ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

A study describes a new mechanism for lowering thermal conductivity to aid the search for materials that convert heat to electricity or electricity to heat. Scientists describe the previously hidden sub-nanoscale origins of exceptional thermoelectric properties in silver gallium telluride. The discovery reveals a quantum mechanical twist on what drives the emergence of these properties -- and opens up a completely new direction for searching for new high-performance thermoelectrics.

Imagine a computer that can think as fast as the human brain while using very little energy. That's the goal of scientists seeking to discover or develop 'neuromorphic' materials that can send and process signals as easily as the brain's neurons and synapses. In a paper just published scientists describe surprising new details about vanadium dioxide, one of the most promising neuromorphic materials.

Researchers are teaching microscopes to drive discoveries with an intuitive algorithm that could guide breakthroughs in new materials for energy technologies, sensing and computing.

Researchers have devised a potentially easier way of gazing into the abyss. Their imaging technique could allow astronomers to study black holes smaller than M87's, a monster with a mass of 6.5 billion suns, harbored in galaxies more distant than M87, which at 55 million light-years away, is still relatively close to our own Milky Way.

Scientists used an unprecedented technique to detect that levels of helium are rising in the atmosphere, resolving an issue that has lingered among atmospheric chemists for decades.

Imagine being able to measure your blood sugar levels, know if you've had too much to drink, and track your fatigue during a workout, all in one small device worn on your skin. Engineers developed a prototype of such a wearable that continuously monitors several health stats at once.

Various technologies, networks and institutions benefit from or require accurate time keeping to synchronize their activities. Current ways of synchronizing time have some drawbacks that a new proposed method seeks to address. The cosmic time synchronizer works by synchronizing devices around cosmic ray events detected by those devices. This could bring accurate timing abilities to remote sensing stations, or even underwater, places that other methods cannot serve. Early tests show promise, but the real challenge may lie in the adoption of this new technique.

Copper is one of the most widely used metals on the planet today due to its electrical and thermal conduction properties. The greatest natural resources of this metal are the so-called 'porphyry' deposits that come from magmas deep in the Earth. In recent research, scientists demonstrate that these deposits are largely produced by mechanisms similar to those causing large volcanic eruptions. At a time when current copper resources are dwindling and this metal plays a key role in the energy transition, this discovery opens up new avenues for the development of tools to find new deposits.

A major hurdle for work at the forefront of fundamental physics is the inability to test cutting-edge theories in a laboratory setting. But a recent discovery opens the door for scientists to see ideas in action that were previously only understood in theory or represented in science fiction.

Researchers have invented a groundbreaking device that electronically converts one metal into behaving like another to use as a catalyst for speeding chemical reactions.

People don't want science anywhere near their delicious chocolate chip cookies. But they're happy to have science create body wash that fights odor-causing bacteria.

To provide a convenient tool for the early detection of injuries, researchers have developed a portable MRI device for diagnosing cartilage damage in the wrist. Using this device, the researchers imaged the wrists of tennis players at a tennis school. Several athletes were found to have cartilage damage without any other symptoms of an injury. Thus, this device provides a convenient early screening tool to help prevent further injury or damage.

Researchers use silicon nanoparticles to help visualize the coalescence of quantized vortices that occur in superfluid helium, which can help improve our understanding of quantum fluids and materials, including superconductors.