With oil and gas prices in the United States hovering at an all-time high, interest in renewable energy alternatives is again heating up. Researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science hope to meet the growing demand with a new and more affordable way to harness the sun’s rays: using solar cell panels made out of everyday plastics.
In research published today in Nature Materials magazine, UCLA engineering professor Yang Yang, postdoctoral resea
There may be a different fish to see for every day of the year at the London Aquarium at County Hall, but there’s a new variety that has never swum any of the world’s oceans. From 6 October the Aquarium’s unique robotic fish will be swimming in a specially-designed tank, open to the public for the first time ever.
Three stunningly beautiful robotic fish have been created with jewel-bright scales and sinuous, astonishingly life-like movements. They have been produced by Professor Hu
National laboratory practices “Leave No Trace” environmental sampling
“Leave No Trace” is a popular ethic for outdoor recreationists who advocate a natural landscape. Now it is also applicable to groundwater sampling collection sites along the Columbia River in southeastern Washington State.
Hydrologists from the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are using a simple apparatus of ¼-inch-diameter plastic tubing to collect samples at varying levels
Purdue University nuclear engineers have developed an advanced nuclear fuel that could save millions of dollars annually by lasting longer and burning more efficiently than conventional fuels, and researchers also have created a mathematical model to further develop the technology.
New findings regarding the research will be detailed in a peer-reviewed paper to be presented on Oct. 6 during the 11th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics in Avignon,
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
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
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
Wind generator vanes can suffer degradation by erosion, particularly at their outer edge, produced by particles (dust, sand, etc.) which are present suspended in the air. Because of this, the ever increasing presence of wind parks in zones of extreme climate make it puts an onus on optimising the protection coating material, with the aim of guaranteeing good yields, even in the most extreme conditions.
The main parameters that affect this phenomenon are, on the one hand, gel-coat character
If you already have a little spring in your step, a team of biologists at the University of Pennsylvania would like to them to good use by adding a few more springs in the form of a power-generating backpack. Details of their prototype “Suspended-load Backpack” were announced today in the journal Science. The device converts mechanical energy from walking into electricity – up to 7.4 Watts – more than enough energy to power a number of portable electronic devices at once.
“As efficient
Scientists at the Technical University of Denmark have invented a technology which may be an important step towards the hydrogen economy: a hydrogen tablet that effectively stores hydrogen in an inexpensive and safe material.
With the new hydrogen tablet, it becomes much simpler to use the environmentally-friendly energy of hydrogen. Hydrogen is a non-polluting fuel, but since it is a light gas it occupies too much volume, and it is flammable. Consequently, effective and safe stor
A simple but clever idea by a Bath engineer could revolutionise the way that safety devices across the world are constructed.
Dr Fayek Osman’s new concept could mean that devices such as train buffers, safety barriers and aircraft undercarriages will be much more efficient and cheaper.
Dr Osman, of the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the University of Bath, UK, has developed a concept for devices that can absorb enormous impact and yet still remain intact so th
A ‘living’ artificial hand that learns through imitation has been developed, enhancing human-machine communication and paving the way for novel prosthetic aides.
“The last decade has seen enormous advances in the design and implementation of all kinds of robot platforms,” says Alois Knoll of Technische Universität München and coordinator of the ArteSImit project. “However, their abilities to ‘learn’ how to solve even simple tasks are still very restricted.”
According to
A new solar-powered underwater robot technology developed for undersea observation and water monitoring will be showcased at a Sept. 16 workshop on leading-edge robotics to be held at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Arlington, Va.
Arthur C. Sanderson, professor of electrical, computer, and systems engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, will display the robotic technology being developed by a team of research groups, including Rensselaer, and led by the Autonomou
The University of Manchester and the University of Manchester Intellectual Property Limited (UMIP) in partnership with Mowlem plc and Royal Haskoning, are developing an innovative and patented new wave energy device known as the ‘Manchester Bobber’.
The device will be showcased at the New & Renewable Energy Centre (NaREC) in Blyth, Northumberland, on September 19th (Press Invitation below).
The Manchester Bobber’s inventive features utilise the rise and fall (or ‘bobbi
Feedback
