Tag Archives: Arizona State University (ASU)

How memristors retain information without a power source? A mystery solved

A September 10, 2024 news item on ScienceDaily provides a technical explanation of how memristors, without a power source, can retain information,

Phase separation, when molecules part like oil and water, works alongside oxygen diffusion to help memristors — electrical components that store information using electrical resistance — retain information even after the power is shut off, according to a University of Michigan led study recently published in Matter.

A September 11, 2024 University of Michigan press release (also on EurekAltert but published September 10, 2024), which originated the news item, delves further into the research,

Up to this point, explanations have not fully grasped how memristors retain information without a power source, known as nonvolatile memory, because models and experiments do not match up.

“While experiments have shown devices can retain information for over 10 years, the models used in the community show that information can only be retained for a few hours,” said Jingxian Li, U-M doctoral graduate of materials science and engineering and first author of the study.

To better understand the underlying phenomenon driving nonvolatile memristor memory, the researchers focused on a device known as resistive random access memory or RRAM, an alternative to the volatile RAM used in classical computing, and are particularly promising for energy-efficient artificial intelligence applications. 

The specific RRAM studied, a filament-type valence change memory (VCM), sandwiches an insulating tantalum oxide layer between two platinum electrodes. When a certain voltage is applied to the platinum electrodes, a conductive filament forms a tantalum ion bridge passing through the insulator to the electrodes, which allows electricity to flow, putting the cell in a low resistance state representing a “1” in binary code. If a different voltage is applied, the filament is dissolved as returning oxygen atoms react with the tantalum ions, “rusting” the conductive bridge and returning to a high resistance state, representing a binary code of “0”. 

It was once thought that RRAM retains information over time because oxygen is too slow to diffuse back. However, a series of experiments revealed that previous models have neglected the role of phase separation. 

“In these devices, oxygen ions prefer to be away from the filament and will never diffuse back, even after an indefinite period of time. This process is analogous to how a mixture of water and oil will not mix, no matter how much time we wait, because they have lower energy in a de-mixed state,” said Yiyang Li, U-M assistant professor of materials science and engineering and senior author of the study.

To test retention time, the researchers sped up experiments by increasing the temperature. One hour at 250°C is equivalent to about 100 years at 85°C—the typical temperature of a computer chip.

Using the extremely high-resolution imaging of atomic force microscopy, the researchers imaged filaments, which measure only about five nanometers or 20 atoms wide, forming within the one micron wide RRAM device.  

“We were surprised that we could find the filament in the device. It’s like finding a needle in a haystack,” Li said. 

The research team found that different sized filaments yielded different retention behavior. Filaments smaller than about 5 nanometers dissolved over time, whereas filaments larger than 5 nanometers strengthened over time. The size-based difference cannot be explained by diffusion alone.

Together, experimental results and models incorporating thermodynamic principles showed the formation and stability of conductive filaments depend on phase separation. 

The research team leveraged phase separation to extend memory retention from one day to well over 10 years in a rad-hard memory chip—a memory device built to withstand radiation exposure for use in space exploration. 

Other applications include in-memory computing for more energy efficient AI applications or memory devices for electronic skin—a stretchable electronic interface designed to mimic the sensory capabilities of human skin. Also known as e-skin, this material could be used to provide sensory feedback to prosthetic limbs, create new wearable fitness trackers or help robots develop tactile sensing for delicate tasks.

“We hope that our findings can inspire new ways to use phase separation to create information storage devices,” Li said.

Researchers at Ford Research, Dearborn; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; University at Albany; NY CREATES; Sandia National Laboratories; and Arizona State University, Tempe contributed to this study.

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

Thermodynamic origin of nonvolatility in resistive memory by Jingxian Li, Anirudh Appachar, Sabrina L. Peczonczyk, Elisa T. Harrison, Anton V. Ievlev, Ryan Hood, Dongjae Shin, Sangmin Yoo, Brianna Roest, Kai Sun, Karsten Beckmann, Olya Popova, Tony Chiang, William S. Wahby, Robin B. Jacobs-Godrim, Matthew J. Marinella, Petro Maksymovych, John T. Heron, Nathaniel Cady, Wei D. Lu, Suhas Kumar, A. Alec Talin, Wenhao Sun, Yiyang Li. Matter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2024.07.018 Published online: August 26, 2024

This paper is behind a paywall.

Submit abstracts by Jan. 31 for 2025 Governance of Emerging Technologies & Science (GETS) Conference at Arizona State U

This call for abstracts from Arizona State University (ASU) for the Twelfth Annual Governance of Emerging Technologies and Science (GETS) Conference was received via email,

GETS 2025: Call for abstracts

Save the date for the Twelfth Annual Governance of Emerging Technologies and Science Conference, taking place May 19 and 20, 2025 at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University in Phoenix, AZ. The conference will consist of plenary and session presentations and discussions on regulatory, governance, legal, policy, social and ethical aspects of emerging technologies, including:

National security
Nanotechnology
Quantum computing
Autonomous vehicles
3D printing
Robotics
Synthetic biology
Gene editing
Artificial intelligence
Biotechnology

Genomics
Internet of things (IoT)
Autonomous weapon systems
Personalized medicine
Neuroscience
Digital health
Human enhancement
Telemedicine
Virtual reality
Blockchain

Call for abstracts: The co-sponsors invite submission of abstracts for proposed presentations. Submitters of abstracts need not provide a written paper, although provision will be made for posting and possible post-conference publication of papers for those who are interested.

  • Abstracts are invited for any aspect or topic relating to the governance of emerging technologies, including any of the technologies listed above
  • Abstracts should not exceed 500 words and must contain your name and email address
  • Abstracts must be submitted by Friday, January 31, 2025, to be considered

Submit your abstract

For more information contact Eric Hitchcock.

Good luck!

