Science and Technology
Categories
Not sure where to start? Choose a topic below.
Negative self-image of adolescents fosters increasingly damaging behaviors
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Adolescents who think little of themselves tend to shy away from interactions with peers. This uncertainty and withdrawal then draws negative feedback from other students, prompting even more withdrawal and leaving them with few chances to have close friends and as targets for teasing or bullying. Such are the findings of a […]
Silicon-based photodetector is sensitive to ultraviolet light
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – By depositing thin films of silicon nanoparticles on silicon substrates, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have fabricated a photodetector sensitive to ultraviolet light. Silicon-based ultraviolet sensors could prove very handy in military, security and commercial applications. “Silicon is the most common semiconductor, but it has not been useful for […]
Production of high-fidelity entangled photons exceeds 1 million per second
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Like virtuosos tuning their violins, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have tuned their instruments and harmonized the production of entangled photons, pushing rates to more than 1 million pairs per second. The brighter and purer entangled states could assist researchers in applications involving quantum information processing – such as […]
Chipmunks descended from ancestors that survived last ice age, scientists say
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Well, nuts. Eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus) have upset the apple cart of assumptions on glacier-driven population migrations. Based on a mitochondrial DNA analysis of 244 chipmunks, it seems the majority of them living in Illinois and Wisconsin today descend from ancestors who survived the last North American ice age in what researchers […]
DARPA funds new photonic research center at Illinois
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has received a grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to create a photonic research center to develop ultra-fast light sources for high-speed signal processing and optical communications systems. The grant will provide $6.2 million in funding over four years. The Hyper-Uniform Nanophotonic Technology Center […]
Printable silicon for ultrahigh performance flexible electronic systems
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – By carving specks of single crystal silicon from a bulk wafer and casting them onto sheets of plastic, scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated a route to ultrahigh performance, mechanically flexible thin-film transistors. The process could enable new applications in consumer electronics – such as inexpensive wall-to-wall displays […]
Dislocation creates ‘whirlpool’ that pulls surface atoms into crystal
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Developing novel ways to control the motion of atoms on surfaces is essential for the future of nanotechnology. Now, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have found a phenomenon of dislocation-driven nucleation and growth that creates holes that spiral into a surface and pull atoms into crystalline solids. The newly […]
Nation remains vulnerable to power blackouts, thanks to political impasse
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – As the peak electricity season approaches, little has been done in Washington to prevent a recurrence of last August’s power failure that produced a huge blackout in the Northeast, an expert at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign says. Legislative steps to improve and enforce compliance with standards of reliability for electrical […]
Genomic Biology Institute’s first grant to focus on soybeans and climate change
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – One of the five newly named research themes of the Institute for Genomic Biology under construction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has landed the institute’s first major federal grant. A three-year $2.98 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy will allow a team led by Evan DeLucia, a professor […]
Strong magnetic field converts nanotube from metal to semiconductor and back
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – By threading a magnetic field through a carbon nanotube, scientists have switched the molecule between metallic and semiconducting states, a phenomenon predicted by physicists some years ago, but never before clearly seen in individual molecules. In the May 21 issue of the journal Science, researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign […]
Turn on your neurons at the Children’s Museum
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Neuroscientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign invite children and their families to learn about their brains at the fourth annual Brain Awareness Day from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. May 23 (Sunday) at the Orpheum Children’s Science Museum, 356 N. Neil St., Champaign. Admission to the museum that day will […]
If you want to help your children with homework, take it easy, studies suggest
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – What can parents do to help children doing poorly in school? Two new studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign suggest that supporting their children’s autonomy and refraining from being controlling will help kids do better on their homework and raise their grades. The findings, published in the May/June issue of […]