One of my *superpowers* is making complex science and tech understandable.
I write about physics, semiconductors, electronics, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, optics, photonics, high-performance computing, IT networking and security, neuroscience, and military embedded systems.
Most people tend to be surprised to learn that I earned a degree in Geology—I wanted to learn as much as I could about the dynamics underlying and driving our lovely planet. I still find the entire gamut of earth and planetary sciences fascinating (astrophysics!) and love to write about it.
When I'm not busy writing articles or academic press releases, I head for the mountains with my bike, skis, or crampons and ice axe. I've always been sort of obsessed with glaciers and biking steep hills, so am a big fan of the Swiss and French Alps and Italian Dolomites.
'PIeces'
Timothy Gentner’s Auditory Neuroscience lab recently collaborated with Vikash Gilja’s Electrical and Computer Engineering lab, and others at UC San Diego, to decode a songbird’s brain activity to produce its song. Based on this work, Gentner and colleagues are now working on a new type of speech prosthesis to allow users to speak freely.
Quest to reveal fundamental laws of nature
How did the universe begin, what is it made of down to its tiniest particles, and how has it evolved until now? These are just a few of the profound questions Hirosi Ooguri, a theoretical physicist, wants to answer.
In Sridevi V. Sarma’s lab at Johns Hopkins University, computational neuroscience tools are revealing how neural patterns work within the brains of patients with epilepsy and chronic pain.
Security: The genesis of SDN
Software-defined networking (SDN) is a design with security as its foundation, and it has the potential to solve traditional networking's glaring security issues.
Thermodynamics of computation: A quest to find the cost of running a Turing machine
Turing machines were first proposed by British mathematician Alan Turing in 1936, and are a theoretical mathematical model of what it means for a system to “be a computer.”
Social engineering: You got nailed!
Move beyond prevention to fast detection to combat a stealthy social engineering attack.
Optogenetics: An illuminating journey into the brain
Through the fascinating study of optogenetics, researchers can use light to control genetically engineered brain cells to respond to specific wavelengths. This is helping demystify how neural circuits function and may inspire treatments for elusive brain disorders.
Lessons from stellar explosions
Stars can undergo rapid changes—such as gently oscillating or exploding and suddenly becoming brighter than their host galaxy. These stars’ unusual behavior intrigues Lars Bildsten, director of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, and the Gluck Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of California–Santa Barbara. Both types of changes allow Bildsten and his collaborators to probe the properties of stars but are also providing deeper insights into how stars shape their environment.
Exploring gambles reveals foundational difficulty behind economic theory (and a solution!)
Ole Peters and Murray Gell-Mann discovered a foundational difficulty behind current economic theory. They propose an alternative perspective that provides an elegant—simple—solution to many of the open key problems in economic theory.
Artist, scientist team up to explore stunning whisky art
If you've ever looked closely at the dried rings whisky leaves behind in a glass, you may be among the few who've noticed just how stunningly beautiful they can be. But what's behind whisky's "particle patterning?"
High-harmonic generation sources enable extreme ultraviolet lensless imaging
High-harmonic generation is blazingly fast attosecond science, enabling imaging electronic motion within matter on the scale of a quintillionth of a second. At the Advanced Research Center for Nanolithography, a group of researchers who work on lensless imaging are using computational methods to enable imaging with minimal requirements to optical components.
Nonlinear pendulum equations and space plasma reveal potential radiation belt trick
By pairing space plasma wave phenomena with nonlinear pendulum equations, researchers discovered a potential way to control conditions within the Van Allen radiation belts.
