Stanford University

Transparent batteries: seeing straight through to the future? (w/ video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Stanford researchers have invented a transparent lithium-ion battery that is also highly flexible. It is comparable in cost to regular batteries on the market today, with great potential for ...

Technology / Engineering

created Jul 25, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (11) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

'Unzipped' carbon nanotubes could help energize fuel cells, batteries

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes riddled with defects and impurities on the outside could replace some of the expensive platinum catalysts used in fuel cells and metal-air batteries, according to scientists at ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created 13 hours ago | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Cloak of invisibility: Engineers use plasmonics to create an invisible photodetector

A team of engineers at Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania has for the first time used "plasmonic cloaking" to create a device that can see without being seen - an invisible machine that detects light. It is the first ...

Physics / General Physics

created May 21, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (17) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Physicists demonstrate quantum plasmons in atomic-scale nanoparticles

Addressing a half-century-old question, engineers at Stanford have conclusively determined how collective electron oscillations, called plasmons, behave in individual metal particles as small as just a few nanometers in diameter. ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Mar 21, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (17) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers say galaxy may swarm with 'nomad planets'

(PhysOrg.com) -- Our galaxy may be awash in homeless planets, wandering through space instead of orbiting a star.

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Feb 23, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (23) | comments 31 | with audio podcast

Wireless power could revolutionize highway transportation, researchers say

A Stanford University research team has designed a high-efficiency charging system that uses magnetic fields to wirelessly transmit large electric currents between metal coils placed several feet apart. The ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Feb 01, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (27) | comments 66 | with audio podcast

Record conductivity achieved in strained lattice organic semiconductor

(PhysOrg.com) -- Organic semiconductors could usher in an era of foldable smartphones, better high-definition television screens and clothing made of materials that can harvest energy from the sun needed to ...

Technology / Semiconductors

created Dec 21, 2011 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Using nanophotonics to reshape on-chip computer data transmission

A team at Stanford's School of Engineering has demonstrated an ultrafast nanoscale light emitting diode (LED) that is orders of magnitude lower in power consumption than today's laser-based systems and able ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Nov 15, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (11) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Researchers build transparent, super-stretchy skin-like sensor (w/ video)

Imagine having skin so supple you could stretch it out to more than twice its normal length in any direction - repeatedly - yet it would always snap back completely wrinkle-free when you let go of it. You ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Oct 24, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Propensity for longer life span inherited non-genetically over generations, study says

We know that our environment -- what we eat, the toxic compounds we are exposed to -- can positively or negatively impact our life span. But could it also affect the longevity of our descendants, who may live under very different ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Oct 19, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Sulfur in hollow nanofibers overcomes challenges of lithium-ion battery design

(PhysOrg.com) -- Stanford researchers have used nanotechnology to invent a better lithium ion battery cathode.

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Oct 05, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (14) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

First life may have arisen above serpentine rock, researchers say

(PhysOrg.com) -- About 3.8 billion years ago, Earth was teeming with unicellular life. A little more than 4.5 billion years ago, the Earth was a ball of vaporous rock. And somewhere in between, the first organisms ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Sep 23, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (7) | comments 10 | with audio podcast

Nanoscale nonlinear light source created

Not long after the development of the first laser in 1960 scientists discovered that shining a beam through certain crystals produced light of a different color; more specifically, it produced light of exactly ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Sep 22, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Sex with Neanderthals and Denisovans gave healthy boost to human genome: study

For a few years now, scientists have known that humans and their evolutionary cousins had some casual flings, but now it appears that these liaisons led to a more meaningful relationship.

Biology / Biotechnology

created Aug 25, 2011 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (18) | comments 25 | with audio podcast

Faster organic semiconductors for flexible displays can be developed quickly with new method

(PhysOrg.com) -- Organic semiconductors hold immense promise for use in thin film and flexible displays – picture an iPad you can roll up – but they haven’t yet reached the speeds needed to ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Aug 17, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast