Coral restoration could become easier and quicker with the use of 3D printing. As the technology matures, it could be used to rapidly and reliably create support structures for corals to grow on. Coral reefs around the world are suffering from warming oceans and increasing pollution. Reef restoration efforts employ concrete blocks or metal frames as substrates for coral growth. The resulting restoration is slow because corals deposit their carbonate skeleton at a rate of just millimeters per year. Charlotte…
CCNY & partners make breakthrough… From a team of City College of New York physicists and their collaborators in Japan and Germany comes another advancement in the study of excitons — electrically neutral quasiparticles that exist in insulators, semi-conductors and some liquids. The researchers are announcing the creation of an “excitonic” wire, or one-dimensional channel for excitons. This in turn could result in innovative devices that could one day replace certain tasks that are now performed by standard transistor technology….
Ultrashort flashes of light combined precisely and quickly. Ultrashort flashes of light lasting less than a quadrillionth of a second are fast growing in technological importance. In laser sources, pairs and groups of light flashes can be created instead of individual flashes. Similar to the chemically bonded atoms in a molecule, they are coupled with each other and their short temporal intervals can possess remarkable stability. Researchers at the Universities of Bayreuth and Constance have now revealed a cause for…
A new study published in Nature reports on a new antibiotic that binds to the ribosome of bacterial cells and stops drug-resistant pathogens from making mice sick. Co-authored by researchers from the University of Illinois Chicago, the study not only shows the potential of the drug — called iboxamycin — to one day help humans who are ill because of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, but also identifies how the drug overcomes the most widespread mechanism of resistance to this class of antibacterials….
Over the past decade, single-atom catalysts (SACs) have been intensively investigated in the field of heterogeneous catalysis. However, SACs only contain one metal center, which makes it difficult to break the scaling relationship in many catalytic processes. In recent years, it has been proposed to construct “dual-atom catalysts”, which can overcome the limitations of SACs by introducing a second metal site. While DACs are attracting ever-increasing interest, there are still many challenges remaining. A comprehensive overview of the current landscape…
Ozone depletion has had a direct effect on the geochemical cycle of iodine trapped in Antarctic ice. The ozone hole doesn’t just affect the health of human, terrestrial and marine ecosystems. It also affects environmental chemical processes at the South Pole. This has been demonstrated by an international research team coordinated by the Institute of Polar Sciences of the National Research Council (CNR-Isp) and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. They studied for the first time, the effects of ozone depletion…
Advances make high-density, 5D optical storage practical for long-term data archiving. Researchers have developed a fast and energy-efficient laser-writing method for producing high-density nanostructures in silica glass. These tiny structures can be used for long-term five-dimensional (5D) optical data storage that is more than 10,000 times denser than Blue-Ray optical disc storage technology. “Individuals and organizations are generating ever-larger datasets, creating the desperate need for more efficient forms of data storage with a high capacity, low energy consumption and long…
Research and sustainability, united through light. A research team of IMDEA Networks Institute has introduced Internet of Things (IoT) devices that communicate without any batteries and harvest energy and receive data through visible light. A team of researchers, led by Domenico Giustiniano, Research Associate Professor at IMDEA Networks Institute, Madrid, has presented important advances in the creation of sustainable wireless communication systems. This represents a new step towards making battery-free devices a reality, through the convergence of two emerging technologies: LiFi…
Leicester study of data captured in orbit around Jupiter has revealed new insights into what’s happening deep beneath the gas giant’s distinctive and colorful bands. Data from the microwave radiometer carried by NASA’s Juno spacecraft shows that Jupiter’s banded pattern extends deep below the clouds, and that the appearance of Jupiter’s belts and zones inverts near the base of the water clouds. Microwave light allows planetary scientists to gaze deep beneath Jupiter’s colourful clouds, to understand the weather and climate…
As humanity continues its exploration of the universe, the low-gravity environment of space presents unusual challenges for scientists and engineers. Researchers at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and the Florida State University-headquartered National High Magnetic Field Laboratory have developed a new tool to help meet that challenge — a novel design for a low-gravity simulator that promises to break new ground for future space research and habitation. Their new design for a magnetic levitation-based low-gravity simulator can create an area…
Printed polymers that change shape once in a predefined way when heated? This is now possible thanks to a 4D printing technology developed in the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Programmable Materials CPM. The extent of the change in shape of the printed objects is drastic: they can shrink by up to 63 percent. In the future, 4D manufacturing technologies could be used to produce parts that exhibit a specific behavior only after they take their predefined shape, for example as…
Researchers develop electrically switchable nanoantennas as basis for holographic video technology. Video conferencing played a key role during the Covid-19 pandemic and is set to dominate many meetings in the future. To realize the true feeling of a face-to-face dialog, three dimensional video is required and yet the holographic technology is still missing. Researchers at the University of Stuttgart in Germany have now introduced a completely new approach to realize such dynamic holographic displays, based on electrically switchable plasmonic nanoantennas…
Cracked phone screens could become a thing of the past thanks to breakthrough research conducted at The University of Queensland. The global team of researchers, led by UQ’s Dr Jingwei Hou, Professor Lianzhou Wang and Professor Vicki Chen, have unlocked the technology to produce next-generation composite glass for lighting LEDs and smartphone, television and computer screens. The findings will enable the manufacture of glass screens that are not only unbreakable but also deliver crystal clear image quality. Dr Hou said the discovery was a…
Passive technology on roofs and facades could greatly reduce HVAC energy consumption. As anyone who has ever parked a car in the sun on a hot summer day knows, glass windows are great at letting sunlight in but terrible at allowing heat out. Now, engineers at Duke University have developed smart window-like technology that, with the flip of a switch, can alternate between harvesting heat from sunlight and allowing an object to cool. The approach could be a boon for…
Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have uncovered a striking new behavior of the ‘strange metal’ state of high temperature superconductors. The discovery represents an important piece of the puzzle for understanding these materials, and the findings have been published in the highly prestigious journal Science. Superconductivity, where an electric current is transported without any losses, holds enormous potential for green technologies. For example, if it could be made to work at high enough temperatures, it could allow for…
Scientists developed an efficient generator… Thermoelectric generator of new generation is ten times more efficient than its analogues. Researchers from Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) in collaboration with an industrial partner elaborated thermoelectric generator of new generation, which is ten times more efficient than its analogues currently available on the market. The final product will be implemented by an industrial partner at the end of 2021. The project is conducted within the framework of the program World class…
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