Critical & Emerging Technologies

The piezoelectric effect was discovered by brothers Pierre and Jacques Curie in 1880, and named after the Greek word piezein, that means to press or squeeze. They found that certain crystals were able to generate an electrical charge when mechanically loaded with tension or pressure. If exposed to an electric …

In quantum computing, a qubit or quantum bit is the basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classical binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical system, one of the simplest quantum systems displaying the peculiarity of quantum mechanics. Examples …

Researchers have looked into nature for inspiration, understanding the mechanisms animals, insects and plants use to capture and process light and then designing next generation optoelectronics devices and systems like light-emitting diodes (LEDs), sensors and materials. Biomimicry has led to the development of several naturally inspired structures, such as curved …

Nature provides many examples of optical structures whose properties arise from an intricate morphology. The brilliant colors seen in butterfly wings, beetle carapaces, and peacock feathers, for example, are due in large part to their complex structure, says DARPA. These hierarchical structures, scaling from micron to nanometer level, achieve remarkable …

In recent years, precision guided weapons play more and more important role in modern war. One of the greatest strengths of a precision strike missile is a reduction in the number of weapons or aircraft sorties required to destroy a target. Strategy Analytics forecasts the global Smart Weapons (SW) market …

One of the biggest threats to the deployed aerospace and defense electronics systems is radiation. Outside the protective cover of the Earth’s atmosphere, the solar system is filled with radiation. The natural space environment consists of electrons and protons trapped by Earth’s magnetic field, protons and small amount of heavy nuclei …

Synthetic biology is the application of science, technology and engineering to facilitate and accelerate the design, manufacture and/or modification of genetic materials in living organisms, as defined by the European Commission. It envisions the redesign of natural biological systems for greater efficiency, as well as create new organisms as well as …

Blockchain is based on open, global infrastructure, decentralized public ledger of transactions that no one person or company owns or controls, ensures security of transfer of funds through public and private cryptology and third parties to verify that they shook, digitally, on an agreement. A blockchain is, in the simplest …

Muons are subatomic particles that behave a lot like electrons but are around 200 times heavier. As the US Department of Energy explains, “Muons created in the atmosphere constantly hit every inch of the Earth’s surface and pass through almost any substance.”   Many scientists have noted that measuring the …