#optical tweezers

[dat-physics-gal]

Talk physics to me!

This is a pretty generic request, so imma just shed a little spotlight on a field adjacent to the one i'm writing my bachelors for: Optical Tweezers.

You know tweezers, the things you use to pick up and move tiny objects? Well, what do you do if your object is really tiny? Like a plant cell tiny. Or, what if it is in between other objects? Then, the go to thing to move those around, are Optical Tweezers. They use an effect largely unknown to the general public, which is radiation pressure. That is exactly what it sounds like. Radiation exerts pressure. Your flashlight actually has some recoil. Not a lot of it mind you, but some.

Optical tweezers are special configurations of laser beams, that create specific intensity distributions across 3d space, which exert a directed radiation pressure on the object you're manipulating. But i have been reading some interesting papers that utilize OAM (orbital angular momentum) beams, which can't just translate, but rotate objects around on micro scales. Also some that manage to use only one beam for a grid of traps, allowing to separate multiple specimen into a desired arrangement.

These tweezers can be used to hold single cells (this is the larger end of applications) or just single ions, or molecules (that's the low end). They can also have a cooling effect (somewhat, i don't have it in my fingers to properly explain that fully) which basically comes from the confinement of the object into a specific area within the tweezing beam, called the trap. Ion traps in particular were/are crucial to getting started with quantum computing, though i do admit that apart from the tweezing part, i don't know practically anything about those.

[thewitfire]

New Method to Track Particles in Soft Colloids Using Optical Tweezers

New Method to Track Particles in Soft Colloids Using Optical Tweezers. #Opticaltweezers #Ramanresearchinstitute

Soft Colloids Using Optical Tweezers: Scientists at the Raman Research Institute (RRI) in India have developed a technique to track and manipulate minute clay particle movements within soft clay colloids using optical tweezers. This innovative method could have applications in areas such as targeted drug delivery. The researchers used optical tweezers to study the dynamics and hidden structural…

[revelboo]

The Weakends

TFP Ratchet x Reader- accident

• Having small hands came in handy around huge bots. You could reach places that their bigger servos couldn’t. It had started when you’d seen Ratchet trying to remove a bit of shrapnel wedged in a seam in Bulkhead’s shoulder. Even with his bot-sized tweezers he wasn’t having any luck getting to it. And watching Bulkhead squirm was making you squirm.

• So you’d volunteered to help. The look doc bot had leveled on you was nearly enough to make you run for the hills. You dared imply he couldn’t do his job? You would have run except Bulkhead had spoken up and asked you to try and see if you could get it. The big mech was anxious to be cleared to leave the medbay.

• Ratchet had hovered over you the whole time, watching your every move as you reached both hands between the armor panels, painfully aware that if Bulkhead flinched you might lose a hand or two. But you got the shard out. And cut up your palms in the process. Sitting on the berth Bulkhead had just fled, you patiently let Ratchet wrap your hands. It comes as a surprise when he admits that he might appreciate your help with little stuff.

• After that, you might as well have been adopted by the irritable mech. He’s set up a ratty couch on a shelf in his medbay and you’re almost positive he’s found it on a curb somewhere and it probably needs to be fumigated, but you do appreciate the gesture. He’s harassing Fowler to get you some gloves so you don’t cut up your hands again and fussing over you as you heal. He’s always got an optic on you, tracking you through the base, pestering if you forget to eat. It’s as cute as it is overbearing.

• And Ratchet likes having you about, though he’ll never admit it out loud. You’re calmer than the kids, soft spoken and eager to help without being asked. You two fall into a routine and he likes it. Enjoys that someone wants to spend time around him. He knows he’s not the easiest to get along with sometimes, but he’s trying. And everything’s good until a wrench is thrown into the mix.

• A wrench named Wheeljack. The Wrecker has taken an interest in you only to annoy Ratchet, he’s sure of it. And you’re too trusting for your own good. You’re also an adult. If you want to hang out with Wheeljack he won’t stop you. He will complain about it, though. Loudly.

• It’s honestly not a surprise when Wheeljack brings you back hurt. Or downplays the encounter as nothing. It was only several vehicons, but your pale, shell shocked face stirs something violent inside the normally stoic medic. You’re only dimly aware of Wheeljack swearing as Ratchet throws him out of the medbay, then he’s gently tipping your chin up with a single servo. He’s angrier than you’ve ever seen him and you shrink back.

• You brace for the yelling. For the I told you so. This mech tells off Optimus if he think he’s doing something dumb and he told you Wheeljack was dangerous. But he isn’t yelling. His jaw is slowly working as he tilts your face gently, so gently from side to side. Cataloging bruises with a feather light touch that is surprising in a mech so big.

• There’ll probably be an I told you so later, but for now, he just gathers you up and carries you to a berth and you slowly relax in his big hands as he calms himself by holding you.

Next

[foone]

Imagine a butch who dates robotgirls and she's got the belt and carabiner "ready for business" look down, but all the stuff hanging from it is reverse-engineering tools.

A full set of screwdriver bits (including security torx and those weird tri-wing Nintendo ones), assorted spuders, those little rubber suction-cups you use to remove LCDs, a line flashlight, macro lenses, IPA wipes, chip pullers, portable hot air rework gun and a pinecil soldering iron, desoldering braid, a wide variety of ESD-safe tweezers, and one of those anti-stack wristbands but on a retractable lead like it's for walking a dog.

