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The American Institute of Physics is accepting nominations for the 2020 John Torrence Tate Medal for International Leadership in Physics. The deadline to apply is Oct. 1, 2020. The Tate medal was established in 1959 and is awarded every two years to non-U.S. citizens for their leadership, research contributions and service to the international physics community. The award consists of a certificate of recognition, a bronze medal and a $10,000 prize.

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Many compact systems using mid-infrared technology continue to face compatibility issues when integrating with conventional electronics. Black phosphorus has garnered attention for overcoming these challenges thanks to a wide variety of uses in photonic circuits. Research published in Applied Physics Reviews highlights the material’s potential for emerging devices ranging from medical imaging to environment monitoring, assessing progress in different components of the chips, from light detection to laser emission.

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The Acoustical Society of America continues to host virtual events in August as part of the International Year of Sound. The ASA Student Council will host Virtual Student Summer Talks for science students to present their research on topics ranging from acoustical oceanography to speech communication and David Carreon Bradley will discuss how sounds in religious spaces are essential to the worship experience. All events are open to the public, and admission is free.

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Episodes of social unrest rippled throughout Chile in 2019. Researchers specializing in economics, mathematics and physics in Chile and the U.K. banded together to explore the surprising social dynamics people were experiencing. In the journal Chaos, the team reports that social media is changing the rules of the game, and previously applied epidemic-like models, on their own, may no longer be enough to explain current rioting dynamics.

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Machine learning performed by neural networks is a popular approach to developing artificial intelligence, as researchers aim to replicate brain functionalities for a variety of applications. A paper in the journal Applied Physics Reviews proposes a new approach to perform computations required by a neural network, using light instead of electricity. In this approach, a photonic tensor core performs multiplications of matrices in parallel, improving speed and efficiency of current deep learning paradigms.

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Twitter mentions show distinct community structure patterns resulting from communication preferences of individuals affected by physical distance between users and commonalities, such as shared language and history. While previous investigations have identified patterns using other data, such as mobile phone usage and Facebook friend connections, research from the New England Complex Systems Institute looks at the collective effect of message transfer in the global community. The group’s results are reported in the journal Chaos.

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Brazilian researchers demonstrated a new chemical approach for producing biodiesel from domestic cooking oil waste by using hydroxide lithium mixed with either sodium hydroxides or potassium hydroxides as catalysts. Their work, published in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, could enable future studies related to the use of lithium from waste lithium ion batteries. The work marks one of the first times lithium has been used for such purposes.

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In recognition of the 75th anniversary of the Trinity test, marking the first detonation of a nuclear bomb, the American Institute of Physics commemorates the scientific legacy of the Manhattan Project with a collection of new articles and historic testimony. AIP publication Inside Science, the Center for History of Physics and the Niels Bohr Library & Archives showcase highlights from the complex heritage of the research and development of the first nuclear weapons and contributions to the advancement in the field.

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The Acoustical Society of America is hosting a series of experts to talk about how sounds affect everyone in different ways as part of the celebration of the International Year of Sound. The series features acoustic scientists from a range of backgrounds who will stimulate the understanding of the important role that sound plays in all aspects of our society. Three acoustic experts will be making their presentations virtually, and ASA encourages media, scientists, audio enthusiasts, students, educators and families to tune in. All events are open to the public, and admission is free.

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The American Institute of Physics has established a $200,000 fund to support efforts by its 10 member societies and an AIP affiliated society, the National Society of Black Physicists, for actions that are a direct response to racial injustice. The AIP 2020-2021 Diversity Action Fund will have a special focus on society actions for Black students in the physical sciences, as well as programs focused on minority communities.

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Commissioned by the AIP board of directors, “Peril and Promise: Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Physical Sciences,” outlines several areas where the scientific community has been tested by the pandemic and examines what the future could look like for the workforce, infrastructure and conduct of research. Calling it “a tipping point,” the panel challenges leaders in government, academia, the private sector and other areas who depend on the physical sciences to craft specific recommendations to address the pandemic’s impacts.

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Utility-scale photovoltaics are the largest sector of the overall solar market within the U.S. and the fastest-growing form of renewable power generation, and this fleet of utility-scale photovoltaic projects is relatively young and hasn’t been operating long enough to establish a lengthy history of operational field service. In the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, researchers assess the performance of 411 utility-scale photovoltaic projects built within the U.S. from 2007 through 2016.

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Thermoelectric devices, which use the temperature difference between the top and bottom of the device to generate power, offer some promise for harnessing naturally occurring energy. In Applied Physics Letters, authors tested a device made up of a wavelength-selective emitter that constantly cools the device during the day using radiative cooling. As a result, the top of the device is cooler than the bottom, causing a temperature difference that creates constant voltage through day and night and various weather conditions.

