Electronics keep asking for more speed at lower energy, and silicon is running out of room. One alternative is to compute with the spin of electrons rather than only their charge. The catch is that spin information normally fades in a flash unless a material is chilled to extreme temperatures. On November 9, 2026, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) announced a perovskite design that holds spin polarization about 300 times longer at room temperature.
The study, led by...
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Chirality
Tamper-Resistant Pill Dispenser
The Johns Hopkins students’ tamper-resistant pill dispenser prototype features a fingerprint scanner, at left, which verifies the patient’s identity and then releases, at right, the correct dosage only within the prescribed time frame. You can whack it with a hammer, attack it with a drill, or even stab it with a screwdriver. Try as you might, you won’t be able to tamper with a high-tech pill dispenser. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have estimated that drug overdoses kill m...
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Smart Pills for collecting data inside the body
Imagine if a vitamin sized pill could collect medical data from your body. Companies such as SmartPill have come out with wireless devices contained in tiny capsules to collect information from inside the body.
The SmartPill capsule includes miniaturized sensors or cameras, a printed circuit board and tiny batteries that work to collect medical data as it makes its way through a person's gastrointestinal tract.
Once swallowed, the device collects the required information, stores the data a...
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