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. Physicists at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have found out how tiny islands of magnetic material align themselves when sorted on a regular lattice - by measurements at BESSY II. Contrary to expectations, the north and south poles of the magnetic islands did not arrange themselves in a zigzag pattern, but in chains. http://phys.org/news287850787.html Physics Wed, 15 May 2013 15:33:26 EST news287850787 Researchers with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology have confirmed that a naturally occurring mineral, tetrahedrite, which mainly consists of non-toxic and earth-abundant elements, copper (Cu) and sulfur (S), exhibits high thermoelectric performance at approximately 400 ℃. They also clarified that the high performance is attributed to its extremely low lattice thermal conductivity caused by the complex crystal structure of tetrahedrite and the vibration of Cu atoms with anomalously large amplitude. These efforts will significantly contribute to realizing environmentally friendly thermoelectric power generation using materials composed of non-toxic and earth abundant elements. http://phys.org/news287827855.html Chemistry Wed, 15 May 2013 09:11:03 EST news287827855 Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have quantified the significant value that concentrating solar power (CSP) plants can add to an electric grid. http://phys.org/news287169281.html Technology Tue, 07 May 2013 18:14:50 EST news287169281 (Phys.org) —Hong Kong based Reignwood Group and U.S. aerospace company Lockheed Martin have announced plans to build an Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) electricity generating plant off the coast of China to power a planned resort community. Lockheed Martin is to build the facility and run it, while the Reignwood Group will be building the resort community that is to use the power generated. The new plant is expected to produce 100 percent of the power needs of the community. http://phys.org/news286021830.html Technology Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:20:01 EST news286021830 If the current national challenge to make solar energy cost competitive with other forms of energy by the end of this decade is met, Ranga Pitchumani, the John R. Jones III Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech, will have played a significant role in the process. http://phys.org/news285346384.html Technology Tue, 16 Apr 2013 15:53:12 EST news285346384 Cornell physicists can now precisely control how particles in viscous liquids swirl, twirl and whirl. Think of coffee and adding cream—and gaining control of the particles in the cream. Understanding this concept could allow chemists, physicists and engineers to better detect molecules, control the mixture of nanoscale particles and enhance self-assembly in solutions. http://phys.org/news283164388.html Physics Fri, 22 Mar 2013 09:47:22 EST news283164388 (Phys.org)—In ytterbium nickel phosphide there is a quantum critical point between the ferromagnetic and non-magnetic states that was previously not thought possible. http://phys.org/news281177714.html Physics Wed, 27 Feb 2013 08:55:55 EST news281177714 Solar thermal energy will halve in cost by 2020, the new director of the CSIRO's Australian Solar Thermal Research Initiative said today. http://phys.org/news279277101.html Technology Tue, 05 Feb 2013 09:30:02 EST news279277101 (Phys.org)—The storage capacity of concentrating solar power (CSP) can add significant value to a utility company's optimal mix of energy sources, a new report by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) suggests.  http://phys.org/news275294699.html Technology Fri, 21 Dec 2012 07:10:02 EST news275294699 (Phys.org)—Tanya Zelevinsky's Pupin Hall lab is home to a sprawling contraption of gangly wires, metal pipes and chambers, and flashing lights. Inside a container that opens up like a porthole is a glowing blue dot—a cloud of a million atoms cooled to nearly absolute zero, or close to minus 460 degrees Fahrenheit, eight orders of magnitude below room temperature. "I can safely say this is the coldest point in New York City," says Zelevinsky, an assistant professor of physics who may know more about cold than most people—she was born in Siberia. http://phys.org/news275132201.html Physics Wed, 19 Dec 2012 09:36:50 EST news275132201 (Phys.org)—As physicists work on miniaturizing devices, they will eventually run into the ultimate limit: the atom. A fundamental question in this area is whether it's even possible to scale down a macroscale engine such as a car engine to the single-particle level, while retaining the same working principles. In a new study, a team of physicists has proposed a scheme to build a heat engine that consists of a single