News tagged with mechanical vibration

Mechanical motion rectifier leads to better energy harvesting

(Phys.org) -- Mechanical energy is all around us, whether in the form of a vehicle's vibrations, ocean waves, or vibrating train tracks. However, much of this energy is irregular and oscillatory - for example, road bumps ...

Technology / Engineering

created Apr 25, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (9) | comments 26 | with audio podcast report

App turns tablet into math aid for visually impaired students (w/ video)

Without looking down, Kira runs her index finger across the screen of an Android tablet that she is holding in her lap. For the occasion, she has painted her fingernails bright pink. When her finger touches ...

Technology / Engineering

created Mar 05, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Heart-powered pacemaker could one day eliminate battery-replacement surgery

A new power scheme for cardiac pacemakers turns to an unlikely source: vibrations from heartbeats themselves.

Physics / General Physics

created Mar 02, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

UK scientists develop optimum piezoelectric energy harvesters

Scientists working as part of the Metrology for Energy Harvesting Project have developed a new model to deliver the maximum power output for piezoelectric energy harvesters.

Physics / General Physics

created Mar 02, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Seeing sound: Team develops noninvasive method to visualise sound propagation

High-performance loudspeaker manufacturers have been able to improve sound quality dramatically over the years, but still face the issue of dead spots.

Physics / General Physics

created Nov 08, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

First self-powered device with wireless data transmission

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 f ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Jun 15, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Portable ultrasound now available for horses

Healing for horses has gone portable.

Biology / Other

created Jun 02, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Quantum explanation for how we smell gets new support

(PhysOrg.com) -- Since 1996, when biophysicist Luca Turin first suggested that quantum mechanics may help explain how we smell various odors, the idea has met with controversy. In the past 15 years, some studies ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Mar 28, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (28) | comments 2 | with audio podcast report

How long does a tuning fork ring? 'Quantum-mechanics' solve a very classical problem

Austrian and German researchers at the University of Vienna and Technische Universitaet Muenchen have solved a long-standing problem in the design of mechanical resonators: the numerical prediction of the ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Mar 08, 2011 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Virtual laboratory predicts train vibrations

The construction of new rail lines, or the relocation of old ones underground, has increased society's interest over recent years in the vibrations produced by trains, especially among people who live or work ...

Technology / Computer Sciences

created Feb 09, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Controlling the flow of light with a novel optical transistor

In an article appearing on Nov. 11 in the journal Science, researchers at EPFL and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics announce the discovery of a method for coupling photons and mechanical vibrations that c ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Nov 11, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (17) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Nanogenerators grow strong enough to power small conventional electronics (w/ Video)

Blinking numbers on a liquid-crystal display (LCD) often indicate that a device's clock needs resetting. But in the laboratory of Zhong Lin Wang at Georgia Tech, the blinking number on a small LCD signals ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Nov 08, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (18) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Explained: Phonons

For the engineers who design cell phones, solar panels and computer chips, it’s increasingly important to be able to control the way heat moves through the crystalline materials — such as silicon — that these ...

Physics / General Physics

created Jul 08, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (12) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

How 'spooky' quantum mechanical laws may affect everyday objects (Update)

(PhysOrg.com) -- In a study published in the July 1 issue of the journal Nature, Dartmouth researchers describe one example of the microscopic quantum world influencing--even dominating, they say--the behavi ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Jul 01, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (39) | comments 20 | with audio podcast

New mechanism for superconductivity discovered in iron-based superconductors

(PhysOrg.com) -- A research team at RIKEN, Japan’s flagship research organisation has experimentally determined the mechanism underlying the formation of electron pairs in iron-based high-temperature superconductors. ...

Physics / Superconductivity

created Apr 22, 2010 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (12) | comments 4 | with audio podcast