Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.
The University of Southampton's Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) is pioneering research into developing the strongest silica nanofibres in the world.
Globally the quest has been on to find ultrahigh strength composites, leading ORC scientists to investigate light, ultrahigh strength nanowires that are not compromised by defects. Historically, carbon nanotubes were the strongest material available, but high strengths could only be measured in very short samples just a few microns long, providing little practical value.
Now research by ORC Principal Research Fellow Dr Gilberto Brambilla and ORC Director Professor Sir David Payne has resulted in the creation of the strongest, lightest weight silica nanofibres - 'nanowires' that are 15 times stronger than steel and can be manufactured in lengths potentially of 1000's of kilometres.
Their findings are already generating extensive interest from many companies around the world and could be set to transform the aviation, marine and safety industries. Tests are currently being carried out globally into the potential future applications for the nanowires.
"With synthetic fibres it is important to have high strength, achieved by production of fibre with extremely low defect rates, and low weight," says Dr Brambilla.
"Usually if you increase the strength of a fibre you have to increase its diameter and thus its weight, but our research has shown that as you decrease the size of silica nanofibres their strength increases, yet they still remain very lightweight. We are the only people who currently have optimised the strength of these fibres.
"Our discovery could change the future of composites and high strength materials across the world and have a huge impact on the marine, aviation and security industries. We want to investigate their potential use in composites and we envisage that this material could be used extensively in the manufacture of products such as aircraft, speedboats and helicopters," he adds.
Professor Payne explains: "Weight for weight, silica nanowires are 15 times stronger than high strength steel and 10 times stronger than conventional GRP (Glass Reinforced Plastic). We can decrease the amount of material used thereby reducing the weight of the object.
The new material changes its shape after absorbing tiny amounts of evaporated water, allowing it to repeatedly curl up and down. Harnessing this continuous motion could drive robotic limbs or generate enough electricity to power micro- and nanoelectronic devices, such as environmental sensors.
"With a sensor powered by a battery, you have to replace it periodically. If you have this device, you can harvest energy from the environment so you don't have to replace it very often," says Mingming Ma, a postdoc at MIT's David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and lead author of a paper describing the new material in the Jan. 11 issue of Science.
"We are very excited about this new material, and we expect as we achieve higher efficiency in converting mechanical energy into electricity, this material will find even broader applications," says Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT and senior author of the paper. Those potential applications include large-scale, water-vapor-powered generators, or smaller generators to power wearable electronics.
Molecular Machine Could Hold Key to More Efficient ManufacturingAn industrial revolution on a minute scale is taking place in laboratories at The University of Manchester with the development of a highly complex machine that mimics how molecules are made in nature. The artificial molecular machine developed by Professor David Leigh FRS and his team in the School of Chemistry is the most advanced molecular machine of its type in the world. Its development has been published in the journal Science.
Can mass spectrometers rival the canine nose? | ExtremeTechLocating survivors trapped within rubble is a demanding job. Dogs are the best tool we have at the present time but they have difficulty identifying the victims most in need of help, namely, those that are still alive. Meanwhile, man’s answer to Fido’s soggy snout, the mass spectrometer, has been improved to the point that many diseases can be detected from the breath alone. This suggests the possibility that they might be adapted to detect the signatures of life from the gases exhaled by trapped victims. Will the technology be enough just to match the canine nose or will these machines also need to perform the more subtle task of navigating these plumes to be effective?
Electronic chips in your clothes to monitor your vitals? A tablet that folds up and fits in your back pocket?
The flexible nanoelectronic circuit Bedell and Shahrjedri designed is 10,000 times thinner than a piece of paper, and was peeled off of a silicon wafer and put onto plastic an industry first.
These circuits are also easily transferrable at any size, arbitrary in shape, and compatible with any flexible substrate.
With a radius of curvature of only 6 mm, these sheets of circuits could cover or roll on top of almost anything.
These flexible chips are as powerful as any brittle chip sitting on silicon. More than 10 billion transistors can sit on the plastic substrate. And their ultra low-power needs just 0.6 volts make them perfect for novel mobile applications, wearable electronics and bioelectronics.