trapped ion that can perform a quantum version of the Otto cycle, the basis of the common four-stroke car engine. If realized, the single-ion engine has the potential to enter the quantum regime and become a tool to investigate how quantum effects alter a nanoengine's efficiency. http://phys.org/news273507273.html Physics Fri, 30 Nov 2012 14:14:46 EST news273507273 (Phys.org)—The idea of harvesting ambient energy from the environment that would otherwise not be purposefully used is, in theory, a great way to produce green, renewable energy. But the biggest problem in this fairly new area of research is that scientists have yet to find a method that can harvest very large amounts of energy. However, the technology is steadily improving, as demonstrated by the development of a nanogenerator that can partially charge a Li-ion battery by harvesting energy from temperature fluctuations in the environment. http://phys.org/news272649620.html Nanotechnology Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:00:44 EST news272649620 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)—Engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas have developed a thermal energy storage system that will work as a viable alternative to current methods used for storing energy collected from solar panels. Incorporating the researchers' design into the operation of a concentrated solar power plant will dramatically increase annual energy production while significantly decreasing production costs. http://phys.org/news271663365.html Technology Fri, 09 Nov 2012 06:06:14 EST news271663365 Thermoelectric generators can make better use of the excess heat generated by machines by converting temperature differences directly back into electricity. Now, Masaki Takata from the RIKEN SPring-8 Center, Harima, working in collaboration with colleagues at institutions across Japan, have shown how the thermoelectric properties of a class of materials known as clathrates are enhanced by their unusual atomic structure, thus demonstrating a potential route to more efficient energy usage. http://phys.org/news269247985.html Physics Fri, 12 Oct 2012 08:06:33 EST news269247985 (Phys.org)—Rust—iron oxide—is a poor conductor of electricity, which is why an electronic device with a rusted battery usually won't work. Despite this poor conductivity, an electron transferred to a particle of rust will use thermal energy to continually move or "hop" from one atom of iron to the next. Electron mobility in iron oxide can hold huge significance for a broad range of environment- and energy-related reactions, including reactions pertaining to uranium in groundwater and reactions pertaining to low-cost solar energy devices. Predicting the impact of electron-hopping on iron oxide reactions has been problematic in the past, but now, for the first time, a multi-institutional team of researchers, led by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have directly observed what happens to electrons after they have been transferred to an iron oxide particle. http://phys.org/news266219579.html Chemistry Fri, 07 Sep 2012 06:53:18 EST news266219579 A phenomenon first observed by an ancient Greek philosopher 2,300 years ago has become the basis for a new device designed to harvest the enormous amounts of energy wasted as heat each year to produce electricity. The first-of-its-kind "pyroelectric nanogenerator" is the topic of a report in ACS' journal Nano Letters. http://phys.org/news258813997.html Nanotechnology Wed, 13 Jun 2012 14:20:01 EST news258813997 The University of Minnesota has launched a startup that will provide renewable energy more economically than existing alternatives while reducing harmful carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion such as from coal-burning power plants. Heat Mining Company LLC will use sequestered carbon dioxide rather than water to extract heat from deep underground and use this thermal energy to generate electricity. The use of carbon dioxide(CO2), rather than water, allows electricity to be provided from many more sites than would be possible with conventional water-based systems and does it more economically. http://phys.org/news254052187.html Space & Earth Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:20:01 EST news254052187 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists in Hong Kong have reported, in ArXiv, their experiments to make a graphene battery that they say generates an electrical current by drawing on the ambient thermal energy in the solution in which it is immersed. http://phys.org/news251095233.html Nanotechnology Fri, 16 Mar 2012 06:10:01 EST news251095233 To understand the weather and climate on Earth as well as on other planets and their moons, scientists need to know the global energy balance, the balance between energy coming