Sci-Fi Tips

IMAGE: Highly porous programmable sponge for clean energy storage. view more  Credit: Northwestern University A research team led by Northwestern University has designed and synthesized new materials with ultrahigh porosity and surface area for the storage of hydrogen and methane for fuel cell-powered vehicles. These gases are attractive clean energy alternatives to carbon dioxide-producing fossil fuels.

The research team of Prof. ZENG Changgan from Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale of University of Sciences and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), collaborating with Prof. LIU Mengkun from Stony Brook University, applied moiré engineering beyond van der Waals materials for the first time and

IMAGE: Corrugations in graphene slow down the pace of travelling electrons. By pulling on the graphene sheet on two opposite sides, it is flattened and smoothed, and electron transport is improved. view more  Credit: Swiss Nanoscience Institute Bumps on a road slow down our pace, so do corrugations in graphene to travelling electrons. By flattening the

IMAGE: Nanosensors implanted within plant leaves can send signals that communicate the stress-induced signalling pathways of plants to a smartphone view more  Credit: Felice C. Frankel Sensors can intercept distress signals within plants to reveal how they respond to different types of stress Plant responses can be sent directly to remote electronic devices such as cell

IMAGE: An artist impression showing the evolution of quantum light colour when the atomically thin material is stretched. view more  Credit: Dr. Trong Toan Tran, one of the senior authors of the work. The researchers say their results, using an atomically thin material, hexagonal boron nitride, constitute a significant step forward in understanding light-matter interactions of

CAMBRIDGE, MA — MIT engineers have developed a way to closely track how plants respond to stresses such as injury, infection, and light damage, using sensors made of carbon nanotubes. These sensors can be embedded in plant leaves, where they report on hydrogen peroxide signaling waves. Plants use hydrogen peroxide to communicate within their leaves,

In the last decade, perovskites – a diverse range of materials with a specific crystal structure – have emerged as promising alternatives to silicon solar cells, as they are cheaper and greener to manufacture, while achieving a comparable level of efficiency. However, perovskites still show significant performance losses and instabilities, particularly in the specific materials

IMAGE: Dr Henry Yang and Professor Andrew Dzurak, UNSW School of Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications. view more  Credit: Picture: UNSW Sydney Most quantum computers being developed around the world will only work at fractions of a degree above absolute zero. That requires multi-million-dollar refrigeration and as soon as you plug them into conventional electronic circuits they’ll

IMAGE: On this illustrated silicon chip (grey), electrical data (white) travels through the Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) based electro-optical modulators, encoding electrical data into the optical domain by means of tunable plasmonic… view more  Credit: Mario Miscuglio and Rubab Amin SUMMARY Researchers developed and demonstrated for the first time a silicon-based electro-optical modulator that is smaller, as

IMAGE: Army researchers look at new structural materials for unmanned vehicles systems, such as the RQ-7B Shadow shown here, because these materials are less susceptible to corrosion, lightweight and have higher… view more  Credit: Master Sgt. Matt Hecht ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. — Materials used for a Soldier’s personal protection gear may be tough enough for

The rapid progression of technology has led to a huge increase in energy usage to process the massive troves of data generated by devices. But researchers in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin have found a way to make the new generation of smart computers more energy efficient. Traditionally,

Irvine, Calif., April 13, 2020 – Researchers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions have architecturally designed plate-nanolattices – nanometer-sized carbon structures – that are stronger than diamonds as a ratio of strength to density. In a recent study in Nature Communications, the scientists report success in conceptualizing and fabricating the material, which