Tag Archives: fire

AI-powered vision reveals wildfire movements; invasive grasses could turn burn scars Into next wildfire; The Structure of Smoke art exhibition (January 9 – April 12, 2026)

Leave a reply

Watching a wildfire in British Columbia (BC),

Caption: The McDougall Creek wildfire burns near Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada, in August 2023. Credit: UBC [University of British Columbia] Okanagan

I believe that 2026 is expected to be another banner year for fires in British Columbia and elsewhere. I have two research papers and, at the end of this posting, an art exhibition all of them concerning fire.

A December 3, 2025 University of British Columbia at Okanagan (UBCO) news release (also on EurekAlert), Note: Links have been removed,

How wildfires spread is more variable and unpredictable than Canada’s standard models assume, new research from UBC Okanagan data scientists shows. 

Ladan Tazik, lead author of a new study in Fire and UBC Okanagan doctoral student, used advanced computer vision tools to capture fire behaviour with a level of detail that wasn’t possible even a few years ago.  

Her work sheds light on the random elements of fire movement—information that could reshape how fire behaviour is modelled and forecasted in an era of worsening wildfire seasons. 

“Image processing techniques let us quantify fire behaviour in real time, including the parts that don’t follow consistent patterns,” says Tazik. “By capturing the randomness in how fires spread, we can build models that better reflect reality and help improve decision-making during active fire events.” 

Tazik led the design, analysis and modelling that form the backbone of the study.  

She used the “Segment Anything Model”, a state-of-the-art AI tool, to extract fire perimeters from experimental burn videos frame by frame to study fire spread dynamics.  

This allowed her to study directional fire spread on sloped terrain without assuming the fire behaves predictably or spreads in a simple line. 

Her analysis confirmed something firefighters may know instinctively: fires race uphill. But when she compared her measurements with the values used in Canada’s official Fire Behaviour Prediction System, the numbers didn’t always line up.  

Real fires often moved faster, and the influence of slope wasn’t consistent from place to place. 

She tested the method on ponderosa pine and Douglas fir fuels often used in fire research. 

This highlights that small differences in fuel, wind and terrain can add to the unpredictability of fire and introduce important variations in how it spreads.  

Even under nearly identical conditions, the flames didn’t behave the same way twice. 

In practical terms, that means most fire spread is shaped by randomness—far more than today’s deterministic models capture. 

“These results show that we need to pair every spread estimate with a measure of uncertainty,” Tazik explains. “Simply multiplying by a slope factor isn’t enough. Fire is dynamic, and our models should acknowledge that.” 

Research supervisor Dr. W. John Braun says the project demonstrates how emerging computer vision tools can transform wildfire science.  

“Tazik proposed innovative ways to tackle this difficult modelling problem,” he says. “Her work shows how high-resolution perimeter data and advanced modelling can help us understand the real variability in fire behaviour. That’s essential if we want to move toward more probabilistic, data-driven prediction systems.” 

The study also included contributions from Dr. John R.J. Thompson, Assistant Professor of Data Science, Mathematics and Statistics, as well as other partners who provided the experimental and field video datasets.  

While the fuel experiments supported the research, Tazik alone led the segmentation and modelling components. 

Tazik says the next step is to expand the approach to more fuel types and fire conditions and use airborne or satellite imagery to study fire spread dynamics.  

With more Earth observation and remote sensing tools available, she sees an opportunity to build models that better capture wildfire dynamics while embracing the inherent uncertainty of fire, rather than smoothing it away. 

“Fires don’t behave perfectly,” she says. “Our tools shouldn’t pretend they do.” 

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

Stochastic Behaviour of Directional Fire Spread: A Segmentation-Based Analysis of Experimental Burns by Ladan Tazik, Willard J. Braun, John R. J. Thompson, and Geoffrey Goetz. Fire 2025, 8(10), 384; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/fire8100384 Published: 25 September 2025

This paper is open access.

Next up,

Invasive grasses

What happens after a wildfire can be dangerous according to a March 19, 2026 University of British Columbia (UBC) news release (also on EurekAlert), Note: Links have been removed,

After a wildfire, the flames may fade, but the danger does not. A new study by UBC researchers reveals that burned landscapes remain vulnerable for years, with large areas still bare and at risk of invasion by fast-growing, fire-prone grasses.

The research, one of the largest vegetation trajectory studies in the world, monitored landscapes two years after major wildfires in interior B.C. While some native plants returned, recovery was slower and more fragile than expected.

