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STAR detector of the RHIC (photograph: BNL)

Issue no. 8, 2010 Published: Mar 05, 2010
Heavy antimatter created in gold collisions
Avalanche photodetector breaks speed record
Mind-controlled prosthetics without brain surgery
Graphene for bioelectronics
For smaller chips, borrow 18th-century tricks
Nose scanning techniques could sniff out criminals

Heavy antimatter created in gold collisions
Physicists have rooted through a morass of collisions to find the heaviest antimatter nucleus yet inside a particle accelerator. Collisions between gold nuclei at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in New York, have yielded heavy isotopes of antihydrogen that include a subatomic particle known as an antistrange quark, which is heavier than less unusual up or down quarks. The extra mass of the exotic antiquark is enough to make this antihydrogen isotope heavier than the previous record-holder, antihelium. Further studies of the new antinuclei may provide information about the cores of neutron stars, or even insight into the earliest days of the Universe. Few pieces of science fact come as close to science fiction as antimatter. Antimatter particles carry the same mass as normal matter, but the opposite charge. When matter and antimatter collide, they annihilate in a flash of energy. Paul Dirac first theorized antimatter's existence in 1928, and since then researchers have studied antimatter particles created by nuclear decays and high-energy collisions of normal matter. Today, positrons - antielectrons - are even used in some kinds of medical imaging. But antiatoms made up of antiprotons and antineutrons are still a rarity. Because we live in a world dominated by regular matter, antiprotons and antineutrons typically annihilate before they can form into antinuclei. To date, only a handful of groups have successfully coaxed antiparticles into atomic configurations.
Nature News / Science Mar 04, 2010	back to top

Avalanche photodetector breaks speed record
Scientists at IBM have used nano-engineering techniques to make the world's fastest 'avalanche photodetector'. Such devices are used in telecommunications networks and the work is an important advance in the field of optical communications. The photodetector is made using germanium, which is compatible with silicon-chip-making technology and could find use in next-generation high-performance computer systems. Computer processors communicate with each other over millions of tiny copper wires. Scientists would ideally like to use pulses of light instead of electrical signals because enormous amounts of information could then be sent between processors using much less power. Such architecture relies on the rapid conversion of optical pulses to electrical signals and back again - but current technologies for doing this tend to be slow, noisy and incompatible with silicon processing. One promising solution is the avalanche photodetector, which converts relatively weak optical signals into robust electrical pulses. However, this process suffers from a phenomenon called amplification noise and it degrades the performance of the photodetector. Now, the IBM researchers have come up with a new way of removing noise from germanium-based photodetector. Their device is the fastest of its kind, converting optical signals at 40 Gbps - about four times faster than the best conventional detectors. What is more, it operates with just a 1.5 V power supply, compared with the 25 V of previous devices.
PhysicsWorld / Nature Mar 04, 2010	back to top

Mind-controlled prosthetics without brain surgery
Mind-reading is powerful stuff, but what about hand-reading? Intricate, three-dimensional hand motions have been 'read' from the brain using nothing but scalp electrodes. The achievement brings closer the prospect of thought-controlled prosthetics that do not require brain surgery. Electroencephalography (EEG), which measures electrical activity through the scalp, was previously considered too insensitive to relay the neural activity involved in complex movements of the hands. Nevertheless, researchers at the University of Maryland, College Park, thought the idea worth investigating. The team used EEG to measure the brain activity of five volunteers as they moved their hands in three dimensions, and also recorded the movement detected by motion sensors attached to the volunteers' hands. They then correlated the two sets of readings to create a mathematical model that converts one into the other. In additional trials, this model allowed the team to use the EEG readings to accurately monitor the speed and position of each participant's hand in three dimensions. If EEG can be used to monitor complex hand movements, it might also be used to control a prosthetic arm, according to the researchers. EEG is less invasive and less expensive than the implanted electrodes, which have previously been used to control robotic arms and computer cursors by thought alone.
New Scientist / The Journal of Neuroscience Mar 02, 2010	back to top

Graphene for bioelectronics
Graphene can successfully be interfaced to living cells. The discovery means that the material - which is a 2D sheet of carbon just one atom thick - could be used in future bioelectronics applications. Graphene, discovered in 2004, makes an excellent building block for nanoelectronic devices thanks to its unique physical and mechanical properties. These include high electrical and thermal conductivity, and high strength, among others. However, scientists know little about how the material interacts with biological cells and tissue. Now, researchers at Harvard University and the National Centre for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST) in China have shown that they can make robust interfaces between atomically thick graphene and beating cardiac cells. The team has also demonstrated that 1D silicon nanowire FETs (SiNW-FETs) can be incorporated side by side with 2D graphene FET devices and the ensemble interfaced with living cells too. The researcher think one obvious application for the technique is a muscle/device hybrid with input/output. The SiNW or graphene-cell interfaces might also be used for drug assays and basic biomedical research.
Nano Tech Web / Nano Letters Feb 26, 2010	back to top

For smaller chips, borrow 18th-century tricks
A new take on a centuries-old printing technique could shrink silicon chips and lead to advances in ultra-high-density computer storage. Computer chips are made by a process called photolithography, in which intricate patterns are etched into silicon wafers at the nanoscale to mark the areas where the insulators, metal tracks and substrates that form the chips are to go. But as the size of electronic components shrinks, this technique is approaching its useful limit: it becomes too costly and difficult to go smaller. Now researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison think a new variation on the original lithographic technique could be the answer. In Germany, late in the 18th century, Alois Senefelder devised a printing system in which a master image was created in oily ink on a block of limestone. Using a combination of the oily inks and watery fixing solutions, which naturally repel each other, Senefelder could create a printing plate on which ink lines were sharply defined, making it possible to reproduce multiple exact copies. The Wisconsin-Madison team's new technique also involves the transfer of ink from a master to a replica, and they have shown that it can be used to duplicate one costly master silicon chip 20 times. Using the technique, the team has made features on a silicon wafer that have a half-pitch - half the distance between identical features - of just 15 nanometres. The computer industry is currently trying to create commercial products with a half-pitch of 22 nanometres.
New Scientist / ACS Nano Mar 05, 2010	back to top

Nose scanning techniques could sniff out criminals
We already have iris and fingerprint scanning but noses could be an even better method of identification, says a study from the University of Bath, UK. The researchers scanned noses in 3D and characterised them by tip, ridge profile and the nasion, or area between the eyes. They found 6 main nose types: Roman, Greek, Nubian, hawk, snub and turn-up. Since they are hard to conceal, the study says, noses would work well for identification in covert surveillance. The researchers say noses have been overlooked in the growing field of biometrics, studies into ways of identifying distinguishing traits in people. The researchers used a system called PhotoFace for the 3D scans. The face is modelled by computer so the nose can be analysed in detail Several measurements by which noses can be recognised were identified and the team developed recognition software based on these parameters. The research is based on a study of 40 noses and the data base has now been expanded to 160 for further tests to see if the software can pick out people from a larger group and distinguish between relatives.
BBC News Mar 02, 2010	back to top