Most of us have used the sniff test to decide whether a slightly expired bottle of milk or a week-old box of takeout is still good to eat. But while the human nose can be quite astute, it doesn't always catch everything. Each year, millions of people in the U.S. are sickened by food-borne pathogens that thrive in undercooked or spoiled food.

Data keeps growing exponentially, driving demand for better memory storage solutions. Synthetic DNA is a strong candidate to answer this need, given its high information density, durability and relevance as the molecule of life.

A research team led by Professor Taesung Kim of the School of Mechanical Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) has developed an optoelectronic synaptic device that mimics the functions of human neurons and synapses at the device scale. The researchers designed a van der Waals (vdW) crystal through a single-step sulfurization process using mixed plasma. The device operates under optical stimuli, offering a structural solution for configuring semiconductor materials for brain-inspired computing.