One of the most pressing concerns is invasive grasses, which germinate early in spring, dry out during the hottest months, and act as dry runways that spread flames at highway speed—a dynamic that contributed to the 2023 Lahaina fire in Maui and is increasingly likely in B.C.’s Interior.

“Areas that looked like post-apocalyptic ground right after the fire are now blanketed in cheatgrass. Once you can see the invasion, the opportunity for rapid response may already be gone,” said Dr. Jennifer Grenz, senior author and restoration ecologist and a member of Lytton First Nation.

Published in Fire Ecology, the study examined vegetation recovery two years after the 46,000-hectare McKay Creek wildfire near Lillooet, conducted in partnership with six Northern St’át’imc communities on whose territory the fire burned. It was made possible by years of pre-fire invasive plant monitoring collected by the Lillooet Regional Invasive Species Society in collaboration with the BC Provincial Invasive Plant Program and local Indigenous communities—rare baseline data that allowed the team to test long-held assumptions about post-fire invasion.

Elevation plays a critical role in recovery

The analysis showed a clear elevation trend in post-fire plant recovery. At lower elevations, where conditions are hotter, drier and more accessible to human activity, drought-tolerant invasive species quickly gain a foothold. Heavy traffic from hikers, ATVs [all terrain vehicles], hunters and road maintenance equipment continually introduces new seeds, giving invaders like cheatgrass little competition in the valley bottoms.

Moving upslope, cooler temperatures and lingering moisture create less favourable conditions for invasive species. Here, native shrubs are beginning to regenerate, slowing the advance of non-native plants. Recovery is still slow, but native vegetation is re‑emerging where roots survived the fire.

“In a new era of mega-fires, understanding where and how vegetation recovers could determine the intensity of the next wildfire,” said Dr. Grenz.

Controlling invasive plants

With post-fire restoration resources limited, the researchers highlight three actions that could substantially reduce risk: vehicle and boot washing stations at fire access points to slow seed spread; targeted seeding or planting of native species along roads and high-risk corridors; and early herbicide treatment of small infestations before they expand.

The team plans to continue tracking recovery trends to help communities and land managers make informed decisions.

“A landscape left to invasive grasses after one fire becomes more likely to burn again,” said Virginia Oeggerli, a PhD student in Dr. Grenz’s lab who led the study. “Recovery is part of prevention.”

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

Factors influencing early post-wildfire vegetation and implications for invasive plant management in the interior of British Columbia, Canada by Virginia V. Oeggerli, Tara G. Martin, Suzanne W. Simard & Jennifer Grenz. fire ecol (2026). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s42408-026-00463-x Published: 05 March 2026

This paper is open access.

Smoke, fire, and an art exhibit

The mention of death and rebirth give this exhibition a timely quality during the Easter 2026 season. Oddly with an art exhibition titled, “The Structure of Smoke” at the University of British Columbia’s Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery doesn’t include some participation from the university’s faculty of forestry and environmental stewardship (FES).

Here’s more about The Structure of Smoke from the Belkin Gallery’s exhibition page, Note: This is written for an academic arts audience and not the average punter (i.e., someone like me)

Through the lens of contemporary artists’ engagement with the metaphorical and literal processes of fire and the spaces it creates and displaces, The Structure of Smoke includes works that problematize the poetic, structural and political aspects of fire. These works complicate the inherent contradictions of wildness and domestication, technological progress and social control, colonial conditions, rebirth and death [emphasis mine]. Holding a smoked mirror to contemporary society, the works in this exhibition offer ways to undo the familiar in how we approach our uncertain future.

Speculative in nature, The Structure of Smoke is associative, contextual and driven by artistic practices that disturb existing power relations and question their own conditions and structures. With a focus on ecologies, interconnectedness and relationality the works and curatorial premise consider relating to land, community, family and wildfire ecologies including the non-human. As we have seen with the migration of smoke across the globe and the birth of a regular fire season, the ways in which we live with fire require new strategies that embrace specific Indigenous and ecological knowledges and the ability to develop relations with fire beyond the spectacle and devastation of its impacts.

[These artists are represented:

asinnajaq, Geoffrey Farmer, Amber Frid-Jimenez, Art Hunter, Brian Jungen,
Heraa Khan, Germaine Koh, Evan Lee, Jeneen Frei Njootli, Other Sights,
Pratchaya Phinthong, Susan Point, Samuel Roy-Bois, Kathy Slade,
Laura Wee Láy Láq and Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun]

The Structure of Smoke is curated by Melanie O’Brian and Tania Willard and made possible with the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and our Belkin Curator’s Forum members.

