Latest news with #UniversityOfScienceAndTechnology
ABC News
22-05-2025
- Science
- ABC News
Infrared contact lens helps people see in the dark, even with their eyes closed
Many people have wished for night vision on a dark walk home. But have you ever wondered if it's possible to see with your eyes closed? Both are feasible with a contact lens that allows the wearer to see light that's usually invisible to our eyes — and can pass through our eyelids. The infrared lens, which was developed by researchers in China, was unveiled in the journal Cell today. Tian Xue, a neuroscientist at the University of Science and Technology of China and study co-author, said the material had the potential to give people "super-vision". But in the shorter term, the team's ambitions are more modest. "Flickering infrared light could be used to transmit information in security, rescue, encryption or anti-counterfeiting settings," Professor Xue said in a press release. Our eye cells only register light in a small proportion of the electromagnetic spectrum. If we could see longer wavelengths — just outside the visible spectrum into the near-infrared — we'd be able to see humans and other warm-blooded animals "glow" faintly as they emit infrared light. Devices like night-vision goggles often work by tuning into near-infrared wavelengths, sometimes accompanied by an infrared light source to illuminate the surrounding area. But these devices usually need an external power source to work, making them bulky. They also tend to have a very limited of field of view, according to Paul Martin, a researcher in ophthalmology at the University of Sydney. While it's possible to buy "infrared" contact lenses online, typically marketed for cheating at card games, these lenses don't allow users to see infrared light. Instead, Professor Martin said they filter out higher wavelengths of light to make it easier to see light at a desired wavelength — usually, one tuned to an invisible ink sold with the contact lenses. Researchers around the world, including in Australia, have been working on less cumbersome materials that can perform "wavelength shifting": absorbing invisible infrared light and re-emitting it as light we can see. The researchers behind the new study had previously developed particles roughly the size of a small virus by mixing gold atoms with a few other elements, including the metals ytterbium and erbium. The team injected these particles into the eyes of mice and found it gave them infrared vision. But they wanted to make the process less invasive before testing it on humans. In the newest study, the researchers mixed their nanoparticles with polymers used in commercial contact lenses, and moulded this mixture into contacts. They found people wearing the contact lenses could see visible light as normal. But they could also see a flashing infrared light — even when their eyes were shut. Our eyelids have evolved to block visible light, but infrared light can pass right through them. In fact, Professor Xue said participants were better at detecting the infrared flashes when their eyes were shut, because there was less interference from visible light. The researchers could tweak their nanoparticles to convert specific infrared wavelengths into specific visible wavelengths, so the participants could see different shades of infrared light in different visible colours. They tested this by showing the study participants different letters made from infrared light, which the participants could read in different colours. Professor Martin, who was not involved with the research, called the study a "marvellous technical tour de force". "One big and exciting promise of the present study is that the contact lenses or glasses could become a new basis for human-worn surveillance devices." While the research is promising, Professor Martin believes these contact lenses are a long way away from practical use. People using the lenses could see infrared light, but they weren't granted fine night vision. The researchers did build their nanoparticles into wearable spectacles, which gave people crisper infrared vision, but they still needed a bright source of infrared light for the glasses to work. "The nanoparticles in the contact lens or glasses are not sensitive enough to detect the very low intensity of infrared radiation emitted by warm-blooded animals," Professor Martin said. Professor Xue said that the team was working on improving the nanoparticles' sensitivity so that they could make higher-resolution contact lenses.
Daily Mail
28-04-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
How just a handful of raisins a day can help you live longer
Sprinkling a handful of raisins in your bowl of cereal could help you live longer. In a new study, scientists found that adding any kind of dried fruit to a morning meal slashed the risk of dying from heart disease by 18 per cent and cancer by 11 per cent. Tucking into muesli, porridge, or bran cereals first thing had a similarly beneficial effect, lowering the risk of a premature death by ten to 15 per cent. However, starting the day with a bowl of sugary cereal increased the chances of an early death by 40 per cent, according to research published in the Nutrition Journal. The study, from the University Of Science And Technology in Anhui, China, analyzed how different breakfasts affect lifespan, looking at the eating habits of 186,000 Britons. Scientists think the disease-fighting powers of dried fruits come from the fact that the drying process concentrates natural nutrients and fiber into each piece. Most are also a rich source of powerful antioxidants, which can ward off heart disease and cancer.
Forbes
10-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Critical Quantum Timeline: Where Are We Now And Where Are We Heading?
