Tag Archives: Transforms

Revolutionary New Sensor Transforms Optical Imaging Technology

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Revolutionizing Imaging Technology: UConn Scientists Create Lens-Free Sensor with Submicron 3D Resolution

Illustration of MASI’s working principle. Image credit: Wang et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-65661-8.

“This technological breakthrough addresses a longstanding issue in imaging,” states Professor Guoan Zheng, the lead author from the University of Connecticut.

“Synthetic aperture imaging leverages the combination of multiple isolated sensors to mimic a larger imaging aperture.”

This technique works effectively in radio astronomy due to the longer wavelengths of radio waves, which facilitate precise sensor synchronization.

However, at visible wavelengths, achieving this synchronization is physically challenging due to the significantly smaller scales involved.

The Multiscale Aperture Synthesis Imager (MASI) turns this challenge on its head.

Instead of requiring multiple sensors to operate in perfect synchronization, MASI utilizes each sensor to independently measure light, employing computational algorithms to synchronize these measurements.

“It’s akin to multiple photographers capturing the same scene as raw light measurements, which software then stitches together into a single ultra-high-resolution image,” explains Professor Zheng.

This innovative computational phase-locking method removes the dependency on strict interferometric setups that previously limited the use of optical synthetic aperture systems.

MASI diverges from conventional optical imaging through two key innovations.

Firstly, instead of using a lens to focus light onto a sensor, MASI employs an array of coded sensors positioned on a diffractive surface, capturing raw diffraction patterns—the way light waves disperse after encountering an object.

These measurements contain valuable amplitude and phase information, which are decoded using advanced computational algorithms.

After reconstructing the complex wavefront from each sensor, the system digitally adjusts the wavefront and numerically propagates it back to the object’s surface.

A novel computational phase synchronization technique iteratively fine-tunes the relative phase offsets to enhance overall coherence and energy during the joint reconstruction process.

This key innovation enables MASI to surpass diffraction limits and constraints posed by traditional optical systems by optimizing the combined wavefront in the software, negating the need for physical sensor alignment.

As a result, MASI achieves a larger virtual synthetic aperture than any individual sensor, delivering submicron resolution and a wide field of view, all without the use of lenses.

Unlike traditional lenses for microscopes, cameras, and telescopes, which require designers to make trade-offs, MASI enables higher resolution without the limitations of lens proximity.

MASI captures diffraction patterns from several centimeters away, reconstructing images with unparalleled submicron resolution. This innovation is akin to inspecting the intricate ridges of a human hair from a distance, rather than needing to hold it inches away.

“The potential applications of MASI are vast, ranging from forensics and medical diagnostics to industrial testing and remote sensing,” highlights Professor Zheng.

“Moreover, the scalability is extraordinary. Unlike traditional optical systems, which become increasingly complex, our framework scales linearly, opening doors to large arrays for applications we have yet to conceptualize.”

For more details, refer to the team’s published paper in Nature Communications.

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R. One et al. 2025. Multiscale aperture synthetic imager. Nat Commun 16, 10582; doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-65661-8

Source: www.sci.news

How Navigating Uncertainty During Key Life Stages Transforms Our Brains

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Pandemic. Conflict. Market crash. Government upheaval. A quick look at recent headlines conveys a sense of instability in the world. However, “volatility” isn’t just a concern for hedge fund managers; it holds crucial significance for our brains as well.

In my new book, The Trick of the Heart, the latest science suggests that the brain operates like a scientist. It constructs hypotheses and frameworks to understand the world, others, and even itself. However, if your brain is busy crafting a framework, it must also recognize when it’s time to adapt. This process involves a network of frontal and subcortical brain regions, with noradrenaline playing a vital role in monitoring how unstable our environment is.

This “volatility tracking” mechanism allows our brains to detect tipping points in the external world and adjust our expectations and hypotheses accordingly. This adaptability becomes crucial when our daily realities shift; as a result, our mental frameworks can become more flexible. This process is entirely adaptive and logical. After all, when circumstances are in flux, we want our minds to adjust as well.

Yet, in a transformative environment, having an open mind can present dangers. For instance, research conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic indicated that unexpected viruses and unprecedented lockdowns led some people to question what constitutes a normal mindset. A study in the US found that as lockdowns intensified across states, unstable thinking surged. Those who began perceiving their surroundings as insecure were more likely to endorse bizarre conspiracies related to the pandemic, such as the belief that vaccines contain mind-controlling microchips or support for political conspiracies like QAnon.

While these ideas may appear ludicrous, this behavior can be understood through the lens of brain function. Our minds need to remain malleable and resilient, adapting their paradigms based on a rapidly changing world. We must be willing to consider perspectives we’ve never previously entertained.

I actually believe that navigating uncertain times isn’t inherently detrimental for us or our brains. After all, unpredictability does not equate to inevitable doom; it simply means we can’t foresee what lies ahead. Historically, many periods of significant progress have emerged during times of upheaval when our familiar realities were disrupted. In the UK, support for women’s suffrage gained momentum after World War I, which also paved the way for a transformative welfare state and the establishment of a second National Health Service.

