Understanding the behavior of light and matter - key to future technologies

Scientific Frontline stock image

If we can understand how and why light and matter behave as they do, we are one step closer to solving some of the most fundamental problems in physics. Finding the answers to these questions drives Ville Maisi, Associate Professor of Solid States Physics at NanoLund.

As long as he can remember he has been interested in electric circuits and physics. With the support of a new ERC Consolidator Grant, he has now started to bring these two fields together to develop ultra-sensitive detectors for high frequency electronic signals – building on the principles of quantum physics.

Measuring microwaves

His research project aims to design ultra-sensitive microwave detectors that can be used to measure tiny microwave light signals consisting of elementary particles, called photons. They will be 100 times more sensitive detectors than currently exists. Microwave measurements are important in quantum technology, astronomy, communications, and other technology areas such as radars.

Wearable sensor to monitor ‘last line of defense’ antibiotic

Sandia National Laboratories postdoctoral fellow Alex Downs places a wearable puck with microneedles under a microscope. Sandia researchers have combined earlier work on minimally invasive microneedles with nanoscale sensors to create a wearable sensor patch capable of continuously monitoring the levels of a ‘last line of defense’ antibiotic.
Photo Credit: Craig Fritz

Since the discovery of penicillin in 1928, bacteria have evolved numerous ways to evade or outright ignore the effects of antibiotics. Thankfully, healthcare providers have an arsenal of infrequently used antibiotics that are still effective against otherwise resistant strains of bacteria.

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have combined earlier work on painless microneedles with nanoscale sensors to create a wearable sensor patch capable of continuously monitoring the levels of one of these antibiotics.

The specific antibiotic they’re tracking is vancomycin, which is used as a last line of defense to treat severe bacterial infections, said Alex Downs, a Jill Hruby Fellow and project lead. Continuous monitoring is crucial for vancomycin because there is a narrow range within which it effectively kills bacteria without harming the patient, she added.

“This is a great application because it requires tight control,” said Philip Miller, a Sandia biomedical engineer who advised on the project. “In a clinical setting, how that would happen is a doctor would check on the patient on an hourly basis and request a single time-point blood measurement of vancomycin. Someone would come to draw blood, send it to the clinic and get an answer back at some later time. Our system is one way to address that delay.”

The researchers shared how to make these sensors and the results of their tests in a paper recently published in the scientific journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics.

ALPHA collaboration at CERN confirms antimatter falls in the same way as matter for the first time

An aerial view of the ALPHA experimental area.
Photo Credit: © CERN, Julien Marius Ordan.

Swansea University physicists, as leading members of the ALPHA (Antihydrogen Laser Physics Apparatus) collaboration at CERN, have demonstrated that atoms of antihydrogen fall to Earth in the same way as their matter equivalents for the first time.

Published in Nature, the study's groundbreaking results rule out the possibility of antimatter being accelerated upwards in Earth's gravity and bring researchers one step closer to unravelling one of the most high-profile problems in physics.

ALPHA creates antihydrogen atoms by taking negatively charged antiprotons and binding them with positively charged positrons. The neutral but slightly magnetic antimatter atoms are then confined in a magnetic trap, which prevents them from coming into contact with matter and annihilating.

Using a vertical apparatus called ALPHA-g, the 'g' denoting the local acceleration of gravity, the ALPHA team can measure the vertical positions at which antihydrogen atoms annihilate with matter once the trap's magnetic field is switched off, allowing the atoms to escape.

Type 2 diabetes diagnosis at age 30 can reduce life expectancy by up to 14 years

Photo Credit: isens usa

Even people who do not develop the condition until later in life – with a diagnosis at age 50 years – could see their life expectancy fall by up to six years, an analysis of data from 19 high-income countries found.

The researchers say the findings, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, highlight the urgent need to develop and implement interventions that prevent or delay onset of diabetes, especially as the prevalence of diabetes among younger adults is rising globally.

Increasing levels of obesity, poor diet and increased sedentary behavior are driving a rapid rise in the number of cases of type 2 diabetes worldwide. In 2021, 537 million adults were estimated to have diabetes worldwide, with an increasing number diagnosed at younger ages.

Type 2 diabetes increases an individual’s risk of a range of complications including heart attack and stroke, kidney problems, and cancer. Previous estimates have suggested that adults with type 2 diabetes die, on average, six years earlier than adults without diabetes. There is uncertainty, however, about how this average reduction in life expectancy varies according to age at diagnosis.

Controlled burns help prevent wildfires. Climate change is limiting their use

 The U.S. Army conducting a controlled burn of over 400 acres at Fort Ord National Monument near Monterrey, California, in 2017.
Photo Credit: Flickr/PresidioofMonterrey

Prescribed fires, sometimes called controlled burns, are one of the most common tools for preventing catastrophic wildfires in the Western United States. Lit by highly trained firefighters, they help clear away excess dry plant matter that might otherwise turn a healthy vegetation fire into a raging inferno.

To safely carry out controlled burns, firefighters must wait for specific weather conditions: not so damp as to prevent combustion, but not so dry or windy as to burn more vegetation than intended. These conditions limit the opportunities.