Modem Futura: a podcast about where technology, society and humanity converge

An October 9, 2024 notice from Dr. Andrew Maynard, Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society At Arizona State University (ASU) about one of his latest projects, a podcast, popped into my emailbox,


 My apologies if this is a duplicate email, but I wanted to let you know
that we’ve just launched a new podcast through the ASU [Arizona State University] Future of Being Human initiative that you may be interested in:

 Modem Futura:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/modem-futura/id1771688480 [1]

 The podcast’s available on Apple Podcasts and pretty much everywhere
else you listen to your favorite podcasts. Hosted by myself and my
colleague Sean Leahy, it’s a conversational podcast that explores the
intersection between emerging technologies, society and the future in
what we hope is an authentic, nuanced and entertaining way.

 Please do check it out if you have a moment (or are an avid podcast
listener), and if you enjoy it, please do spread the word, subscribe,
and even leave us a review.

 We believe there’s a real hunger for nuanced and balanced discussions
in this area, and are expecting the podcast to have considerable reach
— but every bit helps us in achieving this.

I listened to the episode, “The Pilot – Exploring the Future of Being Human” and it was an engaging 22 mins. The two hosts, Andrew Maynard and his colleague, Dr. Sean Leahy, obviously like and get along well with each other. Here are some episode notes, from https://modem-futura.simplecast.com/episodes (click on the Pilot episode for the notes),

In this pilot episode of Modem Futura, hosts Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard explore the intersection of technology, society, and the human experience. They discuss the origins of the podcast, the significance of the Future of Being Human Initiative, and the importance of inclusive conversations about the future. The episode highlights personal journeys into futurism, the need for diverse voices in discussions about emerging technologies, and the wonder of scientific exploration. The hosts also tease future topics and themes for upcoming episodes, emphasizing the podcast’s goal of inspiring curiosity and dialogue.

Key takeaways

The podcast aims to explore the intersection of technology and humanity.

Modems symbolize the translation of complex signals into understandable insights.

The Future of Being Human Initiative seeks to create inclusive conversations about the future.

Personal experiences shape our understanding of futurism and technology.

Everyone has valuable insights to contribute to discussions about the future.

Creating spaces for difficult conversations is essential in a polarized world.

Science and wonder can coexist in discussions about the future.

The podcast will cover a wide range of intriguing topics.

Engaging with diverse voices enriches the conversation about the future.

Sean and Andrew are excited to explore the unknown and challenge conventional thinking.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Modem Futura

01:53 The Concept of Modems and Futures

04:51 The Future of Being Human Initiative

08:41 Personal Journeys into Futurism

12:21 The Importance of Inclusive Conversations

16:24 Exploring the Intersection of Science and Wonder

19:05 Looking Ahead: Topics and Themes for Future Episodes

Modem Futura is a production of the Future of Being Human initiative at Arizona State University.

The Future of Being Human Initiative is describe this way on its homepage,

We are a unique community of bold, audacious and visionary thinkers who are inspired by what it might mean to be human in a technologically transformed future and who are passionate about exploring how this influences our thinking and actions in the present.

We create and curate ways of bringing people together to explore compelling questions and transformative ideas around the future of being human.

Some of these are intimate informal hangouts, others are cutting edge online discussions. And some are high profile public events and even retreats.

We are even developing educational opportunities unlike anything you’ll find anywhere else!

All of these are driven by a passion to bring together audacious, original and passionate thinkers to push the boundaries of how we imagine the future of being human in a technologically complex world, and how this can inform our ideas, aspirations, and actions, in the present.

As a community we are captivated andinspired by compelling questions around the how emerging technologies may challenge and transform what it means to be human.

Questions like:

  • Will we live our future lives in a computer simulation?
  • Will aging one day become a thing of the past?
  • Will artificial intelligence upend our notions of personhood and autonomy?
  • Could cryopreservation transform how we think about the future?
  • What will life in a post-scarcity future look like?
  • Will we be able to design and create synthetic consciousness in the future?
  • How will quantum computing change our understanding of ourselves and what is possible?
  • How could atomically precise manufacturing transform our lives?
  • Will we be able to upload our memories and personalities to the cloud in the future?
  • How will advanced technologies transform the future of travel?
  • Could advanced gene editing allow us to radically rethink our biological selves?
  • How do we successfully navigate Advanced Technology Transitions?
  • Is longtermism a viable approach to designing the future?
  • Will future technologies radically catalyze our creative potential?

Enjoy!

Critical Networked Experience (part of the international Leonardo LASER series) event on October 10, 2024 in Toronto, Canada

Toronto’s ArtSci Salon, one of the hosts, has announced (in an undated notice) an upcoming event,

LASER Toronto – Critical Networked Experience – Jonah Brucker-Cohen – Oct 10, 2024

Critical Networked Experience. An artist talk with Jonah Brucker-Cohen

Thursday, October 10, 2024
5:30-7:30 pm [ET]
The Fields Institute for research in Mathematical Sciences
222 College Street

Register here

Jonah will discuss his projects and work in the theme of “Critical Networked Experience” that challenge and subvert accepted notions of network interaction and socialization. His presentation will cross themes related to social justice and police surveillance, Artificial Intelligence and the loss of human skills, environmental artwork that challenges notions of sustainability, critical networked interfaces and more. Some projects he will discuss include “BumpList”, an email community for the determined, “Weapon of Protest”, a modified game controller that protests gun violence in the US, “To Protect and Server” a critical modification of Google’s ReCaptcha software to emphasis police brutality and social justice, “Killer Route” a GPS navigation system that integrates live crime data, “Human Error” a series of works that emphasize humanity’s inability to understand technical interfaces, “ContactRot” an iPhone app that challenges our reliance on the cloud, “Alerting Infrastructure!”, a website hit counter that destroys a building, “WordPlay” a public installation for the New York Hall of Science, and he will end with his interactive SMS visualization, “Rhetoricall”, that everyone in the audience can participate in.

