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Friday, December 7, 2012

Point of light: Light-focusing device may lead to applications in computing, communications, and imaging

ScienceDaily (Dec. 7, 2012) ? As technology advances, it tends to shrink. From cell phones to laptops -- powered by increasingly faster and tinier processors -- everything is getting thinner and sleeker. And now light beams are getting smaller, too.

Engineers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have created a device that can focus light into a point just a few nanometers (billionths of a meter) across -- an achievement they say may lead to next-generation applications in computing, communications, and imaging.

Because light can carry greater amounts of data more efficiently than electrical signals traveling through copper wires, today's technology is increasingly based on optics. The world is already connected by thousands of miles of optical-fiber cables that deliver email, images, and the latest video gone viral to your laptop.

As we all produce and consume more data, computers and communication networks must be able to handle the deluge of information. Focusing light into tinier spaces can squeeze more data through optical fibers and increase bandwidth. Moreover, by being able to control light at such small scales, optical devices can also be made more compact, requiring less energy to power them.

But focusing light to such minute scales is inherently difficult. Once you reach sizes smaller than the wavelength of light -- a few hundred nanometers in the case of visible light -- you reach what's called the diffraction limit, and it's physically impossible to focus the light any further.

But now the Caltech researchers, co-led by assistant professor of electrical engineering Hyuck Choo, have built a new kind of waveguide -- a tunnellike device that channels light -- that gets around this natural limit. The waveguide, which is described in a recent issue of the journal Nature Photonics, is made of amorphous silicon dioxide -- which is similar to common glass -- and is covered in a thin layer of gold. Just under two microns long, the device is a rectangular box that tapers to a point at one end.

As light is sent through the waveguide, the photons interact with electrons at the interface between the gold and the silicon dioxide. Those electrons oscillate, and the oscillations propagate along the device as waves -- similarly to how vibrations of air molecules travel as sound waves. Because the electron oscillations are directly coupled with the light, they carry the same information and properties -- and they therefore serve as a proxy for the light.

Instead of focusing the light alone -- which is impossible due to the diffraction limit -- the new device focuses these coupled electron oscillations, called surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). The SPPs travel through the waveguide and are focused as they go through the pointy end.

Because the new device is built on a semiconductor chip with standard nanofabrication techniques, says Choo, the co-lead and the co-corresponding author of the paper, it is easy integrate with today's technology

Previous on-chip nanofocusing devices were only able to focus light into a narrow line. They also were inefficient, typically focusing only a few percent of the incident photons, with the majority absorbed and scattered as they traveled through the devices.

With the new device, light can ultimately be focused in three dimensions, producing a point a few nanometers across, and using half of the light that's sent through, Choo says. (Focusing the light into a slightly bigger spot, 14 by 80 nanometers in size, boosts the efficiency to 70 percent). The key feature behind the device's focusing ability and efficiency, he says, is its unique design and shape.

"Our new device is based on fundamental research, but we hope it's a good building block for many potentially revolutionary engineering applications," says Myung-Ki Kim, a postdoctoral scholar and the other lead author of the paper.

For example, one application is to turn this nanofocusing device into an efficient, high-resolution biological-imaging instrument, Kim says. A biologist can dye specific molecules in a cell with fluorescent proteins that glow when struck by light. Using the new device, a scientist can focus light into the cell, causing the fluorescent proteins to shine. Because the device concentrates light into such a small point, it can create a high-resolution map of those dyed molecules. Light can also travel in the reverse direction through the nanofocuser: by collecting light through the narrow point, the device turns into a high-resolution microscope.

The device can also lead to computer hard drives that hold more memory via heat-assisted magnetic recording. Normal hard drives consist of rows of tiny magnets whose north and south poles lay end to end. Data is recorded by applying a magnetic field to switch the polarity of the magnets.

