Monthly Archives: December 2024

FrogHeart’s 2024 comes to an end as 2025 comes into view

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First, thank you to anyone who’s dropped by to read any of my posts. Second, I didn’t quite catch up on my backlog in what was then the new year (2024) despite my promises. (sigh) I will try to publish my drafts in a more timely fashion but I start this coming year as I did 2024 with a backlog of two to three months. This may be my new normal.

As for now, here’s an overview of FrogHeart’s 2024. The posts that follow are loosely organized under a heading but many of them could fit under other headings as well. After my informal review, there’s some material on foretelling the future as depicted in an exhibition, “Oracles, Omens and Answers,” at the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford.

Human enhancement: prosthetics, robotics, and more

Within a year or two of starting this blog I created a tag ‘machine/flesh’ to organize information about a number of converging technologies such as robotics, brain implants, and prosthetics that could alter our concepts of what it means to be human. The larger category of human enhancement functions in much the same way also allowing a greater range of topics to be covered.

Here are some of the 2024 human enhancement and/or machine/flesh stories on this blog,

Other species are also being rendered ‘machine/flesh’,

The year of the hydrogel?

It was the year of the hydrogel for me (btw, hydrogels are squishy materials; I have more of a description after this list),

As for anyone who’s curious about hydrogels, there’s this from an October 20, 2016 article by D.C.Demetre for ScienceBeta, Note: A link has been removed,

Hydrogels, materials that can absorb and retain large quantities of water, could revolutionise medicine. Our bodies contain up to 60% water, but hydrogels can hold up to 90%.

It is this similarity to human tissue that has led researchers to examine if these materials could be used to improve the treatment of a range of medical conditions including heart disease and cancer.

These days hydrogels can be found in many everyday products, from disposable nappies and soft contact lenses to plant-water crystals. But the history of hydrogels for medical applications started in the 1960s.

Scientists developed artificial materials with the ambitious goal of using them in permanent contact applications , ones that are implanted in the body permanently.

For anyone who wants a more technical explanation, there’s the Hydrogel entry on Wikipedia.

Science education and citizen science

Where science education is concerned I’m seeing some innovative approaches to teaching science, which can include citizen science. As for citizen science (also known as, participatory science) I’ve been noticing heightened interest at all age levels.

Artificial intelligence

It’s been another year where artificial intelligence (AI) has absorbed a lot of energy from nearly everyone. I’m highlighting the more unusual AI stories I’ve stumbled across,

As you can see, I’ve tucked in two tangentially related stories, one which references a neuromorphic computing story ((see my Neuromorphic engineering category or search for ‘memristors’ in the blog search engine for more on brain-like computing topics) and the other is intellectual property. There are many, many more stories on these topics

Art/science (or art/sci or sciart)

It’s a bit of a surprise to see how many art/sci stories were published here this year, although some might be better described as art/tech stories.

There may be more 2024 art/sci stories but the list was getting long. In addition to searching for art/sci on the blog search engine, you may want to try data sonification too.

Moving off planet to outer space

This is not a big interest of mine but there were a few stories,

A writer/blogger’s self-indulgences

Apparently books can be dangerous and not in a ‘ban [fill in the blank] from the library’ kind of way,

Then, there are these,

New uses for electricity,

Given the name for this blog, it has to be included,

  • Frog saunas published September 15, 2024, this includes what seems to be a mild scientific kerfuffle

I’ve been following Lomiko Metals (graphite mining) for a while,

Who would have guessed?

Another bacteria story,

New crimes,

Origins of life,

Dirt

While no one year features a large number of ‘dirt’ stories, it has been a recurring theme here throughout the years,

Regenerative medicine

In addition to or instead of using the ‘regenerative medicine’ tag, I might use ’tissue engineering’ or ’tissue scaffolding’,

To sum it up

It was an eclectic year.

Peering forward into 2025 and futurecasting

I expect to be delighted, horrified, thrilled, and left shaking my head by science stories in 2025. Year after year the world of science reveals a world of wonder.

More mundanely, I can state with some confidence that my commentary (mentioned in the future-oriented subsection of my 2023 review and 2024 look forward) on Quantum Potential, a 2023 report from the Council of Canadian Academies, will be published early in this new year as I’ve almost finished writing it.

As for more about the future, I’ve got this, from a December 3, 2024 essay (Five ways to predict the future from around the world – from spider divination to bibliomancy) about an exhibition by Michelle Aroney (Research Fellow in Early Modern History, University of Oxford) and David Zeitlyn (Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Oxford) in The Conversation (h/t December 3, 2024 news item on phys.org), Note: Links have been removed

Some questions are hard to answer and always have been. Does my beloved love me back? Should my country go to war? Who stole my goats?

Questions like these have been asked of diviners around the world throughout history – and still are today. From astrology and tarot to reading entrails, divination comes in a wide variety of forms.

Yet they all address the same human needs. They promise to tame uncertainty, help us make decisions or simply satisfy our desire to understand.

Anthropologists and historians like us study divination because it sheds light on the fears and anxieties of particular cultures, many of which are universal. Our new exhibition at Oxford’s Bodleian Library, Oracles, Omens & Answers, explores these issues by showcasing divination techniques from around the world.

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1. Spider divination

In Cameroon, Mambila spider divination (ŋgam dù) addresses difficult questions to spiders or land crabs that live in holes in the ground.

Asking the spiders a question involves covering their hole with a broken pot and placing a stick, a stone and cards made from leaves around it. The diviner then asks a question in a yes or no format while tapping the enclosure to encourage the spider or crab to emerge. The stick and stone represent yes or no, while the leaf cards, which are specially incised with certain meanings, offer further clarification.

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2. Palmistry

Reading people’s palms (palmistry) is well known as a fairground amusement, but serious forms of this divination technique exist in many cultures. The practice of reading the hands to gather insights into a person’s character and future was used in many ancient cultures across Asia and Europe.

In some traditions, the shape and depth of the lines on the palm are richest in meaning. In others, the size of the hands and fingers are also considered. In some Indian traditions, special marks and symbols appearing on the palm also provide insights.

Palmistry experienced a huge resurgence in 19th-century England and America, just as the science of fingerprints was being developed. If you could identify someone from their fingerprints, it seemed plausible to read their personality from their hands.

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3. Bibliomancy

If you want a quick answer to a difficult question, you could try bibliomancy. Historically, this DIY [do-it-yourself] divining technique was performed with whatever important books were on hand.

Throughout Europe, the works of Homer or Virgil were used. In Iran, it was often the Divan of Hafiz, a collection of Persian poetry. In Christian, Muslim and Jewish traditions, holy texts have often been used, though not without controversy.

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4. Astrology

Astrology exists in almost every culture around the world. As far back as ancient Babylon, astrologers have interpreted the heavens to discover hidden truths and predict the future.

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5. Calendrical divination

Calendars have long been used to divine the future and establish the best times to perform certain activities. In many countries, almanacs still advise auspicious and inauspicious days for tasks ranging from getting a haircut to starting a new business deal.

In Indonesia, Hindu almanacs called pawukon [calendar] explain how different weeks are ruled by different local deities. The characteristics of the deities mean that some weeks are better than others for activities like marriage ceremonies.