About the Artist:
Jonah Brucker-Cohen, Ph.D., is an artist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at Lehman College / CUNY in the Bronx. He was a visiting artist at Cornell Tech and designer in residence at the New York Hall of Science. He received his Ph.D. from Trinity College Dublin. His work focuses on “Deconstructing Networks” with works that challenge and subvert accepted perceptions of network interaction. His artwork has been exhibited at venues such as SFMOMA, Canadian Museum of Contemporary Art, MOMA, ICA London, Whitney Museum of American Art, Palais du Tokyo, Tate Modern, Ars Electronica, Transmediale, and more. His artworks, “Bumplist” and “America’s Got No Talent” are in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art. He has written for WIRED, Make, Gizmodo, Neural and more. His Scrapyard Challenge workshops have been held in over 15 countries in Europe, South America, North America, Asia, and Australia since 2003.
Projects and Work: http://www.coin-operated.com

This event is part of the international Leonardo LASER series 
LASER Toronto is hosted by Nina Czegledy and Roberta Buiani

About Leonardo and more

For anyone curious about LASER and international Leonardo, here’s the scoop starting with international Leonardo. From the “Leonardo, the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology” Wikipedia entry, Note: Links have been removed,

Leonardo, The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (Leonardo/ISAST) is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit formed in 1982[1][2][3] as an umbrella organization for the journals Leonardo and the Leonardo Music Journal. In 2018, Leonardo/ISAST was awarded the Golden Nica Prix Ars Electronica[4][5] as Visionary Pioneers of New Media Art.[6]

Leonardo/ISAST existed before it became a registered nonprofit according to the About Leonardo webpage on the Leonardo.info website,

Fearlessly pioneering since 1968, Leonardo serves as THE community forging a transdisciplinary network to convene, research, collaborate, and disseminate best practices at the nexus of arts, science and technology worldwide. Leonardo’ serves a network of transdisciplinary scholars, artists, scientists, technologists and thinkers, who experiment with cutting-edge, new approaches, practices, systems and solutions to tackle the most complex challenges facing humanity today.

As a not-for-profit 501(c)3 enterprising think tank, Leonardo offers a global platform for creative exploration and collaboration reaching tens of thousands of people across 135 countries. Our flagship publication, Leonardo, the world’s leading scholarly journal on transdisciplinary art, anchors a robust publishing partnership with MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] Press; our partnership with ASU [Arizona State University] infuses educational innovation with digital art and media for lifelong learning; our creative programs span thought-provoking events, exhibits, residencies and fellowships, scholarship and social enterprise ventures.

I think Arizona State University (ASU) is effectively housing Leonardo/ISAST but they don’t describe it that way, from the About Leonardo webpage,

ASU-Leonardo Initiative(link is external)

The ASU-Leonardo Initiative drives innovation at the intersection of arts, sciences, and technology. As an enterprising think tank, ASU-Leonardo integrates hybrid, creative inquiry and practice as catalysts to solve compelling problems, explore timeless mysteries, and shape a finer future. We build on the history of Leonardo, the International Society of Arts, Sciences, and Technology, and forge new pathways forward for all.

LASER Talks

Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous (LASER) was an initiative started in 2008 by cultural historian Piero Scaruff (according to this now defunct call for papers). The initiative seems to have grown into a series of programmes including LASER Talks.

Finally, LASER Talks is this, from the Leonardo.info/lasertalks webpage,

Leonardo/ISAST LASER Talks is a program of international gatherings that bring artists, scientists, humanists and technologists together for informal presentations, performances and conversations with the wider public. The mission of LASER is to encourage contribution to the cultural environment of a region by fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and opportunities for community building to over 50 cities and 5 continents worldwide.

Upcoming LASER Events

For some reason the Toronto event is not listed as an upcoming LASER event. One more thing, the Toronto event seems to be an in-person only event.

Nanoscientists speculate that artificial life forms could be medicine of the future

Even after all these years, my jaw is still capable of dropping but then I read the details. This looks a lot like ‘medical nanobots’ which researchers have been talking about for a long time. Nice twist on a familiar theme. From an October 5, 2023 news item on ScienceDaily,

Imagine a life form that doesn’t resemble any of the organisms found on the tree of life. One that has its own unique control system, and that a doctor would want to send into your body. It sounds like a science fiction movie, but according to nanoscientists, it can—and should—happen in the future.

Creating artificial life is a recurring theme in both science and popular literature, where it conjures images of creeping slime creatures with malevolent intentions or super-cute designer pets. At the same time, the question arises: What role should artificial life play in our environment here on Earth, where all life forms are created by nature and have their own place and purpose?

Associate professor Chenguang Lou from the Department of Physics, Chemistry, and Pharmacy, University of Southern Denmark, together with Professor Hanbin Mao from Kent State University, is the parent of a special artificial hybrid molecule that could lead to the creation of artificial life forms. They have now published a review in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science on the state of research in the field behind their creation. The field is called “hybrid peptide-DNA nanostructures,” and it is an emerging field, less than ten years old.

An October 5, 2023 University of Southern Denmark press release (also on EurekAlert) by Birgitte Svennevig, which originated the news item, shares the researcher’s (Chenguang Lou) vision for the research and more technical details about “hybrid peptide-DNA nanostructures” along with other international research efforts,

Lou’s vision is to create viral vaccines (modified and weakened versions of a virus) and artificial life forms that can be used for diagnosing and treating diseases.

“In nature, most organisms have natural enemies, but some do not. For example, some disease-causing viruses have no natural enemy. It would be a logical step to create an artificial life form that could become an enemy to them,” he says.

Similarly, he envisions such artificial life forms can act as vaccines against viral infection and can be used as nanorobots [also known as nanobots] or nanomachines loaded with medication or diagnostic elements and sent into a patient’s body.

“An artificial viral vaccine may be about 10 years away. An artificial cell, on the other hand, is on the horizon because it consists of many elements that need to be controlled before we can start building with them. But with the knowledge we have, there is, in principle, no hindrance to produce artificial cellular organisms in the future,” he says.