She left her backpack at home but it's got a stereo inspection station, a full set of lockpicks (including those tubular lock impresioning ones), and an aging ThinkPad with a bunch of USB adapters: every memory card format you can imagine, all the major hard drive interfaces, and even 3.5"/5.25" floppy disks thanks to a 3D printed enclosure with a greaseweazle flux imager (the Applesauce stays at home connected to her Mac Mini). A USB optical drive that can read and burn all the cd formats, and a as small plastic case of some blank CD-Rs, DVD-Rs, and Blu-rays. A bunch of USB flash drives, some blank, some preflashed with assorted tools and marked with little keychain labels: some linuxes, a warezed all-in-one windows installer, live distros for tails and kali and partionmagic and DBAN.

She's ready for anything.

[nardo-headcanons]

Writing Scientist Characters

this post is mainly an excuse to post a certain list of lab supplies I've made for a friend and infodump about lab work. but feel free to use this as a little resource when writing characters who are scientists and/or lab nerds. who knows, maybe it'll be of use.

General thoughts

Many people think it's a stereotype that scientist or nerd characters talk using complex technical jargon. While that is true to an extent, there actually is some kind of lab jargon. It varies across different labs and fields, but one thing they have in common is that it seeks to simplify, not the other way around.

gelelectrophoresis becomes elpho

microbiology becomes mibi

deioninized water becomes aqua dist

biochemistry becomes BC

sodium hydroxide becomes NaOH

They will probably not call a glass of water "silicon dioxide and h2o".

...and more. feel free to get creative. If you're writing in any other language than English, you can throw in one or two anglicisms as well. Also, most scientists will never gatekeep their work, and in an opposite fashion, will not shut up about it unless you make them. And no, most chemists do not know the entire periodic table by heart, only the most relevant elements. (main groups and a few commonly used metals of the subgroups) When it comes to characters doing the lab work, keep in mind that there are a lot more people involved than the scientist themself. Most scientists are more occupied with paperwork and data analysis, it is the laboratory technicians and assistants that do most of the practical work. They often have more lab experience than the scientists themselves.

Things you can have your lab nerd character do instead of making random chemicals explode

writing a lab report (and losing their mind over excel)

degreasing the glass bevel stoppers

removing the permanent marker from beakers (labeling is important)

complaining about the lack of funding of [their field] research

cleaning glassware

preparing specimen for examination

googling the most basic equations for their report

checking if the glassware and utensil collections are complete

steal single use plastic pipettes from their lab

pirating expensive textbooks

A list of laboratory supplies and utensils you can have them work with

Laboratory general (chem + bio)

Erlenmayer flasks, beakers, precision scales (3 digits), glass rods, metal spoons/spatulas, screw on glass flasks (autoclave compatible) test tubes, stopcock grease, dispensers with sanitizer and hand cream, gas burners, heating plates, eppendorf pipettes, pipette tips, Peleus pipetting aids, squirting bottles, liquid and powder funnels, incubator/drying chamber, round watch glasses, magnet stirring plates.

Microbiology Autoclave, petri dishes, agar plates, innoculation loops (reusable and metal), clean bench, microscope slides, microscope, drigalski-spatula, test tubes with clamping lids

Histology

Paraffin bath, water bath, scalpels, scissors, razor blades, microtomes (rotating microtome, slide microtome and freezing microtome), histocinette, tweezers (various kinds), ocular

Biochemistry

Sequencing robots, eppendorf tubes, gelelectrophoresis chambers, centrifuge

Analytical Chemistry

Photometer, kuvettes, burettes, mass spectro meters, UV bank (for chromatogrophies), pyknometers, melting point meter, porcelain mortars, pH paper, analytical scales (4 or more digits)

Prep Chemistry

Tripod/standing material, miniature lifting platforms, spiral condenser, colon condenser, round bottom flask (three necked and y- necked), filtration material, Separating funnel

Electrical engineering

Electric generators, Soldering iron, Clamp connectors, plugin connectors, ohm’s resistors, plug in lamps, condensers, transistors, PCBs, amperemeters, voltmeters, multimeters

Mechanics

Tripod/standing material, metal hooks, metal rods, mechanical stop watches, marbles, metal springs, Newton meters, laser motion detectors

Optics

Prisma (various kinds), various glass lenses (concave, convex, biconcave, biconvex), laser pointers, optical bench, mechanical iris diaphragm, looking glasses, monochrome lamps, lamp filters

Most used chemicals

Deionized water, ethanol, NaOH, HCl, H3PO4, NaCl (+ physiological NaCl solution 0.9)

Useful websites for writing science stuff

DNA sequence generator (simple): http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~mmaduro/random.htm

DNA, RNA and protein sequence generator: https://molbiotools.com/randomsequencegenerator.php Annealing temperature calculator: https://tmcalculator.neb.com/#!/main

Medicine name generator: https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/medicine-names.php Anything chemistry related: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=chemistry

Commonly used software:

MS Excel

Yenka

CASSY Lab

LabView

SpectraLab

LIMS

LaTex

Slack

Scientist friends, feel free to add onto this.

Have fun writing!

[mindblowingscience]

Bulky and hard to wrangle, molecules have long defied physicists' attempts to lure them into a state of controlled quantum entanglement, whereby the molecules are intimately linked even at a distance. Now, for the first time, two separate teams have succeeded in entangling pairs of ultra-cold molecules using the same method: microscopically precise optical 'tweezer traps'. Quantum entanglement is a bizarre yet fundamental phenomenon of the quantum realm that physicists are trying to tap into to create the first, commercial quantum computers.

Continue Reading.

[annabelle-creart]

Outlier!Au

"AHG! Watch out!"

"Your arm is almost open" Boulder took again Heatwave's arm with care but steady, so, he wouldn't retire it again

"At least be more careful!"

