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Using holograms to improve electronic devices

A team of researchers from the University of California, Riverside Bourns College of Engineering and Russian Academy of Science have demonstrated a new type of holographic memory device that could provide unprecedented data storage capacity and data processing capabilities in electronic devices. The new type of memory device uses spin waves – a collective oscillation of spins in magnetic materials – instead of the optical beams. Spin waves are advantageous because spin wave devices are compatible with the conventional electronic devices and may operate at a much shorter wavelength than optical devices, allowing for smaller electronic devices that have greater storage capacity. Experimental results obtained by the team show it is feasible to apply holographic techniques developed in optics to magnetic structures to create a magnonic holographic memory device. The research combines the advantages of the magnetic data storage with the wave-based information transfer.

Webinar: AFM Imaging and Nanomechanics with blueDrive Photothermal Excitation

Asylum Research announced that Aleks Labuda will present a webinar on March 20th, 2014. The topic will be ‘AFM Imaging and Nanomechanics with blueDrive Photothermal Excitation.’ Two webinar sessions will be conducted and will include a question and answer period afterwards. The webinar will discuss the benefits and challenges of tapping mode, cantilever response and piezo drive theory, the advantages of using blueDrive for cantilever excitation, implementation, and real-world examples for materials and life science applications. The webinar is ideal for all current AFM users, both novice and advanced, and those wanting to learn the physics and science behind this new technique.

Single chip device to provide real-time 3-D images from inside the heart and blood vessels

Georgia Tech researchers have developed the technology for a catheter-based device that would provide forward-looking, real-time, three-dimensional imaging from inside the heart, coronary arteries and peripheral blood vessels. With its volumetric imaging, the new device could better guide surgeons working in the heart, and potentially allow more of patients’ clogged arteries to be cleared without major surgery. The device integrates ultrasound transducers with processing electronics on a single 1.4 millimeter silicon chip. On-chip processing of signals allows data from more than a hundred elements on the device to be transmitted using just 13 tiny cables, permitting it to easily travel through circuitous blood vessels. The forward-looking images produced by the device would provide significantly more information than existing cross-sectional ultrasound.

How Khan Academy is using design to pave the way for the future of education

(Gigaom.com) Since its founding in 2008 by former hedge fund analyst Salman Khan—who was making math videos in his spare time to tutor his cousins—Khan Academy has emerged as a new way to learn; one that is self paced, approachable, conversational and tries to help students master individual subjects before moving onto the next. While millions of users access the site and watch its content, 30,000 classrooms also use the videos for in-school teaching and teachers (they call them coaches) can also use the software to track student progress. All of these moving parts are tied together by an understated design ethos that highlights simplicity, puts the content first, and tries remove frustration and friction from learning.

Nanoscale pillars could radically improve conversion of heat to electricity

University of Colorado Boulder scientists have found a creative way to radically improve thermoelectric materials, a finding that could one day lead to the development of improved solar panels, more energy-efficient cooling equipment, and even the creation of new devices that could turn the vast amounts of heat wasted at power plants into more electricity. The technique—building an array of tiny pillars on top of a sheet of thermoelectric material—represents an entirely new way of attacking a century-old problem, said Mahmoud Hussein, an assistant professor of aerospace engineering sciences who pioneered the discovery.

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