Magnetocardiography on an isolated animal heart with a room-temperature optically pumped magnetometer.

Optically pumped magnetometers are becoming a promising alternative to cryogenically-cooled superconducting magnetometers for detecting and imaging biomagnetic fields. Magnetic field detection is a completely non-invasive method, which allows one to study the function of excitable human organs with a sensor placed outside the human body. For instance, magnetometers can be used to detect brain activity or to study the activity of the heart.

Non-invasive detection of animal nerve impulses with an atomic magnetometer operating near quantum limited sensitivity.

Magnetic fields generated by human and animal organs, such as the heart, brain and nervous system carry information useful for biological and medical purposes. These magnetic fields are most commonly detected using cryogenically-cooled superconducting magnetometers. Here we present the first detection of action potentials from an animal nerve using an optical atomic magnetometer.

Free boundaries in problems with hysteresis.

Here, we present a survey concerning parabolic free boundary problems involving a discontinuous hysteresis operator. Such problems describe biological and chemical processes 'with memory' in which various substances interact according to hysteresis law. Our main objective is to discuss the structure of the free boundaries and the properties of the so-called 'strong solutions' belonging to the anisotropic Sobolev class [Formula: see text] with sufficiently large q.

Micromechanics of fracturing in nanoceramics.

An overview of key experimental data and theoretical representations on fracture processes in nanoceramics is presented. The focuses are placed on crack growth in nanoceramics and their toughening micromechanics. Conventional toughening micromechanisms are discussed which effectively operate in both microcrystalline-matrix ceramics containing nanoinclusions and nanocrystalline-matrix ceramics.