"I'm as careful as possible, you're just too negligent with it" Boulder said, always with calm, compared to Heatwave's resonating voice "I'm still wandering how it didn't rust on all this time"

"I'm still wondering why you're still here"

Both bots shut down, not looking at each other, actually, Boulder just acted like it didn't matter and continued with their business on Heatwave's arm, more accomplished to his grumpy non-sense than the first day, weird, it usually scare them away and go without a word or a speech but today Boulder was quiet and concentrated, maybe Heatwave just needed a new way

"Did you run out of ideas?"

"Eh?" Heatwave ask for the weird question after a strange silence

"Finally! You had been acting like a sparkling since you came" Boulder replied contemptuously

"How do you dare?" Heatwave yelled with anger

"How do YOU dare?" Boulder said sarcastically "I'm just helping you without complain, how is that so hard for you to accept?"

"I don't need it- AHG!! FRAG!" A hugging ache surrounded Heatwave's arm, distracting him of his anger and making his chassis and the rest of his limbs twist "WHAT THE FRAG HAPPENS WITH YOU!!"

"Just a little..." Boulder lay down on a keg of water the hot plate and with a pair of medical tweezers finally united the metal of the arm, sticking it with a special glue "done" they got away "how is it?"

"Burning" Heatwave let out a growl and a killer gaze "why you didn't told me you had to burn me?!"

"You said you could resist it"

"I DIDN'T KNEW YOU HAD TO BURN MY FRAGGING ARM"

"If you accepted the anesthesia, you could resist it, but you are to afraid of needles"

"NEEDLES ARE POINTY!"

"Most of your weapons are pointy! For what's all that strength and that mad look when you're a coward!"

Heatwave tried to say something, but when he felt his lost look betray him, he preferred to take it away, bad decision, because when he tried to cross his arms, the sensibility on his recently healed nerves and veins under the burned metal made him growl out a thread of breath, at the same time, the hard breathing made his chest gain some pressure due to the just repaired dent, with the horrible breathing he tried to move again, meeting the stitch on his almost broken knee, frag, there wasn't any single comfortable position

"Which color do you prefer?" Boulder distract him, showing two pieces of fabric on each servo, being replied by a undignified look

"Are you kidding?" He raised an elbow

"Red will be then" Boulder said, throwing the blue one and placing the red fabric on Heatwave's shoulder, positioning his arm comfortable "tell me if it's too-"

"Gh!"

"Got it" Boulder knot the fabric, making sure it was steady, "You know? red is your color" Boulder said, looking at his grayish and old metal of Heatwave´s body, there wasn´t a single drop of color except pink splashes. Both were too close "now, let's see your optics"

"More?!" Heatwave yelled with high voice

"Yes, more! That guy you fought today was rough" Boulder got even closer, getting a little lantern from the table and turning it on

"Not enough to kill me" Heatwave hold still himself on the bright of the lantern

"Almost, you could have lost your arm or got asphyxiated by your own vents" Boulder tried to keep open the optic, but Heatwave's reflexes were stronger than they

"Yeah, yeah, things of all days" Heatwave complained sarcastically

"Are you tired?" Boulder asked, lighting the other optic

"No"

"You sure? The pupils are reacting slowly" Boulder turned off the lantern and got away from him "you should rest, I´ll see how are you in the morning"

"It´s dangerous to go alone at these hours"

"I need to be early on the station and I´m a mess thanks to you" Boulder pointed to the pink splashes on their own metal "Now do you feel better?"

"No"

"Good" Boulder told and went to a shelf, getting the slow and low voice as a yes, but Heatwave´s too proud and sarcastic to admit it, Boulder made like they were moving things on the shelf, waiting in silence... a snore got into their audial, got it. Boulder turned around and found Heatwave with closed optics and a little breath, sure, he was in pain but the tiredness was way worse, Boulder took the blue fabric, a needle, a transparent bag with liquid and support, first, Boulder put carefully the blue fabric on Heatwave´s neck to make him comfortable, then, they took Heatwave´s hand carefully and placing steady and sure the needle in the middle of the metal of the arm and the beginning of the palm, a reflex made his fingers move but not a single reaction on his face plate was made, Boulder places the bag on the support and made sure the liquid was passing through, then, Boulder supervised Heatwave´s breathing and pulse, all on the average under the situation but a little below of what Boulder wanted, the serum should act quickly though.

And, well, Heatwave was right, the surroundings of the gladiatorium were dangerous at those hours and Heatwave needed supervision, maybe stay was the best option now, and a yawn Boulder gave when they finally relaxed a little just made them more sure. Sleeping on the floor wasn´t new for them, it wasn´t cold at least and there were some fabrics on the shelf to use for comfort, finally falling asleep under the pressure of the day...

[rescuebabiesau]

"You've Been Accepted!" - Whirl

Whirl grasped the tiny pamphlet tightly in her hands as she hurried down the tiny corridor, her spark beating a million times a microsecond. Every few steps she'd look down at the top, seeing the first four words printed across it: Congratulations, you've been accepted!

Accepted! One of the first students to be attending the brand new Rescue Bot Training Center, stationed on the one and only Earth!

That scared her a little bit, she supposed. Traveling to another planet, being away from everyone and everything she knew... But she'd done a lot of research on Earth- mostly through scattered stories and random video broadcasts she was able to get her servos on- and it seemed like it was something she could handle.

She just hoped her dad would see it the same way.

She paused at the front door of his workshop, bouncing on her pedes and wondering if she should knock or wait and tell him later when he wasn't working. She was already here, so why waste time going back and forth? She pressed her audio receptor to the door, hearing a soft clinking of metal on the other side. She then pressed her knuckles against the metal and tapped gently.

A muffled mumble, the one that told her she was free to enter, but that he was also focused on something else at the same time. 

