http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (Phys.org) —A truss design devised to help workers process space shuttles continues to find new uses as a space shuttle engineer-turned-entrepreneur adapts it to everything from a solar-powered electric generator to a mobile cellphone tower. http://phys.org/news287823021.html Space & Earth Wed, 15 May 2013 08:10:01 EST news287823021 New York University physicists have uncovered how energy is released and dispersed in magnetic materials in a process akin to the spread of forest fires, a finding that has the potential to deepen our understanding of self-sustained chemical reactions. http://phys.org/news287667453.html Physics Mon, 13 May 2013 12:39:05 EST news287667453 The first-ever manned airplane that can fly by day or night on the sun's power alone soared over the western United States late Friday on the first leg of cross-country journey. http://phys.org/news286801300.html Technology Fri, 03 May 2013 12:01:48 EST news286801300 Corporate Technology (CT), Siemens global research department, has developed a new accelerator technology in cooperation with one of its strategic partners, the Russian research center Skolkovo, which is located near Moscow. http://phys.org/news286439003.html Technology Mon, 29 Apr 2013 08:00:01 EST news286439003 Hydroelectricity is an established power-generation technology with over 100 years of commercial operation. Hydroelectricity is produced when moving water rotates a turbine shaft; this movement is converted to electricity with an electrical generator. http://phys.org/news285492467.html Technology Thu, 18 Apr 2013 09:00:02 EST news285492467 (Phys.org) —Devices that harvest energy from the environment require specific environmental conditions; for instance, solar cells and piezoelectric generators require sunlight and mechanical vibration, respectively. Since these conditions don't exist all the time, most energy harvesters don't generate a constant stream of electricity. In order to harvest ubiquitous energy continuously, researchers have designed and fabricated a hybrid energy harvester that integrates a solar cell and piezoelectric generator, enabling it to harvest energy from both sunlight and sound vibration simultaneously. http://phys.org/news285412932.html Nanotechnology Wed, 17 Apr 2013 11:00:01 EST news285412932 (Phys.org) —Scientists working at the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences (SIMES) have improved an innovative solar-energy device to be about 100 times more efficient than its previous design in converting the sun's light and heat into electricity. http://phys.org/news282991053.html Technology Wed, 20 Mar 2013 09:37:40 EST news282991053 Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology IWES in Kassel are testing the complex control system of wind turbines under real conditions in the laboratory before they are built into offshore wind energy plants, for example. This way, software and hardware faults can be found and eliminated before the costly installation of the turbine. http://phys.org/news280059507.html Technology Thu, 14 Feb 2013 10:18:35 EST news280059507 (Phys.org)—Photographic film maker Fujifilm has been busy this year at the Nanotech 2013 conference being held in Tokyo. First came news of bendable/roll up speakers. Now the company is showing off a new thermoelectric material it's developed that is so sensitive it can covert a difference in temperature of just 1°C to several kilowatts of electricity. http://phys.org/news279445186.html Technology Thu, 07 Feb 2013 08:40:01 EST news279445186 Generating electricity from water is not a new thing. Hydro power stations have already sprung up across the world in China, United States and Canada. However, scientists will not stop exploring advanced technologies for further improvement to benefit people's lives. http://phys.org/news274434702.html Technology Tue, 11 Dec 2012 07:52:03 EST news274434702 A Qatari research centre unveiled a low-emission and low-fuel-consumption hybrid car Wednesday on the sidelines of the UN climate talks taking place in the gas-rich country, it said in a statement. http://phys.org/news273339476.html Technology Wed, 28 Nov 2012 15:46:43 EST news273339476 A University of Texas at Arlington physics professor has helped create a hybrid nanomaterial that can be used to convert light and thermal energy into electrical current, surpassing earlier methods that used either light or thermal energy, but not both. http://phys.org/news271950067.html Nanotechnology Mon, 12 Nov 2012 13:41:21 EST news271950067 (Phys.org)—A three-way collaboration between Japan-based Rohm, Aquafairy, and Kyoto University has resulted in the development of a smartphone-charging fuel cell—a compact, high output, portable hydrogen powered fuel cell that can generate electricity by producing hydrogen. This is achieved through a chemical reaction between calcium hydride sheets and water. The fuel cell can generate five watt hours of electricity, to charge an average smartphone within two hours. The fuel cell will be promoted for a variety of uses, from charging a smartphone to serving as a 200-watt portable generator delivering backup power. http://phys.org/news267502762.html Technology Sat, 22 Sep 2012 04:20:01 EST news267502762 (Phys.org)—Sometimes the chain of measurement traceability – the unbroken series of links between a calibrated instrument and the official NIST standard – can get pretty long. But 250 million kilometers is remarkable, even for NIST. http://phys.org/news265621984.html Space & Earth Fri, 31 Aug 2012 08:53:15 EST news265621984 (Phys.org) -- A study conducted by researchers from the ETH and Empa has come to the conclusion that large sized wind turbines produce "greener" electric power than small ones. Environmental benefits have also accrued as wind turbine producers gain experience and learn from each other. The developers of life-cycle analyses have also profited from the experience of the last 30 years of wind generator usage because this allows them to fine tune their techniques, enabling them to better estimate the effects of new technologies over large timespans. http://phys.org/news261300057.html Technology Thu, 12 Jul 2012 08:30:03 EST news261300057 Researchers have discovered yet another way to harvest small amounts of electricity from motion in the world around us – this time by capturing the electrical charge produced when two different kinds of plastic materials rub against one another. Based on flexible polymer materials, this "triboelectric" generator could provide alternating current (AC) from activities such as walking. http://phys.org/news261065157.html