Thermodynamic magic enables cooling without energy consumption

Physicists at the University of Zurich have developed an amazingly simple device that allows heat to flow temporarily from a cold to a warm object without an external power supply. Intriguingly, the process initially appears ...

Converting waste heat into electricity

Bruce White worked with semiconductors and transistors at Motorola and Texas Instruments. But when he left industry for a position on Binghamton University's faculty, the materials scientist decided to take his research in ...

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 toaster that burns ...

Student's flashlight works by body heat, not batteries

(Phys.org) —Ann Makosinski from Victoria, British Columbia, has an LED flashlight powered by body heat. This inventor has a flashlight that glows when she holds it. The story gets more interesting, though. She is 15 years ...

What makes Saturn's atmosphere so hot

The upper layers in the atmospheres of gas giants—Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune—are hot, just like Earth's. But unlike Earth, the Sun is too far from these outer planets to account for the high temperatures. Their ...

Efficient heating for electric cars

If you don't want to freeze in your electric car, you have to make a few concessions, because heating devours a substantial portion of power supply. Fraunhofer researchers will exhibit the demo model of a highly energy-efficient ...

page 1 from 21