Poop could be a goldmine—literally. Surprisingly, treated solid waste contains gold, silver and other metals, as well as rare elements such as palladium and vanadium that are used in electronics and alloys. Now researchers ...
Materials Science
Mar 23, 2015
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Today's lithium-ion batteries are good, but not good enough if our future energy system is to rely on electrical power. Chemists and materials scientists at ETH Zurich have developed a type of glass that can be used as an ...
Materials Science
Jan 13, 2015
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903
Bismuth nanowires have intriguing electronic and energy-harvesting application possibilities. However, fabricating these materials with high quality and in large quantities is challenging.
Nanophysics
Dec 11, 2014
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For more than 50 years, scientists have debated what turns particular oxide insulators, in which electrons barely move, into metals, in which electrons flow freely. Some scientists sided with Nobel Prize-winning physicist ...
Condensed Matter
Nov 10, 2014
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Current computing is based on binary logic—zeroes and ones—also called Boolean computing, but a new type of computing architecture stores information in the frequencies and phases of periodic signals and could work more ...
Condensed Matter
May 14, 2014
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Chemists who develop catalysts are always trying to improve catalytic efficiency or create novel reaction pathways, but they're doing so largely in the dark. The atomic-scale structure and chemical properties of catalysts ...
Materials Science
Mar 31, 2014
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(Phys.org) —An ultra-fast and ultra-small optical switch has been invented that could advance the day when photons replace electrons in the innards of consumer products ranging from cell phones to automobiles.
Nanophysics
Mar 13, 2014
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Research from a team led by North Carolina State University is opening the door to smarter sensors by integrating the smart material vanadium dioxide onto a silicon chip and using lasers to make the material magnetic. The ...
Condensed Matter
Feb 5, 2014
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Vanadium dioxide is poised to join the pantheon of superstars in the materials world. Already prized for its extraordinary ability to change size, shape and physical identity, vanadium dioxide can now add muscle power to ...
Materials Science
Dec 19, 2013
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'Smart glass' can switch from transparent to opaque at the flick of a switch and is increasingly used in cars, aircraft and homes to reduce the Sun's glare and filter out infrared light and heat. Masaki Nakano and colleagues ...
Condensed Matter
Nov 29, 2013
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