Read more at: Mathematical breakthrough sets out rules for more effective teleportationFor the last ten years, theoretical physicists have shown that the intense connections generated between particles as established in the quantum law of 'entanglement' may hold the key to eventual teleportation of quantum information.
Now, for the first time, researchers have worked out how entanglement could be 'recycled' to increase the efficiency of these connections. Published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the result could conceivably take us a step closer to sci-fi style teleportation in the future, although this research is purely theoretical in nature. The team have also devised a generalised form of teleportation, which allows for a wide variety of potential applications in quantum physics. Once considered impossible, in 1993 a team of scientists calculated that teleportation could work in principle using quantum laws. Quantum teleportation harnesses the 'entanglement' law to transmit particle-sized bites of information across potentially vast distances in an instant.
The road to a bendable smartphone has proved, perhaps fittingly, long and winding. Most efforts so far have focused on making flexible displays (see “Towards Flexible Mobile Screens”, with interesting advances from the likes of Samsung. But even if you succeeded in making the screen of a smartphone flexible, you’d still have to tackle the phone’s innards, too, if you ultimately want to be able to roll up the thing like a sheet of paper. To tackle that problem, you’re going to need to have a flexible battery.
Some new research from a team of Korean researchers points to just that: a flexible battery. Their Advanced Materials paper has a cumbersome title: “Imprintable, Bendable, and Shape-Conformable Polymer Electrolytes for Versatile-Shaped Lithium-Ion Batteries.” But the world it points to is just the opposite of cumbersome: lithe, convenient, and ultraportable (see “Are Bendable Smart Phones the Future?”
Nearly perfect, ultrathin invisibility cloak could have wide practical applicationsThe dc invisibility cloak has a thickness of just one unit cell and can cloak an object nearly perfectly. The inset shows an enlarged view of the cloak’s resistor network. Credit: Wei Xiang Jiang, et al. ©2013 American Institute of Physics
(Phys.org)—Researchers have created a dc invisibility cloak made of a metamaterial that not only shields an object almost perfectly, but at 1-cm thick is also the thinnest cloak ever constructed, reaching the ultimate limit of thinness for artificial materials. As the first invisibility cloak that combines both near-perfect performance and extreme thinness, it could open the doors to practical applications. In the past, invisibility cloaks have been too large to be used in many real-world applications.
The Plasma Acoustic Shield System (PASS) is a crackling, flashing wall of light hanging in the air up to 100 meters away. And while it’s the stuff of sci-fi, the laser-powered PASS already exists in prototype form, built by Stellar Photonics of Redmond, Wash., with funding from the Pentagon’s Joint Nonlethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD).
Initially intended to shield soldiers by creating a high-intensity distraction and provide a highly visible warning signal, PASS may develop into a weapon in its own right, producing a barrage of explosions with the power of flash–bang stun grenades. It may also evolve into a shield capable of absorbing laser and microwave blasts from directed energy weapons.
The technology is based on short pulses from a high-power laser. If you focus a laser beam down to a point, the intensity can become so great that the molecules of air itself break down. As electrons separate from their atoms to produce ions, the gas becomes plasma, an effect seen at the core of a lightning bolt. This ionization produces a miniature explosion with a flash of light and a sharp pop.
It was science fiction before, but now it's really happening, Young Skywalker: The US Navy and Air Force are going to install liquid-cooled, solid-state lasers in combat airplanes. Laser turrets designed to defend the planes by shooting incoming threats like surface-to-air missiles and rockets. Seriously. The above is an official concept image by DARPA, but integration is happening this year, with real firing tests coming in 2014.
The USAF has been playing with lasers in planes for a while. They worked to create the the highly successful—but ultimately shelved—Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser Testbed. Remember Reagan's Star Wars? This was one of the few technologies that we got to work outside those 3D animations that scared the Soviets so much.
Moller International Inc. of Davis has entered into joint venture agreement with a Southern California firm to coproduce variations of its flying car in the U.S. and China, the company announced this week.
Moller said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Athena Technologies Inc. of Harbor City to form the joint venture. Moller is the developer of the Skycar, a flying vehicle.
