About: Ibrar Ayyub

A new study by a team of physicists at Rice University, Zhejiang University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Florida State University and the Max Planck Institute adds to the growing body of evidence supporting a theory that strange electronic behaviors—including high-temperature superconductivity and heavy fermion physics—arise from quantum fluctuations of strongly correlated electrons.

The outcome of that big sporting event you just can’t wait to watch may depend on how the timing of the match aligns (or doesn’t) with the internal biological clocks of the athletes on the teams, according to a study reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on January 29. Athletes and coaches would do well to make note and adjust their schedules accordingly, the researchers say.

Introduction Have you ever imagined, “What does that cable I plug into my iPod every day actually do, and how do I take advantage of it for myself?” We did too, and that’s what we aimed to do with our 476 project. The iPod is, of course, the popular digital music player developed by Apple. […]

In today’s world, in which the threat of terrorism looms, there is an urgent need for fast, reliable tools to detect the release of deadly chemical warfare agents (CWAs). In the journal ACS Macro Letters, scientists are reporting new progress toward thin-film materials that could rapidly change colors in the presence of CWAs—an advance that could help save lives and hold aggressors accountable.

Introduction Many digital artists draw with mice on computer or use tablets. However, tablets are often very expensive. Using the mouse is not always as accurate and one needs a steady hand. Our project attempts to create a lower budget alternative to the tablet that is easier to draw with. We use a stack of […]

The last time I encountered escargots they were served up by a French waiter, sizzling in garlic and herb butter. Now, one is slithering up the bridge of my nose while five others are being stuck onto other parts of my face by a Thai beautician, all secreting snail slime to hopefully smooth out some wrinkles and otherwise give me a younger-than-my-age look.

Introduction The goal of our final project was to design an efficient elevator simulator that can accept input from a user and mechanically operate (on a small scale) a system of 4 floors and 3 elevators using pulleys and stepper motors.  Users enter input using physical pushbuttons or the computer.  This input is then processed […]

In big sagebrush country, re-establishing the ecosystem’s namesake shrub may jump-start the recovery process more successfully after oil and gas development than sowing grass-dominated reclamation seed mixes typically used to quickly re-vegetate bare soil on well pads, report two Colorado scientists in the January 2015 issue of Ecological Applications, released today.

Higher RF power, GMSK modulation and extra low power consumption make a new communication module interesting even for rough conditions. At cars, chip-tuning usually results in a higher power of a motor. Even the new communication module (transceiver) TR72D from IQRF has passed such „chip-tuning“ of RF portion, resulting in a higher max. RF output […]

Astronomers at the Leiden Observatory, The Netherlands, and the University of Rochester, USA, have discovered that the ring system that they see eclipse the very young Sun-like star J1407 is of enormous proportions, much larger and heavier than the ring system of Saturn. The ring system – the first of its kind to be found outside our solar system – was discovered in 2012 by a team led by Rochester’s Eric Mamajek.