While I can’t travel back in time to observe the brains of those historical figures, I can imagine those moments of new opportunities functioning just like our minds do today. When our surrounding touchpoints appear unstable, old concepts can be discarded and new ones adopted.

Uncertainty and volatility are distinctly perceived based on how the brain operates. While volatility can induce anxiety, living amidst constant change opens our minds to new possibilities. We must remain alert to those who might exploit our adaptable minds towards extreme or conspiratorial concepts, but we can also embrace a brighter, more optimistic future by steering our cognitive processes toward pivotal changes.

Daniel Yong is the director and author of the Uncertainty Lab at Birkbeck, University of London. His book, The Trick of the Heart, delves into these themes.

Topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

How Visualization Transforms Your Perception and Fosters Success

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Envisioning a specific action is a strategy effectively employed by athletes to achieve outstanding results.

Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images

This article is part of a special series exploring the fundamental possibilities of human imagination. Click here for more details.

Are you feeling anxious about upcoming events? Picture a magical anti-anxiety pill in front of you for a moment, and let it dissolve your nerves. Visualize the package, feel yourself taking the pills from the foil, and then imagine bringing it to your mouth, dropping it, and recalling the sensation of swallowing.

These were the instructions given by Jens Gaab, a colleague at the University of Basel in Switzerland, in a recent study investigating the potential of the placebo effect. University students preparing for exams were instructed to practice this visualization twice a day for three weeks.

Surprisingly, it proved effective. Participants who engaged in this mental exercise reported reduced test anxiety compared to a control group who had to monitor their anxiety levels as the trial approached. “And they performed significantly better,” Gaab notes.
It is now widely recognized that placebo pills can alleviate symptoms, and the findings from Gaab and his team indicate that such effects can be achieved through mere imagination. This is only one of the many incredible ways in which our imagination can enhance our health, happiness, and success. So, how can we maximize these advantages?

Why does visualization work?

The effectiveness of visualization is well-documented in sports science. “Multisensory imagery can be a game changer…

Source: www.newscientist.com

From Rust to Riches: Flying Taxi Startup Transforms Ohio City’s Prosperity

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FDayton, in southwestern Ohio, has been fighting for a decade to break out of its Rust Belt past. New apartment complexes, hotels, and breweries cut into a landscape dominated by abandoned warehouses and general industrial decline. But today, that transformation is shifting gears and taking to the skies.

Hundreds of flight facilities will be built in the town where the Wright brothers pioneered manned flight 120 years ago. futuristic flying taxi Every year.



Joby Aviation plans to build electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft here in Dayton, rather than in its home state of California.

Joby’s Didier Papadopoulos cited several reasons for the company’s plans to hire up to 2,000 people at a time. $500 million facility It is scheduled to open next year north of Dayton.

For one thing, “aviation has an immense history. It’s the birthplace of flight,” Papadopoulos said recently. He also said, “Ohio has a talented and skilled manufacturing workforce and we look forward to hiring and training both local and national applicants.”

Some expect the aircraft, which is scheduled to debut at this summer’s Paris Olympics, to reshape not just air travel but the broader mobility industry. In recent years, many startups and established companies have entered electric flying vehicles, and the global eVTOL market is expected to reach a value of $1 trillion by 2040.

Joby positions itself as the “Uber of the sky.” The aircraft has space for one pilot and four passengers and can reach speeds of up to 200 mph (322 km/h). A test flight in November took the plane from Lower Manhattan to JFK International Airport in just seven minutes, compared to an hour by taxi or subway.

The company aims to operate commercial flights between New York City and Los Angeles in 2025. Taxi service from home to airport on Delta Airlines.

President Joe Biden is plowing billions of dollars into a new era of manufacturing, with much of the money going to the industrial Midwest as part of a broader move to reduce U.S. dependence on other countries for key technology products. is flowing into. Millions of dollars in government incentives are being poured into new semiconductor and other mobility projects in Ohio. michigan and other states are often associated with socio-economic decline more generally.

The move could be a major turnaround for Dayton, which has lost nearly half its population since the 1960s.

“Ohio is Advanced air mobility plans” said Ted Angell of the Dayton Development Coalition, Joby’s liaison. “No other state was leaning so far forward.”

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, located a few miles east of Dayton, is the largest single employer in Ohio and boasts significant federal military research and development spending power, resulting in It is attracting a growing ecosystem of space partners and startups. area.

Nearby Springfield, a city of 60,000 people, has also suffered years of manufacturing closures, but the U.S. Air Force is helping build a new National Advanced Air Mobility Center of Excellence, which is expected to become a hub for the aviation industry. . korean companies And elsewhere too.

“For products like this, [Joby] Jennifer Clark, a regional planning expert at Ohio State University, said: “That’s just normal in the airline industry. Almost every airline you can think of does both defense and civilian manufacturing. The Dayton area knows that very well.”

While the creation of thousands of new skilled jobs in economically challenged areas like Dayton has been widely welcomed, some of these communities may bear the cost.

