News tagged with materials science and engineering

Robotic jellyfish could one day patrol oceans, clean oil spills, and detect pollutants (w/ Video)

(Phys.org) -- Virginia Tech College of Engineering researchers are working on a multi-university, nationwide project for the U.S. Navy that one day will put life-like autonomous robot jellyfish in waters around ...

Technology / Engineering

created May 29, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

In metallic glasses, researchers find a few new atomic structures

Drawing on powerful computational tools and a state-of-the-art scanning transmission electron microscope, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison and Iowa State University materials science and engineering researchers has ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created May 11, 2012 | popularity 3.4 / 5 (7) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Researchers develop technique to keep cool high-power semiconductor devices used in wireless applications, electric cars

A group of researchers at the University of California, Riverside Bourns College of Engineering have developed a technique to keep cool a semiconductor material used in everything from traffic lights to electric cars.

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created May 08, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Power generation technology based on piezoelectric nanocomposite materials

Professor Keon- Jae Lee's research team, KAIST (Korea), has developed a nanocomposite-based nanogenerator that successfully overcomes the critical restrictions existed in previous nanogenerators and builds ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created May 07, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 1

Inspired by insects: For treatment of vocal fold disorders, researchers look to insect protein

A one-inch long grasshopper can leap a distance of about 20 inches. Cicadas can produce sound at about the same frequency as radio waves. Fleas measuring only millimeters can jump an astonishing 100 times ...

Biology / Other

created Apr 25, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Controlling heat flow with atomic-level precision

Through a combination of atomic-scale materials design and ultrafast measurements, researchers at the University of Illinois have revealed new insights about how heat flows across an interface between two ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Apr 22, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Nanotube electrodes improve solar cells, could yield low-cost, efficient alternative

Forests of carbon nanotubes are an efficient alternative for platinum electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSC), according to new research by collaborators at Rice University and Tsinghua University.

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Apr 17, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists make nontoxic, bendable nanosheets

(Phys.org) -- Cornell materials scientists have developed an inexpensive, environmentally friendly way of synthesizing oxide crystal sheets, just nanometers thick, which have useful properties for electronics ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Apr 11, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Carbon nanotubes: The weird world of 'remote Joule heating'

(Phys.org) -- A team of University of Maryland scientists have discovered that when electric current is run through carbon nanotubes, objects nearby heat up while the nanotubes themselves stay cool, like a ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Apr 10, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (38) | comments 14 | with audio podcast

Mechanical properties and microstructure of cranial and beak bones of the woodpecker and the lark

Woodpeckers do not experience head injury despite repeated high-speed impacts during pecking at 6-7 m/s and decelerations up to 1,000 g. This biomechanical analysis of woodpecker cranial structures sheds light ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Apr 10, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

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

Nerve gas litmus test could sense airborne chemical weapons

(PhysOrg.com) -- Nerve gases are colorless, odorless, tasteless and deadly. While today's soldiers carry masks and other protective gear, they don't have reliable ways of knowing when they need them in time. ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Mar 13, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Fukushima lesson: Prepare for unanticipated nuclear accidents

A year after the crisis at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, scientists and engineers remain largely in the dark when it comes to fundamental knowledge about how nuclear fuels behave under extreme conditions, ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Mar 08, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 6 | with audio podcast

Development of new-generation solar cells

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers from The University of Queensland (UQ) and Korea have combined their expertise in polymer patterning and materials science in a bid to develop new-generation solar cells.

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Mar 07, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Influencing stem cell fate: New screening method helps scientists identify key information rapidly

Northwestern University scientists have developed a powerful analytical method that they have used to direct stem cell differentiation. Out of millions of possibilities, they rapidly identified the chemical and physical structures ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Mar 06, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast