Scientists have finally packed a laboratory-class ultrafast laser onto a tiny photonic chip. Ultrafast lasers generate bursts of light that last only a few hundred femtoseconds, each one just a quadrillionth of a second long. These extremely short pulses are used in a wide range of technologies, including precision manufacturing, eye surgery, and optical frequency [...]
It’s fairly easy for people to learn from other people – we’ve been doing it for around 300,000 years – because we can observe, copy, and modify what they’re doing. It’s less easy for us to learn from other animals that way, because the less our cognition and bodies are alike, the harder it is to copy and modify what they do. Learning about plants, fungi, protozoa, and bacteria is easy enough,…
A strange bead-like motion inside cells may be the secret to keeping their DNA—and health—in balance. Mitochondria are often described as the power plants of the cell because they produce the energy cells need to survive. To support this role, they carry their own small set of genetic instructions called mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Inside each [...]
Imagine a device using an energy source the size of planet Earth, and offering nearly limitless electricity with no ecologically devastating mining required to get it. Science fiction? A lie from Big Battery? A fentanyl fantasy from the Energizer Bunny? No – it’s real, and it’s the ocean.
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Category: Energy, Engineering
Tags: EPFL, Clean Energy, Water, Semiconductors
Quantum circuits promise incredible computing power, but there’s a catch: noise builds up with every step. Picture setting up an intricate line of dominoes, where each piece must fall perfectly to trigger the next. The goal is a smooth chain reaction that leads to an impressive final result. Quantum circuits work in a similar way. [...]
Detecting extraterrestrial signals may require searching farther and longer than previously expected. For decades, scientists have scanned the sky for evidence of extraterrestrial technology. A new study from EPFL takes a different angle, asking what we should realistically expect to detect today if signals from alien civilizations have already passed by Earth without being noticed. [...]
Scientists used light to evolve proteins that can switch, sense, and even “compute” inside living cells. Evolution is one of biology’s most powerful design tools. It works by producing many variations of DNA, RNA, and proteins within cells and allowing natural selection to favor the organisms that function best. Humans have taken advantage of this [...]
IBM and an international team of researchers have created a never-before-seen molecule whose electrons travel in a corkscrew-like pattern, and proved its exotic properties using a quantum computer.
A new approach to blue energy tackles one of the field’s most persistent problems: how to move ions quickly without sacrificing selectivity. Where rivers meet the sea, nature constantly mixes freshwater and saltwater. That blending releases energy, and osmotic energy, often called blue energy, aims to turn that overlooked resource into electricity. The basic idea [...]
Quantum events happen unimaginably fast, but measuring their timing without disturbing them has been a long-standing challenge. “The concept of time has troubled philosophers and physicists for thousands of years, and the advent of quantum mechanics has not simplified the problem,” says Professor Hugo Dil, a physicist at EPFL. “The central problem is the general [...]