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ScienceDaily: Matter & Energy News |
| BirdBot is energy-efficient thanks to nature as a model Posted: 16 Mar 2022 11:57 AM PDT A team of scientists has constructed a robot leg that, like its natural model, is very energy efficient. BirdBot benefits from a foot-leg coupling through a network of muscles and tendons that extends across multiple joints. In this way, BirdBot needs fewer motors than previous legged robots and could, theoretically, scale to large size. |
| Cheaper, more efficient ways to capture carbon Posted: 16 Mar 2022 10:27 AM PDT Researchers have developed a new tool that could lead to more efficient and cheaper technologies for capturing heat-trapping gases from the atmosphere and converting them into beneficial substances, like fuel or building materials. |
| Tiny battery-free devices float in the wind like dandelion seeds Posted: 16 Mar 2022 09:08 AM PDT Inspired by how dandelions use the wind to distribute their seeds, a team has developed a tiny sensor-carrying device that can be blown by the wind as it tumbles toward the ground. |
| New acoustic fabric converts audible sounds into electrical signals Posted: 16 Mar 2022 09:08 AM PDT Researchers have developed a new acoustic fabric converts audible sounds into electrical signals. They designed a fabric that works like a microphone, converting sound first into mechanical vibrations, then into electrical signals, similarly to how our ears hear. |
| Toward a quantum computer that calculates molecular energy Posted: 16 Mar 2022 09:08 AM PDT Researchers have developed an algorithm that uses the most quantum bits to date to calculate ground state energy, the lowest-energy state in a quantum mechanical system. The discovery could make it easier to design new materials. |
| 'Self-driving' lab speeds up research, synthesis of energy materials Posted: 16 Mar 2022 08:50 AM PDT Researchers have developed and demonstrated a 'self-driving lab' that uses artificial intelligence and fluidic systems to advance our understanding of metal halide perovskite nanocrystals. This self-driving lab can also be used to investigate a broad array of other semiconductor and metallic nanomaterials. |
| New flow battery stores power in simple organic compound Posted: 16 Mar 2022 08:50 AM PDT The intermittent supply of green electricity requires large-scale storage to keep our power grids stable. Since normal batteries do not scale very well, the idea of using flow batteries, which store electricity in a fluid is attractive. Scientists have designed a flow battery electrolyte that is cheaper and is based on an organic compound, rather than a metal. |
| Getting bacteria and yeast to talk to each other, thanks to a 'nanotranslator' Posted: 16 Mar 2022 08:50 AM PDT Cells communicate with one another in the language of chemistry, but those from different kingdoms, such as bacteria and yeast, speak dialects virtually unintelligible to the other. By learning how microbes 'talk,' researchers hope to one day manipulate their behavior to protect against disease, for example. Efforts like this are in their infancy, but researchers now describe the first system that enables two unrelated organisms to communicate. |
| Wax-coated sand keeps soil wet longer, improves crop yields in arid regions Posted: 16 Mar 2022 08:50 AM PDT Dry, hot regions are difficult places to grow plants because the soil dries out quickly. As a result, farmers in arid and semi-arid regions irrigate their fields with buried networks of irrigation tubing and cover the ground with plastic sheets. But plastic sheets are expensive and create waste. Now, researchers have developed a simple, biodegradable ground cover -- wax-coated sand -- which keeps soil wet and increases crop yields. |
| Scientists discover how to 3D print testicular cells Posted: 16 Mar 2022 08:49 AM PDT Scientists have 3D printed human testicular cells and identified promising early signs of sperm-producing capabilities. The researchers hope the technique will one day offer a solution for people living with presently untreatable forms of male infertility. |
| Bacterial enzyme makes new type of biodegradable polymer Posted: 16 Mar 2022 06:17 AM PDT Strings of sugars called polysaccharides are the most abundant biopolymers on Earth. Because of their versatile and environmentally friendly properties, these molecules could eventually replace some plastics. Now, researchers have identified a previously unknown bacterial enzyme that can make a new type of polysaccharide, which is similar to the biopolymer chitin. The new molecule is biodegradable and could be useful for drug delivery, tissue engineering and other biomedical applications. |
| Intensity control of projectors in parallel: A doorway to an augmented reality future Posted: 16 Mar 2022 06:17 AM PDT A challenge to adopting augmented reality (AR) in wider applications is working with dynamic objects, owing to a delay between their movement and the projection of light onto their new position. But, scientists may have a workaround. They have developed a method that uses multiple projectors while reducing delay time. Their method could open the door to a future driven by AR, helping us live increasingly technology-centered lives. |
| Stackable 'holobricks' can make giant 3D images Posted: 15 Mar 2022 04:36 PM PDT Researchers have developed a new method to display highly realistic holographic images using 'holobricks' that can be stacked together to generate large-scale holograms. |
| A new brain-computer interface with a flexible backing Posted: 15 Mar 2022 01:50 PM PDT Engineering researchers have invented an advanced brain-computer interface with a flexible and moldable backing and penetrating microneedles. Adding a flexible backing to this kind of brain-computer interface allows the device to more evenly conform to the brain's complex curved surface and to more uniformly distribute the microneedles that pierce the cortex. The microneedles, which are 10 times thinner than the human hair, protrude from the flexible backing, penetrate the surface of the brain tissue without piercing surface venules, and record signals from nearby nerve cells evenly across a wide area of the cortex. This novel brain-computer interface has thus far been tested in rodents. |