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You’ll find logistics for the exhibition in this September 23, 2024 Bodleian Libraries University of Oxford press release about the exhibit, Note: Links have been removed,

Oracles, Omens and Answers

6 December 2024 – 27 April 2025
ST Lee Gallery, Weston Library

The Bodleian Libraries’ new exhibition, Oracles, Omens and Answers, will explore the many ways in which people have sought answers in the face of the unknown across time and cultures. From astrology and palm reading to weather and public health forecasting, the exhibition demonstrates the ubiquity of divination practices, and humanity’s universal desire to tame uncertainty, diagnose present problems, and predict future outcomes.

Through plagues, wars and political turmoil, divination, or the practice of seeking knowledge of the future or the unknown, has remained an integral part of society. Historically, royals and politicians would consult with diviners to guide decision-making and incite action. People have continued to seek comfort and guidance through divination in uncertain times — the COVID-19 pandemic saw a rise in apps enabling users to generate astrological charts or read the Yijing [I Ching], alongside a growth in horoscope and tarot communities on social media such as ‘WitchTok’. Many aspects of our lives are now dictated by algorithmic predictions, from e-health platforms to digital advertising. Scientific forecasters as well as doctors, detectives, and therapists have taken over many of the societal roles once held by diviners. Yet the predictions of today’s experts are not immune to criticism, nor can they answer all our questions.

Curated by Dr Michelle Aroney, whose research focuses on early modern science and religion, and Professor David Zeitlyn, an expert in the anthropology of divination, the exhibition will take a historical-anthropological approach to methods of prophecy, prediction and forecasting, covering a broad range of divination methods, including astrology, tarot, necromancy, and spider divination.

Dating back as far as ancient Mesopotamia, the exhibition will show us that the same kinds of questions have been asked of specialist practitioners from around the world throughout history. What is the best treatment for this illness? Does my loved one love me back? When will this pandemic end? Through materials from the archives of the Bodleian Libraries alongside other collections in Oxford, the exhibition demonstrates just how universally human it is to seek answers to difficult questions.

Highlights of the exhibition include: oracle bones from Shang Dynasty China (ca. 1250-1050 BCE); an Egyptian celestial globe dating to around 1318; a 16th-century armillary sphere from Flanders, once used by astrologers to place the planets in the sky in relation to the Zodiac; a nineteenth-century illuminated Javanese almanac; and the autobiography of astrologer Joan Quigley, who worked with Nancy and Ronald Reagan in the White House for seven years. The casebooks of astrologer-physicians in 16th- and 17th-century England also offer rare insights into the questions asked by clients across the social spectrum, about their health, personal lives, and business ventures, and in some cases the actions taken by them in response.

The exhibition also explores divination which involves the interpretation of patterns or clues in natural things, with the idea that natural bodies contain hidden clues that can be decrypted. Some diviners inspect the entrails of sacrificed animals (known as ‘extispicy’), as evidenced by an ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform tablet describing the observation of patterns in the guts of birds. Others use human bodies, with palm readers interpreting characters and fortunes etched in their clients’ hands. A sketch of Oscar Wilde’s palms – which his palm reader believed indicated “a great love of detail…extraordinary brain power and profound scholarship” – shows the revival of palmistry’s popularity in 19th century Britain.

The exhibition will also feature a case study of spider divination practised by the Mambila people of Cameroon and Nigeria, which is the research specialism of curator Professor David Zeitlyn, himself a Ŋgam dù diviner. This process uses burrowing spiders or land crabs to arrange marked leaf cards into a pattern, which is read by the diviner. The display will demonstrate the methods involved in this process and the way in which its results are interpreted by the card readers. African basket divination has also been observed through anthropological research, where diviners receive answers to their questions in the form of the configurations of thirty plus items after they have been tossed in the basket.

Dr Michelle Aroney and Professor David Zeitlyn, co-curators of the exhibition, say:

Every day we confront the limits of our own knowledge when it comes to the enigmas of the past and present and the uncertainties of the future. Across history and around the world, humans have used various techniques that promise to unveil the concealed, disclosing insights that offer answers to private or shared dilemmas and help to make decisions. Whether a diviner uses spiders or tarot cards, what matters is whether the answers they offer are meaningful and helpful to their clients. What is fun or entertainment for one person is deadly serious for another.

Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s [a nickname? Bodleian Libraries were founded by Sir Thomas Bodley] Librarian, said:

People have tried to find ways of predicting the future for as long as we have had recorded history. This exhibition examines and illustrates how across time and culture, people manage the uncertainty of everyday life in their own way. We hope that through the extraordinary exhibits, and the scholarship that brings them together, visitors to the show will appreciate the long history of people seeking answers to life’s biggest questions, and how people have approached it in their own unique way.

The exhibition will be accompanied by the book Divinations, Oracles & Omens, edited by Michelle Aroney and David Zeitlyn, which will be published by Bodleian Library Publishing on 5 December 2024.

Courtesy: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford

I’m not sure why the preceding image is used to illustrate the exhibition webpage but I find it quite interesting. Should you be in Oxford, UK and lucky enough to visit the exhibition, there are a few more details on the Oracles, Omens and Answers event webpage, Note: There are 26 Bodleian Libraries at Oxford and the exhibition is being held in the Weston Library,

EXHIBITION

Oracles, Omens and Answers

6 December 2024 – 27 April 2025

ST Lee Gallery, Weston Library

Free admission, no ticket required

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Note: This exhibition includes a large continuous projection of spider divination practice, including images of the spiders in action.

Exhibition tours

Oracles, Omens and Answers exhibition tours are available on selected Wednesdays and Saturdays from 1–1.45pm and are open to all.

These free gallery tours are led by our dedicated volunteer team and places are limited. Check available dates and book your tickets.

You do not need to book a tour to visit the exhibition. Please meet by the entrance doors to the exhibition at the rear of Blackwell Hall.

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Happy 2025! And, once again, thank you.

AI and the 2024 Nobel prizes

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Artificial intelligence made a splash when the 2024 Nobel Prize announcements were made as they were a key factor in both the prizes for physics and for chemistry.

Where do physics, chemistry, and AI go from here?

I have a few speculative pieces about physics, chemistry, and AI. First off we have Nello Cristianini’s (Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Bath (England) October 10, 2024 essay for The Conversation, Note: Links have been removed,

The 2024 Nobel Prizes in physics and chemistry have given us a glimpse of the future of science. Artificial intelligence (AI) was central to the discoveries honoured by both awards. You have to wonder what Alfred Nobel, who founded the prizes, would think of it all.

We are certain to see many more Nobel medals handed to researchers who made use of AI tools. As this happens, we may find the scientific methods honoured by the Nobel committee depart from straightforward categories like “physics”, “chemistry” and “physiology or medicine”.

We may also see the scientific backgrounds of recipients retain a looser connection with these categories. This year’s physics prize was awarded to the American John Hopfield, at Princeton University, and British-born Geoffrey Hinton, from the University of Toronto. While Hopfield is a physicist, Hinton studied experimental psychology before gravitating to AI.

The chemistry prize was shared between biochemist David Baker, from the University of Washington, and the computer scientists Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, who are both at Google DeepMind in the UK.

There is a close connection between the AI-based advances honoured in the physics and chemistry categories. Hinton helped develop an approach used by DeepMind to make its breakthrough in predicting the shapes of proteins.

The physics laureates, Hinton in particular, laid the foundations of the powerful field known as machine learning. This is a subset of AI that’s concerned with algorithms, sets of rules for performing specific computational tasks.

