High energy density physics (HEDP) experiments commonly involve a dynamic wave-front propagating inside a low-density foam. This effect affects its density and hence, its transparency. A common problem in foam production is the creation of defective foams. Accurate information on their dimension and homogeneity is required to classify the foams' quality. Therefore, those parameters are being characterized using a 3D-measuring laser confocal microscope. For each foam, five images are taken: two 2D images representing the top and bottom surface foam planes and three images of side cross-sections from 3D scannings. An expert has to do the complicated, harsh, and exhausting work of manually classifying the foam's quality through the image set and only then determine whether the foam can be used in experiments or not. Currently, quality has two binary levels of normal vs. defective. At the same time, experts are commonly required to classify a sub-class of normal-defective, i.e., foams that are defective but might be sufficient for the needed experiment. This sub-class is problematic due to inconclusive judgment that is primarily intuitive. In this work, we present a novel state-of-the-art multi-view deep learning classification model that mimics the physicist's perspective by automatically determining the foams' quality classification and thus aids the expert. Our model achieved 86\% accuracy on upper and lower surface foam planes and 82\% on the entire set, suggesting interesting heuristics to the problem. A significant added value in this work is the ability to regress the foam quality instead of binary deduction and even explain the decision visually. The source code used in this work, as well as other relevant sources, are available at: https://github.com/Scientific-Computing-Lab-NRCN/Multi-View-Foams.git

The lightest material on Earth now packs a powerful punch. Scientists from Texas and around the world have created a material that, by density, is lighter than air yet, when electrified, instantly and powerfully contracts. Their work is detailed in this week's issue of the journal Science. "These artificial muscles are very lightweight and can do wonderful things," said Ray Baughman, the study author from the University of Texas at Dallas. While the artificial muscle is unlikely to be used in humans or prosthetic limbs, Baughman says "these sheets of carbon nanotubes ... are of great practical interest for LEDs, solar cells, and other applications."