Most Recently Added Most commentedBy Title | A-Z

Page 26 of 1,027First102022232425262728293031405060Last

Complex circuits made of carbon nanotubes demonstrated

February 27, 2013

nanotube.transistorx299

A simple sensor circuit made of hard-to-handle but promising carbon nanotubes is a first step in making the materials practical for computing, MIT Technology Review reports.

Transistors made from these nanomaterials are faster and more energy efficient than silicon ones, and computer models predict that carbon nanotube processors could be ten times less power-hungry. But it’s proved difficult to turn individual transistors into complex working circuits.… read more

Topics: Electronics | Nanotech/Materials Science

Comments (4)

Giant laser creates an artificial star to clear the sky

February 27, 2013

giant_star_eso

Death Star’s superlaser? No, a new, improved laser that acts as an artificial star, as a reference to monitor atmospheric turbulence for the Very Large Telescope in Chile, compensating for the atmosphere’s distortions and creating much sharper images, reports New Scientist.

The laser shoots 90 kilometers into the atmosphere, where it interacts with the 10-kilometer-thick layer of sodium atoms left around our planet by meteoroid… read more

Topics: Physics/Cosmology

Comments (8)

Android smartphone to control satellite in orbit

February 27, 2013

surrey_sat_tech

A satellite with an Android Google Nexus One smartphone at its heart is now orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 785 kilometers.

Called STRaND-1,  the UK’s first cubesat, the satellite’s incorporation of a phone is a bold attempt to test how well cheap, off-the-shelf consumer electronics handle the harsh temperature variations and microchip-blasting cosmic radiation of space, New Scientist reports.

The shoebox-sized satellite… read more

Topics: Internet/Telecom | Space

Comments (11)

Graphene micro-supercapacitors to replace batteries for microelectonics devices

Will power biomedical implants, active RFID tags, embedded micro-sensors, and flexible electronics
February 27, 2013

Micro-supercapacitor

UCLA researchers have developed a groundbreaking technique that uses a DVD burner to fabricate miniature graphene-based supercapacitors — devices that can charge and discharge a hundred to a thousand times faster than standard batteries.

These micro-supercapacitors, made from a one-atom–thick layer of carbon, can be easily manufactured and readily integrated into small devices, such as next-generation pacemakers.

The new cost-effective fabrication method holds promise for the… read more

Topics: Electronics | Nanotech/Materials Science | Physics/Cosmology

Comments (27)

‘Wet’ computer server could cut wasted energy for cooling

February 27, 2013

iceotope_leeds

A revolutionary liquid-cooled computer server design that could slash the carbon footprint of the Internet is being tested at the University of Leeds.

Unlike most computers, which use air to cool their electronics, all of the components in the new server are completely immersed in liquid. The power-hungry fans of traditional computing are replaced by a silent liquid-cooling process that relies on the natural convection… read more

Topics: Computers/Infotech/UI | Electronics | Energy | Internet/Telecom

Comments (6)

A protein ‘passport’ that helps nanoparticles get past immune system

February 26, 2013

penn_protein_passport

The body’s immune system exists to identify and destroy foreign objects, whether they are bacteria, viruses, flecks of dirt or splinters. Unfortunately, nanoparticles designed to deliver drugs, and implanted devices like pacemakers or artificial joints, are just as foreign and subject to the same response.

Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science and Penn’s Institute for Translational Medicine and… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Biotech | Nanotech/Materials Science

Comments (4)

Special RNAs guide epigenetic factors to activate genes

Blocking the action of piRNAs could lead to new way to treat cancers
February 26, 2013

mit_editing_genome

If a genome is the blueprint for life, then the chief architects are tiny slices of genetic material that orchestrate how we are assembled and function, Yale School of Medicine researchers report.

The study pinpoints the molecular regulators of epigenetics — the process by which unchanging genes along our DNA are switched on and off at precisely right time and place.… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Biotech

Comments (3)

How tension changes the structure of DNA

Changing structures may be important for genome regulation and stability
February 26, 2013

Fluorescence microscopy images (below) reveal the three different structures of DNA under mechanical tension (credit:

Researchers from VU University Amsterdam and from France and Singapore have discovered how mechanical tension changes the structure of DNA.

