Slingshot Aerospace is in talks with other countries to create or expand space-tracking capabilities after selling optical sensors to the U.K., marking the California-based company’s first deal for the hardware behind its monitoring software.

The post Slingshot sells first sensors in UK deal as more nations seek space-tracking sovereignty appeared first on SpaceNews.

This talk shows how integrating p-type NiO to form NiO/Ga_₂O_₃ heterojunction rectifiers overcomes that barrier, enabling record-class breakdown and Ampere-class operation. It will cover device structure/process optimization, thermal stability to high temperatures, and radiation response – with direct ties to today’s priorities: EV fast charging, AI data‑center power systems, and aerospace/space‑qualified power electronics.

An interactive Q&A session follows the presentation.

 

Jian-Sian Li received the PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Florida in 2024, where his research focused on NiO/β-Ga_₂O_₃ heterojunction power rectifiers, includes device design, process optimization, fast switching, high-temperature stability, and radiation tolerance (γ, neutron, proton). His work includes extensive electrical characterization and microscopy/TCAD analysis supporting device physics and reliability in harsh environments. Previously, he completed his BS and MS at National Taiwan University (2015, 2018), with research spanning phoretic/electrokinetic colloids, polymers for OFETs/PSCs, and solid-state polymer electrolytes for Li-ion batteries. He has since transitioned to industry at Micron Technology.

The post Fabrication and device performance of Ni0/Ga₂O₃ heterojunction power rectifiers appeared first on Physics World.

A new integrated “snapshot spectroscopy” system developed in China can determine the spectral and spatial composition of light from an object with much better precision than other existing systems. The instrument uses randomly textured lithium niobate and its developers have used it for astronomical imaging and materials analysis – and they say that other applications are possible.

Spectroscopy is crucial to analysis of all kinds of objects in science and engineering, from studying the radiation emitted by stars to identifying potential food contaminants. Conventional spectrometers – such as those used on telescopes – rely on diffractive optics to separate incoming light into its constituent wavelengths. This makes them inherently large, expensive and inefficient at rapid image acquisition as the light from each point source has to be spatially separated to resolve the wavelength components.

In recent years researchers have combined computational methods with advanced optical sensors to create computational spectrometers with the potential to rival conventional instruments. One such approach is hyperspectral snapshot imaging, which captures both spectral and spatial information in the same image. There are currently two main snapshot-imaging techniques available. Narrowband-filtered snapshot spectral imagers comprise a mosaic pattern of narrowband filters and acquire an image by taking repeated snapshots at different wavelengths. However, these trade spectral resolution with spatial resolution, as each extra band requires its own tile within the mosaic. A more complex alternative design – the broadband-modulated snapshot spectral imager – uses a single, broadband detector covered with a spatially varying element such as a metasurface that interacts with the light and imprints spectral encoding information onto each pixel. However, these are complex to manufacture and their spectral resolution is limited to the nanometre scale.

Random thicknesses

In the new work, researchers led by Lu Fang at Tsinghua University in Beijing unveil a spectroscopy technique that utilizes the nonlinear optical properties of lithium niobate to achieve sub-Ångström spectral resolution in a simply-fabricated, integrated snapshot detector they call RAFAEL. A lithium niobate layer with random, sub-wavelength thickness variations is surrounded by distributed Bragg reflectors, forming optical cavities. These are integrated into a stack with a set of electrodes. Each cavity corresponds to a single pixel. Incident light enters  from one side of a cavity, interacting with the lithium niobate repeatedly before exiting and being detected. Because lithium niobate is nonlinear, its response varies with the wavelength of the light.

The researchers then applied a bias voltage using the electrodes. The nonlinear optical response of lithium niobate means that this bias alters its response to light differently at different wavelengths. Moreover, the random variation of the lithium niobate’s thickness around the surface means that the wavelength variation is spatially specific.

The researchers designed a machine learning algorithm and trained it to use this variation of applied bias voltage with resulting wavelength detected at each point to reconstruct the incident wavelengths on the detector at each point in space.

“The randomness is useful for making the equations independent,” explains Fang; “We want to have uncorrelated equations so we can solve them.”

Thousands of stars

The researchers showed that they could achieve 88 Hz snapshot spectroscopy on a grid of 2048×2048 pixels with a spectral resolution of 0.5 Å (0.05 nm) between wavelengths of 400–1000 nm. They demonstrated this by capturing the full atomic absorption spectra of up to 5600 stars in a single snapshot. This is a two to four orders of magnitude improvement in observational efficiency over world-class astronomical spectrometers. They also demonstrated other applications, including a materials analysis challenge involving the distinction of a real leaf from a fake one. The two looked identical at optical wavelengths, but, using its broader range of wavelengths, RAFAEL was able to distinguish between the two.

The researchers are now attempting to improve the device further: “I still think that sub-Ångstrom is not the ending – it’s just the starting point,” says Fu. “We want to push the limit of our resolution to the picometre.” In addition, she says, they are working on further integration of the device – which requires no specialized lithography – for easier use in the field. “We’ve already put this technology on a drone platform,” she reveals. The team is also working with astronomical observatories such as Gran Telescopio Canarias in La Palma, Spain.

The research is described in Nature.

Computational imaging expert David Brady of Duke University in North Carolina is impressed by the instrument. “It’s a compact package with extremely high spectral resolution,” he says; “Typically an optical instrument, like a CMOS sensor that’s used here, is going to have between 10,000 and 100,000 photo-electrons per pixel.  That’s way too many photons for getting one measurement…I think you’ll see that with spectral imaging as is done here, but also with temporal imaging. People are saying you don’t need to go at 30 frames second, you can go at a million frames per second and push closer to the single photon limit, and then that would require you to do computation to figure out what it all means.”

The post Randomly-textured lithium niobate gives snapshot spectrometer a boost appeared first on Physics World.

The storm, which is set to make landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday, has stunned meteorologists with its intensity and the speed at which it built.

Learn how many suns exist in the Milky Way and how to understand how many sun-like stars are out there could help us understand how many Earth-like planets there are, too.

A research team headed up at Wayne State University School of Medicine in the US has developed a novel treatment for glioblastoma, based on exposure to low levels of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF EMF). The researchers demonstrated that the new therapy slows the growth of glioblastoma cells in vitro and, for the first time, showed its feasibility and clinical impact in patients with brain tumours.

The study, led by Hugo Jimenez and reported in Oncotarget, uses a device developed by TheraBionic that delivers amplitude-modulated 27.12 MHz RF EMF throughout the entire body, via a spoon-shaped antenna placed on the tongue. Using tumour-specific modulation frequencies, the device has already received US FDA approval for treating patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC, a liver cancer), while its safety and effectiveness are currently being assessed in clinical trials in patients with pancreatic, colorectal and breast cancer.

In this latest work, the team investigated its use in glioblastoma, an aggressive and difficult to treat brain tumour.

To identify the particular frequencies needed to treat glioblastoma, the team used a non-invasive biofeedback method developed previously to study patients with various types of cancer. The process involves measuring variations in skin electrical resistance, pulse amplitude and blood pressure while individuals are exposed to low levels of amplitude-modulated frequencies. The approach can identify the frequencies, usually between 1 Hz and 100 kHz, specific to a single tumour type.

Jimenez and colleagues first examined the impact of glioblastoma-specific amplitude-modulated RF EMF (GBMF) on glioblastoma cells, exposing various cell lines to GBMF for 3 h per day at the exposure level used for patient treatments. After one week, GBMF decreased the proliferation of three glioblastoma cell lines (U251, BTCOE-4765 and BTCOE-4795) by 34.19%, 15.03% and 14.52%, respectively.

The team note that the level of this inhibitive effect (15–34%) is similar to that observed in HCC cell lines (19–47%) and breast cancer cell lines (10–20%) treated with tumour-specific frequencies. A fourth glioblastoma cell line (BTCOE-4536) was not inhibited by GBMF, for reasons currently unknown.

Next, the researchers examined the effect of GBMF on cancer stem cells, which are responsible for treatment resistance and cancer recurrence. The treatment decreased the tumour sphere-forming ability of U251 and BTCOE-4795 cells by 36.16% and 30.16%, respectively – also a comparable range to that seen in HCC and breast cancer cells.