Hopfield’s work is not particularly in use today, but the backpropagation algorithm (co-invented by Hinton) has had a tremendous impact on many different sciences and technologies. This is concerned with neural networks, a model of computing that mimics the human brain’s structure and function to process data. Backpropagation allows scientists to “train” enormous neural networks. While the Nobel committee did its best to connect this influential algorithm to physics, it’s fair to say that the link is not a direct one.

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Every two years, since 1994, scientists have been holding a contest to find the best ways to predict protein structures and shapes from the sequences of their amino acids. The competition is called Critical Assessment of Structure Prediction (CASP).

For the past few contests, CASP winners have used some version of DeepMind’s AlphaFold. There is, therefore, a direct line to be drawn from Hinton’s backpropagation to Google DeepMind’s AlphaFold 2 breakthrough.

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Attributing credit has always been controversial aspect of the Nobel prizes. A maximum of three researchers can share a Nobel. But big advances in science are collaborative. Scientific papers may have 10, 20, 30 authors or more. More than one team might contribute to the discoveries honoured by the Nobel committee.

This year we may have further discussions about the attribution of the research on backpropagation algorithm, which has been claimed by various researchers, as well as for the general attribution of a discovery to a field like physics.

We now have a new dimension to the attribution problem. It’s increasingly unclear whether we will always be able to distinguish between the contributions of human scientists and those of their artificial collaborators – the AI tools that are already helping push forward the boundaries of our knowledge.

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This November 26, 2024 news item on ScienceDaily, which is a little repetitive, considers interdisciplinarity in relation to the 2024 Nobel prizes,

In 2024, the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton for their foundational work in artificial intelligence (AI), and the Nobel Prize in chemistry went to David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John Jumper for using AI to solve the protein-folding problem, a 50-year grand challenge problem in science.

A new article, written by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Calculation Consulting, examines the convergence of physics, chemistry, and AI, highlighted by recent Nobel Prizes. It traces the historical development of neural networks, emphasizing the role of interdisciplinary research in advancing AI. The authors advocate for nurturing AI-enabled polymaths to bridge the gap between theoretical advancements and practical applications, driving progress toward artificial general intelligence. The article is published in Patterns.

“With AI being recognized in connections to both physics and chemistry, practitioners of machine learning may wonder how these sciences relate to AI and how these awards might influence their work,” explained Ganesh Mani, Professor of Innovation Practice and Director of Collaborative AI at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business, who coauthored the article. “As we move forward, it is crucial to recognize the convergence of different approaches in shaping modern AI systems based on generative AI.”

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A November 25, 2024 Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) news release, which originated the news item, describes the paper,

In their article, the authors explore the historical development of neural networks. By examining the history of AI development, they contend, we can understand more thoroughly the connections among computer science, theoretical chemistry, theoretical physics, and applied mathematics. The historical perspective illuminates how foundational discoveries and inventions across these disciplines have enabled modern machine learning with artificial neural networks. 

Then they turn to key breakthroughs and challenges in this field, starting with Hopfield’s work, and go on to explain how engineering has at times preceded scientific understanding, as is the case with the work of Jumper and Hassabis.

The authors conclude with a call to action, suggesting that the rapid progress of AI across diverse sectors presents both unprecedented opportunities and significant challenges. To bridge the gap between hype and tangible development, they say, a new generation of interdisciplinary thinkers must be cultivated.

These “modern-day Leonardo da Vincis,” as the authors call them, will be crucial in developing practical learning theories that can be applied immediately by engineers, propelling the field toward the ambitious goal of artificial general intelligence.

This calls for a paradigm shift in how scientific inquiry and problem solving are approached, say the authors, one that embraces holistic, cross-disciplinary collaboration and learns from nature to understand nature. By breaking down silos between fields and fostering a culture of intellectual curiosity that spans multiple domains, innovative solutions can be identified to complex global challenges like climate change. Through this synthesis of diverse knowledge and perspectives, catalyzed by AI, meaningful progress can be made and the field can realize the full potential of technological aspirations.

“This interdisciplinary approach is not just beneficial but essential for addressing the many complex challenges that lie ahead,” suggests Charles Martin, Principal Consultant at Calculation Consulting, who coauthored the article. “We need to harness the momentum of current advancements while remaining grounded in practical realities.”

The authors acknowledge the contributions of Scott E. Fahlman, Professor Emeritus in Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

The recent Physics and Chemistry Nobel Prizes, AI, and the convergence of knowledge fields by Charles H. Martin, Ganesh Mani. Patterns, 2024 DOI: 10.1016/j.patter.2024.101099 Published online November 25, 2024 Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc.

This paper is open access under Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0.

A scientific enthusiast: “I was a beta tester for the Nobel prize-winning AlphaFold AI”

From an October 11, 2024 essay by Rivka Isaacson (Professor of Molecular Biophysics, King’s College London) for The Conversation, Note: Links have been removed,

The deep learning machine AlphaFold, which was created by Google’s AI research lab DeepMind, is already transforming our understanding of the molecular biology that underpins health and disease.

One half of the 2024 Nobel prize in chemistry went to David Baker from the University of Washington in the US, with the other half jointly awarded to Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper, both from London-based Google DeepMind.

If you haven’t heard of AlphaFold, it may be difficult to appreciate how important it is becoming to researchers. But as a beta tester for the software, I got to see first-hand how this technology can reveal the molecular structures of different proteins in minutes. It would take researchers months or even years to unpick these structures in laboratory experiments.

This technology could pave the way for revolutionary new treatments and drugs. But first, it’s important to understand what AlphaFold does.

Proteins are produced by series of molecular “beads”, created from a selection of the human body’s 20 different amino acids. These beads form a long chain that folds up into a mechanical shape that is crucial for the protein’s function.

Their sequence is determined by DNA. And while DNA research means we know the order of the beads that build most proteins, it’s always been a challenge to predict how the chain folds up into each “3D machine”.

These protein structures underpin all of biology. Scientists study them in the same way you might take a clock apart to understand how it works. Comprehend the parts and put together the whole: it’s the same with the human body.

Proteins are tiny, with a huge number located inside each of our 30 trillion cells. This meant for decades, the only way to find out their shape was through laborious experimental methods – studies that could take years.

Throughout my career I, along with many other scientists, have been engaged in such pursuits. Every time we solve a protein structure, we deposit it in a global database called the Protein Data Bank, which is free for anyone to use.

AlphaFold was trained on these structures, the majority of which were found using X-ray crystallography. For this technique, proteins are tested under thousands of different chemical states, with variations in temperature, density and pH. Researchers use a microscope to identify the conditions under which each protein lines up in a particular formation. These are then shot with X-rays to work out the spatial arrangement of all the atoms in that protein.

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Addictive experience

In March 2024, researchers at DeepMind approached me to beta test AlphaFold3, the latest incarnation of the software, which was close to release at the time.

I’ve never been a gamer but I got a taste of the addictive experience as, once I got access, all I wanted to do was spend hours trying out molecular combinations. As well as lightning speed, this new version introduced the option to include bigger and more varied molecules, including DNA and metals, and the opportunity to modify amino acids to mimic chemical signalling in cells.

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Understanding the moving parts and dynamics of proteins is the next frontier, now that we can predict static protein shapes with AlphaFold. Proteins come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes. They can be rigid or flexible, or made of neatly structured units connected by bendy loops.

