Phosphorene discovery positively impacts 2D electronics

US researchers have made phosphorus into an analogue of graphene, dubbed phosphorene, allowing practical electronic devices made from such two-dimensional materials. Peide Ye at Purdue University, US, and his co-workers show that phosphorene is the first native 2D electron-poor – or p-type – semiconductor. That’s important for making these flat materials into standard complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) logic circuit elements, which Ye’s team has also achieved with phosphorene. ‘For device applications it’s fundamentally better than graphene,’ Ye says. Read more here...

The ridged structure of phosphorene explains the directional electrical performance dependence that Ye's team saw © Peide Ye

Discovery of Quantum Vibrations in 'Microtubules' Inside Brain Neurons Supports Controversial Theory of Consciousness

A review and update of a controversial 20-year-old theory of consciousness published in Physics of Life Reviews claims that consciousness derives from deeper level, finer scale activities inside brain neurons. The recent discovery of quantum vibrations in "microtubules" inside brain neurons corroborates this theory, according to review authors Stuart Hameroff and Sir Roger Penrose. They suggest that EEG rhythms (brain waves) also derive from deeper level microtubule vibrations, and that from a practical standpoint, treating brain microtubule vibrations could benefit a host of mental, neurological, and cognitive conditions.

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Researchers Harness Sun’s Energy During Day for Use at Night

Solar energy has long been used as a clean alternative to fossil fuels such as coal and oil, but it could only be harnessed during the day when the sun’s rays were strongest. Now researchers led by Tom Meyer at the Energy Frontier Research Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have built a system that converts the sun’s energy not into electricity but hydrogen fuel and stores it for later use, allowing us to power our devices long after the sun goes down.

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