What are the building blocks that Lou and his colleagues in this field will use to create viral vaccines and artificial life? DNA and peptides are some of the most important biomolecules in nature, making DNA technology and peptide technology the two most powerful molecular tools in the nanotechnological toolkit today. DNA technology provides precise control over programming, from the atomic level to the macro level, but it can only provide limited chemical functions since it only has four bases: A, C, G, and T. Peptide technology, on the other hand, can provide sufficient chemical functions on a large scale, as there are 20 amino acids to work with. Nature uses both DNA and peptides to build various protein factories found in cells, allowing them to evolve into organisms.

Recently, Hanbin Mao and Chenguang Lou have succeeded in linking designed three-stranded DNA structures with three-stranded peptide structures, thus creating an artificial hybrid molecule that combines the strengths of both. This work was published in Nature Communications in 2022. (read the article here “Chirality transmission in macromolecular domains” and the press release at https://www.sdu.dk/en/om_sdu/fakulteterne/naturvidenskab/nyheder-2022/supermolekyle)

Elsewhere in the world, other researchers are also working on connecting DNA and peptides because this connection forms a strong foundation for the development of more advanced biological entities and life forms.

At Oxford University, researchers have succeeded in building a nanomachine made of DNA and peptides that can drill through a cell membrane, creating an artificial membrane channel through which small molecules can pass. (Spruijt et al., Nat. Nanotechnol. 2018, 13, 739-745)

At Arizona State University, Nicholas Stephanopoulos and colleagues have enabled DNA and peptides to self-assemble into 2D and 3D structures. (Buchberger et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142, 1406-1416)

At Northwest University [Northwestern University?], researchers have shown that microfibers can form in conjunction with DNA and peptides self-assembling. DNA and peptides operate at the nano level, so when considering the size differences, microfibers are huge. (Freeman et al., Science, 2018, 362, 808-813)

At Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, scientists have used hybrid molecules to create an onion-like spherical structure containing cancer medication, which holds promise to be used in the body to target cancerous tumors. (Chotera et al., Chem. Eur. J., 2018, 24, 10128-10135)

“In my view, the overall value of all these efforts is that they can be used to improve society’s ability to diagnose and treat sick people. Looking forward, I will not be surprised that one day we can arbitrarily create hybrid nanomachines, viral vaccines and even artificial life forms from these building blocks to help the society to combat those difficult-to-cure diseases. It would be a revolution in healthcare,” says Chenguang Lou.

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

Peptide-DNA conjugates as building blocks for de novo design of hybrid nanostructures by Mathias Bogetoft Danielsen, Hanbin Mao, Chenguang Lou. Cell Reports Physical Science Volume 4, Issue 10, 18 October 2023, 101620 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2023.101620

This paper is open access.

Purifying DNA origami nanostructures with a LEGO robot

This July 20, 2023 article by Bob Yirka for phys.org highlights some frugal science, Note: A link has been removed,

A team of bioengineers at Arizona State University has found a way to use a LEGO robot as a gradient mixer in one part of a process to create DNA origami nanostructures. In their paper published on the open-access site PLOS [Public Library of Science] ONE, the group describes how they made their mixer and its performance.

To create DNA origami structures, purification of DNA [deoxyribonucleic acid] origami nanostructures is required. This is typically done using rate-zone centrifugation, which involves the use of a relatively expensive piece of a machinery, a gradient mixer. In this new effort, the team at ASU has found that it is possible to build such a mixer using off-the-shelf LEGO kits.

I found a video provided by MindSpark Media describing the process on YouTube,

I’d love to know who paid for the video and why. This is pretty slick and it’s not from the Arizona State University’s (ASU) media team.

It gets more interesting on the MindSpark Media About webpage,

MindSpark Media is an independent media unit focusing on all major Media & Marketing services that includes Media Buying and Selling activities, bringing out special features on various supplements/country reports and international features on topics of interest in association with various leading English & Arabic vernaculars in the UAE [United Arab Emirates] and across MENA [Middle East and North Africa].

MindSpark Media is a complete media-selling experience that offers its clientele a wholesome exposure to the best media brands in the country. We also offer an opportunity to meet up and interact with the top brass of the industry & corporates for their advertorial packages including one-to-one interviews with photo-shoot sessions etc.

MindSpark Media delivers client-tailored advertorials that includes their product advertisements, features and interviews published in the form of special reports, supplements & special features, which are released and distributed with top-notch publications in the UAE.

We also focus on advertising activities in the media-buying sector such as Print, Outdoor, TV, Radio and Corporate Video, e-commerce & web-designing for clients in the UAE, MENA and beyond.

Perhaps the researchers are hoping to commercialize the work in some fashion? I couldn’t find any mention of a startup or other commercial entity but it’s a common practice these days in the US and, increasingly, many other countries.

Getting back to the research, here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Gradient-mixing LEGO robots for purifying DNA origami nanostructures of multiple components by rate-zonal centrifugation by Jason Sentosa, Franky Djutanta, Brian Horne, Dominic Showkeir, Robert Rezvani, Chloe Leff, Swechchha Pradhan, Rizal F. Hariadi. PLOS ONE (2023). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0283134 Published: July 19, 2023

This paper is open access.

Comments on today’s (September 20, 2023) media briefing for the US National Science Foundation’s (NSF) inaugural Global Centers Competition awards

I almost missed the briefing but the folks at the US National Science Foundation (NSF) kindly allowed me to join the meeting despite being 10 minutes late. Before launching into my comments, here’s what we were discussing,

From a September 20, 2023 NSF media briefing (received via email),

U. S. National Science Foundation Media Briefing on the Inaugural Global Centers Awards  

Please join the U.S. National Science Foundation this Wednesday September 20th from 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. EST for a discussion and Q&A on the inaugural Global Centers Competition awards. Earlier this week, NSF along with partner funding agencies from Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom — announced awards totaling $76.4 million for the inaugural Global Centers Competition. These international, interdisciplinary collaborative research centers will apply best practices of broadening participation and community engagement to develop use-inspired research on climate change and clean energy. The centers will also create and promote opportunities for students and early-career researchers to gain education and training in world-class research while enhancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.