Smaller magnets would allow more memory to be squeezed into a disc of a given size. But the polarities of smaller magnets made of current materials are unstable at room temperature, causing the magnetic poles to spontaneously flip -- and for data to be lost. Instead, more stable materials can be used -- but those require heat to record data. The heat makes the magnets more susceptible to polarity reversals. Therefore, to write data, a laser is needed to heat the individual magnets, allowing a surrounding magnetic field to flip their polarities.

Today's technology, however, can't focus a laser into a beam that is narrow enough to individually heat such tiny magnets. Indeed, current lasers can only concentrate a beam to an area 300 nanometers wide, which would heat the target magnet as well as adjacent ones -- possibly spoiling other recorded data.

Because the new device can focus light down to such small scales, it can heat smaller magnets individually, making it possible for hard drives to pack more magnets and therefore more memory. With current technology, discs can't hold more than 1 terabyte (1,000 gigabytes) per square inch. A nanofocusing device, Choo says, can bump that to 50 terabytes per square inch.

Then there's the myriad of data-transfer and communication applications, the researchers say. As computing becomes increasingly reliant on optics, devices that concentrate and control data-carrying light at the nanoscale will be essential -- and ubiquitous, says Choo, who is a member of the Kavli Nanoscience Institute at Caltech. "Don't be surprised if you see a similar kind of device inside a computer you may someday buy."

The next step is to optimize the design and to begin building imaging instruments and sensors, Choo says. The device is versatile enough that relatively simple modifications could allow it to be used for imaging, computing, or communication.

The title of the Nature Photonics paper is "Nanofocusing in a metal-insulator-metal gap plasmon waveguide with a three-dimensional linear taper." In addition to Choo and Kim, the other authors are Matteo Staffaroni, Tae Joon Seok, Jeffrey Bokor, Ming C. Wu, and Eli Yablonovitch of UC Berkeley and Stefano Cabrini and P. James Schuck of the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. The research was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Science and Technology Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy program, the Department of Energy, and the Division of Engineering and Applied Science at Caltech.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by California Institute of Technology. The original article was written by Marcus Woo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Hyuck Choo, Myung-Ki Kim, Matteo Staffaroni, Tae Joon Seok, Jeffrey Bokor, Stefano Cabrini, P. James Schuck, Ming C. Wu, Eli Yablonovitch. Nanofocusing in a metal?insulator?metal gap plasmon waveguide with a three-dimensional linear taper. Nature Photonics, 2012; 6 (12): 838 DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2012.277

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/eltNLrQjauA/121207101704.htm

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FCC chairman urges FAA to allow use of tablets during takeoff and landing

One of the great annoyances and confusions of flying is the ban on use of any and all portable electronic devices below 10,000 feet. While we're honestly perfectly fine with the use of cell phones being banned in such extended-period close quarters, devices like tablets, ereaders, and the like aren't really of great concern. I'll admit to having left my tablet and cell phone turned on (in airplane mode) during takeoff and landing, and the plane did not come crashing out of the sky, and there's little doubt that at least a few of your fellow passengers are doing the same on every flight.

Federal Communications Commission?(FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski is now urging the Federal Aviaition Administration?(FAA) to "enable greater use of tablets, e-readers, and other portable devices" during all phases of flight, according to a report by?The Hill. Genachowski's letter to acting FAA director Michael Huerta noted the economic benefits of these gadgets we use, though one has to question how much additional utility can be gained from working in the ~30 minutes between the gate and 10,000 feet (and in reverse when returning to the ground). Then again, extra time on the tablet is extra time on the tablet.

Genachowski pledged in the letter to work with the FAA, airlines, and device manufacturers on completing a review of the safety of these devices during the take-off and landing phases of flight. The FAA has been studying the question of gadgets during these phases for some time, stating in March that they were reconsidering the policy and forming a committee in August to study their current policies, though no recommendations have yet been made.

While we're all for extended gadget time during flights, we also want this to be done right. There are legitimate reasons behind the not-below-10,000-feet rule, and if the studies and committees determine that there's even a small chance that turning on that iPad could knock your plane out of the sky, then we'd rather people not be doing that. Airplanes are overengineered for a reason - just one mistake, one error, one failure can be seriously when you're with a hundred other people in a pressurized metal tube hurtling through the sky at five hundred miles per hour and thirty thousand feet over the ground. We'd all prefer that playing X-Plane on our iPad not be the cause of that failure.

Source: The Hill

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/LzO4GLl36gU/story01.htm

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Thursday, December 6, 2012

US weighing military options if Syria uses WMD

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney gestures during his daily news briefing at the White House in Washington, Monday, Dec., 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Czech Republic's Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, left, and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, right, arrive for their press conference in Prague, Czech Republic, Monday, Dec. 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The White House and its allies are weighing military options to secure Syria's chemical and biological weapons, after U.S. intelligence reports show the Syrian regime may be readying those weapons and may be desperate enough to use them, U.S. officials said Monday.

President Barack Obama, in a speech at the National Defense University on Monday, pointedly warned Syrian President Bashar Assad not to use his arsenal.

"Today I want to make it absolutely clear to Assad and those under his command: The world is watching," Obama said. "The use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable. And if you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences and you will be held accountable."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in Prague for meetings with Czech officials, said she wouldn't outline any specifics.

"But suffice it to say, we are certainly planning to take action if that eventuality were to occur," Clinton said.

Options now being considered range from aerial strikes to limited raids by regional forces to secure the stockpiles, according to one current U.S. official, and one former U.S. official, briefed on the matter. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue publicly.

The administration remains reluctant to dispatch U.S. forces into Syria, but a U.S. special operations training team is in neighboring Jordan, teaching troops there how to safely secure such sites together with other troops from the region, the officials said.

The warnings to Syria come after U.S. intelligence detected signs the Syrian regime was moving the chemical weapons components around within several of Syria's chemical weapons sites in recent days, according to a senior U.S. defense official and two U.S. officials speaking on Monday. The activities involved movement within the sites, rather than the transfer of components in or out of various sites, two of the officials said.

But they were activities they had not seen before, that bear further scrutiny, one said.

Another senior U.S. official described it as "indications of preparations" for a possible use of the chemical weapons. The U.S. still doesn't know whether the regime is planning to use them, but the official says there is greater concern because there is the sense that the Assad regime is under greater pressure now.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about intelligence matters.

U.S. intelligence officials also intercepted one communication within the last six months they believe was between Iran's infamous Quds Force, urging Syrian regime members to use its supplies of toxic Sarin gas against rebels and the civilians supporting them in the besieged city of Homs, a former U.S. official said. That report was not matched by other intelligence agencies, and other intelligence officials have said Iran also does not want the Syrians to use their chemical weapons.

The Assad regime insists it would not use such weapons against Syrians, though it carefully does not admit to having them. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the government "would not use chemical weapons ? if there are any ? against its own people under any circumstances." The regime is party to the 1925 Geneva Protocol banning chemical weapons in war.

The Syrian assurances did not placate the White House.

"We are concerned that in an increasingly beleaguered regime, having found its escalation of violence through conventional means inadequate, might be considering the use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people," said White House press secretary Jay Carney.

"Assad has killed so many of his people, I just wouldn't be surprised if he turned these weapons on them," added Maryland Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, after intelligence briefings Monday.

An administration official said the trigger for U.S. action of some kind is the use of chemical weapons, or movement with the intent to use them, or the intent to provide them to a terrorist group like Hezbollah. The U.S. is trying to determine whether the recent movement detected in Syria falls into any of those categories, the official said. The administration official was speaking on condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue.

Israeli officials have repeatedly expressed concerns that Syrian chemical weapons could slip into the hands of Hezbollah or other anti-Israel groups, or even be fired toward Israel in an act of desperation by Syria.

