Where there's muck there's aluminium (if not brass)

Technology developed at the University of Cambridge lies at the heart of a commercial process that can turn toothpaste tubes and drinks pouches into both aluminium and fuel in just three minutes.

Antifreeze, cheap materials may lead to low-cost solar energy

A process combining some comparatively cheap materials and the same antifreeze that keeps an automobile radiator from freezing in cold weather may be the key to making solar cells that cost less and avoid toxic compounds, ...

3-D printing goes from sci-fi fantasy to reality

Invisalign, a San Jose company, uses 3-D printing to make each mouthful of customized, transparent braces. Mackenzies Chocolates, a confectioner in Santa Cruz, uses a 3-D printer to pump out chocolate molds. And earlier this ...

Microwave oven cooks up solar cell material

University of Utah metallurgists used an old microwave oven to produce a nanocrystal semiconductor rapidly using cheap, abundant and less toxic metals than other semiconductors. They hope it will be used for more efficient ...

Long-wavelength laser will be able to take medicine fingerprints

A laser capable of working in the terahertz range – that of long-wavelength light from the far infrared to 1 millimetre – enables the 'fingerprint' of, say, a drug to be examined better than can be done using chemical ...

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