NSF will have a panel of experts on hand to discuss and answer questions about these new Global Centers and how they will sync talent across the globe to generate the discoveries and solutions needed to empower resilient communities everywhere.

What: Panel discussion and Q&A on NSF’s Global Centers

When: 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. EST, Wednesday, September 20th, 2023

Where: This briefing [is over.]

Who: Scheduled panelists include…

Anne Emig is the Section Chief for the Programs and Analysis Section in the National Science Foundation Office of International Science and Engineering

Dr. Tanya Berger-Wolf is the Principal Investigator for the Global Centers Track 1 project on AI and Biodiversity Change as well as the Director of the Translational Data Analytics Institute and a Professor of Computer Science Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, as well as Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology at the Ohio State University

Dr. Meng Tao is the Principal Investigator for the Global Centers Track 1 project Global Hydrogen Production Technologies Center as well as a Professor, School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering at Arizona State University

Dr. Ashish Sharma is the Principal Investigator for the Global Centers Track 1 project Clean Energy and Equitable Transportation Solutions as well as the Climate and Urban Sustainability Lead at the Discovery Partners Institute, University of Illinois System

Note: This briefing is only open to members of the media

I’m glad to have learned about this effort and applaud the NSF for its outreach efforts. By comparison, Canadian agencies (I’m looking at you, Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada [NSERC] and Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada [SSHRC]) have a lot to learn.

There’s a little more about the Global Centers Competition awards in a September 18, 2023 NSF news release,

Today [September 18, 2023], the U.S. National Science Foundation — along with partner funding agencies from Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom — announced awards totaling $76.4 million for the inaugural Global Centers Competition. These international, interdisciplinary collaborative research centers will apply best practices of broadening participation and community engagement to develop use-inspired research on climate change and clean energy. The centers will also create and promote opportunities for students and early-career researchers to gain education and training in world-class research while enhancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.

“NSF builds capacity and advances its priorities through these centers of research excellence by uniting diverse teams from around the world,” said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. “Global Centers will sync talent across the globe to generate the discoveries and solutions needed to empower resilient communities everywhere.”

Global Centers are sponsored in part by a multilateral funding activity led by NSF and four partner funding organizations: Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Canada’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), and the United Kingdom’s UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Both collectively and independently, the centers will support convergent interdisciplinary research collaborations focused on assessing and mitigating the impacts of climate change on society, people, and communities. Outcomes from Global Centers’ activities will inform and catalyze the development of innovative solutions and technologies to address climate change. Examples include: enhancing awareness of critical information; advancing and advocating for decarbonization efforts; creating climate change adaptation plans tailored to specific localities and groups; using artificial intelligence to study responses of nature to climate change; transboundary water issues; and scaling the production of next-generation technologies aimed at achieving net zero. Several projects include partnerships with tribal groups or historically Black colleges and universities that will broaden participation.

“The National Science Foundation Global Centres initiative provides students and researchers a platform to advance innovative and interdisciplinary research and gain education and training opportunities in world-class research while also enhancing diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility,” said NSERC President Alejandro Adem. “We at NSERC look forward to seeing the outcomes of the work being done by some of Canada and the world’s best and brightest minds to tackle one of the biggest issues of our time.”

The awards are divided into two tracks. Track 1 are Implementation grants with co-funding from international partners. Track 2 are Design grants meant to provide seed funding to develop the teams and the science for future competitions. Many additional countries are involved in Track 2 and will increase global engagement.

There are seven Track 1 Global Centers that involve research partnerships with Australia, Canada, and the U.K. Each Track 1 Global Center will be implemented by internationally dispersed teams consisting of U.S. and foreign researchers. U.S. researchers will be supported by NSF up to $5 million over four to five years, while foreign researchers will be supported by their respective country’s funding agency (CSIRO, NSERC, SSHRC and UKRI) with a comparable amount of funds.

There are 14 Track 2 Global Centers that are at the community-driven design stage. These centers’ teams involve U.S. researchers in partnerships with foreign researchers from any country. NSF will provide the U.S. researchers up to $250,000 of seed funding over a two-year period. These multidisciplinary, international teams will coordinate the research and education efforts needed to become competitive for Track-1 funding in the future.

“Our combined investment in Global Centers enables exciting researcher and innovation-led international and interdisciplinary collaboration to drive the energy transition,” said UKRI CEO, Dame Ottoline Leyser. “I look forward to seeing the creative solutions developed through these global collaborations.”

Kirsten Rose, Acting Chief Executive of CSIRO, said as Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO is proud to be part of a strong national contribution to solving this critical global challenge. “Partnering with the NSF’s Global Centers means Australia remains at the global forefront of work to build a clean hydrogen industry, build integrated and equitable energy systems, and partnering with regions and industries for a low emissions future.”

Track 1 (Implementation)

  • Global Hydrogen Production Technologies (HyPT) Center
    Grant number: 2330525
    Arizona State University and U.S. partner institutions: University of Michigan, Stanford University and Navajo Technical University.
    Quadrilateral research partnership with Australia, Canada, and the U.K.
    Critical and Emerging Tech: green hydrogen (renewable energy generation).
     
  • Electric Power Innovation for a Carbon-free Society (EPICS)
    Grant number: 2330450
    The Johns Hopkins University and U.S. partner institutions: Georgia Institute of Technology, University of California, Davis, and Resources for the Future.
    Trilateral research partnership with Australia and the U.K.
    Critical and Emerging Tech: renewable energy storage.
     
  • Global Nitrogen Innovation Center for Clean Energy and Environment (NICCEE)
    Grant number: 2330502
    University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences and U.S. partner institutions: New York University and University of Massachusetts Amherst.
    Trilateral research partnership with Canada and the U.K.
    Critical & Emerging Tech: green ammonia (bioeconomy + agriculture).
     