Syria has some 75 sites where weapons are stored, but U.S. officials aren't sure they have tracked down all the locations, and fear some stockpiles may have already been moved. Syria is believed to have several hundred ballistic surface-to-surface missiles capable of carrying chemical warheads, plus several tons of material stored in either large drums, or in artillery shells, which become deadly once fired.

"In Syria, they have everything from mustard agent, Sarin nerve gas, and some variant of the nerve agent VX," according to James Quinlivan, a Rand Corp. analyst who specializes in the elimination of weapons of mass destruction.

A primary argument against sending in U.S. ground troops is that whoever takes possession of the chemical weapons will be responsible for destroying them, as part of the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. Destroying Syria's stockpiles could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and take more than a decade, Quinlivan said.

Syria's arsenal is a particular threat to the American allies, Turkey and Israel, and Obama singled out the threat posed by the unconventional weapons earlier this year as a potential cause for deeper U.S. involvement in Syria's civil war. Up to now, the United States has opposed military intervention or providing arms support to Syria's rebels for fear of further militarizing a conflict that activists say has killed more than 40,000 people since March 2011.

Activity has been detected at Syrian weapons sites before.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in late September the intelligence suggested the Syrian government had moved some of its chemical weapons in order to protect them. He said the U.S. believed that the main sites remained secure.

Asked Monday if they were still considered secure, Pentagon press secretary George Little declined to comment about any intelligence related to the weapons.

Senior lawmakers were notified last week that U.S. intelligence agencies had detected activity related to Syria's chemical and biological weapons, said a U.S. intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door meetings. All congressional committees with an interest in Syria, from the intelligence to the armed services committees, are now being kept informed.

"I can't comment on these reports, but I have been very concerned for some time now about Syria's stockpiles of chemical weapons and its stocks of advanced conventional weapons like shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles," said House intelligence committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich.

"We are not doing enough to prepare for the collapse of the Assad regime, and the dangerous vacuum it will create. Use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime would be an extremely serious escalation that would demand decisive action from the rest of the world," he added.

The U.S. and Jordan share the same concern about Syria's chemical and biological weapons ? that they could fall into the wrong hands should the regime in Syria collapse and lose control of them.

___

Associated Press writers Bradley Klapper in Prague, Josef Federman in Jerusalem, Albert Aji in Damascus and Matthew Lee, Lolita C. Baldor and Julie Pace in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-12-03-US-Syria/id-b1e80025fa63465aa95404ce6240604d

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Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Five dead in earthquake in eastern Iran: media reports

DUBAI (Reuters) - An earthquake measuring 5.5 in magnitude struck eastern Iran on Wednesday, killing five people and injuring 10 others, Iranian media reported, and officials expecting the toll to rise.

People fled from their homes after the powerful quake struck, Fars news agency reported, bringing walls and buildings down and leaving people trapped under rubble in villages across the district of Zahan in South Khorasan province.

Emergency workers had reached some areas and so far five people had been found dead and 10 injured, Tehran's deputy emergency services director Mohammad Sarvar said in a report by Fars. He said the number of dead was likely to rise.

Iran's Red Crescent Society dispatched 15 rescue teams to the affected areas to search for people stuck under the debris and doctors in the provincial capital of Birjand were on alert to treat those hurt, Iranian media said.

At least 12 aftershocks have been registered since the quake struck at 2038 local time (1708 GMT), the Iranian Seismological Center reported.

The USGS said the quake, which it initially recorded as magnitude 6.0, was very shallow at a depth of 3.3. miles. It located the epicenter as 48 miles north-northeast of Birjand, near the border with Afghanistan.

Iran is crisis-crossed by major fault lines and has suffered several devastating earthquakes in recent years, including a 6.6 magnitude quake in 2003 which flattened the southeastern city of Bam and killed more than 25,000 people.

In August more than 300 people were killed when two quakes struck northwestern Iran.