The Structure of Smoke handout (PDF) features the artists and the work represented in the show.

There are two events left on the calendar (other than the exhibition itself), from the Belkin Gallery’s exhibition page,

Wednesday, 8 Apr 2026 at 2 pm

Concert at the Belkin: The Structure of Smoke

Join us on Wednesday, 8 April 2026 at 2 pm for a concert by UBC School of Music Contemporary Players inspired by the current exhibition, The Structure of Smoke. Led by Director Paolo Bortolussi with support from Joanne Na, this graduate and undergraduate student ensemble from the UBC School of Music will animate the gallery for an afternoon program celebrating themes and responding to chosen works from this exhibition.

All are welcome and admission is free.

Saturday, 11 Apr 2026, 10 am to 4 pm

Room 105, Lasserre Building, 6333 Memorial Road, UBC

RSVP / Tickets

Gathering: Smoke Forecast

Please join us for Smoke Forecast,  a one-day gathering that foregrounds artistic, embodied and community-engaged practices to approach fire and climate justice. Contextualized by the Belkin’s current exhibition The Structure of Smoke, which problematizes the poetic, structural and political aspects of fires through the work of sixteen contemporary artists, Smoke Forecast will begin from our own experiences in the places we call home, and our felt connections to place and each other. Can we tap into artistic, bodily and otherwise knowledges and community connections to weather the crises on our doorstep, together?

Seeking to complicate the contradictions of wildness and domestication, shelter and vulnerability, technological progress and social control, the gathering will engage arts-based methodologies for developing richer climate change knowledges, where community members are also co-producers of this knowledge.

The day will include two panels, a walkshop, lunch and an exhibition tour with artists, theorists and community practitioners to highlight ecological and Indigenous knowledges on wildfire in a time of climate change.

Smoke Forecast is free and open to all, but space is limited. Please RSVP by 7 April 2026.

Program

10 am: Welcome

10:15-11:15 am: Wildfire, Smoke, Creativity and Grief Taylor Baptiste, Clint Burnham and Liz Toohey-Wiese, moderated by Amy Harris

11:30 am-1 pm: Forest/Weather: A Climate Justice Walkshop
Elee Kraljii Gardiner, Astrida Neimanis, χʷəy̓χʷiq̓tən/ Audrey Siegl and Ruby Singh
Please dress for the weather; while the walk will be slow and gentle, it will be outdoors

1-2 pm: Lunch

2-3 pm: Developer Lightning Lorna Brown, Amber Frid-Jimenez and Samuel Roy-Bois, moderated by Melanie O’Brian

3 pm: Exhibition Tour
Curatorial tour of The Structure of Smoke at the Belkin with Melanie O’Brian and Tania Willard

Smoke Forecast is organized by the Belkin, Astrida Neimanis and Amy Harris, with additional support from the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, the UBC Centre for Climate Justice and the UBC Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory.

…

Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
University of British Columbia
1825 Main Mall
Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada V6T 1Z2 Map
xʷməθkʷəy̍əm | Musqueam Territory

Contact

Telephone: +1 (604) 822-2759
Email: belkin.gallery@ubc.ca

Happy Easter! Joyeuses Pâques!

Firing up for nanoparticles

Leave a reply

This May 1, 2025 essay for The Conversation (also here on the Carleton University website) by Keroles Riad (postdoctoral nanotechnology fellow, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada) brings to mind the myth of Prometheus (the Titan who defied the ancient Greek gods of Olympus and gave fire to humanity), Note: Links have been removed,

Fire is arguably humanity’s earliest discovery. It was pivotal in advancing society — underpinning many of humanity’s most transformative inventions, from cooking and forging weapons to generating energy and enabling car combustion engines.

Today, fire continues to be the gateway to some of the most cutting-edge nanotechnologies currently being developed for use in cancer treatments and as breath sensors for early detection of diabetes and other metabolic diseases.

Nanotechnologies can be found in almost every aspect of our daily lives. For instance, I have previously written about the nanotechnology used in the mRNA vaccines that helped us through the pandemic, and have facilitated conversations discussing how nanotechnology affects our wine, gut and climate.

For example, gas sensors incorporating nanoparticles made via fire can be used to verify that there’s no methanol in alcoholic beverages. Methanol is a highly poisonous alcohol contaminant, and has caused numerous poisonings worldwide.

