Canadian and US researchers have taken an important step towards enabling quantum networks to be cost-effective and truly secure from attack. The experiments, by the team from the University of Calgary, the California Institute of Technology and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Colorado, prove the viability of a measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (QKD) […]
Owls’ Wings Could Hold the Key to Beating Wind Turbine Noise
A new study has revealed how inspiration from owls’ wings could allow aircraft and wind turbines to become quieter. Researchers from Japan and China studied the serrations in the leading edge of owls’ wings, gaining new insight into how they work to make the birds’ flight silent. Their results, published today in the journal Bioinspiration […]
Could Renewable ‘Power-By-Wire’ Help Fix China’s Air Pollution Problems?
Bringing renewable power ‘by wire’ from western China to its power-hungry Eastern cities could have benefits for both local air quality and global climate change, new research has found. The study, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, examined if ongoing power transmission capacity investment in China — driven largely by concerns over air pollution — […]
Octopus Arm Inspires Future Surgical Tool
A robotic arm that can bend, stretch and squeeze through cluttered environments has been created by a group of researchers from Italy. Inspired by the eight arms of the octopus, the device has been specifically designed for surgical operations to enable surgeons to easily access remote, confined regions of the body and, once there, manipulate […]