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You can read Isaacson’s entire October 11, 2024 essay on The Conversation or in an October 14, 2024 news item on phys.org.

Viscous electronics and graphene

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Caption: From cars on a highway to a viscous fluid like oil, our understanding of electron behaviour is being changed by new research. Credit: College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore

An October 21, 2024 news item on phys.org announces the new research illustrated in the above, Note: Links have been removed,

In high school science class, we learned that plugging a cable into an electrical circuit sets off a flow of electrons, powering everything from our lights to our phones. Traditionally, we’ve understood how electrons behave in metals and semiconductors through this simple model: electrons are imagined as tiny, independent particles, much like cars on an open highway—each one moving freely, without interacting much with the others.

It’s a straightforward perspective that has been the foundation of electronics for many years, helping us understand and design the electronic devices that underpin much of modern life.

However, this traditional view falls short in the case of some emerging quantum materials such as the ultrathin, and highly conductive material graphene. In these materials, rather than behaving like individual cars on a highway, electrons instead act together in a way that resembles a viscous fluid such as oil. This finding could be transformative for the future development of a broad range of technologies.

Assistant Professor Denis Bandurin and his team, who are from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the College of Design and Engineering at the National University of Singapore, are exploring how quantum materials interact with electromagnetic radiation at the nanoscale to uncover new scientific phenomena and their potential use in developing future technologies.

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An October 21, 2024 National University of Singapore (NUS) press release (also on EurekAlert but lightly edited) by Asst Prof Denis Bandurin, which originated the news item, delves further into the topic,

In a recent study, published in Nature Nanotechnology, the team reported that when graphene is exposed to electromagnetic radiation of terahertz frequencies, electron fluid heats up and its viscosity is drastically reduced, resulting in lower electrical resistance – much like how oil, honey and other viscous fluids flow more easily as they are heated on a stove.

Advancing the frontiers of THz waves detection

Terahertz (THz) waves are a special and technologically challenging part of the electromagnetic spectrum – situated between microwaves and infrared light – that have a vast range of potential applications. Being able to detect THz waves could unlock major advances in technologies.

In communications for example, current Wi-Fi technology operates at several GHz, limiting how much data can be transmitted. THz radiation, with its much higher frequency, could serve as the “carrier frequency” for ultrafast, beyond 5G networks, enabling faster data transfer for Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices, self-driving cars and countless other applications.

In medical imaging and industrial quality control, THz waves can penetrate many materials, making them useful for non-invasive scans. They are also safer than X-rays, providing a highly selective and precise imaging tool.

Going further afield, THz vision enables observational astronomy, allowing scientists to observe distant galaxies and exoplanets that cannot be seen by visible light.

THz radiation therefore offers huge potential. However, until recently, detecting it has been a significant challenge. THz waves are too fast for traditional semiconductor chips to handle and too slow for conventional optoelectronic devices.

The Viscous Electron Bolometer

The study by the NUS team showed that by harnessing the viscosity reduction effect, scientists can create innovative devices that can detect THz waves by sensing the changes in electrical resistance. Indeed, in the current study, Asst Prof Bandurin and his team has developed a new class of electronic device called a viscous electron bolometer.

Representing the first practical, real-world application of viscous electronics – a concept that was once thought to be purely theoretical – these bolometers are able to sense changes in resistance extremely accurately and quickly, operating, in principle, at the pico-second scale. In other words, trillionths of a second.

Understanding and exploiting the way electrons move together as a collective fluid opens the way for us to completely rethink the design of electronic devices. With this in mind, Asst Prof Bandurin and his team are actively working on optimising these viscous electron bolometers for practical applications.

As scientists uncover more secrets in the emerging world of quantum materials, it’s clear that traditional models of electron behaviour are no longer sufficient. By embracing this new understanding of viscous electronics, we could be on the verge of unlocking a new wave of technological possibilities.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Viscous terahertz photoconductivity of hydrodynamic electrons in graphene by M. Kravtsov, A. L. Shilov, Y. Yang, T. Pryadilin, M. A. Kashchenko, O. Popova, M. Titova, D. Voropaev, Y. Wang, K. Shein, I. Gayduchenko, G. N. Goltsman, M. Lukianov, A. Kudriashov, T. Taniguchi, K. Watanabe, D. A. Svintsov, S. Adam, K. S. Novoselov, A. Principi & D. A. Bandurin. Nature Nanotechnology (2024)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-024-01795-y Published: 07 October 2024

This paper is behind a paywall.

For anyone who noted the name ‘K.S. Novoselov’, it’s Konstantin Novoselov who along with Andre Geim received the 2011 Nobel prize in physics for their work with graphene.

Effects of soil contamination could be blunted with nanonutrients

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An October 15, 2024 news item on phys.org highlights research into soil remediation, Note: A link has been removed,

One of the pressing problems that the world faces in the era of climate change is how to grow enough healthy food to meet the increasing global population, even as soil contamination rises. Research recently published in Nature Food by an international team of scientists led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Guangdong University of Technology, and Central South University of Forestry and Technology, has shown that nutrients on the nanometer scale can not only blunt some of the worst effects of heavy metal and metalloid contamination, but increase crop yields and nutrient content.

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Caption: Nanomaterials can enter plants through above-ground tissues and root tissues. Soil rhizosphere microorganisms, soil particles, organic matter and rhizosphere deposits can also influence NM uptake in plants. Credit: 10.1038/s43016-024-01063-1 Courtesy of University of Massachusetts Amherst

An October 15, 2024 University of Massachusetts Amherst news release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, describes the problem and the proposed solution, Note: Links have been removed,

“Much of the world’s arable soil is contaminated by heavy metals, like cadmium, lead and mercury, as well as metalloids, like arsenic and selenium,” says Baoshan Xing, University Distinguished Professor and director of the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at UMass Amherst. Xing, who is also the paper’s senior author, notes that such contamination puts severe stress on the ability to grow staple crops, which also affects the nutritional value of the crops that manage to survive. “We need to come up with solutions to reduce the heavy metals that wind up in our food,” says Xing, and one approach that has shown promise is the use of nutrients at nanoscale, or what he calls a “nano-enabled” agriculture.


The bulk fertilizers that you may be more familiar with are made up of large particles, which aren’t as readily absorbed by the crop. This means that farmers need to apply more, which then increases the levels of fertilizer runoff into streams, lakes and the ocean. However, crop nutrients at the nanometer scale can be specifically designed and mixed for particular crops, growing conditions and application methods, and engineered so that the target plant can most efficiently absorb the nutrients into its system, cutting down on the amount of fertilizer needed, keeping costs down and limiting runoff.

Though nanomaterials are already available on the agricultural market and have plenty of peer-reviewed science looking at their effect on the soil and crop growth, Xing and his colleagues’ research is the first comprehensive account of the effectiveness of nanomaterials as a class, with results that offer practical insights to help steer sustainable agriculture and global food safety.

“We collected data from 170 previous publications on the effectiveness of nanoparticles in reducing heavy metal and metalloid uptake,” says Chuanxin Ma, the paper’s co-lead author who completed his doctoral training at UMass Amherst’s Stockbridge School of Agriculture and is now a professor at China’s Guangdong University of Technology. “From those 170 papers, we collected 8,585 experimental observations of how plants respond to nanomaterials.”