Fire is how most widely used nanoparticles — and by extension, nanotechnologies — are made. For example, a third of a car tire’s weight is comprised of carbon black nanoparticles, which are made using fire. These nanoparticles help to reinforce the tire. The white paint we use on our walls and the coatings on some pills contain fire-made titania nanoparticles. Similarly, fumed silica — which is used in the optical fibres needed for internet and communication systems — are also forged in fire.

…

Riad’s May 1, 2025 essay goes on to provide a definition for nanotechnology and describe some of his own work, Note: Links have been removed,

…

So how do nanoparticles, which are 80 to 100 thousand times smaller than the thickness of a human hair, form inside a fire?

I specialize in making nanoparticles in fire — specifically using a technology called flame spray pyrolysis.

In my research, I burn flammable chemicals that contain the target metal elements to form my nanoparticles. Everything gets oxidized during combustion: carbon becomes CO2, hydrogen becomes water vapor and metal elements become metal oxides.

During the milliseconds that these metal oxide particulates spend inside the fire, they collide and grow into nano- or micro-particles. I collect these particles on a filter on top of the fire. Important properties such as the size and crystal structure of the nanoparticles that are produced depend on how much time these particles spend inside the fire.

The more time the particles have to collide inside the forging fire, the larger they grow. We can also make complicated particles consisting of multiple elements by burning a mixture of different chemicals. This process is both versatile and scalable — allowing millions of tonnes of nanoparticles to be produced each year.

…

If you have time, Riad’s May 1, 2025 essay is a good introduction to nanotechnology both its possibilities and some of its limitations.

Synergistic aerogel materials developed for resisting heat and fire

Leave a reply

Given the threat from fires due to climate change, this August 2, 2024 news item announcing a new material for fire and heat insulation seems quite timely,

A research group led by Prof. Wang Zhenyang and Zhang Shudong from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has developed synergistic aerogel materials with high temperature resistance, mechanical strength and thermal insulation performance.

…

An August 1, 2024 Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences press release (also on EurekAlert but published August 2, 2024), which originated the news item, provides some technical details about the work,

Inorganic SiO2 [silicon dioxide] aerogel is a porous solid material which is self-assembled by silica nanoparticles. Its abundant particle pores are filled with air, which gives it the characteristics of low volume density, high porosity and low thermal conductivity. It is considered to be the solid material with the lowest thermal conductivity, and has become one of the most critical insulation materials in high-end thermal control fields. However, the structural brittleness and low temperature resistance (≤700℃) of inorganic SiO2 aerogel limit its service application in extreme environments.

In this study, the researchers tackled these limitations by introducing a small amount of ZrO2 [zinc dioxide] crystalline phase to one-dimensional SiO2 fibers, significantly enhancing their temperature resistance. They also created multiple fusion nodes between the SiO2 fibers to improve compressive strength and fracture toughness. The resulting aerogel has a thermal conductivity as low as 0.092 W/m·K, an elastic strain of over 80%, and a compressive strength of 389 kPa. It also maintains stability and elasticity across a wide temperature range from -196℃ to 1300℃.

They also explored two-dimensional inorganic aerogels, which were formed by assembling nanosheets into a porous solid structure. By using montmorillonite nanosheets and hydroxyapatite nanowires, they created a two-dimensional aerogel with excellent thermal insulation and flame retardant properties. This material demonstrated a compression modulus of 80 MPa in standard tests.

In addition, the team investigated biomass aerogels for use as eco-friendly building insulation materials. They developed new cross-linking methods to improve the flame retardancy and mechanical properties of these aerogels. Notably, they developed biomass sodium alginate aerogels that can support more than 2,600 times their own weight and possess excellent flame retardancy and self-extinguishing properties. 

This research not only overcomes the challenges of balancing high temperature resistance and strength in aerogels but also provides new materials for efficient heat insulation, fire prevention, and mechanical stability under extreme conditions.

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

Interpenetrated Multinetwork Hybrid Aerogels by Layered Montmorillonite and One-Dimensional Hydroxyapatite Fibers for Heat and Fire Insulation by Yang Chen, Wei Guo, Shudong Zhang, Jixiang Zhang, Huan Xu, Nian Li, Xiaolin Meng, Min Xi, Cui Liu, Zhenyang Wang. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2024, 16, 30, 39886–39895 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.4c08796 Published July 22, 2024 Copyright © 2024 American Chemical Society

This paper is behind a paywall.