She pressed her palm to the scanner and the door slid open, exposing the cluttered, dimly-lit space that was her father's workshop. Crates and containers of parts- both big and small- were stacked almost to the ceiling and half-unpacked. Cubes of energon- mostly empty but not quite finished- sat in groups on the floor and tabletop, splashes of it dripped and dried on the floor and table as well. Her father sat on a small bench, hunched over the table with the only light in the room being a lamp he'd pulled down and close to him.

"Hey, Dad...!" Whirl greeted softly, trying her best not to startle him.

"Hey, Whirlybird!" Her dad greeted in a cheery tone, though not looking from his work. "Just give me one second, I'm almost finished putting these gears in."

"Take your time." Whirl carefully navigated the boxes and crates, reaching the table and quietly, slowly, bending down to collect the cubes from the floor. She stacked them in her hands, moving them from under his pedes and over to the recycling chute across the room.

"Oh don't worry about cleaning up, Whirly. I can do that."

"I'll let you focus on your work. Don't worry, I got it." Whirl placed the cubes into the chute, watching them tumble downward into the dark where they would settle with others to be collected, taken away, cleaned, and then refilled to be redistributed out with fresh energon rations to the population of Cybertron. She wondered if any of these cubes would wind up going on a ship for a long-distance haul. What sorts of wonders did they see as they were reused, over and over?

She turned back to the table, looking at her father. It was amazing how much emotion she could pick up from just the one, giant optic that formed his faceplate. The focus, the concentration... The desperation. His hands were shaking, the tiny gear caught between the tweezers in one hand clinking against the metal of the casing he was trying to put it in, his other hand moving the casing in practically every opposite direction the gear was going.

Whirl could feel it, she could see it in his expression.

She set her announcement pamphlet down on the table, coming around and taking his left hand gently in hers. "Do you want me to hold the casing?"

"I...Okay, Whirly..."

Whirl smiled, despite her spark breaking at his defeated tone. Taking the casing from his pincer grasp and keeping it steady while he tried placing the gear in its place again, she watched his movements carefully. The air moving through his vents slowed, the tension loosening just a bit; he was trying to calm himself down, to calm the shaking that was causing him so much trouble.

Her gaze fell on his hands as they trembled uncontrollably, long talons for fingers that were not made to grasp tiny gears or hold fragile trinkets... Hands that were not truly his, and constantly fought him in every action he made. Such intricate motions were still hard for him, trying to make micro-movements and holding other pieces perfectly still, and praying to Primus that he didn't suffer an involuntary jerk that sent the tiny components flying across the room.

Why had he taken on such a delicate occupation when he had faulty parts, some had asked. Because it was what he loved doing, no matter what condition he was in.

"Your motor function's a lot better, have you been doing those exercises they showed you?"

"Heh... You know I have, Whirly. You're there to make sure I do 'em..."

The gear clinked back and forth, but finally, it plopped right in place, and both of the bots relaxed. The tweezers clattered to the table, and her father's hands went to his helm as he gave a hard sigh.

"Hey, don't be hard on yourself. You're doing a lot better. You haven't dropped your tools on the floor in weeks." She wrapped her arms around his neck, resting her helm on his shoulder. "You're doing great..."

Her father didn't respond, but the dull ache in his EM field eased just a bit. She felt him lift his helm and then reach forward, "Hmm? What's this?"

Whirl lifted her helm as he grabbed the pamphlet, flipping it over to examine its writing. She felt a stillness to his spark, and then the waves of relief and joy that washed out of it and encircled hers.

"You got in...! Oh Whirlybird, that's great news!"

Whirl released him just long enough for him to turn around on the stool and embrace her properly. "Y-Yeah...! I made it in!" Her own excitement reignited as she felt his, "I wasn't sure how happy you'd be, you know? It's a long way away from here, so-"

"Oh Whirly..." The mech's EM field smiled, "...You have no idea how happy I am. You're following your spark, doing what you want to do rather than whatever someone else decides you're made for. I am so excited that you're growing up in a time and age where you can be whoever you want to be... And I know you'll be an amazing rescue bot."

Whirl gripped his armor tightly, "Thanks, Dad...!" Her voice modulator cracked, "You... You promise you'll keep working on your clocks?"

"You work hard, and I'll do the same... We'll call and make sure each of us is keeping our end of the bargain, okay?"

"Sounds good...!"

Whirl had no idea what it had been like for her dad, growing up just as she had, but being told he could only be one thing when he desperately wanted to be another. Of course he would be delighted to see her have that choice, to be herself.

She would do well, and she would graduate the Rescue Bot Training Academy with the best marks... She would make him proud.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I plan on doing one of these for each of the other recruits (Hotshot's is already up) but Whirl's second!

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Physicists create an optical tweezer array of individual polyatomic molecules for the first time

A team of physicists at Harvard University has succeeded in trapping individual polyatomic molecules in optical tweezer arrays for the first time. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes how they achieved their feat and the possible uses for it. A Research Briefing also describes their work in the same journal issue. Cooling atoms to very cold temperatures has allowed for controlling their energy states, which in turn has led to the development of several types of technologies, such as atomic clocks. Physicists suspect that doing the same for molecules could offer similar results, but doing so has proved to be a formidable challenge due to extra factors involved, such as rotation and vibration. Some success has been found in molecules with just two atoms, but those with more have been troublesome. In this new effort, the research team has found a way to control one type of molecule with three atoms—CaOH.

Read more.

[thunderwetter]

TransforMay Days 10 - 12 "Show no mercy"

Part 2 of the Two-Chapter Fanfiction for Theme 2 (Life and Death) Read the first part here !