The team then conducted a meta-analysis on this enormous trove of data, running it through a series of machine-learning models to quantify the effect of nanomaterials on crop growth and metal and metalloid uptake, before finally testing a flexible quantitative approach, known as the “IVIF-TOPSIS-EW method,” that can illuminate how to choose different types of nanomaterials according to a range of realistic agricultural scenarios.

The results show that nanomaterials are more effective than conventional fertilizers at mitigating the harmful effects of polluted soil (by 38.3%), can enhance crop yields (by 22.8%) and the nutritional value of those crops (by 30%), as well as combat plant stress (by 21.6%) due to metal and metalloid pollution. Nanomaterials also help increase soil enzymes and organic carbon, both of which help drive soil fertility.

“Of course, nanomaterials are not a silver bullet,” explains Xing. “They need to be applied in distinct ways based on the individual crop and soil.” Which is where the team’s IVIF-TOPSIS-EW method comes into play. “Our method can help policy makers choose the best course of action for their particular situation,” says Ma.

Yini Cao from Central South University of Forestry and Technology also contributed greatly to collecting and analyzing the data in this work.

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the United States National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA).

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Engineered nanomaterials reduce metal(loid) accumulation and enhance staple food production for sustainable agriculture by Yini Cao, Chuanxin Ma, Jason C. White, Yuchi Cao, Fan Zhang, Ran Tong, Hao Yu, Yi Hao, Wende Yan, Melanie Kah & Baoshan Xing. Nature Food volume 5, pages 951–962 (2024) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-024-01063-1 Published: 11 October 2024 Issue Date: November 2024

This paper is behind a paywall.

Ancient 3D paper art (kirigami) and modern wireless technology

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The first nanokirigami (or nano-kirigami) story featured here was in a January 29, 2019 posting (Manipulating light at the nanoscale with kirigami-inspired technique). This latest story features a two-dimensional material and the kirigami technique, also, some researchers from the University of British Columbia (Canada).

An October 14, 2024 news item on ScienceDaily announces that the newly applied (ancient) technique could change wireless technology,

The future of wireless technology — from charging devices to boosting communication signals — relies on the antennas that transmit electromagnetic waves becoming increasingly versatile, durable and easy to manufacture. Researchers at Drexel University [Pennsylvania, US] and the University of British Columbia [UBC; Canada] believe kirigami, the ancient Japanese art of cutting and folding paper to create intricate three-dimensional designs, could provide a model for manufacturing the next generation of antennas.

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An October 14, 2024 Drexel University news release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, provides more information (Note: Links have been removed),

Recently published in the journal Nature Communications, research from the Drexel-UBC team showed how kirigami — a variation of origami — can transform a single sheet of acetate coated with conductive MXene ink into a flexible 3D microwave antenna whose transmission frequency can be adjusted simply by pulling or squeezing to slightly shift its shape.

The proof of concept is significant, according to the researchers, because it represents a new way to quickly and cost-effectively manufacture an antenna by simply coating aqueous MXene ink onto a clear elastic polymer substrate material.

“For wireless technology to support advancements in fields like soft robotics and aerospace, antennas need to be designed for tunable performance and with ease of fabrication,” said Yury Gogotsi, PhD, Distinguished University and Bach Professor in Drexel’s College of Engineering, and a co-author of  the research. “Kirigami is a natural model for a manufacturing process, due to the simplicity with which complex 3D forms can be created from a single 2D piece of material.”

Standard microwave antennas can be reconfigured either electronically or by altering their physical shape. However, adding the necessary circuitry to control an antenna electronically can increase its complexity, making the antenna bulkier, more vulnerable to malfunction and more expensive to manufacture. By contrast, the process demonstrated in this joint work leverages physical shape change and can create antennas in a variety of intricate shapes and forms. These antennas are flexible, lightweight and durable, which are crucial factors for their survivability on movable robotics and aerospace components.

To create the test antennas, the researchers first coated a sheet of acetate with a special conductive ink, composed of a titanium carbide MXene, to create frequency-selective patterns. MXene ink is particularly useful in this application because its chemical composition allows it to adhere strongly to the substrate for a durable antenna and can be adjusted to reconfigure the transmission specifications of the antenna.

MXenes are a family of two-dimensional nanomaterials discovered by Drexel researchers in 2011 whose physical and electrochemical properties can be adjusted by slightly altering their chemical composition. MXenes have been widely used in the last decade for applications that require materials with precise physiochemical behavior, such as electromagnetic shielding, biofiltration and energy storage. They have also been explored for telecommunications applications for many years due to their efficiency in transmitting radio waves and their ability to be adjusted to selectively block and allow transmission of electromagnetic waves.

Using kirigami techniques, originally developed in Japan the 4th and 5th centuries A.D., the researchers made a series of parallel cuts in the MXene-coated surface. Pulling at the edges of the sheet triggered an array of square-shaped resonator antennas to spring from its two-dimensional surface. Varying the tension caused the angle of the array to shift — a capability that could be deployed to quickly adjust the communications configuration of the antennas. 

The researchers assembled two kirigami antenna arrays for testing. They also created a prototype of a co-planar resonator — a component used in sensors that naturally produces waves of a certain frequency — to showcase the versatility of the approach. In addition to communication applications, resonators and reconfigurable antennas could also be used for strain-sensing, according to the team.

“Frequency selective surfaces, like these antennas, are periodic structures that selectively transmit, reflect, or absorb electromagnetic waves at specific frequencies,” said Mohammad Zarifi, principal research chair, an associate professor at UBC, who helped  lead the research. “They have active and/or passive structures and are commonly used in applications such as antennas, radomes, and reflectors to control wave propagation direction in wireless communication at 5G and beyond platforms.”

The kirigami antennas proved effective at transmitting signals in three commonly used microwave frequency bands: 2-4 GHz, 4-8 GHz and 8-12 GHz. Additionally, the team found that shifting the geometry and direction of the substrate could redirect the waves from each resonator.

The frequency produced by the resonator shifted by 400 MHz as its shape was deformed under strain conditions – demonstrating that it could perform effectively as a strain sensor for monitoring the condition of infrastructure and buildings.

According to the team, these findings are the first step toward integrating the components on relevant structures and wireless devices. With kirigami’s myriad forms as their inspiration, the team will now seek to optimize the performance of the antennas by exploring new shapes, substrates and movements.

 “Our goal here was to simultaneously improve the adjustability of antenna performance as well as create a simple manufacturing process for new microwave components by incorporating a versatile MXene nanomaterial with kirigami-inspired designs,” said Omid Niksan, PhD, from [the] University of British Columbia, who was an author of the paper. “The next phase of this research will explore new materials and geometries for the antennas.”

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

MXene-based kirigami designs: showcasing reconfigurable frequency selectivity in microwave regime by Omid Niksan, Lingyi Bi, Yury Gogotsi & Mohammad H. Zarifi. Nature Communications volume 15, Article number: 7793 (2024) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51853-1 Published: 06 September 2024

This paper is open access.

Harvesting energy from tires, streetlights, buildings, and more

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It seems to me that this year there’s been more interest than usual in harvesting energy from heretofore untapped resources, from an October 17, 2024 news item on ScienceDaily,

Imagine tires that charge a vehicle as it drives, streetlights powered by the rumble of traffic, or skyscrapers that generate electricity as the buildings naturally sway and shudder.

These energy innovations could be possible thanks to researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute developing environmentally friendly materials that produce electricity when compressed or exposed to vibrations.

