Scientists in China have developed a modeling technique to study urban traffic flows and show that their model can be used to find previously unknown bottlenecks. The model uses a modified form of percolation theory, and the investigators considered the existing road network and population distribution in Shanghai.
In JASA, researchers explore how anatomical variations in a speaker’s vocal tract affect speech production. Using MRI, the team recorded the shape of the vocal tract for 41 speakers as the subjects produced a series of representative speech sounds. They averaged these shapes to establish a sound-independent model of the vocal tract. Then they used statistical analysis to extract the main variations between speakers. A handful of factors explained nearly 90% of the differences between speakers.
Practical carbon capture technologies are still in the early stages of development, with the most promising involving a class of compounds called amines that can chemically bind with carbon dioxide. In AVS Quantum Science, researchers deploy an algorithm to study amine reactions through quantum computing. An existing quantum computer cab run the algorithm to find useful amine compounds for carbon capture more quickly, analyzing larger molecules and more complex reactions than a traditional computer can.
In APL Bioengineering, researchers create a biomimetic model to study wound healing in burn and laceration wounds. The team designed an in vitro model system made of fibroblasts embedded in a collagen hydrogel. Wounds were created in this microtissue using a microdissection knife to mimic laceration or a high-energy laser to simulate a burn. They discovered that fibroblasts clear away damaged tissue before depositing new material. This part of the healing process is slower in burn wounds.
In a world experiencing growing inequality and intolerance, tools borrowed from science and mathematics could be the key to understanding and preventing prejudice. In Chaos, Luis A. Martinez-Vaquero applies evolutionary game theory, which combines techniques from economics and biology, and complex system analysis to investigate the relationship between inequality and intolerance. He found that inequality boosts intolerance and that redistribution of wealth can prevent its infectious spread.
Milutin Milankovitch hypothesized that the timing of glacial transitions has been controlled by the orbital parameters of the Earth, which suggests that there may be some predictability in the climate, a notoriously complex system. In Chaos, Stefano Pierini proposes a new paradigm to simplify the verification of the Milankovitch hypothesis. Pierini’s “deterministic excitation paradigm” combines the physics concepts of relaxation oscillation and excitability to link Earth’s orbital parameters and the glacial cycles in a more generic way.
AIP is seeking applications for the 2023 Robert H.G. Helleman Memorial Fellowships, which will support Dutch graduate students and postdoctoral researchers as they pursue research in physics and its related subdisciplines in the U.S. Applications for the 2023 fellowships are underway and due March 15. AIP and its Center for History of Physics will select the fellows in May. For information about eligibility, application, and criteria, visit the AIP Robert H.G. Helleman Memorial Fellowships website.
In APL Bioengineering, researchers describe how gut-on-a-chip devices can bridge lab models and human biology. Modeling the microbiome is particularly difficult because of its unique environmental conditions, but through creative design, gut-on-a-chip devices can simulate many of these properties, such as the gut’s anaerobic atmosphere, fluid flow, and pulses of contraction/relaxation. Growing intestinal cells in this environment means that they more closely resemble human biology compared to standard laboratory cell cultures.
AIP Foundation and the Society of Physics Students have partnered with Google to award up to 20 $2,500 scholarships to physics and astronomy undergraduate students. Applicants must be undergraduate members of SPS and have at least one full semester remaining at the time of the award. The committee will consider applicants’ interest and perseverance in physics or astronomy, their effort and potential, and their active participation in their physics department, clubs, and programs outside the classroom. Applications are due March 15/
The TEAM-UP Together Scholarship Program is underway and will continue to accept applications for its next round of need-based scholarships until April 7. The scholarship program is one of TEAM-UP Together’s strategies aimed at doubling the number of African Americans earning bachelor’s degrees in physics and astronomy by 2030. The awards of $10,000 per academic year are to be used for tuition, fees, or supplies. To apply, students must be African American or Black undergraduates majoring in physics or astronomy at accredited U.S. colleges or universities.