WORD COUNT: ~1800

WARNINGS: CHARACTER DEATH

TAGS: Canon Rewrite, Assassination Plot, Moral Dilemma, Justifiable Homicide, First Aid and Ambulon fucking snap, bad ending, Angst?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

After Ambulon and First Aid finished their work, they split up. First Aid was tasked with checking Pharma’s work on the patient with the injured T-Cog, while Ambulon rushed towards Pharma’s office in hope of being able to find anything that could be used as proof, should intervention from the Autobot high command be necessary. Navigating through the Delphi facility gave him plenty of time to think, with each step he asked himself another question and with each new question his mind became messier. He didn’t understand why patients were dying, he didn’t understand why Pharma was killing them, if he actually was guilty and– what if it wasn’t Pharma? What if it was First Aid who actually, smart as he is, used Pharma’s animosity and prejudice and general attitude as an excuse to frame him? What if Ambulon would be framed next by First Aid or worse, what if they conspired against him? What was he supposed to tell the Autobot High Command? Who would help him? Who could help him? Pharma was one of the most competent and trusted medics on duty, there was not the slightest chance for anyone to stand up against him. Not in this situation.

Ambulon cautiously opened the door, careful to generate as little noise as possible as he sneaked inside the spacious office. Of course, Pharma had the nicest room all for himself, anything else would be beneath him. Ambulon rolled his optics and scoped his surroundings. No signs of cameras, not that he expected any, no signs of the chief medical officer. He dashed to the desk, looking through drawers and datapads for anything suspicious. Finally, in the lowest drawer, he discovered a hidden compartment and quickly began fiddling with it. It had been First Aid’s idea to take some of the surgery instruments with him and now that idea had come to fruition. Lifting the false bottom up with a scalpel as he tinkered on the mechanism to properly open it with a set of tweezers; it didn’t take Ambulon long to fully break in and receive his reward: a datapad that had a very faint Decepticon insignia. Ambulon would have celebrated if he didn’t recognize this specific insignia. In the face of the golden shade of the D.J.D. however, he couldn’t bring himself to be anything but terrified of this revelation. Pharma working together with arguably the worst that the Decepticon movement had to offer? With shaking servos, Ambulon attempted to get into the datapad, but the password protection refused to let him in. He didn’t know how to hack it. The insignia on the back should be proof enough though. But what if Pharma blamed it on him? The question kept lingering in the back of Ambulon’s processor, making him hesitant. He sent First Aid a private comm and urged him to come to Pharma’s office. The reply was nothing but gibberish. Odd. Very odd. There was a lot of noise outside the door, a roaring engine, a transformation noise and the sound of metal clattering against the walls. Ambulon shrunk down behind the desk, clinging onto the datapad and scouting the room for possible escape routes and weapons, should Pharma make an appearance. He still had the scalpel. He remembered the resolve in First Aid’s voice, tightening his fist around the little blade, readying his hand. He kept his ventilations low as he peeked at the door. It was still closed. “AMBULON!” he heard Pharma call out, panic in his voice. Panic. In Pharma’s voice. Ambulon reflexively jolted up, almost hitting the desk behind him, subspacing the datapad and hiding the scalpel behind himself as he ran over and opened the door. He looked left and right, but the hallway was empty. He slid out, making his way back to the medbay and calling Pharma’s name. He received an incomprehensible comm from First Aid, the ping sounded off-key and the message seemed corrupted. His steps quickened; he stopped calling for Pharma. First Aid didn’t respond to his pings anymore. Ambulon sprinted.

The lock was jammed, under a constant flow of cursing Ambulon forced the door to open and saw First Aid lying in a pool of Energon. Ambulon gasped, rushing to his side, falling to his knees to assess the damage. Oddly enough, the Energon did not seem to have sprung from First Aid himself, but any questions asked remained unanswered by his motionless frame, by the barely flickering visor. Ambulon checked the spark. It was fading rapidly. But why? “It’s almost funny just how predictable you are, Ambulon,” Pharma said, “but I’m afraid the time is over. You two should’ve been smarter when conspiring against someone like me.” Ambulon recognized the body on the recharge slab to be the one with the corroded T-Cog cabling he had been working on before. The fuel pump had been removed and placed behind First Aid to make it seem like the Energon was his. Clever, very clever, a perfect trap to take advantage of Ambulon’s compassion. Pharma’s distressed voice must have been a feint to bait him out of the office and the purpose of First Aid being still alive was a trick to get Ambulon into position. And for the weak pings to appeal to his spark. His left servo remained on First Aid’s spark chamber, gripping his sole friend’s chest like it could fix anything. Using the offline visor to look at Pharma through the reflection, he saw a gun pointed at his head. He used his right servo to gently touch First Aid’s arm, tracing it down to his hand, holding it. Pharma behind him chuckled. “Don’t worry, you’ll be with him soon enough,” he mocked. High-and-mighty Pharma. Pharma who knows it all. “Why do you work with the D.J.D.?” Ambulon asked with surprising calmness, fidgeting First Aid’s hand as he watched the reflection shift weight from one leg to the other, swaying the gun around. Right Pharma, relax a little bit, you know you’ve got everything under control. “To protect your sorry aft. Tarn would have taken you a long time ago if it weren’t for me. You may thank me now. Wouldn’t those be fitting last words? Thank you Pharma, for protecting me. For protecting everyone.”

That was the moment First Aid’s spark finally surrendered. No more warmth underneath Ambulon’s fingertips as he slowly took his servos away from the graying corpse. Pharma was an idiot. An idiot with a gun. But First Aid was smart. Smart and armed.

