Working backward: Computer-aided design of zeolite templates Jun 18th 2013, 14:20 Taking a page from computer-aided drug designers, researchers have developed a computational method that chemists can use to tailor the properties of zeolites, one of the world's most-used industrial minerals. The method allows chemists to work backward by first considering the type of zeolite they wish to make and then creating the organic template needed to produce it. | Which qubit my dear? New method to distinguish between neighboring quantum bits Jun 18th 2013, 14:17 Researchers have proposed a new way to distinguish between quantum bits that are placed only a few nanometers apart in a silicon chip, taking them a step closer to the construction of a large-scale quantum computer. In a significant feat of atomic engineering, they were also able to read-out the spins of individual electrons on a cluster of phosphorus atoms that had been placed precisely in silicon. | Intelligent glasses designed for professors Jun 17th 2013, 14:45 Scientists in Spain have developed a system based on augmented reality that, thanks to intelligent glasses, enables a professor to see notes or comments on the contents of a lesson and to see if the students understand explanations or if, on the contrary, they are having doubts or difficulties. | Researchers unmask Janus-faced nature of mechanical forces with supercomputer Jun 17th 2013, 13:19 The harder you pull, the quicker it goes. At least, that used to be the rule in mechanochemistry, a method that researchers apply to set chemical reactions in motion by means of mechanical forces. However, as chemists report in a new study, more force cannot in fact be translated one to one into a faster reaction. With complex molecular dynamic simulations on a supercomputer, they unmasked the Janus-faced nature of mechanochemistry. Up to a certain force, the reaction rate increases in proportion to the force. If this threshold is exceeded, greater mechanical forces speed up the reaction to a much lesser extent. | |