Experts for the Media

University of Rochester scientists have discovered that twisting together two atom-thin flakes of molybdenum diselenide at high angles produces artificial atoms that can act as quantum information bits, or qubits.

The discovery was made in the laboratory of Nickolas Vamivakas, the Marie C. Wilson and Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Optical Physics, who says he hopes the artificial atoms can be used like memory or nodes in a quantum network.

“These could be the backbone for devices like the next generation of lasers or even tools to stimulate quantum physics,” Vamivakas says.

The revelations built on experiments that found twisting a pair of one-atom-thick layers of graphene at the “magic” angle of 1.1 degrees created a superconductive material.

Molybdenum diselenide, like graphene, is a 2D material. When monolayers of it are twisted at angles up to 40 degrees, they produce excitons, or artificial atoms, that retain information when activated by light.

The discovery was recently published in Nano Letters. To learn more about Vamivakas’s research, read about it at the University of Rochester News Center and contact him at nick.vamivakas@rochester.edu.

With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence tools such as generative pre-trained transformers, or GPTs, high school students may be tempted to use the tools to perfect their college applications, particularly their entrance essay.

Robert Alexander, a vice provost and the dean of enrollment management at the University of Rochester, cautions prospective college students from relying too heavily on AI tools in their applications.

“The sentiment among college admissions professionals is that while AI tools may be helpful in generating essay topics and refining or editing students’ writing, we discourage their use to compose application essays or short answers because AI stifles an applicant’s authentic voice,” Alexander says.

That personal voice becomes paramount when admissions officers are sifting through applications and considering how each student will contribute to the campus community and fit into the incoming class.

“No college or university is trying to admit perfectly identical automaton students,” Alexander says. “At the University of Rochester, for instance, we’re not looking for 1,300 perfect students. We’re trying to craft the perfect class of 1,300 very different and highly-imperfect, but great-fit students.”

The goal, he says, is to invite great students, inclusive of their imperfections, and guide them on a transformative journey through their next four years.

“Colleges want students to come in with a growth mindset and potential,” Alexander says. “So, if students think they can use AI to help make their application ‘perfect,’ I think they’re chasing the wrong brass ring.”

Alexander is an expert in undergraduate admissions and enrollment management who speaks on the subjects to national audiences and whose work has been published in national publications. Click his profile to reach him.

Neurons, the cells in brains and spinal cords that make up the central nervous system, communicate by firing electrical pulses. But scientists have found hints that neurons may transmit light as well, which would profoundly change our current understanding of how the nervous system works.

Researchers from the University of Rochester have begun an ambitious project to study if living neurons can transmit light through their axons — the long, tail-like nerve fibers of neurons that resemble optical fibers.

“There are scientific papers offering indications that light transport could happen in neuron axons, but there’s still not clear experimental evidence,” says the principal investigator, Pablo Postigo, a professor at the university's Institute of Optics. “Scientists have shown that there is ultra-weak photon emission in the brain, but no one understands why the light is there.”

If light is at play and scientists can understand why, it could have major implications for medically treating brain diseases and drastically change the way physicians heal the brain.

To learn more about Postigo's research, contact him at ppostigo@ur.rochester.edu.