  • Understanding Climate Change Impacts on Transboundary Waters
    Grant number: 2330317
    University of Michigan and U.S. partner institutions: Cornell University, College of the Menominee Nation, Red Lake Nation and University of Wisconsin–Madison.
    Bilateral research partnership with Canada.
    Critical and Emerging Tech: N/A.
     
  • AI and Biodiversity Change (ABC)
    Grant number: 2330423 
    The Ohio State University and U.S. partner institutions: University of Pittsburgh and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
    Bilateral Research partnership with Canada.
    Critical and Emerging Tech: AI.
     
  • U.S.-Canada Center on Climate-Resilient Western Interconnected Grid
    Grant number: 2330582                
    The University of Utah and U.S. partner institutions: University of California San Diego, The University of New Mexico, and The Nevada System of Higher Education.     
    Bilateral Research partnership with Canada.
    Critical and Emerging Tech: AI.
     
  • Clean Energy and Equitable Transportation Solutions
    Grant number: 2330565
    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and U.S. partner institutions: University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and Arizona State University.
    Bilateral Research partnership with the U.K.
    Critical and Emerging Tech: N/A
     

Track 2 (Design)

  • Developing Solutions to Decarbonize Emissions and Fuels
    Grant number: 2330509              
    University of Maryland, College Park.
    International collaboration with Japan, Israel, and Ghana.             
     
  • Enhanced Wind Turbine Blade Durability
    Grant number: 2329911              
    Cornell University.
    International collaboration with Canada, the UK, Norway, Denmark, and Spain.
     
  • Building the Global Center for Forecasting Freshwater Futures
    Grant number: 2330211
    Virginia Tech.
    International collaboration with Australia.
     
  • Climate Risk and Resilience: Southeast Asia as a Living Lab (SEALL)
    Grant number: 2330308
    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
    International collaboration with Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, and India.
     
  • Climate-Smart Food-Energy-Water Nexus in Small Farms
    Grant number: 2330505              
    The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture.        
    International collaboration with Argentina, Brazil, Guatemala, Panama, Cambodia, and Uganda.
     
  • Center for Household Energy and Thermal Resilience (HEaTR)
    Grant number: 2330533              
    Cornell University.
    International collaboration with India, the U.K, Ghana, and Singapore.
     
  • Enabling interdisciplinary wildfire research for community resilience
    Grant number: 2330343              
    Oregon State University.
    International collaborations with Australia and the U.K.
     
  • SuReMin: Sustainable, resilient, responsible global minerals supply chain
    Grant number: 2330041              
    Northwestern University.
    International collaboration with Chile.
     
  • Nature-based Urban Hydrology Center
    Grant number: 2330413              
    Villanova University.
    International collaboration with Canada, the U.K, Switzerland, Ireland, Australia, Chile, and Turkey.
     
  • A multi-disciplinary framework to combat climate-induced desert locust upsurges, outbreaks, and plagues in East Africa
    Grand number: 2330452
    Georgia State University.
    International collaboration with Ethiopia.
     
  • US-Africa Research Center for Clean Energy
    Grant number: 2330437
    Georgia Institute of Technology.
    International collaborations with Rwanda.
     
  • Equitable and User-Centric Energy Market for Resilient Grid-interactive Communities
    Grant number: 2330504
    Santa Clara University.
    International collaboration with Canada.
     
  • Energy Sovereignty for Indigenous Peoples (ESIP)
    Grant number: 2330387
    University of North Dakota.
    International collaboration with Canada.
     
  • Blue Climate Solutions
    Grant number: 2330518              
    University of Rhode Island.
    International collaboration with Indonesia.

For Canadian researchers who are interested, there’s a National Science Foundation Global Centres webpage on the NSERC website, which answers a lot of questions about the programme from a Canadian perspective. The application deadline for both tracks was May 10, 2023 and there’s no information (as of September 20, 2023) about future competitions. Nice to see the social science and humanities included in the form of a funding agency. (I think this might be the one compliment I deliver to a Canadian funding initiative this year. 🙂

For American researchers, there’s the NSF’s Global Centers webpage; for UK researchers, there’s the United Kingdom’s Research and Innovation’s Global Centres in clean energy and climate change webpage; and for Australian researchers, there’s the CSIRO’s National Science Foundation Global Centers webpage. Application deadlines have passed for all of these competitions and there’s no information (as of September 20, 2023) about future competitions.

A few comments

News about local and international affairs (see Seth Borenstein’s September 20, 2023 Associated Press article “UN chief warns of ‘gates of hell’ in climate summit, but carbon polluting nations stay silent”) and one’s own personal experience with climate issues can be discouraging at times so it’s heartening to see these efforts. Kudos to the organizers of the Global Centers programme and I wish all the researchers success.

Given how new these centers are, it’s understandable that the panelists would be a little fuzzy about specific although they’ve clearly considered and are attempting to address issues such as sharing data, trust, and outreach to various stakeholders and communities.

I wish I’d asked about cybersecurity when they were talking about data. Ah well, there was my question about outreach to people over the age of 50 or 55 as so much of their planning was focused on youth. The panelists who responded (Dr. Tanya Berger-Wolf, Dr. Meng Tao, and Dr. Ashish Sharma) did not seem to have done much thinking about seniors/elders/older people.

I believe bird watching (as mentioned by one of the panelists) does tend to attract older people but citizen science or other hobbies/programmes mentioned may or may not be a good source for seniors outreach. Almost all science outreach tilts to youth including citizen science.

With the planet is not doing so well and with the aging populations in Canada, the US, many European countries, China, Japan, and I’m sure many others perhaps some new thinking about ‘inclusivity’ might be in order. One suggestion, start thinking about age groups. In the same way that 20 is not 30, is not 40, so 55 is not 65, is not 75. One more thing, perhaps take into account life experience. Something that gets forgotten is that a lot of the programmes that people take for granted and a lot of the technology people use today was developed in the 1960s (e.g. Internet). That old person? Maybe it’s someone who founded the UN’s Environment Program (I was teaching a nanotechnology course in a seniors programme and asked students about themselves; I was intimidated by her credentials).