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The RPI team developed a polymer film infused with a special chalcogenide perovskite compound that produces electricity when squeezed or stressed. The device could be used in consumer goods, such as a shoe that lights up when the user walks, though it has potential applications in transportation and infrastructure. Credit: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

An October 15, 2024 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute news release (also on EurekAlert) by Samantha Murray, which originated the news item, provides a few technical details about the research, Note: Links have been removed,

In a recent study published in the journal Nature Communications, the team developed a polymer film infused with a special chalcogenide perovskite compound that produces electricity when squeezed or stressed, a phenomenon known as the piezoelectric effect. While other piezoelectric materials currently exist, this is one of the few high-performing ones that does not contain lead, making it an excellent candidate for use in machines, infrastructure as well as bio-medical applications.

“We are excited and encouraged by our findings and their potential to support the transition to green energy,” said Nikhil Koratkar, Ph.D., corresponding author of the study and the John A. Clark and Edward T. Crossan Professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering. “Lead is toxic and increasing being restricted and phased out of materials and devices. Our goal was to create a material that was lead-free and could be made inexpensively using elements commonly found in nature.”

The energy harvesting film, which is only 0.3 millimeters thick, could be integrated into a wide variety of devices, machines, and structures, Koratkar explained.

“Essentially, the material converts mechanical energy into electrical energy — the greater the applied pressure load and the greater the surface area over which the pressure is applied, the greater the effect,” Koratkar said. “For example, it could be used beneath highways to generate electricity when cars drive over them.  It could also be used in building materials, making electricity when buildings vibrate.”

The piezoelectric effect occurs in materials that lack structural symmetry. Under stress, piezoelectric materials deform in such a way that causes positive and negative ions within the material to separate. This “dipole moment,” as it is known scientifically, can be harnessed and turned into an electric current. In the chalcogenide perovskite material discovered by the RPI team, structural symmetry can be easily broken under stress leading to a pronounced piezoelectric response. 

Once they synthesized their new material, which contains barium, zirconium and sulfur, the researchers tested its ability to produce electricity by subjecting it to various bodily movements, such as walking, running, clapping, and tapping fingers.

The researchers found that the material generated electricity during these experiments, enough to even power banks of LED’s that spelled out RPI.

“These tests show this technology could be useful, for example, in a device worn by runners or bikers that lights up their shoes or helmets and makes them more visible. However, this is just a proof of concept, as we’d like to eventually see this kind of material implemented at scale, where it can really make a difference in energy production,” Koratkar said.

Moving forward, Koratkar’s lab will explore the entire family of chalcogenide perovskite compounds in the search for those that exhibit an even stronger piezoelectric effect. Artificial intelligence and machine learning could prove useful tools in this pursuit, Koratkar said.

“Sustainable energy production is vital to our future,” said Shekhar Garde, Ph.D., dean of the RPI School of Engineering. “Professor Koratkar’s work is a great example of how innovating approaches to materials discovery can help address a global problem.”

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Piezoelectricity in chalcogenide perovskites by Sk Shamim Hasan Abir, Shyam Sharma, Prince Sharma, Surya Karla, Ganesh Balasubramanian, Johnson Samuel & Nikhil Koratkar. Nature Communications volume 15, Article number: 5768 (2024) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-50130-5 Published: 09 July 2024

This paper is open access.

Clothes that can help combat rising temperatures

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This October 9, 2024 news item on ScienceDaily floats an idea that’s a big improvement over letting a bag of ice cubes melt on your body so you can cool down,

A team of international researchers has developed a natural fabric that urban residents could wear to counter rising temperatures in cities worldwide, caused by buildings, asphalt, and concrete.

As heatwaves become more prominent, cooling textiles that can be incorporated into clothes, hats, shoes and even building surfaces provide a glimpse into a future where greenhouse gas-emitting air conditioners may no longer be needed in our cities.

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An October 10, 2024 University of South Australia (UNISA) press release (also on Eurekalert but published October 9, 2024), which originated the news item, offers more information about the cooling textiles, Note: Links have been removed,

Engineers from Zhengzhou University and the University of South Australia say the wearable fabric is designed to reflect sunlight and allow heat to escape, while blocking the sun’s rays and lowering the temperature. They have described the textiles in the latest issue of Science Bulletin.

The fabric promises to bring relief to millions of city dwellers experiencing warmer and more uncomfortable temperatures caused by global climate change and fewer green spaces.

UniSA visiting researcher Yangzhe Hou says the fabric leverages the principle of radiative cooling, a natural process where materials emit heat into the atmosphere, and ultimately into space.

“Unlike conventional fabrics that retain heat, these textiles are made of three layers that are engineered to optimise cooling,” Hou says.

The upper layer, made of polymethyl pentene fibres, allows heat to radiate effectively. The middle layer, composed of silver nanowires, enhances the fabric’s reflectivity, preventing additional heat from reaching the body. The bottom layer, made of wool, directs heat away from the skin, ensuring that wearers remain cool, even in the hottest urban environments.

“In our experiment, when placed vertically, the fabric was found to be 2.3°C cooler than traditional textiles, and up to 6.2°C cooler than the surrounding environment when used as a horizontal surface covering.

“The fabric’s ability to passively reduce temperatures offers a sustainable alternative to conventional air conditioning, providing energy savings and reducing the strain on power grids during heatwaves.”

Zhengzhou University researchers Jingna Zhang and Professor Xianhu Liu say the technology not only addresses the immediate problem of urban heat islands, but also contributes to broader efforts to mitigate climate change and move towards more sustainable urban living.

It is hoped the technology could be adapted for even broader applications, including construction material, outdoor furniture and urban planning.

While the fabric holds significant promise, researchers say the current production process is costly, and the long-term durability of the textiles needs further investigation and government support before it can be commercialised.

“Whether consumers are willing to pay more for wearable fabrics depend on the cooling effect, durability, comfort and their environmental awareness,” the researchers say.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Radiation cooling textiles countering urban heat islands by Xianhu Liu, Jingna Zhang, Yangzhe Hou, Chuntai Liu, Changyu Shen. Science Bulletin Volume 69, Issue 21, 15 November 2024, Pages 3318-3320 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2024.09.008 Available online 12 September 2024, Version of Record 5 November 2024

This paper is behind a paywall.

Novel visible light communication encryption technology using chiral nanoparticles

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One of the most intriguing (yes, it’s a pun) encryption stories (for me) is centuries old and concerns Mary Queen of Scots, from a February 10, 2023 article by Meilan Solly for Smithsonian Magazine, Note: Links have been removed,

Over the course of her 19 years in captivity, Mary, Queen of Scots, wrote thousands of letters to ambassadors, government officials, fellow monarchs and conspirators alike. Most of these missives had the same underlying goal: securing the deposed Scottish queen’s freedom. After losing her throne in 1567, Mary had fled to England, hoping to find refuge at her cousin Elizabeth I’s court. (Mary’s paternal grandmother, Margaret Tudor, was the sister of Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII.) Instead, the English queen imprisoned Mary, keeping her under house arrest for nearly two decades before ordering her execution in 1587.

Mary’s letters have long fascinated scholars and the public, providing a glimpse into her relentless efforts to secure her release. But the former queen’s correspondence often raises more questions than it answers, in part because Mary took extensive steps to hide her messages from the prying eyes of Elizabeth’s spies. In addition to folding the pages with a technique known as letterlocking, she employed ciphers and codes of varying complexity.

