90 research outputs found
Fungi in Flux | Designing Regenerative Materials and Products with Mycelium
As the world grapples with the escalating crisis of climate threats and environmental degradation, this research delves into the synergistic potential of design and biology, developing safe and sustainable materials for applications in prototyping, furniture and interior design. Harnessing the power of a unique organism - fungi, the study proposes an accessible, efficient, and resilient material resource system. It utilizes local waste streams and mycelium (the vegetative part of fungi) to grow functional structures. An experimental and small-scale protocol is modeled by testing bio-fabrication and bio-printing methods. The composites\u27 performance qualities and characteristics are evaluated through mechanical testing and a survey of experiential attributes. A series of workshops introduced participants to the creative possibilities of integrating myco-materials into their practice, leading to insights and possibilities in new processes and products. To foster a deeper understanding of sustainability, the carbon footprint and ecological impact of these materials are examined. Envisioning a paradigm shift in industrial ecology, the proposed ideas reduce dependence on non-biodegradable, toxic, and harmful materials. With the principles of biology and design, this work hopes to transcend the trajectory of conventional materials - particularly plastics, and move toward a regenerative future
Applying ‘merging of knowledge’ in Tanzania: what can we learn about interrupting patterned relationships to reveal hidden dimensions of poverty?
Merging of Knowledge is a research approach that creates the conditions for people with lived experience of poverty to participate at an equal level with academics and practitioners, in the co-generation of knowledge about poverty. This paper reflects critically on the application of ‘Merging of Knowledge’ to study poverty in Tanzania, assessing its challenges, achievements, and lessons learned about revealing hidden knowledge about poverty. It also provides a brief literature review to place the Merging of Knowledge alongside other participatory approaches. This paper finds that Merging of Knowledge can effectively interrupt patterned social relationships, and empower individuals and peer groups, thereby stimulating transformation of both academics and people and poverty. It does so by addressing imbalances in social status, empowering all groups of participants at each stage of the research, and building trust, confidence, and freedom from fear in a sustainable manner. The conclusion drawn is that Merging of Knowledge holds great promise for future research on topics where strong hierarchies of knowledge exist, and where the physical inclusion of participants in data collection is not readily translated into intellectual inclusivity during analysis and the dissemination of findings
Voltage driven, local, and efficient excitation of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond
Magnetic sensing technology has found widespread application in industries as
diverse as transportation, medicine, and resource exploration. Such use cases
often require highly sensitive instruments to measure the extremely small
magnetic fields involved, relying on difficult to integrate Superconducting
Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) and Spin-Exchange Relaxation Free (SERF)
magnetometers. A potential alternative, nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in
diamond, has shown great potential as a high sensitivity and high resolution
magnetic sensor capable of operating in an unshielded, room-temperature
environment. Transitioning NV center based sensors into practical devices,
however, is impeded by the need for high power RF excitation to manipulate
them. Here we report an advance that combines two different physical phenomena
to enable a highly efficient excitation of the NV centers: magnetoelastic drive
of ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) and NV-magnon coupling. Our work demonstrates
a new pathway to combine acoustics and magnonics that enables highly energy
efficient and local excitation of NV centers without the need for any external
RF excitation, and thus could lead to completely integrated, on-chip, atomic
sensors.Comment: Fixed an issue with the display of figure
Synchronized Bell protocol for detecting non-locality between modes of light
In the following paper, we discuss a possible detection of non-locality in
two-mode light states in the Bell protocol, where the local observables are
constructed using displacement operators, implemented by Mach-Zender
Interferometers fed by strong coherent states. We report numerical results
showing that maximizing the Braunstein-Caves Chained Bell (BCCB) inequalities
requires equal phases of displacements. On the other hand, we prove that
non-locality cannot be detected if the phases of displacements are unknown.
Hence, the Bell experiment has to be equipped with a synchronization mechanism.
We discuss such a mechanism and its consequences
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