Dayton has long been known as a place with an abundance of affordable housing, but rising rental prices over the past year have pushed residents to form a tenant associationin other citylarge manufacturing plants fueled a significant increase in real estate prices.

Ohio state government is the largest Taxpayers $325 million in taxes We will support Joby’s facility construction.Montgomery County, Dayton was suggested Donate $1 million to the company as “development costs.”



“There’s a belief among economic development officials that doing all this recruitment, retention and expansion with individual companies is risky and not the best use of taxpayer dollars,” Clark said. Stated. “Most of the research shows that if we want to have sustainable economic development, we need to invest in our entire institutional infrastructure. But it’s a long game.”

Mr Joby’s initial announcement suggested 2,000 jobs would be created, but that number has now been reduced to approaching 1,200may rise.

Still, investment from companies at the forefront of mobility is seen as a welcome shot in the arm for a region that has seen decades of population decline. That’s evidenced by the fact that the new factory sits on what was once a U.S. Postal Service airmail facility.

Angell, of the Dayton Development Coalition, said many community colleges and universities in the area are adjusting by opening training programs to establish a pipeline of technicians for Joby and other airlines. Ta.

“I can’t tell you how many tours I’ve done with school kids,” he says. ” [new] A flying revolution is happening here. ”

Source: www.theguardian.com

Revolutionary Drug Delivery System Transforms Diabetes Treatment

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Stanford University engineers have created an injectable hydrogel depot technology that allows GLP-1 drugs to be administered once every four months, rather than requiring daily injections. This new hydrogel has the potential to revolutionize treatment for type 2 diabetes and weight management by significantly reducing the burden of daily injections.

The hydrogel drug delivery system was developed by materials engineers at Stanford University and turns daily or weekly injections of drugs like Ozempic, Maunjaro, Trulicity, and Victoza into a single injection every four months. This new system could greatly improve patient compliance and health outcomes for people with type 2 diabetes, as well as providing a more manageable treatment regimen.

The hydrogel contains GLP-1 drug molecules and slowly releases them over time, eliminating the need for frequent injections. This novel nanocomposite hydrogel is made of polymers and nanoparticles that dissolve over the course of several months, similar to how a sugar cube dissolves in water. Once the hydrogel is injected under the skin, it gradually releases the drug as it dissolves, providing sustained delivery over a four-month period.

Initial testing in laboratory rats has shown promising results, and future trials will be conducted on pigs to further validate the system’s effectiveness. The ultimate goal is to conduct human clinical trials within the next two years to evaluate the long-term administration of GLP-1-based treatments.

This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and a seed grant from the Stanford Diabetes Research Center.

Source: scitechdaily.com

Semiconductor Technology Transforms a Small Power Plant

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In the heat transfer highway, thermal energy travels through quantum particles called phonons. But at the nanoscale in today’s most advanced semiconductors, those phonons don’t remove enough heat. Purdue researchers are therefore focused on opening new nanoscale lanes on the heat transfer highway using hybrid quasiparticles called “polaritons.” Credit: Purdue University Photo/DALL-E


In the heat transfer highway, thermal energy travels through quantum particles called phonons. but,
nanoscale today’s cutting edge
semiconductor, those phonons do not remove enough heat. Purdue researchers are therefore focused on opening new nanoscale lanes on the heat transfer highway using hybrid quasiparticles called “polaritons.”

thomas beachem

really like

heat transfer. He talks about it loudly and proudly, like a preacher in a big tent revival.

“There are several ways to describe energy,” says Beechem, an associate professor of mechanical engineering. “When we talk about light, we describe it in terms of particles called ‘photons.’ Heat also transports energy in a predictable manner. We call these energy waves “phonons.” However, in some materials, photons and phonons can come together to create new objects called “polaritons.” It carries energy in a unique way, different from photons and phonons. ”

Like photons and phonons, polaritons are not physical particles that can be seen or captured. These are similar ways of describing energy exchange.

as if

They were particles.

Still vague? How about another analogy? “Phonons are like an internal combustion engine, and photons are like an electric car,” Beechem says. “Polaritons are Toyota’s Prius. They are a hybrid of light and heat, retaining some of the properties of both. But they are special in their own right.”

Polariton is used in optical applications ranging from stained glass to home health testing. However, their ability to transfer heat has been largely ignored, as the effect becomes noticeable only when the size of the material becomes very small. “We now know that phonons do most of the heat-transferring work,” says Dr. Jacob Minyard. student in Beechem’s lab. “Polariton effects are observable only at the nanoscale. But thanks to semiconductors, we haven’t had to deal with heat transfer at that level until now.”

“Semiconductors have become incredibly small and complex,” he continued. “The people who design and manufacture these chips are starting to realize that phonons do not dissipate heat efficiently at very small scales. Our paper shows that on such length scales polaritons are not very efficient at conducting heat. We have demonstrated that we can contribute to a larger portion of the rate.”

Their research on polaritons was selected as a featured article in a magazine.

applied physics journal
.

DOI: 10.1063/5.0173917

Source: scitechdaily.com