Genetic algorithm used to design broadband metamaterial | KurzweilAI

Genetic algorithm used to design broadband metamaterial | KurzweilAI: "...this is the first that can cover a super-octave [more than doubling] bandwidth in the infrared spectrum...”

The new metamaterial is actually made of layers on a silicon substrate or base. The first layer is palladium, followed by a polyimide (plastic) layer and a palladium screen layer on top. The screen has elaborate, complicated cutouts — sub-wavelength geometry — that serve to block the various wavelengths. A polyimide layer caps the whole absorber...

This evolved metamaterial can be easily manufactured because it is simply layers of metal or plastic that do not need complex alignment. The clear cap of polyimide serves to protect the screen, but also helps reduce any impedance mismatch that might occur when the wave moves from the air into the device...

Supercomputers join search for 'cheapium'

Supercomputers join search for 'cheapium': The identification of the new platinum-group compounds hinges on databases and algorithms that Curtarolo and his group have spent years developing. Using theories about how atoms interact to model chemical structures from the ground up, Curtarolo and his group screened thousands of potential materials for high probabilities of stability. After nearly 40,000 calculations, the results identified 37 new binary alloys in the platinum-group metals, which include osmium, iridium ruthenium, rhodium, platinum and palladium.

These metals are prized for their catalytic properties, resistance to chemical corrosion and performance in high-temperature environments, among other properties.

A grand unified theory of exotic superconductivity?

A grand unified theory of exotic superconductivity?: In the current paper, Davis and Lee propose and demonstrate within a simple model that antiferromagnetic electron interactions can drive both superconductivity and the various intertwined phases across different families of high-Tc superconductors. These intertwined phases and the emergence of superconductivity, they say, can be explained by how the antiferromagnetic influence interacts with another variable in their theoretical description, namely the "Fermi surface topology..."


"The basic assumption of our theory is that when we rip away all the complicated intertwined phases, underneath there is an ordinary metal," said Lee. "It is the antiferromagnetic interactions in this metal that make the electrons want to form the various states. The complex behavior originates from the system fluctuating from one state to another, e.g., from superconductor to charge density waves to nematic order. It is the antiferromagnetic interaction acting on the underlying simple metal that causes all the complexity."

First fully computer-designed superconductor | KurzweilAI

First fully computer-designed superconductor | KurzweilAI: Several years ago, Kolmogorov, then at Oxford University, began studying boron-based materials, which have complex structures and a wide range of applications. He developed an automated computational tool to identify previously unknown stable crystal structures. His “evolutionary” algorithm emulates nature, meaning it favors more stable materials among thousands of possibilities.

The search revealed two promising compounds in a common iron-boron system, which came as a surprise. Moreover, a graduate student’s calculations indicated that one of them should be a superconductor at an unusually high temperature of 15–20 Kelvin for the “conventional” type of superconductivity.

Artificial Photosynthesis Effort Takes Root

Artificial Photosynthesis Effort Takes Root: To speed up materials discovery, researchers at the Caltech hub, who collaborate with researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and more than 20 other research centers, have developed an ink-jet printing process that can churn out millions of slightly different variations on promising catalysts. Each sample is as small as a pixel on a screen. They're also developing equipment that can quickly test the activity of each catalyst. "It will dramatically accelerate the rate of electrocatalyst and photocatalyst discovery from a few candidates a year to a few every few milliseconds, producing thousands to millions per day..."

Robot biologist solves complex problem from scratch | KurzweilAI

Robot biologist solves complex problem from scratch | KurzweilAI: The biological system that the researchers used to test ABE is glycolysis, the primary process that produces energy in a living cell. They focused on how yeast cells control glycolytic oscillations  because it is one of the most extensively studied biological control systems. ABE derived the equations a priori. The only thing the software knew in advance was addition, subtraction, multiplication and division...

Lipson used genetic programming for the breeding process... However, this process also proved to be too slow.
So Lipson combined the breeding and the debugging processes in an approach he calls co-evolution.

Robot Culture Machine Efficiently Grows Biological Cells Without Human Intervention | Popular Science

Robot Culture Machine Efficiently Grows Biological Cells Without Human Intervention | Popular Science: One robot is designed to move around the first-generation cell cultures, called multititer plates, among various spots. Then an automated microscope checks the cells to assess their growth, adjusting the light and focus as needed, and the images are fed into a computer system. Special software determines how many cell colonies are present on the plates, and if there are enough, another robot is tasked with picking them up. Using a hollow needle, it chooses cells measuring between 100 and 200 micrometers and transfers them to a new container for continued growth.
The system can produce about 500 cell cultures a month, according to a news release from Fraunhofer.

Researchers develop algorithm to predict new superhard crystals

Researchers develop algorithm to predict new super hard crystals: The optimization of hardness is a successful proof-of-principle example, which opens the way for a novel computational technique. “A new era in material design and discovery is about to begin,” said Prof. Oganov. “New materials with desired properties will be routinely discovered using supercomputers, instead of the expensive trial-and-error method that is used today.”

The Material Genome Initiative Puts High-Tech Development On The Fast Track | Fast Company

The Material Genome Initiative Puts High-Tech Development On The Fast Track | Fast Company: In part, the concept calls for replacing some scientific intuition and trial and error experimentation with virtual experiments conducted on powerful computers, as well as infrastructure to share engineering data and models. "The materials community must embrace open innovation," the report states. It also describes a plan to streamline today's unwieldy, seven-stage commercialization process.

Evolution machine: Genetic engineering on fast forward

Evolution machine: Genetic engineering on fast forward - life - 27 June 2011 - New ScientistThe machine let the E. coli multiply, mixed them with the DNA strands, and applied an electric shock to open up the bacterial cells and let the DNA get inside. There, some of the added DNA was swapped with the matching target sequences in the cells' genomes. This process, called homologous recombination, is usually very rare, which is where the viral enzymes come in. They trick cells into treating the added DNA as its own, greatly increasing the chance of homologous recombination.

Move over, Einstein: Machines will take it from here - physics-math - 22 March 2011 - New Scientist

Move over, Einstein: Machines will take it from here: To get an idea of how it works, imagine you find a number of equations that seem to relate the height of the pendulum's midpoint and its horizontal position. While a trivial answer would simply relate these two variables, a physical law of motion describes a much deeper connection between them. This means that it can be used to predict, for example, how the height and position change with time. So Schmidt and Lipson decided to use this to test their equations: not only must an equation match the data, in the pendulum's case it must also describe how the pendulum changes in time...
Today, the algorithm is called Eureqa and has thousands of users all over the world, with people using it for everything from financial forecasting to particle physics.