(Reporting by Marcus George; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/magnitude-5-9-quake-hits-eastern-iran-u-181527636.html

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SKorea to reroute flights on NKorean rocket path

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? South Korea said Monday that it plans to reroute passenger flights over the Yellow Sea to avoid possible collisions with debris from a long-range rocket that North Korea plans to launch this month.

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said it made the decision after learning that North Korea had informed China and Singapore of the flight path and other details of the launch.

North Korea told those nations the rocket would be launched in the morning and its debris would fall into the Yellow Sea and in waters east of the Philippines.

The International Maritime Organization said Monday that North Korea had informed it that it planned to launch a satellite between Dec. 10-22 during the hours of 7 a.m and noon. The North provided a list of dangerous coordinates where debris could fall.

South Korean officials said they will reroute six Korean Air flights. They also are considering whether to reroute or change the departure times of several Korean Air and Asiana Airlines flights to Manila.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/skorea-reroute-flights-nkorean-rocket-path-124313833.html

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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Mars rover Curiosity: No surprise in 1st soil test

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? NASA's Curiosity rover has indeed found something in the Martian dirt. But so far, there's no definitive sign of the chemical ingredients necessary to support life.

A scoop of sandy soil analyzed by Curiosity's sophisticated chemistry laboratory contained water and a mix of chemicals, but not complex carbon-based molecules considered essential for life.

That the soil was not more hospitable did not surprise mission scientist Paul Mahaffy since radiation from space can destroy any carbon evidence.

"It's not unexpected necessarily," said Mahaffy of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, who is in charge of the chemistry experiments. "It's been exposed to the harsh Martian environment."

The latest findings were presented Monday at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. The mission managed by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory is trying to determine whether conditions on Mars could have been favorable for microbes when the red planet was warmer and wetter.

Hopes for a "Mars-shaking" discovery peaked two weeks ago after mission chief scientist John Grotzinger told National Public Radio: "This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good."

The Internet lit up with excitement. NASA later clarified that Grotzinger was referring generally to the mission and not a specific result. Days before the science gathering, the space agency sought to contain expectations and issued a statement insisting there'd be no big news.

So what did Curiosity find after baking the soil and analyzing the resulting gases?

Water, sulfur and perchlorate, a highly oxidizing salt that was also detected by one of NASA's previous spacecraft, the Phoenix lander, in the northern Martian latitudes.

"This is typical, ordinary Martian soil," said mission scientist Ralf Gellert of the University of Guelph in Canada.

The rover did detect hints of a simple carbon compound, but scientists don't yet know if it's native to the planet, came from space or hitchhiked from Earth.

Scientists think the best chance of finding complex carbon is at Mount Sharp, a mountain rising three miles from the center of Gale Crater near the Martian equator. Curiosity won't trek there until early next year. Images from space reveal intriguing layers at the base and many think it's the ideal place to search for carbon.

"The real new science may have to wait until the rover gets to the ancient layered terrain at the base," said University of Arizona senior research scientist Peter Smith, who is not involved in the latest Mars mission.

The Curiosity team has been under pressure to announce a blockbuster find ever since the car-size Curiosity made its dramatic landing in early August using a never-before-tried technique that involved gently being lowered to the ground by cables.

The first month of a two-year mission was dominated by health checkups ? a requirement for every interplanetary spacecraft. Since then, it has been on the move, scooping up soil and hunting for its first rock to drill into.

While Curiosity has beamed back stunning panoramas of its surroundings, its major discovery so far is uncovering the remnants of an ancient streambed. Michael Meyer of NASA headquarters called Curiosity a "CSI laboratory on wheels" that has already revealed a lot about its surroundings.

At $2.5 billion, the Curiosity mission is the most expensive yet to Mars, which has been studied by various, less capable rovers and landers. Curiosity totes around high-tech tools designed to explore the Martian surface in unprecedented detail.

___

Online:

NASA: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/

___

Follow Alicia Chang at http://twitter.com/SciWriAlicia

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mars-rover-curiosity-no-surprise-1st-soil-test-175738039.html

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