The joint venture will initially invest $80 million of a planned $480 million investment with the objective of producing a variety of aircraft by 2014, according to Moller.
Moller makes agreement to help produce flying cars
Moller makes agreement to help produce flying cars - Sacramento Business Journal
Moller International Inc. of Davis has entered into joint venture agreement with a Southern California firm to coproduce variations of its flying car in the U.S. and China, the company announced this week.
Moller said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Athena Technologies Inc. of Harbor City to form the joint venture. Moller is the developer of the Skycar, a flying vehicle.
'Breathable' metal could make air conditioning obsolete | DVICEDoris Kim Sung is a bioarchitecture student (that's a thing, right?) who has been working with thermo-bimetals, "smart materials that respond dynamically to temperature change." These adaptable materials could change the way buildings are designed in the future, by making them more responsive to the outside temperature. Just like clothing or human skin, buildings themselves could have a system that automatically "breathes" to regulate internal temperatures without relying on expensive and wasteful heating or air conditioning systems.
Doris tested her dynamic building concept with a 2011 art installation in Los Angeles called "Bloom."
The installation is 20 feet tall and made with 14,000 completely unique pieces of thermo-bimetal, a smart material made of two different metals laminated together. This metal is dynamic and responsive, curling as air temperatures rise, resulting in a beautiful sculpture that breathes.
Watch the video below to hear Doris explain her breathable metal and why it would be a step forward for building design.
Moller makes agreement to help produce flying cars
Moller makes agreement to help produce flying cars - Sacramento Business Journal
Moller International Inc. of Davis has entered into joint venture agreement with a Southern California firm to coproduce variations of its flying car in the U.S. and China, the company announced this week.
Moller said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Athena Technologies Inc. of Harbor City to form the joint venture. Moller is the developer of the Skycar, a flying vehicle.
Promises Promises. We should've had them by now!
On the other hand if they did it would be really cool!
Quote
Daejeon, Republic of Korea (SPX) Feb 25, 2013
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and the Korea Railroad Research Institute (KRRI) have developed a wireless power transfer technology that can be applied to high capacity transportation systems such as railways, harbor freight, and airport transportation and logistics. The technology supplies 60 kHz and 180 kW of power remotely to transport vehicles at a stable, constant rate.
KAIST and KRRI have successfully showcased the wireless power transfer technology to the public by testing it on the railroad tracks at Osong Station in Korea. Originally, this technology was developed as part of an electric vehicle system introduced by KAIST in 2011 known as the On-line Electric Vehicle (OLEV).
http://life.national...nto-production/
VW to build 270 mpg XL1 When we first saw Volkswagen’s XL1 on the auto show circuit in 2011, we thought the futuristic, hyper-mileage, bullet-on-wheels was a mere one-off from the German automaker; a showcase of what VW could do. But now, amazingly, VW says it will build about 1,000 copies annually of the XL1 two-seater for sale to the public starting later this year. The XL1′s showstopping 270 miles per U.S. gallon (or about 0.87 L/100 km) rating is achieved via groundbreaking aerodynamics, the use of lightweight materials and a gas-electric, plug-in hybrid powerplant that marries an 800-cc two-cylinder diesel engine and an electric motor rated for a combined 74 horsepower.
.The team tested their battery by stretching it 300% while it powered an LED lamp Continue reading the main story
Researchers have demonstrated a flat, "stretchy" battery that can be pulled to three times its size without a loss in performance.
While flexible and stretchable electronics have been on the rise, powering them with equally stretchy energy sources has been problematic.
The new idea in Nature Communications uses small "islands" of energy-storing materials dotted on a stretchy polymer.
The study also suggests the batteries can be recharged wirelessly.
In a sense, the battery is a latecomer to the push toward flexible, stretchable electronics. A number of applications have been envisioned for flexible devices, from implantable health monitors to roll-up displays.
But consumer products that fit the bendy, stretchy description are still very few - in part, because there have been no equally stretchy, rechargeable power sources for them.
"Batteries are particularly challenging because, unlike electronics, it's difficult to scale down their dimensions without significantly reducing performance," said senior author of the study John Rogers of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
