We describe a quantum key distribution protocol based on pairs of entangled qubits that generates a secure key between two partners in an environment of unknown and slowly varying reference frame. A direction of particle delivery is required, but the phases between the computational basis states need not be known or fixed. The protocol can [...]

The X PRIZE Foundation, best known for launching the private spaceflight industry through the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE, and the ultra-fuel efficient vehicle market through the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE, today announced the launch of its sixth major incentive competition: the $1.4 Million Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE.  The goal [...]

It’s the trailblazer of solar sailing.  Japan’s IKAROS spacecraft has used “smart glass” technology to steer using only the pressure of sunlight — a first for solar sails.  IKAROS launched in May and soon after became the first solar sail to be fully propelled by sunlight.  Now liquid crystal devices along the outer edge of [...]

In what sounds like the most over-engineered toilet tech ever, Stanford engineers are using rocket science to clean up sewage.  It’s actually simpler than it sounds — the scientists are developing a system that exploits sewage-loving bacteria to produce nitrous oxide, which can be used up by a rocket thruster.  The nitrous-powered rocket’s only byproduct [...]

Inspiration for a new generation of soft-bodied robots that could burrow into inaccessible spots for everything from search-and-rescue to medical applications comes from a most unlikely place: the “moth closet’’ at Tufts University.  In this nauseatingly stinky room, dozens of two-inch brownish moths cling to the wire-mesh walls of their cage.  From the ceiling dangles [...]

The entropy increase of mixing two solutions of different salt concentrations can be harnessed to generate electrical energy.  Worldwide, the potential of this resource, the controlled mixing of river and seawater, is enormous, but existing conversion technologies are still complex and expensive.  Here we present a small-scale device that directly generates electrical power from the [...]

Hot on the heels of the first synthetic cell comes a slightly lower-brow advance: a synthetic gut.  The basic function that it provides could be the key to freedom for self-sustaining robots.  In the bid to create such autonomous robots, researchers turned to biomass as an energy source.  By being able to feed themselves, robots [...]

A deterministic theory describing the behavior of an ultrathin lubricant film between two atomically-smooth solid surfaces is proposed.  For the description of lubricant state the parameter of excess volume arising due to chaotization of solid medium structure in the course of melting is introduced.  Thermodynamic and shear melting is described consistently.  Dependences of friction force [...]

The Human Universal Load Carrier (HULC) allows soldiers to carry weights of up to 200lbs with little effort and is designed to reduce the strain of carrying heavy equipment.  It works by transferring the load to the ground through the exoskeleton’s titanium legs and uses an onboard computer to sense and mimic the user’s movements.  [...]

IEEE will be launching three new IEEE journals in 2011, covering a wide range of technologies: IEEE Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems will publish special issues covering the entire field of interest of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society with particular focus on emerging areas.  It will include research contributions [...]