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Mathematicians based in Australia and China have developed a method to analyze the large amount of data accumulated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The technique, described in the journal Chaos, can identify anomalous countries -- those that are more successful than expected at responding to the pandemic and those that are particularly unsuccessful. The investigators analyzed the data with a variation of a statistical technique known as a cluster analysis.

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It is well established the COVID-19 virus is transmitted via respiratory droplets. Consequently, much research targets better understanding droplet motion and evaporation. In Physics of Fluids, researchers developed a mathematical model for the early phases of a COVID-19-like pandemic using the aerodynamics and evaporation characteristics of respiratory droplets. The researchers modeled the pandemic dynamics with a reaction mechanism and then compared the droplet cloud ejected by an infected person versus one by a healthy person.

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Spider silk is useful for a variety of biomedical applications: It exhibits mechanical properties superior to synthetic fibers for tissue engineering, and it is not toxic or harmful to living cells. One unexpected application for spider silk is its use in the creation of biocompatible lenses for biological imaging applications. Researchers describe the feasibility of creating lenses capitalizing on the properties of natural spider silk material in the Journal of Applied Physics.

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While the use of face masks in public has been widely recommended by health officials during the current COVID-19 pandemic, there are relatively few specific guidelines pertaining to mask materials and designs. A study in Physics of Fluids looks to better understand which types are best for controlling respiratory droplets that could contain viruses. The team experimented with different choices in material and design to determine how well face masks block droplets as they exit the mouth.

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When a material is subjected to a shock or blast wave, damage often forms internally through spall fracture, and research is needed to know how these damaged materials respond to subsequent shock waves. Recent experimentation on spall fracture in metals found that, in certain cases, there was an almost complete lack of damage with only a thin band of altered microstructure observed. In the Journal of Applied Physics, researchers narrowed down exactly why the expected damage was missing.

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Brexit has affected trade and security, but scientists wanted to know how it might also affect the EU Framework Programmes for Research, known as Horizon 2020. In this week’s Chaos, authors examined a network of 19,200 research organizations to determine how removing U.K. organizations affects three Horizon 2020 programs: Excellent Science, Industrial Leadership and Societal Changes. They looked at percolation theory, and networks were examined in terms of global efficiency, local efficiency and mesoscopic-scale effects.

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Most commercial nanoparticles do not possess a single magnetic core but have small magnetic crystals called crystallites. The important question is how these crystallites behave inside a multicore nanoparticle and how they respond to an applied magnetic field. In the Journal of Applied Physics, researchers compare the effective magnetic moments of different multicore nanoparticle systems and shows that they are magnetic-field dependent. The paper’s findings are important for researchers optimizing magnetic nanoparticles for various applications.

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Researchers used a computer simulation to show how a flushing toilet can create a cloud of virus-containing aerosol droplets that is large and widespread and lasts long enough that the droplets could be breathed in by others. With recent studies showing the COVID-19 virus can survive in the human digestive tract and show up in feces of the infected, this raises the possibility the disease could be transmitted with the use of toilets.

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To help students struggling through financial challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the American Institute of Physics has established an emergency relief fund to support needs-based scholarships for undergraduate students in physics and astronomy. The AIP-SPS Student Emergency Scholarship Fund will be awarded on a rolling basis during this spring and summer and throughout the 2020-2021 academic year to provide immediate and timely relief for students who have been negatively impacted by the pandemic.

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Discussed in APL Bioengineering, researchers created a high-fidelity respiratory simulator that accurately represents the interplay between the abdomen, diaphragm, lungs and pleural space, the fluid-filled membrane surrounding the thorax and lungs. The model, using swine lungs, soft robotic materials and artificial muscles, allows precise tuning of pressure in each part of the system, so specific disease conditions can be tested. It also proved extremely useful for testing ventilator-only respiration by removing the elastomeric diaphragm.

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Researchers at North Carolina State University have constructed a paper-based device as a model of wearables that can collect, transport and analyze sweat in next-generation wearable technology. Using a process known as capillary action, akin to water transport in plants, the device uses evaporation to wick fluid that mimics the features of human sweat to a sensor for up to 10 days or longer. They discuss their work in the journal Biomicrofluidics.

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As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, many researchers are studying epidemiological models to predict its propagation. However, a mathematician and expert in complex systems decided to focus on finding targets within SARS-CoV-2 for new drugs to attack. In the journal Chaos, he discusses the dramatic increase in the sensitivity of the main protease of SARS-CoV-2 to small disturbances, which made him suspect there is a role for inhibitors to play in killing the virus.

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Our ability to predict who will get cancer, how patients will respond to treatment, or if patients will relapse is still quite limited, despite advances in the detection of genetic mutations and the establishment of risk factors; recently researchers were inspired to find new ways of looking at the problem. In Biomicrofluidics, they report that using cellular mechanophenotyping, along with traditional methods such as immunostaining and genetic analysis, may provide a more comprehensive view of a tumor.