Ignoring Pharma’s ramblings, Ambulon finally tore the pistol from First Aid’s hand and whipped around, aiming low and shooting Pharma’s leg, forcing him to his knees as he let out a pathetic and surprised yelp, dropping his gun in the process. “Predictable, right?”, Ambulon said as he raised to his full height. He picked up Pharma’s gun, pointing each of the weapons he now held at one of Pharma’s wings. Ambulon swallowed down the blockade in his vocalizer and spoke as steady as he could, “So, Pharma, explain it to me again; explain how well you were protecting me and First Aid and the entirety of Delphi. Because First Aid is dead and I’m having a hard time believing in your greatnessright now.” Pharma grit his dentae to a forced grin, his optics alternated between the two guns, Ambulon’s face and the room behind him. He looked at First Aid’s corpse and couldn’t find the guilt he expected himself to feel. “Tarn is addicted to changing shape. I struck a deal with him,” Pharma said, his voice stern, cold and distanced, “I harvested T-Cogs from dead patients for him, he allowed us to do our job in peace.” “But you didn’t just let them die. The corroded cables with this bot, that was not an isolated case. One of the twins, you know, with the branched spark, the speedsters, their cables were corroded too. Only for one of them but it would have killed both. And for what? To make Tarn happy? To make him proud? To prove to him that you’re great Decepticon material?”, Ambulon said, his rage growing word by word, tightening his grip around the triggers. He wanted Pharma to hurt. Not only for all the lives he had taken, not only for the way he had been lying to everyone. But for all the pretentiousness, for behaving like a god among mortals all while he was nothing more but a lap dog for the D.J.D. “Tarn is a demanding character, Ambulon.” Pharma chided. He was on his knees and still felt superior. “He demanded more; I gave him more. I had to ease the grip for some bots, yes, but it was all for the greater good.” Ambulon ex-vented with a scoff, “And the greater good was what? Your sole survival?” “Ambulon, don’t be a fool—” “For how long has this been going on? For how long were you planning to kill those that you and me and First Aid, those that all of us vowed to protect? Vowed to save. We swore an oath, Pharma. They trusted you; they trusted us! We trusted you! Even I did, no matter how big of an afthole you were, I let you treat me like scrap because I thought it was worth it!” Pharma was silent and waited for Ambulon to calm his ventilations before getting up, slowly, trying to ignore the pain in his injured leg. He held his hands up in defeat. “I was planning on causing an epidemic. That way, Delphi would be evacuated and the D.J.D. wouldn’t be able to treat us like toys anymore.” His voice was eerily calm, Ambulon twitched his trigger fingers. He stepped back, accidentally touching First Aid with his foot. He momentarily looked at the body to check what he ran into, realizing the marks of electrocution. So that’s how Pharma had killed him, by overcharge. A clicking brought his attention back to Pharma who had now revealed a set of cannons from his pauldrons. Darn jet, Ambulon thought, barely dodging the bullets as he dashed forward, ramming Pharma and landing on the ground, sliding across the cold metal flooring. Rushing to get back up, Ambulon kept his aim steady, one gun pointed at the head, one at the spark, just as he had been taught. There was no reason to hesitate anymore, so he took the shots.

And so, he stood there, dropping the guns, looking around. He was surrounded by corpses. He stumbled out of the room, almost tripping over Pharma’s body as he made his way to the Chief Medical Officer’s office. He heaved himself into the chair and started typing into the interstellar communication console. He notified the Autobot High Command. He looked at the screen, his expression blank. What would he say? Would they believe him? He heard steps in the hallway, heavy steps. The Autobot insignia on his screen was spinning, loading, nobody responding. The door opened and he turned around. In the same moment that Ambulon heard the concerned voice of his contact picking up, he recognized the barrel of a cannon pointed at him. “Hello Tarn,” Ambulon heard himself say, Goodbye Delphi, he heard himself think.

Until he couldn’t think no more.

Find this Fic on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/55796878 Wow okay this was WAY darker than I was planning it to be but, uh, yeah! Pharma was the one who informed Tarn to save his reputation by the way, talk about a shitty boss!

TransforMay is still going on so I'd be super happy so see y'all join me for some prompts~

[mayuripng]

I made my first (slightly) successful and properly-made microscope slide this weekend!!! :D

It's tomato skin! I'm unsure if it's called tomato peel or tomato skin, so I'll just call it both. Look, what can I say? English isn't my native language, y'all can't judge me too much, lol.

It was relatively easy to prepare the slide, since I didn't need any dyes to view the cells. I cut a tiny piece of a tomato with my scalpel, and with the help of tweezers I slowly peeled the piece (if I tried to remove it fast, the skin would break apart). I also scraped the inside of the skin with the scalpel to make sure no tomato bits were stuck to it.

After making sure the slide was clean (I personally don't think I need to worry too much about it being perfect, because this is a hobby! It's not meant to be an actual professional slide. Especially since I have never taken classes on any of this). I put the skin on top of it with the tweezers, and then I put a single droplet of water on top of the skin.

The hardest part for me was to place the coverslip. I know I need to place it at a 45⁰ degree angle on top of the slide, and then slowly lower it until it's covering the specimen (or else air gets trapped inside and makes it hard to view the image.)

Doing that was waaaaay harder than I thought it was going to be.

After endless suffering and having to restart because I messed up, I finally got it right.

This is the result!

This is the tomato skin on 100x magnification on an optic microscope.

Unfortunately, my phone is really low quality, so the photo is also very low quality. Seeing it on the microscope was way better, trust me.

I'm thinking about what to try next. :)

[anarcho-physicist]

U Michigan did a press release too, this one talks a little bit more about my specific contributions, I even got to give a quote!

U-M study: Using 'tweezers' to control active fluids reporting by Morgan Sherburne of U-M news

University of Michigan physicists have devised a way to manipulate active fluids, a type of fluid composed of individual units that can propel themselves independently, by taking advantage of topological defects in the fluids.