Advanced physics techniques show that the DNA structure can be disrupted in three distinct ways when the DNA molecule is stretched.

Three different structures

DNA consists of two parallel strands that are connected to each other in a double helix structure. While pulling on the DNA… read more

Topics: Biotech

Comments (6)

3D-printed cyborg muscle produces artificial heartbeat

February 26, 2013

artificial heartbeat

You might expect a robot’s heartbeat to be a metallic ticking. But the pulsing in this video isn’t completely artificial: it’s powered by living material, New Scientist reports.

Created by Peter Walters from the University of the West of England in Bristol, UK, and colleagues, the pump uses the gas released by live yeast to generate pressure and distend a membrane, turning it into an… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Biotech | Nanotech/Materials Science

Comments (4)

How to build a robotic bat wing

Could lead to the design of a small aircraft
February 26, 2013

A robotic bat wing lets researchers measure forces, joint movements, and flight parameters — and learn more about how the real thing operates in nature (credit: Breuer and Swartz labs/Brown University)

Researchers at Brown University have developed a robotic bat wing that is providing valuable new information about dynamics of flapping flight in real bats — the function of ligaments, the elasticity of skin, the structural support of musculature, skeletal flexibility, upstroke, and downstroke.

The strong, flapping flight of bats offers great possibilities for the design of small aircraft, among other applications.

The robot, which… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics

Comments (10)

New carbon-nanotube films improve prospects of solar energy devices

February 26, 2013

New research by Yale University scientists helps pave the way for the next generation of solar cells, a renewable energy technology that directly converts solar energy into electricity (credit: /Yale university)

New research by Yale University scientists helps pave the way for the next generation of solar cells, a renewable energy technology that directly converts solar energy into electricity.

Yale engineers have developed a cost-effective new way to improve the efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cells: using thin, smooth carbon nanotube films.

These films could be used to produce hybrid carbon/silicon solar cells with far… read more

Topics: Electronics | Energy | Nanotech/Materials Science

Comments (1)

Teaching household robots to manipulate objects more efficiently

New algorithms could help household robots work around their physical shortcomings
February 26, 2013

mit_robot_lateral_thinking

At this year’s IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, students in the Learning and Intelligent Systems Group at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory will present a pair of papers showing how household robots could use a little lateral thinking to compensate for their physical shortcomings.

Many commercial robotic arms perform what roboticists call “pick and place” tasks: The arm picks… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics

Comments (16)

Quantum algorithm breakthrough

February 26, 2013

entanglement-based circuit

An international research group led by scientists from the University of Bristol, UK, and the University of Queensland, Australia, has demonstrated a quantum algorithm that performs a true calculation for the first time.

The team implemented the “phase estimation algorithm” — a central quantum algorithm that  achieves an exponential speedup over all classical algorithms.

It lies at the heart of quantum computing and… read more

Topics: Physics/Cosmology | Quantum

Comments (7)

Insects inspiring new robot vision technology for collision avoidance

Reverse-engineering the locust's motion sensitive movement-detector interneuron
February 25, 2013

locust-controlled robot

A computerized system that allows for autonomous navigation of mobile robots based on the locust’s unique visual system has been created by scientists from the University of Lincoln and Newcastle University

The work could provide the blueprint for the development of highly accurate vehicle collision sensors, surveillance technology, and even aid video game programming, according to the researchers.

Locusts have a distinctive way of… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics

Comments (6)

New Google campus planned, turning the Googleplex into a megaplex

February 25, 2013

google_new_campus

.Google Inc. is preparing to break ground on a 42-acre, 1.1-million-square-foot campus called Bayview,  scheduled to be completed in 2015, The Los Angeles Times reports.

The new campus is on the grounds of NASA’s Ames Research Center.

 

Topics: Innovation/Entrepreneurship

Comments (5)

Page 26 of 1,027First102022232425262728293031405060Last
close and return to Home