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One of the many questions researchers have about the COVID-19 virus is how long it remains alive after someone infected coughs or sneezes. In Physics of Fluids, researchers examine the drying time of respiratory droplets from COVID-19-infected subjects on various surfaces in six cities around the world. Using a model well established in the field of interface science, the drying time calculations showed ambient temperature, type of surface and relative humidity play critical roles.

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Microcapsules for the storage and delivery of substances are tiny versions of the type of capsule used for fish oil or other liquid supplements. A new method for synthesizing microcapsules, reported in AIP Advances, creates microcapsules with a liquid core that are ideal for the storage and delivery of oil-based materials in skin care products. They also show promise in some applications as tiny bioreactors. In this new method, a surfactant-free microfluidics process is used.

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Throughout an individual’s lifetime, the uterus undergoes spontaneous contractions of the uterine wall, which can induce uterine peristalsis, a specific wavelike contraction pattern. These contractions are important for many reproductive processes, but hyperperistalsis could impede fertility and lead to diseases, such as adenomyosis or endometriosis. In an APL Bioengineering article, researchers present two mechanobiology tools for experiments on synthetic or artificial uterine tissue. They wanted to study the negative effects of hyperperistalsis.

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Generating power through wind or solar energy is dependent on the abundance of the right weather conditions, making finding the optimal strategy for storage crucial to the future of sustainable energy usage. Research published in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy identifies key indicators that will help achieve balance between green energy storage capacity and harvesting capability and determine the energy potential of a region.

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AIP will be continuing its Society of Physics Students Summer Internship program for 2020 in a virtual setting, having restructured it to accommodate the current state of the world but still provide a comprehensive and complete experience for this year’s interns. Sixteen undergraduates were selected and have accepted positions in the summer program, and they will be placed with organizations that will utilize their knowledge, experience and energy to advance meaningful assignments relevant to the organizations and the advancement of physics and astronomy more generally.

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Atrial fibrillation ranks among the most common heart conditions, and episodes are difficult to predict. Researchers have proposed a way to define cardiac state and have studied the dynamics before the cardiac rhythm changes from normal sinus to AF rhythm and vice versa. The work, appearing in Chaos and based on critical transition theory, looks to provide an early warning for those with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation with potential implications for future wearable devices.

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Chirped pulse amplification increases the strength of laser pulses in many of today’s highest-powered research lasers, and as next-generation laser facilities look to push beam power, physicists expect a new era for studying plasmas. Researchers have released a study in Physics of Plasmas taking stock of what upcoming high-power laser capabilities are poised to teach us about relativistic plasmas subjected to strong-field quantum electrodynamics processes and introducing the physics of relativistic plasma in supercritical fields.

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Thirty-six scientific associations and societies are calling on President Trump to reconsider an executive order that suspends the entry of immigrants into the United States. The order seeks to limit the number of foreign workers available in the U.S. job market and makes no exceptions for researchers and students in STEM who are not involved in coronavirus research. The letter points out the critical role of immigrant researchers and students from around the world for the U.S. in retaining our advantage as “the premier destination for the world’s best and brightest minds.”

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As the virus causing COVID-19 began its devastating spread, an international team of scientists was alarmed by the lack of uniform approaches by various countries’ epidemiologists. Data modeling to predict the numbers of likely infections varied widely and revealed a high degree of uncertainty. In the journal Chaos, the group describes why modeling and extrapolating the evolution of COVID-19 outbreaks in near real time is an enormous scientific challenge that requires a deep understanding of the nonlinearities underlying the dynamics of epidemics.

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Many patients with heart disease face limited treatment options. Fortunately, stem cell biology has enabled researchers to produce large numbers of cardiomyocytes, which may be used in advanced drug screens and cell-based therapies. However, current image analysis techniques don’t allow researchers to analyze heterogeneous, multidirectional, striated myofibrils typical of immature cells. In the Journal of Applied Physics, researchers showcase an algorithm that combines gradient methods with fast Fourier transforms to quantify myofibril structures in heart cells with considerable accuracy.

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Saturday, May 16, is a day to see how light influences our lives with the International Day of Light. The celebration is a global initiative that provides an annual focal point for the continued appreciation of light and the role it plays in science, the economy, culture and art, education, and sustainable development, and in fields as diverse as medicine, communications and energy.

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Researchers combined gas foaming and 3D molding technologies to quickly transform electrospun membranes into complex 3D shapes for biomedical applications. The new approach demonstrates significant improvements in speed and quality compared with other methods, and is the first successful demonstration of formation of 3D neural tissue constructs with an ordered structure through differentiation of human neural progenitor/stem cells on these transformed 3D nanofiber scaffolds. They discuss their work in this week’s Applied Physics Reviews.