Now, a new study led by UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain has found that climate change is further reducing the overall number of days and changing the times of year when prescribed fires can be safely used.

Currently, scientists project warming of 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2060 — a projection Swain called “optimistic” given the current trajectory of even greater warming. Still, these temperatures would reduce the number of days when weather and vegetation conditions favor prescribed fires by 17% on average across the Western U.S.

Gut bacteria found in wild wolves may be key to improving domestic dogs’ health

Photo Credit: Nicky Pe

Gut microbes found in wild wolves may be the key to alleviating a debilitating gastrointestinal condition common to domestic dogs, according to a study led by researchers at Oregon State University – Cascades.

In a paper published in Applied Microbiology, the authors report a novel strain of Paenibacillus bacteria with characteristics of a probiotic – an organism that conveys a health benefit to the host.

In this case, the benefit would be to head off canine inflammatory bowel disease, a chronic illness characterized by vomiting, reduced appetite, weight loss, flatulence, a rumbling stomach and/or abdominal discomfort, said Bruce Seal of OSU-Cascades’ biology program.

“At present there is no known cure for this ongoing dysbiosis of the gastrointestinal tract, and there are limited options for treatment,” Seal said. “Underlying causes of the condition include an animal’s genetics, environmental factors, the immunological state of the GI tract and, maybe most importantly, an altered gut microbiome.”

Bird species changing faster than expected in protected areas

The study compared bird communities during the breeding season inside and outside protected areas in Canada between 1997 and 2019. The results indicated that protected areas remain important for the conservation of northern bird species such as the Lapland longspur, which breeds in Finland as well. However, during the 22-year period, bird communities inside the protected areas began to resemble those outside them in terms of climate requirements. This poses additional challenges for ensuring the continued vitality of species under a warming climate. Communities with similar climate requirements consist of an equal proportion of cold- and warm-dwelling species.

“Protected areas are more effective in helping cold-dwelling northern bird species, but it was surprising to discover that southern species increased faster in abundance inside than outside protected areas,” explains Doctoral Researcher Leena Hintsanen of the Finnish Museum of Natural History (Luomus) under the University of Helsinki.

DNA from discarded whale bones suggests loss of genetic diversity due to commercial whaling

Abandoned whaling stations on South Georgia Island
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Oregon State University

Commercial whaling in the 20th century decimated populations of large whales but also appears to have had a lasting impact on the genetic diversity of today’s surviving whales, new research from Oregon State University shows.

Researchers compared DNA from a collection of whale bones found on beaches near abandoned whaling stations on South Georgia Island in the south Atlantic Ocean to DNA from whales in the present-day population and found strong evidence of loss of maternal DNA lineages among blue and humpback whales.

“A maternal lineage is often associated with an animal’s cultural memories such as feeding and breeding locations that are passed from one generation to the next,” said the study’s lead author, Angela Sremba, who conducted the research as part of her doctoral studies at Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute. “If a maternal lineage is lost, that knowledge is likely also lost.”

The findings were published recently in the Journal of Heredity.

Morphing robots designed at CSU can grip, climb and crawl like insects

Pulling inspiration from the natural world, researchers at Colorado State University have developed a trio of robots that can morph their bodies and legs as needed.

Video Credit: Colorado State University

Pulling inspiration from the natural world, researchers at Colorado State University have developed a trio of robots that can morph their bodies and legs as needed to better crawl, shimmy or swim over difficult terrain.  These new robotic systems are designed to mimic the way biological organisms adapt their shape depending on their life cycle or environment and were developed by a team from the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The work is described in a new paper published in Nature Communications which outlines the three robotic types and their different abilities including gripping, climbing and amphibious travel.

Associate Professor Jianguo Zhao led the research team on campus in the Department of Mechanical Engineering with recent Ph.D. graduate Jiefeng Sun serving as lead author for the paper. Zhao said these robots are made of materials that can become soft or rigid with changes in temperature and are able to move without the need for bulky power systems such as magnetic coils. That makes them more versatile and better equipped to potentially help humans search tight disaster areas for survivors in the future.

SwRI scientists use Webb, Sofia telescopes to observe metallic asteroid

Southwest Research Institute scientists are using telescopes to observe the Psyche asteroid in the infrared, providing context for the upcoming NASA spacecraft mission.
Illustration Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

Southwest Research Institute scientists are using telescopes to observe the asteroid Psyche in the infrared, providing context for NASA’s upcoming Psyche mission. Dr. Stephanie Jarmak is using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to look for water signatures on the metallic surface of Psyche, while Dr. Anicia Arredondo is using some of the last data collected by the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, to study differences in Psyche’s composition at different points on its surface. 

At about 140 miles in diameter, Psyche is one of the most massive objects in the main asteroid belt orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. Previous observations indicate that Psyche is a dense, largely metallic object thought to be the leftover core from a failed planet. On October 5, NASA is scheduled to launch the Psyche spacecraft, which will travel 2.2 billion miles and arrive at the asteroid in August 2029.

“Using telescopes at different infrared wavelengths of light, the SwRI-led research will provide different but complementary information to what the Psyche spacecraft is designed to study,” said Dr. Tracy Becker, a group leader in SwRI’s Space Science Division.