Quantum computing is moving beyond theoretical milestones into practical business applications ... More faster than many realize, with industry leaders predicting widespread adoption within just five years Quantum computing might seem like 'just another' new technology, like the internet, cloud computing and AI. In fact, it's something rather different – more similar to the leap forward from the earliest valve-based computers to modern transistors and microprocessors. These paradigm shifts in compute don't just bring us faster computers— they bring computers that work with data in entirely new ways. In the case of quantum computers, this means leveraging the weird and wonderful properties of quantum science, like superposition and quantum tunneling, to complete some tasks millions of times more quickly than classical computers. Make no mistake – quantum computing is a big deal and will redefine the way we use computers to understand the real world. From simulating the complex interactions between molecules that make modern medicine possible to predicting the behavior of chaotic systems like financial markets and the weather. Recent breakthroughs include the achievement of quantum supremacy— maybe (We'll explore this below.) But for most of us, quantum computing is far from an everyday part of life, and huge opportunities are still there for the taking. So, let's take a look at the major developments we can expect to see as the future unfolds. We start our roadmap with quantum computing, which has already achieved several significant milestones and is moving out of labs and into businesses. Media coverage often revolves around the issue of quantum supremacy – the point where quantum computers will perform tasks that would be impossible or impractical for 'classical' computers. Google claimed to have achieved it in 2019 with its 54-bit Sycamore quantum processor, but its performance was later beaten by classical computers. China's University Of Science And Technology once again made the claim in 2020, and most recently, D-Wave, which sold the first commercial quantum computers in 2011, carried out a material simulation in 20 minutes that would take the most powerful supercomputers almost a million years. As well as becoming more powerful, quantum is also starting to become accessible. Tech giants including Amazon, Google and Microsoft offer quantum-as-a-service, bringing the barrier to entry lower than ever, and paving the way for anyone with ideas to start building quantum applications to fit their needs. So, it's all well and good that quantum computers can beat classical computers at hugely complicated theoretical calculations in laboratory conditions. A more significant milestone will be reached when they offer real improvements when it comes to running practical applications. Exactly when this will happen has been the subject of some debate. The CEO of Nvidia caused quantum computing stock prices to drop when he recently said practical quantum computing was 'decades away' (he later admitted he might be wrong about this). Google's director of Quantum AI, however, has said he believes it could be as little as five years until quantum computers become the go-to option for common tasks that they're more suitable for than classical computers. At some point in the not-so-far-off future, quantum computers will become powerful enough to easily crack many forms of digital encryption. Unfortunately, this includes some public key security protocols like RSA cryptography, which, among other things, is used to secure private conversations, financial transactions and government communications systems. This is not unforeseen, and for some time, cybersecurity researchers have been working on the challenge of creating quantum-safe cryptography. Former U.S. President Joe Biden issued an executive order making this a national security priority. As the era of useful, powerful, accessible quantum computing dawns, we will see a race to find and protect systems that could become compromised. Back in 2016, as the scope of the problem became apparent, Dr. Muchele Mosca of the Institute For Quantum Computing estimated a one in seven chance that public key encryption would become worthless by 2026 and a fifty-fifty chance of it happening by 2031. Technically, the term is fault-tolerant quantum computing. The qubits that quantum computers use to process data have to be kept in a delicate state – sometimes frozen to temperatures very close to absolute zero – in order to stay stable and not 'decohere'. Keeping them in this state for longer periods of time requires large amounts of energy but is necessary for more complex calculations. Recent research by Google, among others, is pointing the way towards developing more robust and resilient quantum methods. This includes trapped ion quantum computing, which isolates positively charged ions in a way that makes them stable for longer periods of time. Another technique demonstrated by scientists at QuTech involves measuring the spin of electrons inside diamonds. It's predicted that truly fault-tolerant quantum computers could be a reality by 2030. One of the most exciting prospects ahead of us involves applying quantum computing to AI. Firstly, many AI algorithms involve solving the types of problems that quantum computers excel at, such as optimization problems. Secondly, with its ability to more accurately simulate and model the physical world, it will generate huge amounts of synthetic data. This data will more closely resemble real-world data than existing synthetic data, down to the molecular or sub-atomic level, while also being far cheaper and easier to produce. Work is already ongoing to make this a reality – Quantinuum is focusing its efforts on developing the machine learning techniques needed for quantum-powered natural language processing. It's hard to put a timescale on this one as breakthroughs could occur any day, but I predict we can expect to see progress within five to 10 years. Looking beyond the next two decades, quantum computing will be changing the world in ways we can't even imagine yet, just as the leap to transistors and microchips enabled the digital world and the internet of today. It will tackle currently impossible problems, help us create fantastic new materials with amazing properties and medicines that affect our bodies in new ways, and help us tackle huge problems like climate change and cleaning the oceans. Key challenges, like the risk of exacerbating inequality if access is limited to the rich and the significant energy demands, will need to be addressed. But make no mistake, quantum computing is on its way, and its impact will be felt by us all. Those who don't want to risk missing out should start preparing for it now.