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The American Institute of Physics is pleased to announce that a $200,000 grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation will fund workshops to help reach the goal of doubling the number of African American physics and astronomy undergraduate degree recipients by the year 2030. AIP’s hosting these workshops is an important next step in implementing evidence-based recommendations from AIP’s expert report produced by The National Task Force to Elevate African American Representation in Undergraduate Physics & Astronomy, also known as TEAM-UP.

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The American Institute of Physics, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the launch of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, is delighted to host a virtual presentation by Stanford University’s Elizabeth Kessler in an upcoming Lyne Starling Trimble Science Heritage Public Lecture. The lecture series is presented by AIP and features science historians and writers who study the role of science and technology in modern society and culture. "Hubble Space Telescope Images and the Astronomical Sublime" will be hosted virtually, Thursday, May 7 at 3:30 p.m. Eastern (U.S.).

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If a photon source could be placed on a single chip and made to produce photons at a high rate, this could enable high-speed quantum communication or information processing. In Applied Physics Reviews, a simple on-chip photon source using a hyperbolic metamaterial is proposed, and investigators carried out calculations to show that a prototype arranged in a precise way can overcome problems of low efficiency and allow for high repetition rates for on-chip photon sources.

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Identifying sources of light plays an important role in the development of many photonic technologies, such as lidar, remote sensing, and microscopy. Traditionally, identifying light sources as diverse as sunlight, laser radiation, or molecule fluorescence has required millions of measurements, particularly in low-light environments, which limits the realistic implementation of quantum photonic technologies. In Applied Physics Reviews, researchers demonstrated a smart quantum technology that enables a dramatic reduction in the number of measurements required to identify light sources

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Humans depend on fossil fuels as their primary energy source, especially in transportation. However, fossil fuels are both unsustainable and unsafe, serving as the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Researchers in China have demonstrated a prototype device that uses microwave air plasmas for jet propulsion, generating the high-temperature, high-pressure plasma in situ using only injected air and electricity. They describe the engine in AIP Advances.

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Electrochemical reactions include the transformation of sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide, and similar processes occur when the body breaks down food, drugs or other compounds. Monitoring these metabolic processes helps in testing, studying and combating disease, but they are difficult to study with normal equipment. In this week’s Review of Scientific Instruments, researchers discuss their work with a miniaturized potentiostat, which is compatible with most 3-electrode biosensors and can transmit its measurements via Bluetooth.

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Silicon plays a central role within the semiconductor industry for microelectronic and nanoelectronic devices, and silicon wafers of high purity single-crystalline material can be obtained via a combination of liquid growth methods. In Applied Physics Reviews, researchers describe the atomic mechanisms governing extended defect kinetics in cubic silicon carbide, which has a diamondlike zincblende crystal structure that manifests stacking and anti-phase instabilities. The study pinpoints the atomistic mechanisms responsible for extended defect generation and evolution.

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In this week’s Biomicrofluidics, a method to characterize the shape recovery of healthy human RBCs flowing through a microfluidic constricted channel is reported. This investigation revealed a coupling between the cell’s mechanical properties and the hydrodynamic properties of the flow. In addition, the method could distinguish between healthy red blood cells and those infected by the malaria parasite. This suggests a possible new technique for diagnosing disease.

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A device which simulates borehole ballooning, a detrimental side effect of deep-water drilling operations, is expected to ensure safe and efficient operations. If not prevented, borehole ballooning can lead to irreversible damage and serious drilling accidents, which can result in reservoir pollution and huge economic loss. In Review of Scientific Instruments, researchers present a device that can simulate this dangerous phenomenon in the hopes of preventing it.

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Biological robots draw inspiration from natural systems to mimic the motions of organisms, such as swimming or jumping. Improvements to biobots to better replicate complex motor behaviors can lead to exciting biorobotic engineering applications to help solve real world challenges. However, this requires the creation of biohybrid, which is a challenge. Researchers combined an intact rat spinal cord with a tissue-engineered, 3D muscle system. They describe the novel biohybrid system in the journal APL Bioengineering.

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Many months since the first COVID-19 outbreak, countries continue to explore solutions to manage the spread of the virus. Chaos theory researchers analyzed the growth of confirmed cases across four continents to better characterize the spread and examine which strategies are effective in reducing it, and their results, published in Chaos, found the virus commonly grows along a power law curve.

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The American Institute of Physics is delighted to host a virtual lecture by Hubble Space Telescope senior project scientist Jennifer Wiseman in an upcoming Lyne Starling Trimble Science Heritage public lecture to celebrate Hubble’s 30th anniversary. The lecture series is hosted by AIP and highlights experts who study the role of science and technology throughout human history and modern society. "The Hubble Space Telescope: 30 Years of Discovery and Awe" will be hosted virtually, April 29 at 3:30 p.m. EDT.