Notably, these effects were only induced by frequencies associated with glioblastoma. Exposing glioblastoma cells to HCC-specific modulation frequencies had no measurable impact and was indistinguishable from sham exposure.

Looking into the underlying treatment mechanisms, the researchers hypothesized that – as seen in breast cancer and HCC – glioblastoma cell proliferation is mediated by T-type voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCC). In the presence of a VGCC blocker, GBMF did not inhibit cell proliferation, confirming that GBMF inhibition of cell proliferation depends on T-type VGCCs, in particular, a calcium channel known as CACNA1H.

The team also found that GBMF blocks the growth of glioblastoma cells by modulating the “Mitotic Roles of Polo-Like Kinase” signalling pathway, leading to disruption of the cells’ mitotic spindles, critical structures in cell replication.

A clinical first

Finally, the researchers used the TheraBionic device to treat two patients: a 38-year-old patient with recurrent glioblastoma and a 47-year-old patient with the rare brain tumour oligodendroglioma. The first patient showed signs of clinical and radiological benefit following treatment; the second exhibited stable disease and tolerated the treatment well.

“This is the first report showing feasibility and clinical activity in patients with brain tumour,” the authors write. “Similarly to what has been observed in patients with breast cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma, this report shows feasibility of this treatment approach in patients with malignant glioma and provides evidence of anticancer activity in one of them.”

The researchers add that a previous dosimetric analysis of this technique measured a whole-body specific absorption rate (SAR, the rate of energy absorbed by the body when exposed to RF EMF) of 1.35 mW/kg and a peak spatial SAR (over 1 g of tissue) of 146–352 mW/kg. These values are well within the safety limits set by the ICNIRP (whole-body SAR of 80 mW/kg; peak spatial SAR of 2000 mW/kg). Organ-specific values for grey matter, white matter and the midbrain also had mean SAR ranges well within the safety limits.

The team concludes that the results justify future preclinical and clinical studies of the TheraBionic device in this patient population. “We are currently in the process of designing clinical studies in patients with brain tumors,” Jimenez tells Physics World.

The post Tumour-specific radiofrequency fields suppress brain cancer growth appeared first on Physics World.

As Europe prepares its next generation of Earth-Observation (EO) missions, a less visible but equally strategic challenge unfolds on the ground — how to manage the growing complexity of satellite […]

The post Federating Europe’s Earth Observation Ground Segment: The DOMINO-E Proof of Concept appeared first on SpaceNews.

The Atlantic CEO’s new book, The Running Ground, examines his complicated relationship with the sport. On this week’s episode of The Big Interview, he talks about the ways tech is helping him become a better runner.

Physicists at the Technical University of Denmark have demonstrated what they describe as a “strong and unconditional” quantum advantage in a photonic platform for the first time. Using entangled light, they were able to reduce the number of measurements required to characterize their system by a factor of 10¹¹, with a correspondingly huge saving in time.

“We reduced the time it would take from 20 million years with a conventional scheme to 15 minutes using entanglement,” says Romain Brunel, who co-led the research together with colleagues Zheng-Hao Liu and Ulrik Lund Andersen.

Although the research, which is described in Science, is still at a preliminary stage, Brunel says it shows that major improvements are achievable with current photonic technologies. In his view, this makes it an important step towards practical quantum-based protocols for metrology and machine learning.

From individual to collective measurement

Quantum devices are hard to isolate from their environment and extremely sensitive to external perturbations. That makes it a challenge to learn about their behaviour.

To get around this problem, researchers have tried various “quantum learning” strategies that replace individual measurements with collective, algorithmic ones. These strategies have already been shown to reduce the number of measurements required to characterize certain quantum systems, such as superconducting electronic platforms containing tens of quantum bits (qubits), by as much as a factor of 10⁵.

A photonic platform

In the new study, Brunel, Liu, Andersen and colleagues obtained a quantum advantage in an alternative “continuous-variable” photonic platform. The researchers note that such platforms are far easier to scale up than superconducting qubits, which they say makes them a more natural architecture for quantum information processing. Indeed, photonic platforms have already been crucial to advances in boson sampling, quantum communication, computation and sensing.