Transforming lithium-ion battery electrodes into wearable, fabric-based, flexible, and stretchable electrodes

Leave a reply

There’s a long road before this technology can be commercialized but the news seems promising. From a July 26, 2023 University of Houston news release (also on EurekAlert) by Rashda Khan, Note: Links have been removed,

Most people already know and appreciate the capabilities of smart phones, now imagine the possibilities offered by smart spacesuits, uniforms and exercise clothes. The future of wearable technology just got a big boost thanks to a team of University of Houston researchers who designed, developed and delivered a successful prototype of a fully stretchable fabric-based lithium-ion battery.

The idea for this cutting-edge evolution of the lithium-ion battery came from the mind of Haleh Ardebili, Bill D. Cook Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UH. “As a big science fiction fan, I could envision a ‘science-fiction-esque future’ where our clothes are smart, interactive and powered,” she said. “It seemed a natural next step to create and integrate stretchable batteries with stretchable devices and clothing. Imagine folding or bending or stretching your laptop or phone in your pocket. Or using interactive sensors embedded in our clothes that monitor our health.”

Some of these ideas are already becoming a reality. However, like all electronics, they need power, which is where the stretchable and flexible batteries come in. A major bottleneck in the development of the next generation of electronics or wearable technology embedded in fabrics is that conventional batteries are generally rigid, which limits functionality of the items, and they use a liquid electrolyte, which raises safety concerns. The traditional organic liquid electrolytes are flammable and can lead to the possibility of the batteries catching fire or even exploding under certain conditions.

The key to the UH research team’s breakthrough lies in the researchers using conductive silver fabric as a platform and current collector.

“The weaved silver fabric was ideal for this since it mechanically deforms or stretches and still provides electrical conduction pathways necessary for the battery electrode to function well. The battery electrode must allow movement of both electrons and ions,” said Ardebili, who is the corresponding author of a paper detailing this research in the Extreme Mechanics Letters. The first author of the paper is Bahar Moradi Ghadi, a former doctoral student who based her dissertation on this research.

By transforming rigid lithium-ion battery electrodes into wearable, fabric-based, flexible, and stretchable electrodes, this technology opens up exciting possibilities by offering stable performance and safer properties for wearable devices and implantable biosensors.

How It All Started

The idea for stretchable batteries occurred to Ardebili several years ago.

“I was interested in understanding the fundamental science and mechanisms related to stretching an electrochemical cell and its components,” she said. “This was an unexplored field in science and engineering and a great area to investigate.”

The science of coupling effects of mechanical deformation and electrochemical performance is an important field and stretchable batteries provide a great vehicle for exploring the fundamental mechanisms.

Ardebili developed her ideas into grant proposals and won several key awards to support her work, including a five-year National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2013, a New Investigator Award from the NASA Texas Space Center Grant Consortium in 2014 and an award from the US Army Research Lab (ARL) in 2017.

“Although we have created a prototype, we are still working on optimizing the battery design, materials and fabrication,” said Ardebili.

What Is Next

Ardebili is optimistic that the prototype for a stretchable fabric-based battery will pave the way for many types of applications such as smart space suits, consumer electronics embedded in garments that monitor people’s health and devices that interact with humans at various levels. There are many possible designs and applications for safe, light, flexible and stretchable batteries, but there is still some work to be done before they are available on the market.

“Commercial viability depends on many factors such as scaling up the manufacturability of the product, cost and other factors,” she said. “We are working toward those considerations and goals as we optimize and enhance our stretchable battery.”

Whether the stretchy batteries end up powering spacesuits or workout clothes or some other innovative application, Ardebili wants them to be reliable and safe. “My goal is to make sure the batteries are as safe as possible [emphasis mine],” she said.

I’m glad to see safety is mentioned since there have been issues with lithium-ion batteries bursting into flame. (My last piece on research into making lithium-ion batteries safer is a January 13, 2016 post. There’s a more recent piece in the IEEE’s Spectrum magazine, an August 23, 2018 article by Weiyang Li and Yi Cui)

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

Stretchable fabric-based lithium-ion battery by Bahar Moradi Ghadi, Banafsheh Hekmatnia, Qiang Fu, and Haleh Ardebili. Extreme Mechanics Letters
Volume 61, June 2023, 102026 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eml.2023.102026

This paper is behind a paywall.

Quantum back action and devil’s play

Leave a reply

I always appreciate a reference to James Clerk Maxwell’s demon thought experiment (you can find out about it in the Maxwell’s demon Wikipedia entry). This time it comes from physicist  Kater Murch in a July 23, 2018 Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) news release (published July 25, 2018 on EurekAlert) written by Brandie Jefferson (offering a good explanation of the thought experiment and more),

Thermodynamics is one of the most human of scientific enterprises, according to Kater Murch, associate professor of physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

“It has to do with our fascination of fire and our laziness,” he said. “How can we get fire” — or heat — “to do work for us?”

