A new £12.6 million UK research programme has been launched to accelerate the development of next-generation photonic and quantum technologies. Bringing together researchers from The University of Manchester, Imperial College London and the University of Leeds, the programme will use atomic-scale materials engineering to unlock new capabilities in communications, sensing and computing. 

A working prototype that can see, remember and interact with the world like the human brain could one day underpin smart bionic eyes, while using far less energy than today's technologies.

The invention from RMIT University combines sensing, memory and information processing within the same system, reducing the need to constantly move data between separate sensors, memory banks and processors.

While still an early-stage research demonstration, the neuromorphic vision innovation could dramatically reduce the amount of data and energy required to perform complex visual tasks.

In the Journal of Applied Physics, researchers explore an eggshell-inspired design as a potential spacecraft protection material. It may seem counterintuitive to use eggshells as a blueprint for strength, but they found that organizing water-filled aluminum eggshells into an array adds useful material properties when placed blunt side down between two aluminum impact plates. Rather than being concentrated within a single eggshell, the energy from an impact gradually dissipates through the material, allowing each shell to sequentially collapse and deform.