ScienceDaily: Matter & Energy News

For people with diabetes who are insulin dependent, glycemic control is a full-time job. But what if their medication could do the work for them -- an insulin whose activity in the bloodstream responds to the blood glucose levels and adjusts accordingly? A new invention could lead to just that.

A vital piece of gas engines, combustors -- the chambers in which the combustion powering the engine occurs -- have the problem of breaking down due to fatal high-frequency oscillations during the combustion process. Now, through advanced time-series analyses based on complex systems, researchers have found what causes them, opening up novel paths to solving the problem.

Researchers have discovered a new method of X-ray imaging based on the coloring abilities of the natural mineral hackmanite. The international group of researchers also found out how and why hackmanite changes color upon exposure to X-rays.

Electrical engineers are powering the quantum computing revolution with the development of an on-demand, scalable technique to manipulate nanoscale nanodiamonds.

Researchers have developed a simplified mathematical model (step-loading model, SLM) that unifies two earlier mechanisms to describe the velocity jump in crack propagation. Through SLM, they showed that the near-tip mechanical behavior observed from one analysis is derived from the dynamic glass transition at the crack tip described in another proposal, thus merging the two distinct analyses, and demonstrating that the velocity jump occurs in many materials.

Researchers document how the technique quickly produces arrays of highly active, carefully tuned nanoparticles with remarkably uniform properties that can be compared and tested for use as catalysts, far more quickly than traditional wet lab methods.

A common farm weed could make a 'greener' jet fuel with fewer production-related environmental impacts than other biofuels, a new study indicates.

The adsorption of ions from the electrolyte at an electrode surface is a ubiquitous process, of use for both existing and emerging electrochemical energy technologies. But what happens when these ions penetrate very small spaces? To address this question, researchers examined the behavior of birnessite.

Scientists have demonstrated a high-performing thermoelectric material in a practical form that can be used in device development. The material -- purified tin selenide in polycrystalline form -- outperforms the single-crystal form in converting heat to electricity, making it the most efficient thermoelectric system on record. A key application target of thermoelectric devices is capturing industrial waste heat, with potentially enormous energy savings.