In the end, this Global Center initiative is heartening news.

Shaving the ‘hairs’ off nanocrystals for more efficient electronics

A March 24, 2022 news item on phys.org announced research into nanoscale crystals and how they might be integrated into electronic devices, Note: A link has been removed,

You can carry an entire computer in your pocket today because the technological building blocks have been getting smaller and smaller since the 1950s. But in order to create future generations of electronics—such as more powerful phones, more efficient solar cells, or even quantum computers—scientists will need to come up with entirely new technology at the tiniest scales.

One area of interest is nanocrystals. These tiny crystals can assemble themselves into many configurations, but scientists have had trouble figuring out how to make them talk to each other.  

A new study introduces a breakthrough in making nanocrystals function together electronically. Published March 25 [2022] in Science, the research may open the doors to future devices with new abilities. 

A March 25, 2022 University of Chicago news release (also on EurekAlert but published on March 24, 2022), which originated the news item, expands on the possibilities the research makes possible, Note: Links have been removed,

“We call these super atomic building blocks, because they can grant new abilities—for example, letting cameras see in the infrared range,” said University of Chicago Prof. Dmitri Talapin, the corresponding author of the paper. “But until now, it has been very difficult to both assemble them into structures and have them talk to each other. Now for the first time, we don’t have to choose. This is a transformative improvement.”  

In their paper, the scientists lay out design rules which should allow for the creation of many different types of materials, said Josh Portner, a Ph.D. student in chemistry and one of the first authors of the study. 

A tiny problem

Scientists can grow nanocrystals out of many different materials: metals, semiconductors, and magnets will each yield different properties. But the trouble was that whenever they tried to assemble these nanocrystals together into arrays, the new supercrystals would grow with long “hairs” around them. 

These hairs made it difficult for electrons to jump from one nanocrystal to another. Electrons are the messengers of electronic communication; their ability to move easily along is a key part of any electronic device. 

The researchers needed a method to reduce the hairs around each nanocrystal, so they could pack them in more tightly and reduce the gaps in between. “When these gaps are smaller by just a factor of three, the probability for electrons to jump across is about a billion times higher,” said Talapin, the Ernest DeWitt Burton Distinguished Service Professor of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering at UChicago and a senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. “It changes very strongly with distance.”

To shave off the hairs, they sought to understand what was going on at the atomic level. For this, they needed the aid of powerful X-rays at the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, as well as powerful simulations and models of the chemistry and physics at play. All these allowed them to understand what was happening at the surface—and find the key to harnessing their production.

Part of the process to grow supercrystals is done in solution—that is, in liquid. It turns out that as the crystals grow, they undergo an unusual transformation in which gas, liquid and solid phases all coexist. By precisely controlling the chemistry of that stage, they could create crystals with harder, slimmer exteriors which could be packed in together much more closely. “Understanding their phase behavior was a massive leap forward for us,” said Portner. 

The full range of applications remains unclear, but the scientists can think of multiple areas where the technique could lead. “For example, perhaps each crystal could be a qubit in a quantum computer; coupling qubits into arrays is one of the fundamental challenges of quantum technology right now,” said Talapin. 

Portner is also interested in exploring the unusual intermediate state of matter seen during supercrystal growth: “Triple phase coexistence like this is rare enough that it’s intriguing to think about how to take advantage of this chemistry and build new materials.”

The study included scientists with the University of Chicago, Technische Universität Dresden, Northwestern University, Arizona State University, SLAC, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the University of California, Berkeley.

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

Self-assembly of nanocrystals into strongly electronically coupled all-inorganic supercrystals by Igor Coropceanu, Eric M. Janke, Joshua Portner, Danny Haubold, Trung Dac Nguyen, Avishek Das, Christian P. N. Tanner, James K. Utterback, Samuel W. Teitelbaum¸ Margaret H. Hudson, Nivedina A. Sarma, Alex M. Hinkle, Christopher J. Tassone, Alexander Eychmüller, David T. Limmer, Monica Olvera de la Cruz, Naomi S. Ginsberg and Dmitri V. Talapin. Science • 24 Mar 2022 • Vol 375, Issue 6587 • pp. 1422-1426 • DOI: 10.1126/science.abm6753

This paper is behind a paywall.

Protein wires for nanoelectronics

A February 24, 2022 news item on phys.org describes research into using proteins as electrical conductors,

Proteins are among the most versatile and ubiquitous biomolecules on earth. Nature uses them for everything from building tissues to regulating metabolism to defending the body against disease.

Now, a new study shows that proteins have other, largely unexplored capabilities. Under the right conditions, they can act as tiny, current-carrying wires, useful for a range human-designed nanoelectronics.

….

A February 25, 2022 Arizona State University (ASU) news release (also on EurekAlert but published February 24, 2022), which originated the news item, delves further into the intricacies of nanoelectronics (Note: Links have been removed),

In new research appearing in the journal ACS Nano, Stuart Lindsay and his colleagues show that certain proteins can act as efficient electrical conductors. In fact, these tiny protein wires may have better conductance properties than similar nanowires composed of DNA [deoxyribonucleic acid], which have already met with considerable success for a host of human applications. 

Professor Lindsay directs the Biodesign Center for Single-Molecule Biophysics. He is also professor with ASU’s Department of Physics and the School of Molecular Sciences.

Just as in the case of DNA, proteins offer many attractive properties for nanoscale electronics including stability, tunable conductance and vast information storage capacity. Although proteins had traditionally been regarded as poor conductors of electricity, all that recently changed when Lindsay and his colleagues demonstrated that a protein poised between a pair of electrodes could act as an efficient conductor of electrons.

The new research examines the phenomenon of electron transport through proteins in greater detail. The study results establish that over long distances, protein nanowires display better conductance properties than chemically-synthesized nanowires specifically designed to be conductors. In addition, proteins are self-organizing and allow for atomic-scale control of their constituent parts.

