NEXTCAR project aims to reduce energy consumption by over 30%. Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has embarked on the second phase of an ongoing initiative to develop cutting-edge connected and automated vehicle (CAV) technologies to help passenger vehicles operate more efficiently, reducing energy consumption and emissions. In 2021, the DOE awarded a three-year, $5.25 million contract to SwRI as part of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy’s (ARPA-E) NEXTCAR program. Having successfully met Phase I requirements, SwRI was one of four teams…
A team of astronomers have found that planet formation in our young Solar System started much earlier than previously thought, with the building blocks of planets growing at the same time as their parent star. A study of some of the oldest stars in the Universe suggests that the building blocks of planets like Jupiter and Saturn begin to form while a young star is growing. It had been thought that planets only form once a star has reached…
A technique that transforms the metals’ microscopic structure may enable energy-efficient 3D printing of blades for gas turbines or jet engines. A new MIT-developed heat treatment transforms the microscopic structure of 3D-printed metals, making the materials stronger and more resilient in extreme thermal environments. The technique could make it possible to 3D print high-performance blades and vanes for power-generating gas turbines and jet engines, which would enable new designs with improved fuel consumption and energy efficiency. Today’s gas turbine blades…
The first result from an experiment at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams measures how long exotic nuclei can survive at the edge of stability. A new study led by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has measured how long it takes for several kinds of exotic nuclei to decay. The paper, published today in Physical Review Letters, marks the first experimental result from the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), a DOE Office of Science…
Artificial intelligence has revealed that prehistoric footprints thought to be made by a vicious dinosaur predator were in fact from a timid herbivore. In an international collaboration, University of Queensland palaeontologist Dr Anthony Romilio used AI pattern recognition to re-analyse footprints from the Dinosaur Stampede National Monument, south-west of Winton in Central Queensland. “Large dinosaur footprints were first discovered back in the 1970s at a track site called the Dinosaur Stampede National Monument, and for many years they were believed to be left…
Research offers additional insights into the reproductive process. The behavior of sperm cells is due, in part, to the individual DNA make-up of these cells, rather than only to the genetics of males, finds a team of scientists. Its results, which provide a new understanding of the competition among sperm cells to fertilize the egg, have larger implications for the reproductive process. The study, which centers on the swimming behavior of sperm cells, is the first to establish a direct…
The better we understand cellular processes such as RNA regulation, the better molecular therapies can be developed. Until now, it has been especially difficult to track the regulation of non-coding RNA, which is RNA that is not further converted into proteins. A research team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Helmholtz Munich has now developed a minimally invasive reporter system that enables highly sensitive monitoring of RNA production of both coding and non-coding RNA. For cellular processes, our…
Oregon State University scientists have invented a way to make magnetic nanoparticles that get hotter than any previous nanoparticle, improving their cancer fighting ability. Faculty from the OSU College of Pharmacy spearheaded a collaboration that developed an advanced thermal decomposition method for producing nanoparticles able to reach temperatures in cancer lesions of up to 50 degrees Celsius, or 122 degrees Fahrenheit, when exposed to an alternating magnetic field. Findings of the preclinical study led by Oleh Taratula and Olena Taratula…
First insights into engineering crystal growth by atomically precise metal nanoclusters have been achieved in a study performed by researchers in Singapore, Saudi Arabia and Finland. The work was published in Nature Chemistry on November 10, 2022. Ordinary solid matter consists of atoms organized in a crystal lattice. The chemical character of the atoms and lattice symmetry define the properties of the matter, for instance, whether it is a metal, a semiconductor or and electric insulator. The lattice symmetry may…
Cosmological observations of the orbits of stars and galaxies enable clear conclusions to be drawn about the attractive gravitational forces that act between the celestial bodies. The astonishing finding: visible matter is far from sufficient for being able to explain the development or movements of galaxies. This suggests that there exists another, so far unknown, type of matter. Accordingly, in the year 1933, the Swiss physicist and astronomer Fritz Zwicky inferred the existence of what is known now as dark…
The transformation between skyrmions and bimerons has now been realized by scientists. Skyrmions and bimerons are fundamental topological spin textures in magnetic thin films with asymmetric exchange interactions and they can be used as information carrier for next generation low energy consumption memory, advanced neuromorphic computing, and advanced quantum computing as they have multiple degrees of freedom that can carry information. The transformation between isolated skyrmions and bimerons will be an essential operation for future computing architecture based on multiple…
… for treating inflammatory bowel diseases. Like elite firefighters headed into the wilderness to combat an uncontrolled blaze, probiotic bacteria do a better job quelling gut inflammation when they’re equipped with the best gear. A new study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison demonstrates just how much promise some well-equipped gut-friendly bacteria hold for improving treatments of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Led by Quanyin Hu, a biomedical engineer and professor in the UW–Madison…
UTA physicists find new way to measure properties of a material’s surface layer. Physicists at The University of Texas at Arlington have developed a new technique that can measure the properties of the topmost atomic layer of materials without including information from the underlying layers. Researchers from the Positron Lab in the UTA Department of Physics utilized a process called auger-mediated positron sticking (AMPS) to develop a novel spectroscopic tool to measure the electronic structure of the surface of materials…
Start-up LiBCycle takes complete care of used e-car batteries. What began as an idea about a transport container for old batteries has in the meantime grown into a complete recycling service for used batteries. The start-up LiBCycle, founded at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), is committed to Circular Economy and is thus contributing to sustainable mobility. “We don’t want to spend all our time running from one financing round to the next, we want to do something to make…
Fraunhofer IWS and IAPT together with Australian RMIT Centre for Additive Manufacturing Start Project “UltraGrain”. In the near future, ultrasound will enable industrial 3D printers to manufacture more robust, durable and cheaper components for aerospace, toolmaking and other industries than ever before. Researchers from Dresden, Hamburg and Melbourne, Australia, have joined forces in a research alliance to bring this new technology to market within three years. Their “UltraGrain” project, launched in June 2022, aims to produce a tailored fine-grained microstructure…
EU funds innovation project from technology, agricultural science and business studies with around 2.5 million euros. According to a report by the EU Commission, over 60 percent of agricultural soils in the European Union are overfertilised. The consequences are soil acidification, polluted waters, reduced biodiversity, and declining soil yields. The upcoming soil health law and associated fertiliser requirements aim at improving soil quality, but for the farmers, this poses severe challenges. Daily variability of nutrient values and time-consuming laboratory analyses…
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