AI Tool Could Accelerate Discovery of Advanced Superconductors

Credit: iStock.Original story from Emory University, Using artificial intelligence shortens the time needed to identify complex phases in quantum materials.Using artificial intelligence shortens the time to identify complex quantum phases in materials from months to minutes, finds a new study published in Newton. The breakthrough could significantly speed up research into quantum materials, particularly low-dimensional superconductors.The study was led by theorists at Emory University and experimentalists at Yale University. Senior authors include Fang Liu and Yao Wang, assistant professors in Emory’s Department of Chemistry, and Yu He, assistant professor in Yale’s Department of Applied Physics.The team applied machine-learning techniques to detect clear spectral signals that indicate phase transitions in quantum materials — systems where electrons are strongly entangled. These materials are notoriously difficult to model with traditional physics because of their unpredictable fluctuations.“Our method gives a fast and accurate snapshot of a very complex phase transition, at virtually no cost,” says Xu Chen, the study’s first author and an Emory PhD student in chemistry. “We hope this can dramatically speed up discoveries in the field of superconductivity.”One of the challenges in applying machine learning to quantum materials is...
Read More........

World’s Smallest Pacemaker is Made for Newborns, Activated by Light, and Requires No Surgery

World’s smallest pacemaker next to a grain of rice – Credit: John Rogers / Northwestern University press releaseNorthwestern University engineers have developed a pacemaker so small that it can fit inside the tip of a syringe and be non-invasively injected into the body, according to a new study published in Nature.Although it can work with hearts of all sizes, the pacemaker is particularly well-suited to the tiny, fragile hearts of newborn babies with congenital heart defects.A pacemaker is an implantable device that helps maintain an even heart rate, either because the heart’s natural cardiac pacemaker provides an inadequate or irregular heartbeat, or because there is a block in the heart’s electrical conduction system.Smaller than a single grain of rice, the pacemaker is paired with a small, soft, flexible, wireless, wearable device that mounts onto a patient’s chest to control pacing. When the wearable device detects an irregular heartbeat, it automatically shines a light to activate the pacemaker.These short light pulses, which penetrate through the patient’s skin, breastbone, and muscles, control the pacing.Designed for patients who only need temporary pacing, the pacemaker simply dissolves after it’s no longer needed. All the pacemaker’s components are biocompatible, so they naturally dissolve into the body’s biofluids, bypassing...
Read More........