontinued...BACK TO TOP2

ASD(R&E) S&T News BulletinVolume 3, Issue 18 ■ 03MAY2013“Engineering or Technology is the making of things that did not previously exist, whereasscience is the discovering of things that have long existed. BILLINGTON”DAVIDFORECASTINGThe problem with predictionsHarvard University, 28APR2013The ability to predict trends is connected to our worldviewof how we think about prediction. Today, predictive modelsare largely governed by these same classical ideals oraesthetics. New models are emerging from the life sciencesthat view the world as a living organism rather than amachine. These models are coupled with a new aesthetic,which finds beauty in the complexity of life rather than theelegance of symmetry.Tags: ForecastingIMAGING TECHNOLOGYIncreased space-bandwidth product in pixelsuper-resolved lensfree on-chip microscopyNature Scientific Reports, 24APR2013Researchers at UCLA report that by using the two-dimensionalpixel-function of an image sensor-array as an inputto lensfree image reconstruction, pixel-super-resolution canimprove the numerical aperture of the reconstructed imageby ~3 fold compared to a raw lensfree image.Tags: Imaging technologyINFORMATION TECHNOLOGYWhat Does 10 Petabytes of Data Look Like?Wired, 30APR2013What you don’t see is the massive amount of effort, data andstorage necessary to capture and maintain those archives.Filmmaker Jonathan Minard’s documentary InternetArchive takes a behind the scenes look at how (and why)the Internet Archive’s efforts are preserving the web as weknow it. VIDEOTags: Information TechnologyWave hand, Turn any surface into atouchscreenFuturity.org, 29APR2013The WorldKit system, developed by researchers at CarnegieMellon University, enables one to rub the arm of a sofa to“paint” a remote control for the TV or swipe a hand acrossan office door to post a calendar from which subsequentusers can “pull down” an extended version. These ad hocinterfaces can be moved, modified, or deleted with similargestures, making them highly personalized.Tags: Information TechnologyMATERIALS SCIENCESimple Trick Turns Commercial Polymer IntoWorld’s Toughest FiberMIT Technology Review, 29APR2013Researchers in Italy reveal a remarkably simple trick thatdramatically increases the toughness of almost any kindof fibre. The new idea is deceptively simple–it involves nomore than tying a slip knot in the fibre, creating a loop ofextra fibre that passes through the knot as it comes undertension. The mechanism is straightforward. When the fibreis placed in tension, the slip knot begins to tighten and theextra material passes through the knot, dissipating energythrough friction.Tags: Materials scienceTerahertz waves: Cool generationNature Photonics, 29APR2013Researchers at MIT demonstrate highly efficient terahertzgeneration by optical rectification (OR) of near-optimumpump pulses centered at 1.03 μm in cryogenically cooledlithium niobate. Using a close to optimal pulse duration of680 fs and a pump energy of 1.2 mJ, they report conversionefficiencies above 3.8±0.4%, which is more than an order ofmagnitude higher than previously reported.Tags: Materials science, Terahertz technologyUnderstanding the turbulence in plasmasMIT News, 29APR2013Researchers at MIT have now taken a significant step inthat direction by quantifying a previously unknown typeof small-scale turbulence that can have big effects oncooling the plasma in a reactor. This prevents the plasmafrom reaching the temperatures needed to overcome theelectrical repulsion between atomic nuclei—which, in turn,prevents fusion reaction. TECHNICAL ARTICLETags: Materials scienceMovement of pyrrole molecules defy ‘classical’physicsScience Daily, 27APR2013Researchers at Cambridge University say they haveevidence that, in the case of pyrrole, quantum lawsaffecting the internal motions of the molecule changethe “very nature of the energy landscape”—making this‘quantum motion’ essential to understanding the distributionof the whole molecule. TECHNICAL ARTICLETags: Materials sciencecontinued...BACK TO TOP3