The researchers showed that they could use tweezers similar to optical tweezers—highly focused lasers that can be used to nudge around atoms and other microscopic and submicroscopic materials—to manipulate the fluids’ topological defects and control how these active fluids flow. The study, led by U-M physicist Suraj Shankar, is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

You can think of an active fluid like a flock of birds, says Shankar. In a murmuration, an enormous cloud of starlings, birds will twist and turn in unison, making shapes of the cloud. But while the murmuration looks like it’s moving as one organism, the movement is made of individual birds powered by their individual sets of wings.

Similarly, active fluids are composed of individual components like bacteria in water or atoms in a crystal, but each unit moves on its own if shone with light or given “food” via a chemical reaction, according to Shankar. Researchers have previously engineered bacteria so that when they shine light on the bacteria, some bacteria in the liquid swim faster and others swim slower.

“And you can change that pattern as you want. By changing the speed at which the bacteria swim locally, you can paint faces of famous people, or change it and make a landscape,” said Shankar, an assistant professor of physics at U-M.

“Given that these experimental platforms exist and we’re now able to manipulate these materials by controlling the speed by which things are moving around, we asked: Can we develop a framework in which we can control the local speeds of things that comprise active fluids so that we can control them in a systematic way?”

The research team also includes co-authors Cristina Marchetti and Mark Bowick of the University of California Santa Barbara and Luca Scharrer, who conducted much of the research as an undergraduate at UCSB.

The team focused on a popular active fluid called a nematic fluid, composed of liquid crystals—the same kind of liquid crystals that comprise smartphone, tablet and computer displays. These liquid crystals are fluids composed of long molecules that can line up and become ordered like matches in a matchbox or timber logs stacking up and flowing down a river, Shankar says. But when driven by chemical reactions these nematic fluids become active and have the ability to pump fluid, which allows them to move around without externally applied forces or pressure gradients.

Shankar and colleagues used this characteristic feature and applied principles of symmetry, geometry and topology from mathematics to develop design principles that will allow the researchers to control the trajectory of individual crystals within the nematic fluids.

Their methods rely on differences in how these rod-like objects line up within the liquid. They may be misaligned at some points, which causes the liquid crystals to bend around the point of misalignment, like a whirlpool in a river. This creates different patterns in the fluid, similar to the ridges of your fingerprints, Shankar says. In liquid crystals, there are points where the line of crystals will bend over and look like a comet, or form a symbol that looks like the Mercedes logo.

If you add energy to the system and make the fluid active, these patterns, called topological defects, come alive.

“These patterns start moving and they drive and stir the fluid, almost as if they were actual particles,” Shankar said. “Controlling these individual patterns that are associated with the defects seems like a simpler job than to control each microscopic component in a fluid.”

The project began when Scharrer developed simulations to model active fluid flow and track the locations of topological defects, attempting to test a hypothesis posed by Shankar and Marchetti. Showing his simulation results to the other researchers, Scharrer and the team found how these complex responses could be mathematically explained and converted into design principles for defect control.

In the study, Scharrer created ways to create, move and braid topological patterns using what they call active topological tweezers. These tweezers can transport or manipulate these defects along space-time trajectories as if they were particles, by controlling the structure and extent of the regions where chemical activity drives fluid pumping.The resulting motion of the active fluid around the whirlpools of the topological defects enables their never-ending movement.

“I think this work is a beautiful example of how curiosity-driven research, compared to problem- or profit-driven work, can lead us in completely unexpected technological directions,” said Scharrer, now a doctoral student at the University of Chicago.

“We started this project because we were interested in the fundamental physics of topological defects, and accidentally stumbled into a new way to control active biological and bio-inspired fluids. If we’d had that end goal in mind from the beginning, who knows if we would have found anything at all.”

The researchers also demonstrate how simple activity patterns can control large collections of swirling defects that continually drive turbulent mixing flows.

Shankar says while the field is new, and their method is proven using computational models at this point, some day people could use this concept in creating micro testing systems for diagnostic purposes or for creating tiny reaction chambers. Another potential application could be in the field of soft robotics or soft systems, in which computing capabilities could be distributed throughout soft, flexible materials.

“These are unusual kinds of fluids that have very exciting properties, and they pose very interesting questions in physics and engineering that we can hopefully encourage others to think about,” Shankar said. “Given this framework in this one system that we demonstrate, hopefully others can take similar ideas and apply it to their favorite model and favorite system, and hopefully make other discoveries that are equally exciting.”

(sorry for posting multiple stories about the same research but it's my first ever paper and I'm very proud of it so actually I'm not sorry and I will continue to post more links if other news outlets pick up the story)

[bpod-bpod]

Extended Connections

Proteins controlling the formation of tunnelling nanotubes – protrusions that connect cells – revealed using a combination of micropatterning, microscopy and optical tweezers

Read the published research article here

Image from work by J Michael Henderson and Nina Ljubojevic, and colleagues

Membrane Traffic and Pathogenesis Unit, Department of Cell Biology and Infection CNRS UMR 3691, Université de Paris, Institut Pasteur Paris France

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in EMBO Reports, November 2023

You can also follow BPoD on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

[govindhtech]

Atom Computing is Ushering in a New Era of Quantum Research

Atom Computing

Recently, quantum computers constructed from arrays of ultracold atoms have become a major contender in the race to produce machines powered by qubits that can surpass their classical counterparts in performance. Although the first completely functional quantum processors to be programmed via the cloud have been produced by alternative hardware architectures, further advancements indicate that atom-based platforms may be superior in terms of future scalability.

This scaling benefit results from the atomic qubits being exclusively cooled, trapped, and manipulated via photonic technology. Neutral-atom quantum computers can be primarily constructed using currently available optical components and systems that have already been optimised for accuracy and dependability, eschewing the need for intricate cryogenic systems or chip fabrication processes.

