LEO carves out a new type of locomotion somewhere between walking and flying. Researchers at Caltech have built a bipedal robot that combines walking with flying to create a new type of locomotion, making it exceptionally nimble and capable of complex movements. Part walking robot, part flying drone, the newly developed LEONARDO (short for LEgs ONboARD drOne, or LEO for short) can walk a slackline, hop, and even ride a skateboard. Developed by a team at Caltech’s Center for Autonomous…

Boasting an intricate, doubly curved concrete roof, lightweight funicular floors, and self-learning building technology, the latest addition to Empa and Eawag’s NEST research building in Duebendorf, Switzerland officially opened today. The innovative unit illustrates nearly a decade of formative ETH Zurich research in architecture and sustainable technologies. HiLo, the latest NEST unit, combines medieval building principles with futuristic construction methods: the two-storey building module with its striking, doubly curved concrete roof and novel, lightweight funicular floor system was inspired by…

Newly proven physics opens chalcogenide glasses to applications at visible and ultraviolet wavelengths. Electrical engineers at Duke University have discovered that changing the physical shape of a class of materials commonly used in electronics and near- and mid-infrared photonics —chalcogenide glasses— can extend their use into the visible and ultraviolet parts of electromagnetic spectrum. Already commercially used in detectors, lenses and optical fibers, chalcogenide glasses may now find a home in applications such as underwater communications, environmental monitoring and biological…

Scientists show exactly how promising approach to better batteries breaks down. Silicon is a staple of the digital revolution, shunting loads of signals on a device that’s likely just inches from your eyes at this very moment. Now, that same plentiful, cheap material is becoming a serious candidate for a big role in the burgeoning battery business. It’s especially attractive because it’s able to hold 10 times as much energy in an important part of a battery, the anode, than…

Basic simulations on experimental data… New research group on “Microstructure and Mechanics” starts at the MPIE. The Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung (MPIE) welcomes Prof. Erik Bitzek as new group head in the department “Computational Materials Design” (CM). Bitzek just started his research at the MPIE in September 2021. His research group “Microstructure and Mechanics” unravels the relation between a material’s mechanical properties and its crystal defects by using large-scale atomistic simulations. “Most computational studies of defects have so far been performed…

Demonstrator high-rise impresses with its active elements. The opening ceremony for the world’s first adaptive high-rise building took place on the University of Stuttgart’s Campus Vaihingen on October 5, 2021, in the presence of Theresia Bauer, Baden-Württemberg’s Minister of Science. Here, scientists are investigating how buildings can actively adapt to changing environmental influences under real conditions and on a 1:1 scale. The prototype is being built as part of the Collaborative Research Center 1244 “Adaptive Building Skins and Structures for…

Automated vehicles could be made more pedestrian-friendly thanks to new research which could help them predict when people will cross the road. University of Leeds-led scientists investigating how to better understand human behaviour in traffic say that neuroscientific theories of how the brain makes decisions can be used in automated vehicle technology to improve safety and make them more human-friendly. The researchers set out to determine whether a decision-making model called drift diffusion could predict when pedestrians would cross a road in…

X-rays reveal compositional changes on active surface under reaction conditions. A DESY-led research team has been using high-intensity X-rays to observe a single catalyst nanoparticle at work. The experiment has revealed for the first time how the chemical composition of the surface of an individual nanoparticle changes under reaction conditions, making it more active. The team led by DESY’s Andreas Stierle is presenting its findings in the journal Science Advances. This study marks an important step towards a better understanding…

Unusual material could improve the reliability of electronics and other devices. Moving heat around where you want it to go—adding it to houses and hairdryers, removing it from car engines and refrigerators—is one of the great challenges of engineering. All activity generates heat, because energy escapes from everything we do. But too much can wear out batteries and electronic components—like parts in an aging laptop that runs too hot to actually sit on your lap. If you can’t get rid…

Filter solutions for high technology processes. Metal processing with lasers and plasma releases many different pollutants into the ambient air. The Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS, together with partners, has developed a filter system that efficiently removes these substances from the air. The filter can be adapted to the various materials and substances released in each case. In the future, the technology will be used in other applications, such as additive manufacturing. Microparticles and harmful gases as…

Brookhaven Lab and Princeton scientists team up to identify sources of loss of quantum information at the atomic scale. Engineers and materials scientists studying superconducting quantum information bits (qubits)—a leading quantum computing material platform based on the frictionless flow of paired electrons—have collected clues hinting at the microscopic sources of qubit information loss. This loss is one of the major obstacles in realizing quantum computers capable of stringing together millions of qubits to run demanding computations. Such large-scale, fault-tolerant systems could simulate complicated molecules…

Single-use diagnostic tests often aren’t practical for health professionals or patients in resource-limited areas, where cost and waste disposal are big concerns. So, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have turned to a surprising material, Tootsie Roll® candy, to develop an inexpensive and low-waste device. The candy was used as an electrode, the part of the sensor that detects salt and electrolyte levels in saliva, to monitor ovulation status or kidney health. Disposable test strips have advanced the speed and accuracy…

Scientists develop a convenient approach to spot microscopic scratches on transparent surfaces using a laser and a polarization camera. Transparent materials have become an essential component in a wide variety of technological applications, ranging from everyday electronics like tablets and smartphones to more sophisticated uses in solar panels, medicine, and optics. Just as for any other product to be mass-produced, quality control is important for these materials, and several techniques have been developed to detect microscopic scratches or imperfections. One…

Printing metals onto cloth makes for comfortable, low-cost, and effective biosensors. Bioelectrical sensors on the skin can be used to measure electrical signals in the body, like heart activity and muscle contraction. While that provides valuable information for clinicians, current bioelectrical sensor technology can be ineffective, uncomfortable, expensive, and difficult to manufacture. In APL Materials, by AIP Publishing, researchers from the University of Utah and Gyeongsang National University in South Korea have developed a bioelectrical sensor that is convenient and…

Chemists at the University of Jena are developing a way of melting normally unmeltable metal-organic framework compounds – so-called MOFs. This allows the melt-based production of glass components for applications in energy and environmental technology. Glasses are an indispensable part of everyday life. One of the most important reasons for this is that glass objects can be manufactured almost universally and inexpensively in a wide variety of shapes and sizes using their corresponding melts. Processing in the (viscous) liquid phase…

Researchers at Texas A&M have fine-tuned the process for creating defect-free metal parts using a laser bed powder fusion 3D printing technique. In the last few decades, metal 3D printing has spearheaded the efforts in creating custom parts of intricate shapes and high functionality. But as additive manufacturers have included more alloys for their 3D printing needs, so have the challenges in creating uniform, defect-free parts. A new study by Texas A&M University researchers has further refined the process of…