More than 400 years after Mary’s death, a chance discovery by a trio of code breakers is offering new insights into the queen’s final years. As the researchers write in the journal Cryptologia, they originally decided to examine a cache of coded notes housed at the National Library of France as part of a broader push to “locate, digitize, transcribe, decipher and analyze” historic ciphers. Those pages turned out to be 57 of Mary’s encrypted letters, the majority of which were sent to Michel de Castelnau, the French ambassador to England, between 1578 and 1584. All but seven were previously thought to be lost.

Interspersed with a collection of early 16th-century Italian papers, the documents were written in mysterious symbols that offered no clues “as to their sender, recipients or date,” lead author George Lasry, a computer scientist and cryptographer based in Israel, tells Smithsonian magazine. It was only when the scholars spotted the word “Walsingham”—the last name of Elizabeth’s spymaster, Francis Walsingham—that they realized the letters’ significance.

“This was the ‘bingo moment,’” Lasry says. “We were very excited.”

Before getting too excited, the trio set out to confirm whether the letters were already known to historians. While they found copies of a few in British archives, “50 or so are new to historians—and a real gold mine for them,” says Lasry. In total, the letters contain 50,000 words of deciphered material.

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Fascinating, non?

An October 10, 2024 news item on Nanowerk sheds light (more wordplay) on a contemporary approach to encryption,

Seoul National University(SNU) College of Engineering announced that a joint research team led by Professor Ki Tae Nam from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at SNU and Professor Junil Choi from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has developed a novel visible light communication encryption technology with high security using chiral nanoparticles.

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A September 30, 2024 Seoul National University (SNU) press release (also on EurekAlert but published on October 10, 2024), which originated the news item, describes the research in more detail,

Just as a lighthouse provides a guiding beam in the vast darkness of the sea, light-based information transmission has been a crucial means of communication throughout human history. Recently, next-generation communication technology based on visible light, which possesses high frequencies and linearity, has gained attention. It offers advantages such as integration with lighting systems and is free from the electromagnetic interference associated with conventional communication networks. With high security and fast transmission speeds, visible light communication is particularly suitable for local communication systems, especially in military operations involving vehicles, drones, and personnel.

In addition to intensity and wavelength (color), light can carry a vast amount of information through polarization. For instance, 3D movies use polarized filters to deliver two different polarized images to the viewer’s eyes, creating a sense of depth. Recently, efforts have been made to improve the security and performance of visible light communication, including the incorporation of technologies related to polarization, such as quantum information communication based on the superposition of polarization.

The SNU-KAIST joint research team focused on how light polarization can be significantly modulated through interaction with nanomaterials. In this study, they developed an innovative visible light communication encryption technology based on new materials. The core of this technology lies in chiral nanomaterials, which exhibit a symmetric structure when viewed in a mirror but do not overlap. These materials can significantly adjust the tilt of the polarization axis or its rotational properties. Having previously published two papers in 2018 and 2022 in the prestigious journal Nature on “the synthesis and optical device application of chiral nanoparticles with world-class polarization control performance,” the research team has now introduced a visible light communication encryption technology that cannot be replicated or intercepted without detailed information about the nanoparticles.

The chiral nanoparticles used in this technology are created by twisting their crystal structure using biomolecules like proteins and DNA, which possess natural chirality. The optical properties of these nanoparticles cannot be replicated without complete sequence information of the biomolecules used in their synthesis. Therefore, chiral nanoparticles function like fingerprints or unclonable keys in visible light communication, allowing only the receiver with the actual nanoparticles to correctly decode the information. This encryption technology is expected to have significant utility in secure point-to-point communication systems, such as those used in military operations involving drones.

Furthermore, the research team developed a spatiotemporal polarization control device capable of transmitting encrypted polarization information. By combining quantum nanorods, which efficiently emit polarized light, with nanowire materials that provide rotational properties to the light, they used 3D printing to fabricate a polarization control device with hundreds of micrometers of spatial resolution and nanoseconds of temporal resolution, allowing all polarization states to be represented without restriction. The transmitting unit can encrypt and transmit polarization information in a form suited to the polarization control properties of the nanoparticles using this device. This technology is expected to be the foundation for mass production of devices that can control spatiotemporal polarization without being constrained by form factor.

Professor Ki Tae Nam from SNU’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering said, “This research, which actively combines new material technologies with communication technologies, played a crucial role in developing the world’s first and only visible light communication encryption technology. We expect this technology to not only contribute to national defense but also be commercialized rapidly in industrial fields like display technology.” Professor Junil Choi from KAIST’s School of Electrical Engineering added, “This outstanding research result was achieved through joint efforts between material science and electrical engineering experts. In the future, we aim to further develop visible light communication technology based on nanoparticles to create communication systems that are fundamentally impossible to eavesdrop on.” Co-first author Jeong Hyun Han also stated, “We anticipate that this encryption system will act as a platform with great scalability and impact in the field of optical information transmission based on polarization.”

This research was supported by the Future Defense Technology Development Program of the Agency for Defense Development, the Basic Research Laboratory Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea, and private support from LG Display. The research outcome, which has been recognized for its significance, was published in the prestigious multidisciplinary journal Nature Communications on September 27 [2024].

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Spatiotemporally modulated full-polarized light emission for multiplexed optical encryption by Jiawei Lv, Jeong Hyun Han, Geonho Han, Seongmin An, Seung Ju Kim, Ryeong Myeong Kim, Jung‐El Ryu, Rena Oh, Hyuckjin Choi, In Han Ha, Yoon Ho Lee, Minje Kim, Gyeong-Su Park, Ho Won Jang, Junsang Doh, Junil Choi & Ki Tae Nam. Nature Communications volume 15, Article number: 8257 (2024) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52358-7 Published: 27 September 2024

This paper is open access.

Merry 2024 Christmas (1 of 2) High school students discovered a new way to prove Pythagoras’ theorem

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I was very thankful to stumble across this story: Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson who are now in university, have found more ways to solve the theorem but this October 28, 2024 news item in ScienceDaily starts with their first breakthrough,.

In 2022, U.S. high school students Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson astonished teachers when they discovered a new way to prove Pythagoras’ theorem [Pythatgoran Theorem] using trigonometry after entering a competition at their local high school. As a result, both students were awarded keys to the city of New Orleans, and even received personal praise from Michelle Obama.

Today [October 28, 2024?] they become published authors of a new peer-reviewed paper detailing their discoveries, published in the journal American Mathematical Monthly.

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Caption: Ne’Kiya Jackson (left) and Calcea Johnson (right). Photo credit: Calcea Johnson

An October ?, 2024 Taylor & Francis Group press release (also on EurekAlert and published October 28, 2024), which originated the news item, discusses how Jackson and Johnson independently of each other solved the theorem and then worked together to develop more solutions to the theorem,

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Pythagoras’ famous 2,000-year-old theorem, summarized neatly as a2+ b2= c2, means that you can work out the length of any side of a right-angled triangle as long as you know the length of the other two sides. Essentially, the square of the longest side (the hypotenuse) is equal to the squares of the two shorter sides added together.

Many mathematicians over the years have proved the theorem using algebra and geometry. Yet proving it using trigonometry was long thought impossible, as the fundamental formulae of trigonometry are based upon the assumption that the Pythagorean Theorem is true – an example of circular reasoning.

Nevertheless, both Johnson and Jackson managed to solve the math problem independently of each other and prove Pythagoras’ theory without resorting to circular reasoning — a feat that has only been managed twice previously by professional mathematicians.

Johnson and Jackson then collaborated to share their work at a regional meeting of the American Mathematical Society in Atlanta in March 2023. Encouraged by their reception, Jackson and Johnson then decided to submit their discoveries for final peer review and publication. Their study outlines five new ways of proving the theorem using trigonometry, and a method that reveals five more proofs, totaling ten proofs altogether. Only one of these proofs was previously presented at the conference, meaning that nine are totally new.

“I was pretty surprised to be published” says Ne’Kiya Jackson. “I didn’t think it would go this far”.

“To have a paper published at such a young age — it’s really mind blowing,” agrees Calcea Johnson.

“It’s very exciting for me, because I know when I was growing up, STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] wasn’t really a cool thing. So the fact that all these people actually are interested in STEM and mathematics really warms my heart and makes me really excited for how far STEM has come.”

In the paper, the authors argue that one of the reasons that trigonometry causes such confusion and anxiety for high school students is that two completely different versions of trigonometry exist and are defined using the same terms. This means that trying to make sense of trigonometry can be like trying to make sense of a picture where two different images have been printed on top of each other.

Jackson and Johnson argue that by separating the two versions, and focusing on just one of them, a large collection of new proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem can be found.

Jackson currently studies at Xavier University of Louisiana and is pursuing a doctoral degree in pharmacy, while Johnson is studying environmental engineering at Louisiana State University’s Roger Hadfield Ogden Honors College.

“I am very proud that we are both able to be such a positive influence in showing that young women and women of color can do these things, and to let other young women know that they are able to do whatever they want to do. So that makes me very proud to be able to be in that position,” says Johnson.

Commenting on Johnson and Jackson’s achievements, Della Dumbaugh, editor-in-chief of American Mathematical Monthly, says, “The Monthly is honored and delighted to publish the work of these two students on its pages.

“Their results call attention to the promise of the fresh perspective of students on the field. They also highlight the important role of teachers and schools in advancing the next generation of mathematicians.

“Even more, this work echoes the spirit of Benjamin Finkel when he founded the Monthly in 1894 to feature mathematics within reach of teachers and students of mathematics.”

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Five or Ten New Proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem by Ne’Kiya Jackson & Calcea Johnson. The American Mathematical Monthly Volume 131, 2024 – Issue 9 Pages 739-752 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00029890.2024.2370240 Published online: 27 Oct 2024

This paper is open access.

Merry 2024 Christmas (2 of 2) What sounds like something from Star Trek? Answer: 7 new frog species discovered in Madagascar

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‘Captain Sisko’ is a new favourite frog image and the audio file is a revelation (scroll down and the scroll down further). Later on, this is an amusing cartoon version of a Star Trek captain.

As for the story proper, scientists who have a passion for Star Trek have made a discovery in Madagascar, from an October 15, 2024 news item on ScienceDaily,

An international team of researchers have discovered seven new species of tree frogs that make otherworldly calls in the rainforests of Madagascar. Their strange, high-pitched whistling calls sound more like sound effects from the sci-fi series Star Trek. As a result, the researchers have named the new species after seven of the series’ most iconic captains.

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This is a gorgeous frog,

Frog Boophis to be named after Captain Sisko from Star Trek. Photo: Mark D. Scherz

An October 15, 2024 University of Copenhagen press release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item,

If you think all frogs croak, you’d be wrong. Seven newly discovered species from the tree frog genus Boophis, found across the rainforests of Madagascar, emit special bird-like whistling sounds in their communication with other frogs.

These whistling sounds reminded the research team, led by Professor Miguel Vences of the Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany, of Star Trek, where similar whistle-like sound effects are frequently used.

“That’s why we named the frogs after Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway, Archer, Burnham, and Pike—seven of the most iconic captains from the sci-fi series,” says Professor Vences.

“Not only do these frogs sound like sound-effects from Star Trek, but it seems also fitting that to find them, you often have to do quite a bit of trekking! A few species are found in places accessible to tourists, but to find several of these species, we had to undertake major expeditions to remote forest fragments and mountain peaks. There’s a real sense of scientific discovery and exploration here, which we think is in the spirit of Star Trek,” explains Assistant Professor Mark D. Scherz from the Natural History Museum of Denmark at the University of Copenhagen, who was senior author on the study.

To Drown Out the Sound of Water

The otherworldly calls of these frogs are known as “advertisement calls”—a type of self-promotion that, according to the researchers, may convey information about the male frog’s suitability as a mate to females. This particular group live along fast-flowing streams in the most mountainous regions of Madagascar—a loud background that may explain why the frogs call at such high pitches.

For fans of Star Trek, some of the frog calls might remind them of sounds from the so-called ‘boatswain whistle’ and a device called the ‘tricorder.’ To others, they might sound like a bird or an insect.

“If the frogs just croaked like our familiar European frogs, they might not be audible over the sound of rushing water from the rivers they live near. Their high-pitched trills and whistles stand out against all that noise,” explains Dr Jörn Köhler, Senior Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt, Germany, who played a key role in analyzing the calls of the frogs.

“The appearance of the frogs has led to them being confused with similar species until now, but each species makes a distinctive series of these high-pitched whistles, that has allowed us to tell them apart from each other, and from other frogs,” he says.

The calls also lined up with the genetic analysis the team performed.

Vulnerable to Climate Change

Madagascar is renowned for its immense biodiversity, and research in its rainforests continues to uncover hidden species, making it a true paradise for frogs. Madagascar, an island roughly the size of France, is home to about 9% of all the world’s frog species.

“We’ve only scratched the surface of what Madagascar’s rainforests have to offer. Every time we go into the forest, we find new species, and just in terms of frogs, there are still several hundred species we haven’t yet described,” says Professor Andolalao Rakotoarison of the Université d’Itasy in Madagascar. Just in the last ten years, she and the rest of this team have described around 100 new species from the island.

The researchers behind the discovery hope that this new knowledge will strengthen conservation efforts in Madagascar’s rainforests. The species often live in close geographic proximity but at different altitudes and in different microhabitats. This division makes them particularly vulnerable to changes in climate or the environment.

Thus, the research team urges greater awareness around the conservation of Madagascar’s biodiversity to ensure that these unique species and their habitats are preserved for the future. But they also hope to continue exploring, to seek out new species in forests where no scientist has gone before.

Researchers have made an audio file of the ‘Star Trek’ captain calls available, from the October 15, 2024 University of Copenhagen press release on EurekAlert, If I didn’t know, I would have guessed these were frogs,

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper

Communicator whistles: A Trek through the taxonomy of the Boophis marojezensis complex reveals seven new, morphologically cryptic treefrogs from Madagascar (Amphibia: Anura: Mantellidae) by Miguel Vences, Jörn Köhler, Carl R. Hutter, Michaela Preick, Alice Petzold, Andolalao Rakotoarison, Fanomezana M. Ratsoavina, Frank Glaw, Mark D. Scherz. Vertebrate Zoology 74: 643-681 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/vz.74.e121110 Published October 14, 2024

This article appears to be open access.

There is an amusing illustration of one of the ‘Star Trek’ frog. Unfortunately, there isn’t a caption or credit for the illustration but it is from the University of Copenhagen,