A physicist at Princeton University in the United States named Jeff Thompson and his team have been developing a quantum computer based on arrays of ytterbium atoms. “The traps are optical tweezers, the atoms are controlled with laser beams and the imaging is done with a camera,” Thompson explains. “The engineering that can be done with the optical system is the only thing limiting the scalability of the platform, and a lot of that work has already been done in the industry of optical components and megapixel devices.”

Enormous atomic arrays

Many attractive properties of neutral atoms make them suitable for quantum information encoding. Firstly, they are all the same, meaning that there is no need to tune or calibrate individual qubits because they are all flawless and devoid of any flaws that could be introduced during creation. Important quantum features like superposition and entanglement are preserved over sufficiently long periods to enable computation, and their quantum states and interactions are likewise well understood and characterised.

The pursuit of fault tolerance This important development made atomic qubits a competitive platform for digital quantum computing, spurring research teams and quantum companies to investigate and improve the efficiency of various atomic systems. Although rubidium remains a popular option, ytterbium is seen by certain groups to provide some important advantages for large-scale quantum computing. Thompson argues that because ytterbium has a nuclear spin of one half, the qubit can be encoded entirely in the nuclear spin.”They found that pure nuclear-spin qubits can maintain coherence times of many seconds without special procedures, even though all atom- or ion-based qubits havegood coherence by default.”

Examining rational qubits

In the meanwhile, Lukin’s Harvard group has perhaps made the closest approach to error-corrected quantum computing to yet, collaborating with a number of academic partners and the Boston-based startup QuEra Computing. Utilising so-called logical qubits, which distribute the quantum information among several physical qubits to reduce error effects, is a critical advancement.

One or two logical qubits have been produced in previous demonstrations using different hardware platforms, but Lukin and colleagues demonstrated by the end of 2023 that they could produce 48 logical qubits from 280 atomic qubits. They were able to move and operate each logical block as a single unit by using optical multiplexing to illuminate every rubidium atom inside a logical qubit with identical light beams. This hardware-efficient control technique stops mistakes in the physical qubits from growing into a logical defect since every atom in the logical block is treated separately.

The researchers additionally partitioned their design into three functional zones to enable more scalable processing of these logical qubits. The first is utilised to ensure that these stable quantum states are separated from processing mistakes in other sections of the hardware by manipulating and storing the logical qubits, coupled with a reservoir of physical qubits that may be called upon. Next, logical qubit pairs can be “shuttled” into the second entangling zone, where two-qubit gate operations are driven with fidelity exceeding 99.5% by a single excitation laser. Each gate operation’s result is measured in the final readout zone, which doesn’t interfere with the ongoing processing duties.

Future scalability Another noteworthy development is that QuEra has secured a multimillion-dollar contract at the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) to construct a version of this logical processor. By March 2025, the national lab will have seven prototype quantum computers installed, including platforms that take advantage of superconducting qubits and trapped ions, as well as a neutral-atom system based on cesium from Infleqtion (previously ColdQuanta). The QuEra system will be one of these systems.

Replenishing the supply of atoms In order to create a path to larger-scale machines, the Atom Computing team has included additional optical technologies into its revised platform. Bloom states, “They could have just bought some really big lasers if They wanted to go from 100 to 1,000 qubits.” “However, they wanted to get the array on a path where they can keep expanding it to hundreds of thousands or even a million atoms without encountering problems with the laser power.”

Combining the atomic control offered by optical tweezers with the trapping capability of optical lattices which are primarily found in the most accurate atomic clocks in the world has been the solution for Atom Computing. By adding an optical buildup cavity to create constructive interference between multiple reflected laserThese optical lattices can improve their performance by creating a subwavelength grid of potential wells via laser beam interference.”With just a moderate amount of laser power, They can create a huge array of deep traps with these in-vacuum optics,” adds.”They could rise higher, but decided to show an arrangement that traps 1,225 ytterbium.”

Read more on Govindhtech.com

[omarfor-orchestra]

Give me the strength to study optical tweezers

[rederiswrites]

hiya red, I've got a question about lampworking I was hoping you would like to answer. I've been looking into the hobby for a while and I've picked up that I need to get stuff like a basic torch, fuel, safe workstation, glass, kiln, shaping tools, safety tools, etc. What are some specific tools that are really useful that a beginner probably wouldn't know about? Apologies if this is a broad question! Otherwise, I'd love to hear you talk about the lampworking processes

Bruh I am so sorry I haven't gotten back to you on this! It's a good question and I'm happy to answer.

So the first part of the answer is that all the cool tools also have a learning curve and there's no magic pill. So if you think "man, making barrel shaped beads is fucken hard and I suck at it, maybe I should drop $50 on a bead roller", then the answer is, "I mean, maybe if you're making a lot and you want to be very uniform from bead to bead, but it's not going to suddenly be easy with the roller."

That said, window shopping for bead tools is way fun, and there are a few good places to do that. Arrow Springs makes a great variety of high-quality tools, and specializes in designs that were originally custom projects for lampworkers. Very specific marver shapes, specialty mandrels like button mandrels, things like that. Another well -known and reputable tool maker that does graphite presses and rollers for creating a variety of bead shapes is CGBeads. They're like $50-65 apiece so if I treat myself to like, one a year I figure I'm doing good.

I'm trying to think what some of my favorite not-basic tools are. Honestly I think what I most use and enjoy are the upgraded versions of basic, like my tungsten tipped tweezers and my stainless steel rake. But I do really want a good optic mold. Those are for pushing molten glass into to make, say, a star to build a murrine around. It's a nice shortcut for some difficult to sculpt shapes. Sadly, they cost Money, as things do, and I'm being really picky because if I'm gonna spend like a hundred dollars it's gonna be on something that's exactly what I want.