In Journal of Applied Physics, a team of scientists fabricate sensitive nanostructured silver surfaces to detect arsenic, even at very low concentrations. The sensors make use of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy: As a molecule containing arsenic adheres to the surface, it's hit with a laser and the arsenic compound scatters the laser light, creating an identifiable signature. The technique is a departure from existing methods, which are time-consuming, expensive, and not ideally suited to on-site field assays.
In APL Photonics, researchers design a solar harvester with enhanced energy conversion capabilities. The device employs a quasiperiodic nanoscale pattern, meaning most of it is an alternating and consistent pattern, while the remaining portion contains random defects that do not affect its performance. The fabrication process makes use of self-assembling nanoparticles, which form an organized material structure based on their interactions with nearby particles without any external instructions. Thermal energy harvested by the device can be transformed to electricity using thermoelectric materials.
The Journal of Chemical Physics and the APS Division of Chemical Physics announce Haiming Zhu as the winner of the JCP-DCP Future of Chemical Physics Lectureship in recognition of his contributions to the understanding of the photophysical properties of emerging optoelectronic materials and processes using spatio-temporal resolved ultrafast spectroscopy.
Researchers have analyzed brewing with numerical simulations to predict an array of beer foam features. Publishing their work in Physics of Fluids, they demonstrate that their model can determine foam patterns, heights, stability, beer/foam ratio, and foam volume fractions. The study presents the first use of a computational approach called a multiphase solver to tackle beer heads.
When the Artemis 1 mission was launched in November, it became the world’s most powerful rocket, and with liftoff came a loud roar heard miles away. In JASA Express Letters, researchers report noise measurements during the launch at different locations around Kennedy Space Center. The data collected can be used to validate existing noise prediction models, which are needed to protect equipment as well as the surrounding environment and community. These data will be useful as more powerful lift vehicles are developed.
Researchers recently modeled the transmission of COVID-19 within an isolation room at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, U.K. Their goal was to explore the optimal room layout to reduce the risk of infection for health care staff. To accomplish this, they used an adaptive mesh finite-element computational fluid dynamics model to simulate 3D spatial distribution of the virus within the room — based on data collected from the room during a COVID-19 patient’s stay. They share their findings and guidance in Physics of Fluids.
AIP is pleased to announce Anna Lee as the new executive director of AIP Foundation. Starting February 1, Lee will lead the foundation as it magnifies philanthropic support of the Institute. Her appointment as executive director will bring valuable leadership and strategic direction to the foundation as it continues to share the history of the physical sciences, motivate and encourage a new generation of scientists, attract and inspire new partners, and support AIP priorities through critical fundraising opportunities.
The Heineman Foundation, AIP, and AAS are pleased to announce Karen Meech, astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai’i, as the winner of the 2023 Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics. Meech was selected “for her pioneering work in expanding and pushing boundaries in the field of small body solar system observational science, and for making transformative contributions to shape the broader field of planetary science in general.” She will be awarded $10,000 and a certificate and invited to give a talk at a future AAS meeting.
In the "butterfly effect," an insect can flap its wings and create a microscopic change in initial conditions that leads to a hurricane halfway around the world. This chaos is seen everywhere, from weather to labor markets to brain dynamics. And now, in the journal Chaos, researchers explored how to turn the twisting, fractal structures behind the science into jewelry with 3D printing. The jewelry shapes are based on the Chua circuit, a simple electronic system that was the first physical, mathematical, and experimental proof of chaos.
Nonpharmaceutical interventions slowed the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases but now, as NPIs are lifted, countries are seeing a resurgence in several respiratory diseases. In Chaos, scientists, using data from Hong Kong to develop their model, describe a threshold control method that can be used to predict the best time to lift NPIs without overwhelming the hospital systems when these other respiratory diseases inevitably surge back. They found that reintroducing NPI measures when a threshold of 600 severe cases is reached could ensure that the hospital system in Hong Kong is not overwhelmed by severely infected patients.
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