UAB researchers design the most precise quantum thermometer to date
The device would be capable of measuring the temperature of a cell's interior
2015-06-05
(Press-News.org) Researchers from the UAB and the University of Nottingham, in an article published today in Physical Review Letters, have fixed the limits of thermometry, i.e., they have established the smallest possible fluctuation in temperature which can be measured. The researchers have studied the sensitivity of thermometers created with a handful of atoms, small enough to be capable of showing typical quantum-style behaviours.
The researchers characterised these types of probes in detail, devices which could provide an estimation of the temperature with a never before seen precision. To do so, they combined thermodynamic tools with quantum metrology, which deals with ultra-precise measures in quantum systems.
The physicists searched to find the maximum precision which could be achieved in a real situation, in which measuring time could be very brief given unavoidable experimental limitations. In the research, they also observed that these thermometers could maintain a constant sensitivity in a wide range of temperatures by sacrificing some of their precision.
For the authors of the research, "finding a nanothermometer sensitive enough at this scale is a great step forward in the field of nanotechnology, with applications in biology, chemistry, physics and even in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases".
INFORMATION:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2015-06-05
June 5, 2015 - Young infants who can "resettle" themselves after waking up are more likely to sleep for prolonged periods at night, according to a video study in the June Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, the official journal of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.
"Infants are capable of resettling themselves back to sleep by three months of age," according to the study by Ian St James-Roberts and colleagues of the University of London. They add, "Both autonomous resettling and prolonged ...
2015-06-05
Nanofibers -- polymer filaments only a couple of hundred nanometers in diameter -- have a huge range of potential applications, from solar cells to water filtration to fuel cells. But so far, their high cost of manufacture has relegated them to just a few niche industries.
In the latest issue of the journal Nanotechnology, MIT researchers describe a new technique for producing nanofibers that increases the rate of production fourfold while reducing energy consumption by more than 90 percent, holding out the prospect of cheap, efficient nanofiber production.
"We have ...
2015-06-05
One mystery of birds' flight is solved! The elegance of birds' flight, their seemingly effortless aerial turns and the softness of their landing, have been envied by many people. From countless observations, it has been known that the birds use a small group of feathers, called "the alula", a thumb-like structure that is present at the bend of the wing, in slow and steep flight such as landing. Why do they use it? How the tiny feathers can help them land softly?
A recent article published in Scientific Reports says that the secret is a small vortex of air that is formed ...
2015-06-05
Researchers from Uppsala University, together with colleagues at University College Dublin, have studied the dynamics of active swarms using computer simulations and experiments on unicellular algae. The team not only found full analogy of the active motion in a field to magnetic hysteresis but also managed to quantify the controllability of the swarm and identify the signatures of collective behavior of the active agents.
Active motion of living organisms and artificial self-propelling particles has been an
area of intense research at the interface of biology, chemistry ...
2015-06-05
Dublin, June 4th 2015 - Biochemists from Trinity College Dublin have devised a new technique that will make the difficult but critical job of blueprinting certain proteins considerably faster, cheaper and easier.
The breakthrough will make a big splash in the field of drug discovery and development, where precise protein structure blueprints can help researchers understand how individual proteins work. Critically, these blueprints can show weaknesses that allow drug developers to draw up specific battle plans in the fight against diseases and infections.
Professor ...
2015-06-05
Eye contact plays a crucial role when people initiate interaction with other people. If people look each other in the eye, they automatically send a signal that their attention is focused on the other person. If the other person happens to look back, the two will be in eye contact, and a channel for interaction is opened. Eye contact is thus a powerful social signal, which is known to increase our physiological arousal.
Previous research has suggested that eye contact triggers patterns of brain activity associated with approach motivation, whereas seeing another person ...
2015-06-05
Extremely poor vision can be caused by strabismus in early childhood or by a displaced optical axis. Amblyopia is caused not by organic damage to the eyes but by the brain incorrectly fitting together the images the eyes provide. As a result, the ability to see an object in sharp focus is severely limited. This occurs in more than one in 20 of the German population, as Heike M. Elflein et al. show in a recent original article in Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2015; 112(19): 338-44). The authors' study analyzed the visual acuity of over 3200 individuals ...
2015-06-05
As a result of their work, teachers suffer psychosomatic disorders such as exhaustion, fatigue, and headaches more frequently than other occupational groups. This has been shown by Klaus Scheuch et al. in a recent review article in Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2015; 112(20): 347-56), in which they analyze the health of teachers and the frequency of their illnesses.
In the study, teachers had healthier cardiovascular systems than the general population: they were more physically active (approximately 75% of teachers versus 66% of the general ...
2015-06-05
This news release is available in Spanish. Alaitz Aizpurua, a lecturer at the UPV/EHU, maintains that "the highly widespread belief that memory deteriorates as one approaches old age is not completely true. Various pieces of neuro-psychological research and other studies show that cognitive loss starts at the age of 20 but that we hardly notice it because we have sufficient capacity to handle the needs of everyday life.This loss is more perceptible between 45 and 49 and, in general, after the age of 75, approximately."
The deterioration does not tend to be either uniform ...
2015-06-05
A new study published in the June 15th Oceanography journal finds that effective fisheries reform strategies are more than a pipe dream: they exist and they work. In fact, rights-based fisheries management can change the lives of small-scale fishermen and coastal communities around the world.
"Solutions for recovering and sustaining the bounty of the ocean: combining fishery reforms, rights-based management and marine reserves," just published online in Oceanography shows that combining marine reserves with spatial rights-based fisheries management can provide synergistic ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] UAB researchers design the most precise quantum thermometer to date
The device would be capable of measuring the temperature of a cell's interior