in from solar radiation and thermal energy radiated back out of the planet. http://phys.org/news244740660.html Space & Earth Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:10:01 EST news244740660 As Belgium becomes the latest European nation to agree to switch off nuclear power, operator Electrabel warned Monday of high costs, environmental fallout and increased dependency on foreign suppliers. http://phys.org/news239288914.html Technology Mon, 31 Oct 2011 14:08:43 EST news239288914 (PhysOrg.com) -- A discovery by researchers working at the Spallation Neutron Source upends long held assumptions about the microscopic behavior of materials in an equilibrium condition. The findings could influence further research in advanced materials, communication and optical systems, and thermoelectric materials that use differences in temperature to produce electricity. http://phys.org/news227956335.html Physics Wed, 22 Jun 2011 10:13:42 EST news227956335 Scientists are reporting development of the first self-powered nano-device that can transmit data wirelessly over long distances. In a study in ACS's journal Nano Letters, they say it proves the feasibility of a futuristic genre of tiny implantable medical sensors, airborne and stationary surveillance cameras and sensors, wearable personal electronics, and other devices that operate independently without batteries on energy collected from the environment. http://phys.org/news227353090.html Nanotechnology Wed, 15 Jun 2011 10:40:11 EST news227353090 (PhysOrg.com) -- Conventional wisdom suggests that when exposing a crystal to heat, the thermal energy within the crystal would spread uniformly across the lattice. http://phys.org/news227335421.html Physics Wed, 15 Jun 2011 05:45:05 EST news227335421 (PhysOrg.com) -- High-performance nanotech materials arrayed on a flat panel platform demonstrated seven to eight times higher efficiency than previous solar thermoelectric generators, opening up solar-thermal electric power conversion to a broad range of residential and industrial uses, a team of researchers from Boston College and MIT report in the journal Nature Materials. http://phys.org/news223475804.html Nanotechnology Sun, 01 May 2011 13:37:09 EST news223475804 The search for alien life usually focuses on planets around other stars. But a lesser-known possibility is that life has sprung up on planets that somehow were ejected from their original solar systems and became free-floating in the universe, as well as on small bodies called sub-brown dwarfs, which are stars so small and dim they are not really stars at all, but function more like planets. http://phys.org/news220787447.html Space & Earth Thu, 31 Mar 2011 10:51:12 EST news220787447 The first stars in the universe were not as solitary as previously thought. In fact, they could have formed alongside numerous companions when the gas disks that surrounded them broke up during formation, giving birth to sibling stars in the fragments. These are the findings of studies performed with the aid of computer simulations by researchers at Heidelberg University's Centre for Astronomy together with colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching and the University of Texas at Austin. http://phys.org/news216048378.html Space & Earth Fri, 04 Feb 2011 13:26:58 EST news216048378 Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) and researchers from Stanford University have developed a novel combination of elements that yields a unique nanostructure material for packaging. This advance should allow longer life for semiconductor devices while costing less than current state-of-the-art materials. In addition to chip manufacturers, several other industries could also gain greater product efficiencies from related thermal energy management technology. http://phys.org/news215098292.html Nanotechnology Mon, 24 Jan 2011 13:32:19 EST news215098292 Ohio State University researchers have found a new way to gauge the depth of the magma chamber that forms the Hawaiian Island volcanic chain, and determined that the magma lies much closer to the surface than previously thought. http://phys.org/news211468725.html Space & Earth Mon, 13 Dec 2010 14:10:03 EST news211468725 (PhysOrg.com) -- With the goal to enable small electronic devices to harvest their own energy, researchers have designed a device that can convert light and thermal energy into electricity. When exposed to visible light and/or heat (infrared) radiation, the 20-mm-long carbon-nanotube-film-based cantilever bends back and forth repeatedly, as long as the light and/or heat remains on. This is the first time that such cyclic bending behavior, which the scientists call "self-reciprocation," has been observed in this kind of system. http://phys.org/news205476484.html Physics Tue, 05 Oct 2010 08:00:01 EST news205476484