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Author Archives: Brian Lambson
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I think, therefore I move
Mind reading has come a long way from its ignominious origins alongside the likes of fortune telling and witchcraft. Scientists and medical doctors have made great strides in their ability to extract and interpret electromagnetic signals from the brain, and unlike mind readers of the past, they have very real practical gains to show for it. One notable success story is the cochlear implant, which is currently in use by nearly a quarter of a million deaf or hard-of-hearing patients. (For a look at more state-of-the-art applications in the field, consider attending the upcoming California Cognitive Science Conference, featured on our blog last week by Chris Holdgraf).
The so-called brain-machine interface (BMI) technology has not yet been perfected to the point that we need to worry about hackers stealing our secrets or erasing our memories. But it has come far enough that researchers may soon be able to restore physical and sensory functionality to patients with immobilizing conditions such as paralysis and Parkinson’s Disease. Scientists at UC Berkeley and UCSF’s Center for Neural Engineering and Prostheses (CNEP) are among the pioneers in developing this sort of brain repair technology.
Posted in Research highlights, UC Berkeley
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Managing scientific data: when bits need babysitters
If a tree falls in a forest, and a microphone picks it up and uploads the recording to an obscure archive where no one ever listens to it, does it make a sound? Philosophical matters aside, questions like this point to one of the central challenges facing the natural sciences in the information age. Thanks to improvements in data collection technologies over the years, scientific data in many fields is being generated at astronomically higher rates than in the past. Although this sounds like good news (and I doubt that the data-starved scientists of yesteryear would be complaining much), researchers often find themselves struggling to keep pace with the deluge of information. The question we must confront is how to design a system in which vast influxes of data can be efficiently accessed, vetted and analyzed by scientists around the globe.
Hydrogen production with disorder-engineered nanoparticles
One great example of nanomaterials that can address environmental problems is photocatalytic water splitting, which produces hydrogen gas through a chemical reaction that consumes only water and sunlight. This eco-friendly hydrogen can power zero-emissions fuel cells found in cars and a number of other emerging clean technologies. The goal is to replace conventional methods of manufacturing hydrogen, which generally consume fossil fuels and/or large amounts of electricity.
In photocatalysis, materials like titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles catalyze water splitting by absorbing light and transferring the light’s energy to nearby water molecules. In turn, the water breaks apart into its constituent elements, hydrogen and oxygen. Because of the absorption properties of TiO2, artificially generated ultraviolet light is required for the reaction to proceed efficiently. However, in a recent publication in Science, a group of Berkeley Lab researchers have shown that a slightly modified version of TiO2 nanoparticles can split water under natural sunlight.
Ultra-tough glass: bending without breaking
Many years ago, my parents and brother were driving home late at night, full speed on a highway, when a large rock thrown off an overpass struck their car’s windshield. There was a time when an impact like that would have shattered the windshield glass, likely leading to a tragic accident and – for me – a painful childhood. But, thanks to the modern miracle of laminated safety glass, the windshield did not shatter; it only cracked. The rock rolled away, my dad maintained control of the car, and the three of them got home safe and sound.
One of the lessons of that night is that in many applications, the mechanical strength of glass is every bit as important as its transparency. However, there’s a reason we don’t often see literal glass ceilings. The problem is that glass breaks before it bends – even the tiniest fracture spreads rapidly in all directions until the entire pane shatters. In engineering terms, glass is strong (it can withstand a lot of stress before cracking) but not tough (it has little damage tolerance after the onset of cracking). This is in contrast to sheets of metal or plastic that can deform to accommodate small defects, making them generally tougher materials.
To a group of researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Caltech, this begged the question: is it possible to engineer tougher glass by making it behave more like metal? The answer, it turns out, is yes.
Nobel update: Was Cal short-changed?
As I pointed out a few weeks ago, neither of this year’s winners of the Nobel Prize in physics has a significant connection to UC Berkeley, but it turns out that may only be because the Nobel committee gave the prize to the wrong graphene researchers. At least one prominent physicist believes the Nobel committee took some serious shortcuts in their selection process that caused them to overlook the contributions of two former Cal scientists, Walter De Heer and Philip Kim. Do I smell a recount?
Molecular recess
It would be an understatement to say that molecular machines have been under a tremendous amount of pressure lately. Proponents of nanotechnology have left them variously responsible for curing the world’s diseases, providing mankind with limitless food, water, energy and information, and even self-assembling so we don’t have to make them ourselves. And that’s only a partial list. Under the weight of such towering expectations, can we really blame them if they give up and turn the planet into grey goo?
Perhaps in an effort to save us from such an apocalyptic scenario, some nanoscientists have set more leisurely intermediate goals for molecular machines, like getting them to play games. A group of researchers from Columbia University recently developed a two-player strategy game between a human player and DNA-based molecular computer called “tit-for-tat”.
Graphene research at Cal: Close, but no Nobel
Fans of the Nobel Prize in Physics know that this year’s honors went to a pair of U.K.-based researchers for the discovery of graphene, a.k.a., The World’s Thinnest Material. While neither winner has a significant connection to UC Berkeley (the last Cal professor to win the physics Nobel was George Smoot in 2006), many here in the physics department can rightly claim at least some stake in this year’s prize. That’s because graphene’s discovery in 2004 sparked a huge burst of high-impact research around the globe, much of which has been influenced by the work of Berkeley scientists.
Posted in In the news, Research highlights, UC Berkeley
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Jump out of your skin and into your e-skin
Last time, I wrote about the reverse-engineering of natural processes to develop more efficient solar cells. It turns out that photovoltaics research is not the only field being guided by nature. This month, the journal Nature Materials published two reports describing a pair of successful attempts to fabricate artificial skin – flexible, stretchable arrays of highly sensitive pressure sensors that produce electrical signals in response to contact. The so-called “e-skin” can be used in applications such as robotics and manufacturing to provide a softer touch during manipulation delicate objects.
Going green… literally
While impressive, the last few decades of human achievement in photovoltaics pale in comparison to nature’s equivalent technology: photosynthesis. Just look at the numbers—every year photosynthesis produces about 3,000 exajoules (EJ) of chemical energy, or 7 x 1017 kilocalories, which equates to about half the total energy stored in the world’s petroleum reserves (and approximately the average daily caloric intake of eating champ Joey Chestnut). Compare this to the 0.1 EJ of electrical energy produced annually by man-made photovoltaics. Closing this gap is the key to a sustainable energy future, and unlike nature we don’t have the luxury of waiting billions of years to get there.
Posted in In the news, Research highlights
Tagged entanglement, photosynthesis, photovoltaics
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