Researchers at the U. S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University have developed a new bond coat for thermal barrier coatings, or TBCs, that may allow gas turbine engines in aircraft and other power-generating technologies to better withstand severe, high-temperature environments. The basic research effort could provide a TBC system with significantly improved reliability and durability of turbine blades, thus enabling higher operating efficiencies and extending engine l

A new way to protect the eyes of drivers from the light of oncoming cars is found by Russian scientists. The technology for production of new anti-blinding systems is under development. Finance is extended by the Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises (FASIE) under the program “Start”.

Russian scientists from Dimitrovgrad (Ul’yanovsk area) have designed a new non-blinding headlight system. Its use in cars will significantly decrease the risk of driving at nigh

Device features on computer chips as small as 40 nanometers (nm) wide–less than one-thousandth the width of a human hair–can now be measured reliably thanks to new test structures developed by a team of physicists, engineers, and statisticians at the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), SEMATECH, and other collaborators. The test structures are replicated on reference materials that will allow better calibration of tools that monitor the manufacturing of

For the first time last month, technicians at ESA’s research centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, including an ESA astronaut, entered inside the vertically positioned Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), Jules Verne, in order to simulate the late loading of cargo bags.

An identical operation will be performed for real one week before the first ATV launch on top of an Ariane 5 launcher, from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, in 2006. “This first late access dress rehe

A new system that provides real-time, intelligent, end-to-end tracking and tracing for goods being transported around the world has been developed with the help of 2.5 million euros from the EUs Framework Programme.

ParcelCall brought together a consortium of leading European industrial and academic partners to create a system that operates across all borders and carriers whatever mode of transport is being used. The system utilises RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technolo

Flawed Hardware Can Function Well in Many Applications, USC Researchers Find

Computer chip manufacturers traditionally have had a single, simple standard for their product: perfection. But a USC engineer who has spent his career devising ways to have chips test themselves has found that less than perfect is sometimes good enough — possibly good enough to save billions of dollars. “Chips with any flaws at all have always been discarded,” said Melvin A. Breuer, a professor in the

British company Instrumentel has developed a revolutionary communications technology that enables two-way command and control for battery-less remote sensing and actuation.

The company originated from the University of Leeds, where ground-breaking research by Dr Greg Horler of the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering has produced an inductively coupled wireless telemetry system based on miniaturised electronics that can both sense and actuate.

It is bel

Loops of small diameter polyethylene-coated copper tube are buried between 50cm and 60cm below the surface of the garden of the house to form a captor through which refrigerant fluid is pumped, typically R407c blend. A scroll compressor and a stainless steel plate heat exchanger within the generator unit complete the circuit to transfer the energy captured from the soil into the house.

The energy taken from the soil is quickly and continually replaced by sunlight, wind and rainfall

Computer simulations will improve understanding of faults and power surges

Scientists at Cardiff University, UK have been called in to help improve the already high levels of safety and reliability on the UK’s electrical transmission system. A team of experts in Cardiff School of Engineering will run sophisticated computer simulations, laboratory experiments and field tests on the National Grid electricity network to develop a better understanding of what happens when faults a

’Toddler’ to be demonstrated at AAAS meeting Feb. 17

Three independent research teams, including one from MIT, have built walking robots that mimic humans in terms of their gait, energy-efficiency, and control. The MIT robot also demonstrates a new learning system that allows the robot to continually adapt to the terrain as it walks. The work, to be described in the Feb. 18 issue of the journal Science, could change the way humanoid robots are designed and controlled and

Supercapacitors that can deliver a strong surge of electrical power could be manufactured from carbon nanotubes using a technique developed by researchers at UC Davis.

Supercapacitors are electrical storage devices that can deliver a huge amount of energy in a short time. Hybrid-electric and fuel-cell powered vehicles need such a surge of energy to start, more than can be provided by regular batteries. Supercapacitors are also needed in a wide range of electronic and enginee

An artificial eye developed for Earth observation is now being employed to recognise colour variations in dyed fabrics: a critical element of textile production. This could significantly reduce the 160 million metres of dyed fabrics discarded annually in Europe with high environmental costs.

“Today most of Europe’s more than 40,000 textile companies rely on human quality control. Specialised personnel monitor fabrics as they are produced, but this is an expensive and techn

In the first meeting of its kind, Australian industry, government, scientific, community and environmental groups will today come together to discuss the nation’s energy and transport future.

Participants of Australia’s Energy Futures Forum, holding it first full meeting in Canberra today, will begin the process of determining plausible scenarios and implications for the nation’s energy and transport future out to 2050.

Initiated by the CSIRO’s &#1

An automatic sprinkler system significantly increases a person’s chances of surviving a dormitory fire, according to a report issued recently by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Three NIST experiments,* supported by a U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) initiative for fire safety in college housing, compared the hazards of fires in smoke detector-equipped dormitories with and without fire sprinklers in the room of fire origin. Researchers started fires

’Roast’ hardwood at relatively low temperatures and then gasify it. Dutch chemical engineer Mark Prins has shown that this is an efficient means of producing sustainable energy. The gas produced can be used for the production of electricity, fuels and/or chemicals.

Prins followed a thermodynamic approach to investigate how biomass could be gasified as efficiently as possible. He developed a concept which combines two techniques: torrefaction (’roasting’ a

Dutch researcher Bart de Graaf has developed a solid oxygen carrier, a sort of oxygen sponge. The oxygen from the sponge reacts with hydrogen to produce water. With De Graaf’s discovery a lot of energy can be saved during the production of raw materials for plastics.

Hydrogen is released during the conversion of ethane and propane to ethylene and propylene, raw materials for the production of plastics. Using oxygen from a so-called oxygen sponge to convert hydrogen into