ASD(R&E) S&T News BulletinA blueprint for reversible wrinkling incomposite materialsMIT News, 24APR2013Researchers at MIT have identified the mechanics involvedin the wrinkling of thin interfacial layers within softcomposite materials, and developed a model based onmaterial properties and geometry to predict how wrinkledan internal layer may become, given its stiffness and width.The wrinkling of materials can generate new functionalitiesthat have never been achieved before. TECHNICALARTICLETags: Materials scienceFeatured ResourceIOP Asia-PacificResearch highlights from Korea, India, Pakistan,Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, China, Vietnam,Australia and New Zealand. RSSMEDICAL SCIENCESThreaded through a nanopore—single-moleculedetection in DNANanowerk, 24APR2013Changes in the bases that make up DNA act as markers,telling a cell which genes it should read and which itshouldn’t. A British team has now introduced a newmethod that makes it possible to enrich the rare genesegments that contain the modified base hydroxymethylcytosineand to identify individual hydroxymethylcytosinemolecules in DNA. TECHNICAL ARTICLETags: Medical Sciences, S&T UKMICROELECTRONICSEngineers generate world-record mm waveoutput power from nanoscale CMOSNanowerk, 29APR2013Researchers at Columbia University accomplished recordpower output level for CMOS-based power amplifiers bydeveloping a chip design methodology that stacks severalnanoscale CMOS devices on top of each other so that theycan handle larger voltages without compromising theirspeed.Tags: MicroelectronicsNanowire Transistors Could Keep Moore’s LawAliveIEEE Spectrum, 29APR2013Researchers in France report the creation of a nanowiretransistor that consists of an array of 225 doped-siliconVolume 3, Issue 18 ■ 03MAY2013nanowires, each 30 nm wide and 200 nm tall, verticallylinking the two platinum contact planes that formthe source and drain of the transistor. Besides theirnarrowness, what’s new is the gate: A single 14-nm-thickchromium layer surrounds each nanowire midway up itslength. TECHNICAL ARTICLETags: Microelectronics, S&T FranceHigh performance semiconductor spraypaint could be a game changer for organicelectronicsScience Daily, 27APR2013Researchers at Wake Forest University have developed ahigh performance organic semiconductor ‘spray paint’ thatcan be applied to large surface areas without losing electricconductivity. TECHNICAL ARTICLETags: MicroelectronicsMicroelectronics: Taking the heat offmicrofluidic chipsAsia Research News, 24APR2013Researchers in Singapore report that replacing a hightemperatureprocessing technique with an infraredtreatment allows the manufacture of tiny devices withoutdamaging the polymer components. TECHNICAL ARTICLETags: MicroelectronicsNEUROSCIENCEDecoding ‘noisy’ language in daily lifeMIT News, 29APR2013A new study by MIT researchers indicates that when weprocess language, we often make mental edits. Moreover, itsuggests that we seem to use specific strategies for makingsense of confusing information—the “noise” interferingwith the signal conveyed in language, as researchers thinkof it. TECHNICAL ARTICLETags: NeuroscienceClenching right fist may give better grip onmemoryScience Daily, 24APR2013Researchers at Montclair State University report thatclenching your right hand may help form a strongermemory of an event or action, and clenching your leftmay help you recollect the memory later. The findingssuggest that some simple body movements—by temporarilychanging the way the brain functions—can improvememory. Future research will examine whether handclenching can also improve other forms of cognition, forexample verbal or spatial abilities. TECHNICAL ARTICLETags: Neurosciencecontinued...BACK TO TOP4

ASD(R&E) S&T News BulletinPHOTONICSResearchers design nanometer-scale materialthat can speed up, squeeze lightScience Daily, 29APR2013Researchers at Missouri University stacked 10 of the metaatoms,then shot light through them at various frequencies.They found that when light encountered the materialin a range between 540 terahertz and 590 terahertz, it“stretched” into a nearly straight line and achieved an“effective permittivity” known as epsilon-near-zero.TECHNICAL ARTICLETags: PhotonicsQUANTUM SCIENCEOne step closer to a quantum computerScience Daily, 30APR2013An international team of scientists (US, Sweden, Germany)has succeeded in both initializing and reading nuclear spins,relevant to qubits for quantum computers, at room temperature.With the help of the spin filter, they have suceededin producing a flow of free electrons with a given spin in amaterial—in this case GaNAs. TECHNICAL ARTICLETags: Quantum science, S&T Germany, S&T Sweden, S&T USASCIENCE WITHOUT BORDERSEinstein’s gravity theory passes toughest testyetScience Daily, 29APR2013A strange stellar pair nearly 7,000 light-years from Earthhas provided physicists with a unique cosmic laboratory forstudying the nature of gravity. The extremely strong gravityof a massive neutron star in orbit with a companion whitedwarf star puts competing theories of gravity to a test morestringent than any available before.Tags: Science without bordersResearch Headlines—Establishing the linkbetween climate change and human securityEUROPA research, 29APR2013The UN Security Council has expressed concerns that theadverse effects of climate change could lead to certainthreats to international peace and security. However, EUfunded research suggests that scarcity can lead to cooperationrather than conflict.Tags: Science without borders‘Urgent need’ to remove space debrisBBC News, 29APR2013So much man-made debris clogs Earth’s orbit that the spaceenvironment is close to a hazardous cascade of collisions,scientists warn. Scientists estimate there are nearly 30,000items circling the Earth larger than 10cm in size.Tags: Science without bordersVolume 3, Issue 18 ■ 03MAY2013SENSORSNew adverts ‘could track your eyes’BBC News, 30APR2013Lancaster University Sideways project uses software tolocate faces and eye movements of shoppers captured oncamera. It could allow for video screens which changeadverts depending on what you look at in a shop. Thetechnology can also be used to allow people to use theireyes to control content on screens, such as scrolling throughitems on a list.Tags: SensorsTracking gunfire with a smartphoneScience Daily, 29APR2013Engineers at Vanderbilt University have developed a systemwhich consists of an external sensor module about thesize of a deck of cards that contains the microphones andthe processing capability required to detect the acousticsignature of gunshots, log their time and send that informationto the smartphone by a Bluetooth connection.Tags: Sensors ■About This PublicationThe appearance of external hyperlinks in this publicationdoes not constitute endorsement by the United StatesDepartment of Defense (DoD) of the linked web sites, northe information, products or services contained therein.In addition, the content featured does not necessarilyreflect DoD’s views or priorities.To subscribe (or unsubscribe), visit https://tin-ly.sainc.com/ASDRE. To provide feedback or ask questions, contact us atasdre-st-bulletin-reply@sainc.com.This publication is authored and distributed by:Dr. Melissa FlaggDirector, Office ofTechnical Intelligence (OTI)Ms. Hema ViswanathOTI Corporate LibrarianBACK TO TOP5