A satellite equipped with novel solar antennas developed by the EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne) will be part of the payload on the Russian rocket Cosmos, scheduled for launch September 30 from Plesetsk, Russia. This satellite incorporates advanced technology that combines antenna functions and solar cells on a single surface.

The rocket’s payload will also include a satellite designed and built by students from several European universities, including a group of

In recent years a great amount of integrated radio circuits have come onto the market. With this type of component available a new kind of application has arisen: wireless sensor networks.

With these systems, sensors, instead of being inside the circuit itself, are installed in autonomous circuits. Thus, work on control and measurement can be distributed, e.g. the measurement of magnitudes over a geographically widespread area. Nevertheless, for the systems described here to be

Power plants of the future may be designed to provide electricity solely for an individual housing estate, village, factory or college. That’s the prediction of University of Southampton engineer Dr Tom Markvart.

He claims large-scale systems of electricity generation used at present waste considerable amounts of energy by producing unwanted heat. It is also difficult to incorporate environmentally-friendly sources of energy such as wind farms and solar panels because of their inter

Effect of P2O5 and chloride on clinkering reaction

Korean ceramics researchers have recently investigated the potential for using sewerage sludge in cement production. Their research looks at the possibility of effective reutilization of sewage sludge into cement kiln processes. They describe their findings in the online materials science journal AZojomo*.

Increasing environmental regulations on marine dumping means new disposal methods must be found for sewerage sludge.

Preparation and characterization of Li1-xNi1+xO2 powder used as cathode materials

Lithium batteries increasingly permeate our lives in all manner of electrical devices. Researchers from Thailand report on a study that investigates the use of the sol-gel method to produce battery cathodes from a new material. They describe their findings in the online materials journal AZojomo*.

For some time LiNiO2 has been a promising cathode material due to its large discharge capa

A motorcycling jacket using space technology is on hand to chill MotoGP riders racing this weekend in Malaysia and next weekend in Qatar, should the heat require it.

The Anatomic Intercooler System (AIS) jacket was developed by Italian bike clothing company Spidi and was used last year by Spanish rider Sete Gibernau at the world’s hottest motorbike Grand Prix at the Sepang circuit in Qatar.

It keeps the rider cool inside the suit, helping to maintain a low body temperature

The design, development and manufacturing of revolutionary products such as the automobile, airplane and computer owe a great deal of their success to the large-scale material testing systems (MTS) that have provided engineers and designers with a fundamental understanding of the mechanical behavior of various materials and structures.

In the world of nanotechnology, however, where the mechanical characterization of materials and structures takes place on the scale of atoms and

Sound can be used to control the flow of air over an aircraft’s wing greatly boosting its lift, according to Ian Salmon, a Sydney aerospace engineer who is working on applying this idea to a new generation of light aircraft.

Ian has developed a technique whereby a wing is covered with flexible plastic panels which vibrate when an electric current is passed through them, and produce sound. At a carefully selected frequency, the air passing over the wing can be made to remain more c

A single airline can have thousands of planes taking off and landing all over the world every day. Since every minute is expensive and security is a top priority, somebody has to keep them in line. Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden has come up with a solution to the problem.

Mattias Grönkvist, author of a dissertation on the subject, describes the difficulty in concrete terms:

“If ten plans have just landed at an airport, you have to have a schedule that says in

To calculate microbes in milk or in the operating-room, it is necessary to make them glow like well-known glow-beetles (Lampyridae gen.) do. Now that the secret of glow-beetles’ luminescence has been discovered, and researchers of the Lomonosov Moscow State University not only synthesize the enzyme required for luminescence, but they also produce snap analysis sets based on it, the sets allowing to literally calculate microbes practically in any analysis object within several minutes. The most

PRONAL of France has developed new elastomer materials for use in manufacturing onboard fuel tanks for helicopters and civilian and military aircraft. The company manufactures fully vulcanised tanks, which guarantee perfect tightness. The new materials developed by PRONAL are highly resistant to hydrocarbons and additives. They have an excellent strength/weight ratio, and are lighter than anything else on the market.

PRONAL offers different versions of the tanks – anti-crash tank

An ambitious EU project created new pollution sensors for the automotive industry that could enable a multibillion euro market in emission control systems by 2010. The sensors will also help Europe to meet its CO2 obligations under the Kyoto Protocol.

The IMITEC project developed an emission control system for light duty diesel vehicles. Diesel powered vehicles are increasingly becoming a major part of the European market and already occupy more than 50 per cent of the car fleet i

Over the past thirty years, the European food industry has failed to make significant improvements in energy efficiency, says Dutch-sponsored researcher Andrea Ramírez. Her conclusion is based on an analysis of energy consumption, energy efficiency and developments in the food supply chain in 13 European countries.

Andrea Ramírez investigated the energy management of the European food sector. She found out that while production growth has increased the energy requirements of the sector b

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered a way to significantly increase the amount of electric current carried by a high-temperature superconductor, a material that conducts electricity with no resistance. This is an important step in the drive to create superconductor-based electric and power-delivery devices, such as power transmission lines, motors, and generators. The results are explained in the September 12, 2005, online edition of

Although still in the qualifying rounds, U.S. researchers are helping manufacturers win the race to develop low-cost ways to commercialize a multitude of products based on inexpensive organic electronic materials–from large solar-power arrays to electronic newspapers that can be bent and folded.

In the on-line issue of Advanced Materials,* researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of California at Berkeley report success in usin

Microbian evolution on a wide variety of surfaces can produce phenomena such as corrosion, dirt, smells and even serious hygiene and health problems.

It is well known there is a great interest in the design and development of the so-called “hygienic surfaces”, referring to surfaces that not only provides biocidal activity but also to those that are easy to clean and even self-cleaning.

Achieving these properties on a surface is possible by means of coatings and treatments