The team’s experiment works with conventional, “imperfect” optical components and consists of a channel containing multiple light pulses that share the same pattern, or signature, of noise. The researchers began by performing a procedure known as quantum squeezing on two beams of light in their system. This caused the beams to become entangled – a quantum phenomenon that creates such a strong linkage that measuring the properties of one instantly affects the properties of the other.

The team then measured the properties of one of the beams (the “probe” beam) in an experiment known as a 100-mode bosonic displacement process. According to Brunel, one can imagine this experiment as being like tweaking the properties of 100 independent light modes, which are packets or beams of light. “A ‘bosonic displacement process’ means you slightly shift the amplitude and phase of each mode, like nudging each one’s brightness and timing,” he explains. “So, you then have 100 separate light modes, and each one is shifted in phase space according to a specific rule or pattern.”

By comparing the probe beam to the second (“reference”) beam in a single joint measurement, Brunel explains that he and his colleagues were able to cancel out much of the uncertainties in these measurements. This meant they could extract more information per trial than they could have by characterizing the probe beam alone. This information boost, in turn, allowed them to significantly reduce the number of measurements – in this case, by a factor of 10¹¹.

While the DTU researchers acknowledge that they have not yet studied a practical, real-world system, they emphasize that their platform is capable of “doing something that no classical system will ever be able to do”, which is the definition of a quantum advantage. “Our next step will therefore be to study a more practical system in which we can demonstrate a quantum advantage,” Brunel tells Physics World.

The post Entangled light leads to quantum advantage appeared first on Physics World.

Malaysia and the Philippines have signed the Artemis Accords, which outline norms of behavior for space exploration.

The post Malaysia and the Philippines sign Artemis Accords appeared first on SpaceNews.

U.S.-Chinese tensions have left nearly complete observatory in limbo, jeopardizing research into pulsars and other celestial objects

Latest version of Biosecure Act could raise costs for academic biology labs in an effort to prevent theft of Americans’ health data

SAN FRANCISCO — Voyager Technologies announced the acquisition Oct. 27 of propulsion-system developer ExoTerra Resource. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. “We’re amplifying our collective mission capability with ExoTerra, accelerating delivery across defense and commercial markets,” Dylan Taylor, Voyager chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “As freedom of maneuver becomes central to space […]

The post Voyager Technologies acquires ExoTerra Resources appeared first on SpaceNews.

Learn how scientists found a way to turn mushrooms into computer chips and how these living computers can make the future of technology more sustainable.

Learn more about Wadisuchus kassabi, the crocodile’s ancient cousin that thrived in prehistoric oceans and rewrites this magnificent reptile's evolutionary history.

Learn how in the savannas of Senegal, Guinea baboons distribute food by friendship and family bonds, mirroring the sharing customs of early humans.

Learn more about the human tailbone and how, even though we may not have a strict need for it anymore, it still helps us with our everyday lives.

Learn more about Fibermaxxing and its potential benefits and risks. Plus, four ways to add fiber to your diet.

With the demand for human donor organs desperately outstripping supply, scientists are working to see if genetically edited pig organs can bridge the gap.

The xenotransplant, from a gene-edited pig, had survived for nearly 9 months in Tim Andrews

This episode of Physics World Stories features an interview with Jessica Esquivel and Emily Esquivel – the creative duo behind Queer Quest. The event created a shared space for 2SLGBTQIA+ Black and Brown people working in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM).

Mental health professionals also joined Queer Quest, which was officially recognized by UNESCO as part of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ). Over two days in Chicago this October, the event brought science, identity and wellbeing into powerful conversation.

Jessica Esquivel, a particle physicist and associate scientist at Fermilab, is part of the Muon g-2 experiment, pushing the limits of the Standard Model. Emily Esquivel is a licensed clinical professional counsellor. Together, they run Oyanova, an organization empowering Black and Brown communities through science and wellness.

Quantum metaphors and resilience through connection

Queer Quest blended keynote talks, with collective conversations, alongside meditation and other wellbeing activities. Panellists drew on quantum metaphors – such as entanglement – to explore identity, community and mental health.

