http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (Phys.org) —If you could peek at the inner workings of a computer processor you would see billions of transistors switching back and forth between two states. In optical communications, information from the switches can be encoded onto light, which then travels long distances through glass fiber. Researchers at the Joint Quantum Institute and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering are working to harness the quantum nature of light and semiconductors to expand the capabilities of computers in remarkable ways. http://phys.org/news284028052.html Physics Mon, 01 Apr 2013 09:41:05 EST news284028052 When Charles Babbage prototyped the first computing machine in the 19th century, he imagined using mechanical gears and latches to control information. ENIAC, the first modern computer developed in the 1940s, used vacuum tubes and electricity. Today, computers use transistors made from highly engineered semiconducting materials to carry out their logical operations. http://phys.org/news283694459.html Biology Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:00:01 EST news283694459 Rice University researchers have found a way to divide and modify enzymes to create what amounts to a genetic logic gate. http://phys.org/news282485212.html Biology Thu, 14 Mar 2013 13:07:04 EST news282485212 (Phys.org)—A team of scientists from several research centers in South Korea, has succeeded in building a logic circuit that is based on switchable magnetism, rather than electronics. They describe their research and a prototype they've built in a paper they've had published in the journal Nature. http://phys.org/news278837969.html Physics Thu, 31 Jan 2013 06:59:37 EST news278837969 (Phys.org)—By force of habit we tend to assume computers are made of silicon, but there is actually no necessary connection between the machine and the material. All that an engineer needs to do to make a computer is to find a way to build logic gates—the elementary building blocks of digital computers—in whatever material is handy. http://phys.org/news269280067.html Biology Fri, 12 Oct 2012 17:02:23 EST news269280067 (Phys.org)—Computers may be getting faster every year, but those advances in computer speed could be dwarfed if their 1's and 0's were represented by bursts of light, instead of electricity. http://phys.org/news266481745.html Nanotechnology Mon, 10 Sep 2012 07:42:36 EST news266481745 (Phys.org) -- A team of French physicists working out of Universite Joseph Fourier, France, has found a way to create logic gates, transistors and diodes from silicon nanowires without having to resort to dopants (inserting another material into the original to change its electrical or optical properties). Their process, which they explain in the paper they’ve written and uploaded to the preprint server arXiv, involves applying a very thin layer of silicates at the juncture of metal and nanowires. http://phys.org/news263798532.html Nanotechnology Fri, 10 Aug 2012 06:50:01 EST news263798532 University of Utah engineers designed microscopic mechanical devices that withstand intense radiation and heat, so they can be used in circuits for robots and computers exposed to radiation in space, damaged nuclear power plants or nuclear attack. http://phys.org/news258692359.html Technology Tue, 12 Jun 2012 04:00:16 EST news258692359 (Phys.org) -- Mammalian cells can now do what an electronic calculator can: perform logical calculations. Swiss researchers have equipped cells with a complex genetic network that can do more than just one plus one. http://phys.org/news258016213.html Biology Mon, 04 Jun 2012 08:10:26 EST news258016213 (Phys.org) -- Johns Hopkins scientists have engineered cells that behave like AND and OR Boolean logic gates, producing an output based on one or more unique inputs. This feat, published in the May issue of Nature Chemical Biology, could eventually help researchers create computers that use cells as tiny circuits. http://phys.org/news257673631.html Chemistry Thu, 31 May 2012 09:00:49 EST news257673631 Quantum physics promises faster and more powerful computers, but quantum versions of basic logic functions are still needed to bring this technology to fruition. Researchers from the University of Cambridge and Toshiba Research Europe Ltd. have taken one step toward this goal by creating an all-semiconductor quantum logic gate, a controlled-NOT (CNOT) gate. They achieved this breakthrough by coaxing nanodots to emit single photons of light on demand. http://phys.org/news256563091.html Physics Fri, 18 May 2012 12:31:40 EST news256563091 (Phys.org) -- A team of scientists from Japan and England have hit the high mark in exploring and testing unconventional forms of computation. They have built and tested a computer using crabs. This is a computer in which the information carriers are swarming creatures, namely, soldier crabs. In their paper, “Robust Soldier Crab Ball Gate,” authors Yukio-Pegio Gunji, Yuta Nishiyama, and Andrew Adamatzky describe what others are already referring to as the crab-puter. http://phys.org/news253602398.html Biology Sat, 14 Apr 2012 07:10:01 EST news253602398 (PhysOrg.com) -- If a practical quantum computer is ever to be realized, conventional electronic devices will have to interface with the delicate quantum systems such as atoms or ions in traps or wisps of magnetism near superconducting sensors. A new paper in the journal Physical Review Letters, written by experimenters at several Australian Universities and theorists at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) in the USA, proposes one way to achieve this kind of quantum interface. It shows how an electrical circuit can be used to enable the transfer of quantum information encoded in a single ion to other quantum systems, such as another isolated ion. http://phys.org/news250245580.html Physics Tue, 06 Mar 2012 08:39:56 EST news250245580 A North Carolina State University chemist has found a way to give DNA-based computing better control over logic operations. His work could lead to interfacing DNA-based computing with traditional silicon-based computing. http://phys.org/news248705465.html Chemistry Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:51:14 EST news248705465 In the world of engineering, "noise" – random fluctuations from environmental sources such as heat – is generally a bad thing. In electronic circuits, it is unavoidable, and as circuits get smaller and smaller, noise has a greater and more detrimental effect on a circuit's performance. Now some scientists are saying: if you can't beat it, use it. http://phys.org/news239997155.html Physics Tue, 08 Nov 2011 17:52:44 EST news239997155 Scientists have successfully demonstrated that they can build some of the basic components for digital devices out of bacteria and DNA, which could pave the way for a new generation of biological computing devices, in research published today in the journal Nature Communications. http://phys.org/news238156228.html Biology Tue, 18 Oct 2011 11:31:09 EST news238156228 Professor Jeremy O'Brien, Director of the University of Bristol's Centre for Quantum Photonics, and his Japanese colleagues have demonstrated a quantum logic gate acting on four particles of light -- photons. The researchers believe their device could provide important routes to new quantum technologies, including secure communication, precision measurement, and ultimately a quantum computer -- a powerful type of computer that uses quantum bits (qubits) rather than the conventional bits used in today's computers. http://phys.org/news228130646.html Physics Fri, 24 Jun 2011 10:38:07 EST news228130646 In many ways, life is like a computer. An organism's genome is the software that tells the cellular and molecular machinery—the hardware—what to do. But instead of electronic circuitry, life relies on biochemical circuitry—complex networks of reactions and pathways that enable organisms to function. Now, researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have built the most complex biochemical circuit ever created from scratch, made with DNA-based devices in a test tube that are analogous to the electronic transistors on a computer chip. http://phys.org/news226241191.html Nanotechnology Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:00:19 EST news226241191 A team of UCSF researchers has engineered E. coli with the key molecular circuitry that will enable genetic engineers to program cells to communicate and perform computations. http://phys.org/news211043907.html Chemistry Wed, 08 Dec 2010 15:18:59 EST news211043907 (PhysOrg.com) -- Taking a step toward the realization of futuristic quantum technologies, a team of physicists from China and Germany has demonstrated a key element – an entangling gate – of a quantum teleportation scheme proposed more than 10 years ago. The entangling gate serves as a fundamental building block for applications such as long-distance quantum communication and practical quantum computers. http://phys.org/news211005731.html Physics Wed, 08 Dec 2010 08:40:03 EST news211005731 In a move that holds great significance for the semiconductor industry, a team of researchers has created an alternative to conventional logic gates, demonstrated them in silicon, and dubbed them "chaogates." The researchers present their findings in Chaos. http://phys.org/news209130631.html Physics Tue, 16 Nov 2010 11:50:45 EST news209130631 The widespread use of true random number generators (TRNGs) has taken a step closer following the creation of the most lightweight designs to date by researchers at Queen's University Belfast's Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT). http://phys.org/news204177038.html Technology Mon, 20 Sep 2010 04:51:00 EST news204177038 (PhysOrg.com) -- Back in the Victorian period, Charles Babbage created a mechanical computer that made use of levers and cogs to get data moving. These days, though, our computers are mostly run using electronic transistors. Nothing too mechanical about those. Unfortunately, when putting together a logic gate for use in computing, the materials used can't withstand some of the heat. Silicon carbide has been used to help fortify regular silicon, which degrades at 250 to 300 degrees Celsius. However, silicon carbide transistors are bulky and slow -- and require high voltages. http://phys.org/news203947752.html Physics Fri, 17 Sep 2010 13:09:25 EST news203947752 Chinese scientists have shown that magnetic memory, logic and sensor cells can be made faster and more energy efficient by using an electric, not magnetic, field to flip the magnetization of the sensing layer only about halfway, rather than completely to the opposite direction. They describe the new cell design in the Journal of Applied Physics. http://phys.org/news201887315.html Physics Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:48:51 EST news201887315 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new "transfer-printing" method of making light-sensitive semiconductors could make solar cells, night-vision cameras, and a range of other devices much more efficient, and could transform the solar industry. http://phys.org/news193557233.html Physics Thu, 20 May 2010 08:00:02 EST news193557233 (PhysOrg.com) -- In a single day, a solitary grad student at a lab bench can produce more simple logic circuits than the world's entire output of silicon chips in a month. http://phys.org/news192801007.html Nanotechnology Tue, 11 May 2010 12:50:28 EST news192801007 (PhysOrg.com) -- NICTA, Australia’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Research Centre of Excellence, has successfully demonstrated technology that reduces the amount of radio interference in 3G networks with femtocells. http://phys.org/news177060560.html Technology Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:00:02 EST news177060560 (PhysOrg.com) -- Recently, at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute, N.J. Tao and collaborators have found a way to make a key electrical component on a phenomenally tiny scale. Their single-molecule diode is described in this week’s online edition of Nature Chemistry. http://phys.org/news175415776.html Nanotechnology Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:37:08 EST news175415776 Recently, at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute, N.J. Tao and collaborators have found a way to make a key electrical component on a phenomenally tiny scale. Their single-molecule diode is described in this week's online edition of Nature Chemistry. http://phys.org/news174643920.html Nanotechnology Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:13:07 EST news174643920 (PhysOrg.com) -- A University of Queensland physicist is seeking answers to a persistent problem throughout human history: how do I compute things? None, however, have had the same impact as what we today know as simply the computer, the harbinger of the digital age. http://phys.org/news166110420.html Physics Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:20:01 EST news166110420