Power and Electrical Engineering
This topic covers issues related to energy generation, conversion, transportation and consumption and how the industry is addressing the challenge of energy efficiency in general.
innovations-report provides in-depth and informative reports and articles on subjects ranging from wind energy, fuel cell technology, solar energy, geothermal energy, petroleum, gas, nuclear engineering, alternative energy and energy efficiency to fusion, hydrogen and superconductor technologies.
LUCA technologies confirms real-time methane generation
May provide opportunity to convert finite oil resource to long-term production of natural gas
Luca Technologies LLC today announced that its researchers have confirmed the presence of a resident, methane-generating community of microorganisms (“microbial consortium”) in substrate samples taken from the 110,000 acre Monument Butte oilfield located in North Eastern Utah. This site represents the latest in a series of active “GeobioreactorsTM” that Luca Technologies has identified
Harvard scientists create high-speed integrated nanowire circuits
Low-temperature fabrication and high-quality results could reduce electronics’ reliance on silicon
Chemists and engineers at Harvard University have made robust circuits from minuscule nanowires that align themselves on a chip of glass during low-temperature fabrication, creating rudimentary electronic devices that offer solid performance without high-temperature production or high-priced silicon.
The researchers, led by chemist Charles M. Lieber and engineer Donhee
Bubble Power
In 2002, nuclear engineers Rusi P. Taleyarkhan of Purdue University and Richard T. Lahey Jr. of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute announced that they had produced thermonuclear fusion by imploding tiny deuterium-rich gas bubbles with sound waves and neutrons. The news about their fusion method–dubbed sonofusion–made headlines worldwide. Yet many skeptics greeted it with scoffing. Now, after repeating the experiments with an improved apparatus, Taleyarkhan and Lahey have more convincing evidence
Spintronics – breakthroughs for next generation electronics
Traditional silicon chips in computers and other electronic devices control the flow of electrical current by modifying the positive or negative charge of different parts of each tiny circuit. However it is also possible to use of the mysterious magnetic properties of electrons – know as “spin” – to control the movement of currents. Many large companies have spent millions of dollars trying to solve some of the problems faced by this technology, but progress has remained slow. Discoveries ma
MIT Scientists Improve Explosives Detection
MIT researchers have announced an innovation that could greatly improve explosives detection for military and civilian security applications.
Scientists have developed a new polymer that greatly increases the sensitivity of chemical detection systems for explosives such as TNT (trinitrotoluene). In the April 14 issue of Nature, they describe a polymer that undergoes lasing action at lower operating powers than previously observed, and they demonstrate that the stimulated light emiss
Sapphire Stars in Nanotube Support Role
On crystal surfaces, nanotubes self-guide themselves into dense structures with exciting potential applications as sensors or integrated circuits
USC researchers have found that sapphire surfaces spontaneously arrange carbon nanotubes into useful patterns — but only the right surfaces. Nanotubes are one-atom thick sheets of carbon rolled into seamless cylinders. They can be used to work as chemical sensors and transistors, like devices made from carbon’s close chemical cousin,