Nanotechnology Mon, 09 Jul 2012 15:06:57 EST news261065157 A group of US researchers has produced a robotic set of legs which they believe is the first to fully model walking in a biologically accurate manner. http://phys.org/news260713661.html Technology Thu, 05 Jul 2012 19:00:01 EST news260713661 Sea waves are a renewable and inexhaustible resource found in abundance across the planet. But efficiently converting sea wave motion into electrical energy has been challenging, in part due to the difficulty of compensating for the relatively low speeds and irregular movements of ocean waves. http://phys.org/news259576447.html Technology Fri, 22 Jun 2012 09:34:18 EST news259576447 Peter Huang of the Sensor Science Division’s Temperature and Humidity group has devised a new humidity generator that enables dew-point measurements up to 98 °C – a substantial extension above the previous limit of 85 °C – and provides expanded calibration services for hygrometers in a variety of industries. http://phys.org/news255949088.html Physics Fri, 11 May 2012 09:58:18 EST news255949088 (Phys.org) -- Researchers at The Australian National University have developed the fastest random number generator in the world by listening to the 'sounds of silence'. http://phys.org/news253346500.html Physics Wed, 11 Apr 2012 07:01:50 EST news253346500 Dionysios Aliprantis took up an imaginary hammer and chisel and pounded away at the air. http://phys.org/news246801476.html Technology Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:10:01 EST news246801476 The Radiation Assessment Detector, the first instrument on NASA's next rover mission to Mars to begin science operations, was powered up and began collecting data Dec. 6, almost two weeks ahead of schedule. RAD is the only instrument scheduled to collect science data on the journey to Mars. The instrument is measuring the energetic particles inside the spacecraft to characterize the radiation environment an astronaut would experience on a future human mission to the Red Planet. http://phys.org/news243015720.html Space & Earth Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:22:07 EST news243015720 (PhysOrg.com) -- Quantum mechanics implies that uncertainty in experimental measurements are an inherent part of nature – an idea that Albert Einstein disparagingly characterized as “rolling dice”. This true quantum randomness, for which Einstein was concerned, contrasts with a conventional gaming die, whose motion follows the laws of classical mechanics and is therefore pseudo-random. With the right physical information about initial conditions, the outcome of a dice roll can be accurately predicted. http://phys.org/news241862065.html Physics Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:54:42 EST news241862065 The Curiosity rover that was launched toward Mars over the Thanksgiving holiday includes a significant contribution from ORNL and DOE. The mobile instrument platform, which is too large to rely on solar-powered batteries, contains a plutonium oxide-powered generator, as do all of NASA's deep-space probes such as Voyager and Cassini. http://phys.org/news241777943.html Space & Earth Tue, 29 Nov 2011 09:40:01 EST news241777943 NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, which is scheduled to launch this week, has the potential to be the most productive Mars surface mission in history. That's due in part to its nuclear heat and power source. http://phys.org/news241115834.html Space & Earth Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:37:23 EST news241115834 The integration of electronics into textiles is a burgeoning field of research that may soon enable smart fabrics and wearable electronics. Bringing this technology one step closer to fruition, Jin-Woo Han and Meyya Meyyappan at the Center for Nanotechnology at NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., have developed a new flexible memory fabric woven together from interlocking strands of copper and copper-oxide wires. At each juncture, or stitch along the fabric, a nanoscale dab of platinum is placed between the fibers. This "sandwich structure" at each crossing forms a resistive memory circuit. Resistive memory has received much attention due to the simplicity of its design. http://phys.org/news236254100.html Nanotechnology Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:08:29 EST news236254100 Wind turbines and solar panels are fast becoming familiar sights at car assembly plants as automakers slash carbon emissions not only of the models they produce, but along the whole production chain. http://phys.org/news235225282.html Technology Wed, 14 Sep 2011 14:00:14 EST news235225282 Aircraft maintenance can be time consuming and expensive. It is much simpler if the airplane itself reports, where maintenance is required. The best solution is an approach for the sensor network, which even provides its own power supply and is therefore independent of electrical wiring – and this is what has now been developed by EADS EADS Deutschland GmbH (Germany), in cooperation with the Institute of Sensor and Actuator Systems at Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna). For each individual sensor, electricity is produced by a thermoelectric generator with a small water tank, storing thermal energy. The electricity is simply generated from the temperature difference between the icy cold air in high altitudes and the water –based heat storing unit (and vice versa). This novel approach for providing locally the energy for the operation of the sensor network could not only facilitate aircraft maintenance, but also increase comfort for travelers. http://phys.org/news227268192.html Technology Tue, 14 Jun 2011 11:03:21 EST news227268192 South Korea's largest business group Samsung signed an initial deal Wednesday to invest $7.04 billion in a state project to build a green energy complex on reclaimed wetland. http://phys.org/news223125628.html Technology Wed, 27 Apr 2011 12:20:43 EST news223125628 Siemens and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) plan to demonstrate that high-temperature superconductor technology is suitable for power generation in everyday operation. The research project, which was recently launched, aims to improve generator efficiency by 0.5 percentage points to 99.5 percent. Large power plants would achieve significant fuel savings and thus greatly reduce their carbon dioxide emissions as a result of such an increase. The project will be presented at the SuperConducting City during the Hanover Fair, April 4 to 8, 2011 (Germany). http://phys.org/news220710972.html Technology Wed, 30 Mar 2011 13:36:31 EST news220710972