Now, Murch and colleagues have taken that most human enterprise down to the intangible quantum scale — that of ultra low temperatures and microscopic systems — and discovered that, as in the macroscopic world, it is possible to use information to extract work.

There is a catch, though: Some information may be lost in the process.

“We’ve experimentally confirmed the connection between information in the classical case and the quantum case,” Murch said, “and we’re seeing this new effect of information loss.”

The results were published in the July 20 [2018] issue of Physical Review Letters.

The international team included Eric Lutz of the University of Stuttgart; J. J. Alonzo of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg; Alessandro Romito of Lancaster University; and Mahdi Naghiloo, a Washington University graduate research assistant in physics.

That we can get energy from information on a macroscopic scale was most famously illustrated in a thought experiment known as Maxwell’s Demon. [emphasis mine] The “demon” presides over a box filled with molecules. The box is divided in half by a wall with a door. If the demon knows the speed and direction of all of the molecules, it can open the door when a fast-moving molecule is moving from the left half of the box to the right side, allowing it to pass. It can do the same for slow particles moving in the opposite direction, opening the door when a slow-moving molecule is approaching from the right, headed left. ­

After a while, all of the quickly-moving molecules are on the right side of the box. Faster motion corresponds to higher temperature. In this way, the demon has created a temperature imbalance, where one side of the box is hotter. That temperature imbalance can be turned into work — to push on a piston as in a steam engine, for instance. At first the thought experiment seemed to show that it was possible create a temperature difference without doing any work, and since temperature differences allow you to extract work, one could build a perpetual motion machine — a violation of the second law of thermodynamics.

“Eventually, scientists realized that there’s something about the information that the demon has about the molecules,” Murch said. “It has a physical quality like heat and work and energy.”

His team wanted to know if it would be possible to use information to extract work in this way on a quantum scale, too, but not by sorting fast and slow molecules. If a particle is in an excited state, they could extract work by moving it to a ground state. (If it was in a ground state, they wouldn’t do anything and wouldn’t expend any work).

But they wanted to know what would happen if the quantum particles were in an excited state and a ground state at the same time, analogous to being fast and slow at the same time. In quantum physics, this is known as a superposition.

“Can you get work from information about a superposition of energy states?” Murch asked. “That’s what we wanted to find out.”

There’s a problem, though. On a quantum scale, getting information about particles can be a bit … tricky.

“Every time you measure the system, it changes that system,” Murch said. And if they measured the particle to find out exactly what state it was in, it would revert to one of two states: excited, or ground.

This effect is called quantum backaction. To get around it, when looking at the system, researchers (who were the “demons”) didn’t take a long, hard look at their particle. Instead, they took what was called a “weak observation.” It still influenced the state of the superposition, but not enough to move it all the way to an excited state or a ground state; it was still in a superposition of energy states. This observation was enough, though, to allow the researchers track with fairly high accuracy, exactly what superposition the particle was in — and this is important, because the way the work is extracted from the particle depends on what superposition state it is in.

To get information, even using the weak observation method, the researchers still had to take a peek at the particle, which meant they needed light. So they sent some photons in, and observed the photons that came back.

“But the demon misses some photons,” Murch said. “It only gets about half. The other half are lost.” But — and this is the key — even though the researchers didn’t see the other half of the photons, those photons still interacted with the system, which means they still had an effect on it. The researchers had no way of knowing what that effect was.

They took a weak measurement and got some information, but because of quantum backaction, they might end up knowing less than they did before the measurement. On the balance, that’s negative information.

And that’s weird.

“Do the rules of thermodynamics for a macroscopic, classical world still apply when we talk about quantum superposition?” Murch asked. “We found that yes, they hold, except there’s this weird thing. The information can be negative.

“I think this research highlights how difficult it is to build a quantum computer,” Murch said.

“For a normal computer, it just gets hot and we need to cool it. In the quantum computer you are always at risk of losing information.”

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

Information Gain and Loss for a Quantum Maxwell’s Demon by M. Naghiloo, J. J. Alonso, A. Romito, E. Lutz, and K. W. Murch. Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 030604 (Vol. 121, Iss. 3 — 20 July 2018) DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.030604 Published 17 July 2018

© 2018 American Physical Society

This paper is behind a paywall.