| The immune system is very complicated, but now, it's on a chip Posted: 15 Mar 2022 12:01 PM PDT Scientists have a new tool to help them tease out the immune system's mysteries. Researchers cultured human B and T cells inside a microfluidic Organ Chip and coaxed them to form functional lymphoid follicles (LFs) -- structures that reside in lymph nodes and other parts of the human body and mediate immune responses. The LF Chip replicated human immune responses to both pathogens and a commercial influenza vaccine in vitro, offering significant improvement over existing preclinical models like cells in a dish and non-human primates. |
| New toolkit aids discovery of mineral deposits crucial to 'green economy' transition Posted: 15 Mar 2022 12:01 PM PDT Scientists have developed a new toolkit for the discovery of mineral deposits crucial to our transition to a 'green economy'. |
| Materials scientists finding solutions to biggest hurdle for solar cell technology Posted: 15 Mar 2022 11:18 AM PDT Materials scientists have discovered the major reason why perovskite solar cells -- which show great promise for improved energy-conversion efficiency -- degrade in sunlight, causing their performance to suffer over time. The team successfully demonstrated a simple manufacturing adjustment to fix the cause of the degradation, clearing the biggest hurdle toward the widespread adoption of the thin-film solar cell technology. |
| Assessing the impact of automation on long-haul trucking Posted: 15 Mar 2022 09:14 AM PDT As automated truck technology continues to be developed in the United States, there are still many questions about how the technology will be deployed and what its potential impacts will be on the long-haul trucking market. |
| Scientists show large impact of controlling humidity on greenhouse gas emissions Posted: 15 Mar 2022 09:14 AM PDT Greenhouse gas emissions from air conditioners are expected to climb as economic growth drives efforts to control both temperature and humidity, according to a new analysis. |
| Record-breaking, ultrafast devices step to protecting the grid from EMPs Posted: 15 Mar 2022 08:30 AM PDT Scientists have announced a tiny, electronic device that can shunt excess electricity within a few billionths of a second while operating at a record-breaking 6,400 volts -- a significant step towards protecting the nation's electric grid from an electromagnetic pulse. |
| Treating cancer with light-sensitive nanoscale biomaterials Posted: 15 Mar 2022 08:29 AM PDT Treating cancer and other diseases with laser light is not currently considered routine, but new approaches using nanoparticles show some promise in improving existing techniques. Researchers review the status of the field and by combining photothermal therapy or photodynamic therapy with nanomaterials, they have been able to apply these types of phototherapies while also delivering drugs to sites in the body that are otherwise inaccessible. It is also possible to combine PTT and PDT into a single treatment, creating an even more powerful treatment method. |
| Optimizer tool designs, evaluates, maximizes solar-powered cooling systems Posted: 15 Mar 2022 08:29 AM PDT Researchers have developed an optimizer tool to design, evaluate, and maximize the performance of different types of solar-powered adsorption under various operating scenarios. The tool was created using Visual Basic programming language that is easy to learn and enables rapid application development and predicted the proper material mass concentration ratios. The method calculated the cooling load, predicted maximal performance, and conducted the overall performance analysis of the cooling system. |
| Making green energy greener: Researchers propose method for wind turbine blades' recycling Posted: 15 Mar 2022 08:29 AM PDT Wind turbine blades made from glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) laminate composites can serve for up to 25 years. After that, they end up in landfills which has become a real challenge for the renewable energy industry. Researchers have proposed a method for wind turbine blades' recycling. Using pyrolysis, they broke the composite materials into their constituent parts. According to scientists, the extracted materials can be reused, and the process is virtually waste-free. |
| Gravitational wave mirror experiments can evolve into quantum entities Posted: 15 Mar 2022 08:26 AM PDT Scientists review research on gravitational wave detectors as a historical example of quantum technologies and examine the fundamental research on the connection between quantum physics and gravity. The team examined recent gravitational wave experiments, showing it is possible to shield large objects from strong influences from the thermal and seismic environment to allow them to evolve as one quantum object. This decoupling from the environment enables measurement sensitivities that would otherwise be impossible. |
| Hoverfly brains mapped to detect the sound of distant drones Posted: 15 Mar 2022 06:49 AM PDT Researchers have reverse engineered the visual systems of hoverflies to detect drones' acoustic signatures from almost four kilometers away. The finding could help combat the growing use of IED-carrying drones, including those used in Ukraine. |
| Models for molecules show unexpected physics Posted: 14 Mar 2022 12:44 PM PDT Engineers discover unusual properties in magnetized colloids that surprisingly adhere to the physics described by Kelvin's equation, which models the thermodynamics of molecular systems. |
| Warning: Objects in driverless car sensors may be closer than they appear Posted: 14 Mar 2022 11:20 AM PDT Researchers have demonstrated the first attack strategy that can fool industry-standard autonomous vehicle sensor components into believing nearby objects are closer (or further) than they appear without being detected. The research suggests that adding optical 3D capabilities or the ability to share data with nearby cars may be necessary to fully protect autonomous cars from attacks. |
| Physicist shed light on the darkness Posted: 14 Mar 2022 09:07 AM PDT Experimental physicists have succeeded for the first time in controlling protected quantum states - so-called dark states - in superconducting quantum bits. The entangled states are 500 times more robust and could be used, for example, in quantum simulations. The method could also be used on other technological platforms. |
| Scientists make leap forward for genetic sequencing Posted: 11 Mar 2022 03:25 PM PST Researchers reveal new details about a key enzyme that makes DNA sequencing possible. The finding is a leap forward into the era of personalized medicine when doctors will be able to design treatments based on the genomes of individual patients. |
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