Researchers demonstrated a new method of cooling trapped ions using chip-based systems, which could enable more stable and scalable quantum computers and quantum sensors.

Arizona State University scientists are part of an international research team that discovered a simple, soil-based method to keep locusts from eating crops. To their knowledge, it’s the first study to test this method in real-world farming conditions. The team worked with 100 farmers in Senegal who experience outbreaks of the Senegalese grasshopper, which are consistently devastating for Senegalese farmers. Each farmer grew two plots of millet — one treated with nitrogen fertilizer and one untreated. Compared with the untreated plots, the treated plots showed three clear differences: fewer locusts, less crop damage, and a twofold increase in crop yield. This breakthrough represents an important step forward in the sustainable management of migratory pests.

The organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology behind flexible cell phones, curved monitors, and televisions could one day be used to make on-skin sensors that show changes in temperature, blood flow, and pressure in real time. An international collaboration, led by researchers from Seoul National University in the Republic of Korea and Drexel University, has developed a flexible and stretchable OLED that could put the technology on track for this use and a range of new applications.