Synthetically designed protein nanowires could give rise to new ultra-tiny electronics, with potential applications for medical sensing and diagnostics, nanorobots to carry out search and destroy missions against diseases or in a new breed of ultra-tiny computer transistors. Lindsay is particularly interested in the potential of protein nanowires for use in new devices to carry out ultra-fast DNA and protein sequencing, an area in which he has already made significant strides.

In addition to their role in nanoelectronic devices, charge transport reactions are crucial in living systems for processes including respiration, metabolism and photosynthesis. Hence, research into transport properties through designed proteins may shed new light on how such processes operate within living organisms.

While proteins have many of the benefits of DNA for nanoelectronics in terms of electrical conductance and self-assembly, the expanded alphabet of 20 amino acids used to construct them offers an enhanced toolkit for nanoarchitects like Lindsay, when compared with just four nucleotides making up DNA.

Transit Authority

Though electron transport has been a focus of considerable research, the nature of the flow of electrons through proteins has remained something of a mystery. Broadly speaking, the process can occur through electron tunneling, a quantum effect occurring over very short distances or through the hopping of electrons along a peptide chain—in the case of proteins, a chain of amino acids.

One objective of the study was to determine which of these regimes seemed to be operating by making quantitative measurements of electrical conductance over different lengths of protein nanowire. The study also describes a mathematical model that can be used to calculate the molecular-electronic properties of proteins.

For the experiments, the researchers used protein segments in four nanometer increments, ranging from 4-20 nanometers in length. A gene was designed to produce these amino acid sequences from a DNA template, with the protein lengths then bonded together into longer molecules. A highly sensitive instrument known as a scanning tunneling microscope was used to make precise measurements of conductance as electron transport progressed through the protein nanowire.

The data show that conductance decreases over nanowire length in a manner consistent with hopping rather than tunneling behavior of the electrons. Specific aromatic amino acid residues, (six tyrosines and one tryptophan in each corkscrew twist of the protein), help guide the electrons along their path from point to point like successive stations along a train route. “The electron transport is sort of like skipping stone across water—the stone hasn’t got time to sink on each skip,” Lindsay says.

Wire wonders

While the conductance values of the protein nanowires decreased over distance, they did so more gradually than with conventional molecular wires specifically designed to be efficient conductors.

When the protein nanowires exceeded six nanometers in length, their conductance outperformed molecular nanowires, opening the door to their use in many new applications. The fact that they can be subtly designed and altered with atomic scale control and self-assembled from a gene template permits fine-tuned manipulations that far exceed what can currently be achieved with conventional transistor design.

One exciting possibility is using such protein nanowires to connect other components in a new suite of nanomachines. For example, nanowires could be used to connect an enzyme known as a DNA polymerase to electrodes, resulting in a device that could potentially sequence an entire human genome at low cost in under an hour. A similar approach could allow the integration of proteosomes into nanoelectronic devices able to read amino acids for protein sequencing.

“We are beginning now to understand the electron transport in these proteins. Once you have quantitative calculations, not only do you have great molecular electronic components, but you have a recipe for designing them,” Lindsay says. “If you think of the SPICE program that electrical engineers use to design circuits, there’s a glimmer now that you could get this for protein electronics.”

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

Electronic Transport in Molecular Wires of Precisely Controlled Length Built from Modular Proteins by Bintian Zhang, Eathen Ryan, Xu Wang, Weisi Song, and Stuart Lindsay. ACS Nano 2022, 16, 1, 1671–1680 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.1c10830 Publication Date:January 14, 2022 Copyright © 2022 American Chemical Society

This paper is behind a paywall.

A Science Fiction/Real Policy Book Club on June 9, 2021

The link between science fiction and science innovation and technology has been documented and argued over elsewhere online and in print. However, the link between policy and science fiction is new to me.

First, here’s the upcoming event which caught my eye (from the Science Fiction/Real Policy Book Club event page),

[ONLINE] – Science Fiction/Real Policy Book Club: Autonomous by Annalee Newitz

Science fiction can have real science policy impacts, and comes rife with real-life commentary. And with such a rich cache of science fiction to choose from, we think a book club is in order.

Join us [emphasis mine] for the first installment of our Science Fiction/Real Policy book club, a partnership with Issues in Science and Technology. Our first read will be Autonomous by Annalee Newitz. Autonomous follows the story of a female pharmaceutical pirate named Jack, an anti-patent scientist who has set out to bring cheap drugs to the poor. Without giving away too many spoilers, Newitz’s tale also includes a military agent-robot love story, a quest for justice, and the danger late capitalist modernity poses to personhood.

Join us for a jam-packed evening where we’ll discuss Autonomous and the questions it raises about labor and power, robot ethics, gender, patent law, the pharmaceutical industry, geopolitics, and much more.

Featured discussants

Joey Eschrich
Editor and Manager, Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University [ASU]

Tahir Amin
Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director, I-MAK

When

Jun. 9, 2021 [Wednesday]
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Where

Online Only Webcast link

RSVP here

Follow the conversation online using #FTBookClub and by following @FutureTenseNow.

Who is ‘us’?

The hosting organization is New America (newamerica.org). If you click on their About tab/button, you’ll find this,

We are dedicated to renewing the promise of America by continuing the quest to realize our nation’s highest ideals, honestly confronting the challenges caused by rapid technological and social change, and seizing the opportunities those changes create.

Amongst other programs, New America is participating in Future Tense,

Future Tense is a partnership between New America, Arizona State University, and Slate magazine to explore emerging technologies and their transformative effects on society and public policy. Central to the partnership is a series of events that take in-depth, provocative looks at issues that, while little-understood today, will dramatically reshape the policy debates of the coming decade.

It took me a while but I finally realized that the book club is a Future Tense initiative.

As for I-MAK, it’s an organization devoted to improving access to medicines globally and amongst other activities, solving the drug patent problem.