Nanotechnology Molecular Tagging for sniffing out explosives

Leave a reply

A nifty technology for sniffing out explosives is described in a June 22, 2016 news item in Government Security News magazine. I do think they might have eased up on the Egypt Air disaster reference and the implication that it might have been avoided with the use of this technology,

The crash of an Egypt Air Flight 804 recently again raised concerns over whether a vulnerability in pre-flight security has led to another deadly terrorist attacks. Officials haven’t found a cause for the crash yet, but news reports indicate that officials believe either a bomb or fire are what brought the plane down [link included from press release].

Regardless of the cause, the Chief Executive Officer of British-based Ancon Technologies said that the incident shows the compelling need for more versatile and affordable explosive detection technology.

“There are still too many vulnerabilities in transportation systems around the world,” said CEO Dr. Robert Muir. “That’s why our focus has been on developing explosive detection technology that is highly efficient, easily deployable and economically priced.”

…

A June 21, 2015 Ancon Technologies press release on PR Web, which originated the news item, describes the technology in a little more detail,

Using nanotechnology to scan sensitive vapour readings, Ancon Technologies has developed unique security devices with exception sensitivity to detect explosive chemicals and materials. Called Nanotechnology Molecular Tagging, the technology is used to look for specific molecular markers that are emitted from the chemicals used in explosive compounds. An NMT device can then be programmed to look for these compounds and gauge concentrations.

“The result is unprecedented sensitivity for a device that is portable and versatile,” Dr. Muir said. “The technology is also highly selective, meaning it can distinguish the molecules is testing for against the backdrop of other chemicals and readings in the air.”

If terrorism is responsible for the crash of the Egypt Air flight on route to Cairo from Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport, the incident further shows the need for heightened screening processes, Muir said. Concerns about air travel’s vulnerabilities to terrorism were further raised in October when a Russian plane flying out of Egypt crashed in what several officials believe was a terrorist bombing.

Both cases show the need for improved security measures in airports around the world, especially those related to early explosive detection, Muir said. CNN reported that the Egypt Air crash would likely generate even more attention to airport security while Egypt has already been investing in new security measures following the October attack.

“An NMT device can bring laboratory-level sensitivity to the airport screening procedure, adding another level of safety in places where it’s needed most,” Muir said. “By being able to detect a compound at concentrations as small as a single molecule, NMT can pinpoint a threat and provide security teams with the early warning they need.”

The NMT device’s sensitivity and accuracy can also help balance another concern with airport security: long waits. Already, the Transportation Security Agency is coming under fire this summer for extended airport security screening lines, reports USA Today.

“An NMT device can produce results from test samples in minutes, meaning screenings can proceed at a reasonable pace without jeopardizing security,” Muir said.

Ancon Technologies has working arrangements with military and security agencies in both the United Kingdom and the United States, Muir said, following a recent round of investments. The company is headquartered in Canterbury, Kent and has an office in the U.S. in Bloomington, Minnesota.

So this is a sensing device and I believe this particular type can also be described as an artificial nose.

Welcome to Something About Science; another Canadian science blog

2 Replies

Lynn K, the Something About Science blogger is a (from the online profile),

…  Ph.D. candidate in biochemistry at the University of British Columbia. Biochemistry is the chemistry of life. I am interested in things that happen inside our bodies, such as what happens when you drink alcohol, what does it mean to have mutations, and how can we treat diseases like cancer and heart failure. Through this blog, I hope to intrigue your curiosity by sharing some bits of facts and stories about science in everyday life!

Lynn posts once a week on a variety of topics,

Top Posts

I have a personal fondness for the July 11, 2012 posting, What is a flame? — When a house catches fire…,

“FIRE!!” In the middle of the night last week, I was woken up to find a neighbor’s house fast ablaze. The entire framework crackled and was engulfed by flames which glared bright orange against the night. Fortunately, no one was hurt, as the house was under construction, and the neighboring houses had been evacuated before they, too, caught fire.

Here are some images that recapitulate the (hopefully) once-in-a-lifetime experience.

…

But this being a science blog, my question to you is, “What is a flame?” And better yet, can you explain flames in a way everyone, including children, can understand and enjoy learning?

Alan Alda and the Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University, New York, have asked the same question to scientists. The Flame Challenge invited scientists to communicate science clearly to the public by explaining what flames are in a way simple and fun, yet educational. The challenge received over 800 entries, which were judged by over 6,000 children aged 11.

Lynn goes on to announce the winner, Ben Ames, a PhD student in Austria and includes the challenge-winning video animation. You can watch the video and find out where you can post a question for next year’s challenge in Lynn’s What is a flame? posting.

