News tagged with free energy

Squeezing polymers produces chemical energy but raises doubts about implant safety

A polymer is a mesh of chains, which slowly break over time due to the pressure from ordinary wear and tear. When a polymer is squeezed, the pressure breaks chemical bonds and produces free radicals: ions with unpaired electrons, ...

Chemistry / Polymers

created Mar 02, 2012 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Free-runners explore orang-utans' ease in the trees

University of Birmingham scientists are using parkour athletes - also known as free runners - to discover how orang-utans and other tree-dwelling primates maximise energy efficiency as they move through the forest canopy.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Feb 28, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

How to build doughnuts with Lego blocks

Scientists have uncovered how nature minimises energy costs in rings of liquids with an internal nanostructure made of two chemically discordant polymers joined with strong bonds, or di-blocks, deposited on ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Dec 21, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Putting artificial atoms on the clock

Around the turn of the century, scientists began to understand that atoms have discrete energy levels. Within the field of quantum physics, this sparked the development of quantum optics in which light is ...

Physics / General Physics

created Nov 07, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Structural consequences of nanolithography

(PhysOrg.com) -- Users from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Center for Nanophase Materials Science, working with the X-Ray Microscopy Group, have discovered structural effects accompanying the ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Aug 11, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

OECD forum stands by 'light touch' on Internet regulation

Key players in the Internet world stressed that the "light touch" approach to regulation, along with a free flow of information remained vital to life on the web, the OECD said on Wednesday after a two-day ...

Technology / Telecom

created Jun 29, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Measurement of 'hot' electrons could have solar energy payoff

(PhysOrg.com) -- Basic scientific curiosity paid off in unexpected ways when Rice University researchers investigating the fundamental physics of nanomaterials discovered a new technology that could dramatically ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created May 05, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Theoretical physicists offer explanation of how bacteria might generate radio waves

(PhysOrg.com) -- Four theoretical physicists, led by Allan Widom, of Northeastern University, have published a paper in arXiv, where they show a possible way for some bacteria to produce radio waves. Taking ...

Physics / General Physics

created Apr 28, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (13) | comments 13 | with audio podcast report

New structure could produce efficient semiconductor laser sources

(PhysOrg.com) -- University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have achieved a nanoscale laser structure they anticipate will produce semiconductor lasers in the next two years that are more than twice as efficient ...

Physics / General Physics

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 1

Elusive 'hot' electrons captured in ultra-thin solar cells

Boston College researchers have observed the "hot electron" effect in a solar cell for the first time and successfully harvested the elusive charges using ultra-thin solar cells, opening a potential avenue to improved solar ...

Physics / General Physics

created Dec 11, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (13) | comments 3

Second Law of Thermodynamics May Explain Economic Evolution

(PhysOrg.com) -- Terms such as the "invisible hand," laissez-faire policy, and free-market principles suggest that economic growth and decline in capitalist societies seem to be somehow self-regulated. Now, ...

Physics / General Physics

created Nov 02, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (34) | comments 30 feature

Software Helps Design Energy Stingy Buildings (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new quick, easy to use and free software tool created by NREL developers seamlessly combines the building energy simulation of EnergyPlus with the popular drawing interface of Google's SketchUp, ...

Technology / Software

created Oct 12, 2009 | popularity 2.5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Shaking the Fundamentals of Physics: At the Limits of the Photoelectric Effect

With extremely short wavelengths and very high intensities, light-matter interaction seems to be different than previously accepted.

Physics / General Physics

created Apr 24, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (24) | comments 9


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