In a wide-ranging conversation with podcast host Andrew Glester, Jessica and Emily speak about the inspiration for the event, and the personal challenges they have faced within academia. They speak about the importance of building resilience through community connections, especially given the social tensions in the US right now.

Hear more from Jessica Esquivel in her 2021 Physics World Stories appearance on the latest developments in muon science.

 

The post Queer Quest: a quantum-inspired journey of self-discovery appeared first on Physics World.

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Physicists have developed a novel imaging technique for detecting and characterizing objects hidden within opaque, highly scattering material. The researchers, from France and Austria, showed that their new mathematical approach, which utilizes the fact that hidden objects generate their own complex scattering pattern, or “fingerprint”, can work on biological tissue.

Viewing the inside of the human body is challenging due to the scattering nature of tissue. With ultrasound, when waves propagate through tissue they are reflected, bounce around and scatter chaotically, creating noise that obscures the signal from the object that the medical practitioner is trying to see. The further you delve into the body the more incoherent the image becomes.

There are techniques for overcoming these issues, but as scattering increases – in more complex media or as you push deeper through tissue – they struggle and unpicking the required signal becomes too complex.

The scientists behind the latest research, from the Institut Langevin in Paris, France and TU Wien in Vienna, Austria, say that rather than compensating for scattering, their technique instead relies on detecting signals from the hidden object in the disorder.

Objects buried in a material create their own complex scattering pattern, and the researchers found that if you know an object’s specific acoustic signal it’s possible to find it in the noise created by the surrounding environment.

“We cannot see the object, but the backscattered ultrasonic wave that hits the microphones of the measuring device still carries information about the fact that it has come into contact with the object we are looking for,” explains Stefan Rotter, a theoretical physicist at TU Wien.

Rotter and his colleagues examined how a series of objects scattered ultrasound waves in an interference-free environment. This created what they refer to as fingerprint matrices: measurements of the specific, characteristic way in which each object scattered the waves.

The team then developed a mathematical method that allowed them to calculate the position of each object when hidden in a scattering medium, based on its fingerprint matrix.

“From the correlations between the measured reflected wave and the unaltered fingerprint matrix, it is possible to deduce where the object is most likely to be located, even if the object is buried,” explains Rotter.

The team tested the technique in three different scenarios. The first experiment trialled the ultrasound imaging of metal spheres in a dense suspension of glass beads in water. Conventional ultrasound failed in this setup and the spheres were completely invisible, but with their novel fingerprint method the researchers were able to accurately detect them.

Next, to examine a medical application for the technique, the researchers embedded lesion markers often used to monitor breast tumours in a foam designed to mimic the ultrasound scattering of soft tissue. These markers can be challenging to detect due to scatterers randomly distributed in human tissue. With the fingerprint matrix, however, the researchers say that the markers were easy to locate.

Finally, the team successfully mapped muscle fibres in a human calf using the technique. They claim this could be useful for diagnosing and monitoring neuromuscular diseases.

According to Rotter and his colleagues, their fingerprint matrix method is a versatile and universal technique that could be applied beyond ultrasound to all fields of wave physics. They highlight radar and sonar as examples of sensing techniques where target identification and detection in noisy environments are long-standing challenges.

“The concept of the fingerprint matrix is very generally applicable – not only for ultrasound, but also for detection with light,” Rotter says. “It opens up important new possibilities in all areas of science where a reflection matrix can be measured.”

The researchers report their findings in Nature Physics.

The post Fingerprint method can detect objects hidden in complex scattering media appeared first on Physics World.

Networking specialist MTN has launched a service that enables SpaceX’s Starlink LEO satellites to operate as part of a privately secured communications system, giving businesses a way to link remote sites without using the public internet.

The post MTN carves out private networks for Starlink’s business users appeared first on SpaceNews.

When America embarked on the journey to build the Arsenal of Democracy in World War II, President Roosevelt had a simple instruction: “speed, speed, speed.” His emphasis on speed spurred on the production of lethal, mass-producible American warplanes that enabled the United States to win WWII. Some 80 years later, the urgency for speed is […]

The post Space is a warfighting domain. We need wartime urgency for procurement reform. appeared first on SpaceNews.