Cotton and nanotechnology at the US Dept. of Agriculture

Leave a reply

The April 2012 item by Jan Suszkiw of the US Dept. of Agriculture (on the Western Farm Press website) seemed strangely familiar as it focused on research into flame-retardant cotton. From the Suszkiw article,

In one ongoing project, the researchers have teamed with Texas A&M University scientists to evaluate a first-of-its-kind, environmentally friendly flame-retardant for cotton apparel and durable goods. Halogenated flame retardants have been among the most widely used chemical treatments, but there’s been a push to find alternatives that are more benign and that won’t cause treated fabric to stiffen, according to Condon [Brian Condon, Agricultural Research Service [ARS]).

I mentioned the research work in the context of a 2011 meeting of the American Chemical Society in my Sept. 6, 2011 posting (scroll down about 3/4 of the way) except the focus was on the Texas A&M University in College Station research team who had yet to collaborate with Condon’s team at the ARS,

In responding to the need for more environmentally friendly flame retardants, Grunlan’s [Jaime C. Grunlan] team turned to a technology termed “intumescence,” long used to fireproof exposed interior steel beams in buildings. At the first lick of a flame, an intumescent coating swells up and expands like beer foam, forming tiny bubbles in a protective barrier that insulates and shields the material below. The researchers are at Texas A&M University in College Station. …

Since the meeting last fall, the two teams (US ARS [Condon] and Texas A&M [Grunlan]) have collaborated to make cotton more flame retardant according to the April 2012 news article (Cotton Gets Nanotech and Biotech Treatment in New Orleans) on the US Dept. of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service website (Note: I have removed a link),

Condon and CCUR (Cotton Chemistry and Utilization Research Unit) chemist SeChin Chang are collaborating with Texas A&M University (TAMU) scientists to evaluate a first-of-its-kind, environmentally friendly flame retardant for cotton apparel and durable goods.

Halogenated flame retardants have been among the most widely used chemical treatments for cotton. But there’s been a push to find alternatives that are not only more benign, but that also avoid imparting the same stiffness to fabric characteristic of some chemical treatments. For these and other reasons, “the textiles industry would like to move away from using halogenated flame retardants,” says Condon.

Made of water-soluble polymers, nanoscale clay particles, and other “green” ingredients, the ARS-TAMU flame retardant is applied as a nanocoating that reacts to open flame by rapidly forming a swollen, charred surface layer. This process, known as “intumescence,” stops the flame from reaching underlying or adjacent fibers.

A team led by Jaime Grunlan at TAMU’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, in College Station, Texas, originally developed the intumescent nanocoating using a layer-by-layer assembly. In this procedure, alternating layers of positively and negatively charged ingredients, including clay particles 50-100 nanometers wide, are deposited onto the surface of a desired material. The result is a striated nanocoating that, when viewed under a scanning electron or other high-powered microscope, resembles the stacked layers of a brick wall.

Condon’s interest was piqued after listening to Grunlan discuss his team’s research at a recent American Chemical Society meeting, and he approached the TAMU professor about potential benefits to cotton. That conversation, in turn, led to a cooperative research project enabling Condon and Chang to evaluate the nanocoating at CCUR.

Treating cotton for flame resistance isn’t a recent concept, adds Condon, whose lab is part of the ARS Southern Regional Research Center in New Orleans. In fact, some of the most successful early treatments were born of research conducted by Benerito [Ruth Benerito] and colleagues there several decades ago. (See “Cross-Linking Cotton,” Agricultural Research, February 2009, pp. 10-11.) Condon coauthored a 2011 ACS Nano paper on the potential of intumescent coatings together with Chang, Grunlan and his TAMU team, and Alexander Morgan of the University of Dayton Research Institute in Ohio.

Early trials of the nanocoating using standard flame-resistance tests are promising. In one case, 95 percent of treated cotton fabric remained intact after exposure to flame, whereas the untreated fabric used for comparison was completely destroyed

“What we’re investigating now is how well it will perform after repeated launderings of treated fabric,” says Condon. “After all, the coating contains clay, and that’s something detergents are made to remove.”

Even if the coating does eventually wash out and the treated fabric loses its flame resistance, the nanotech approach could still be used to protect textiles and durable goods that aren’t frequently washed, such as upholstery, mattress pads, box spring covers, automotive interiors, and firefighter coats.

This is one of the images that accompany the article,

Cross-section of a cotton fiber with clay nanoparticles attached. (from: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/apr12/cotton0412.htm)

If you are interested in the work being done by the US Dept. of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service on cotton, there’s a lot more than I managed to excerpt.