In a paper this week for the journal Nature Energy, a Los Alamos National Laboratory research team demonstrates an important step in taking quantum dot, solar-powered windows from the laboratory to the construction site by proving that the technology can be scaled up from palm-sized demonstration models to windows large enough to put in and power […]
New Smart Textile Is The Muscle Behind Next Generation Devices
Researchers have for the first time, developed a smart textile from carbon nanotube and spandex fibres that can both sense and move in response to a stimulus like a muscle or joint. Lead researcher Dr Javad Foroughi from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) explains that the key difference between this, and […]
Driverless Cars Hit British Streets In Landmark Trial
Driverless vehicles carrying passengers took to Britain’s streets for the first time on Tuesday in a landmark trial which could pave the way for their introduction across the country. The compact two-seater cars trundled along a pedestrianised zone in Milton Keynes, north of London, in a trial by Transport Systems Catapult (TSC) which plans to […]
Historic Solar Impulse Team Planning Drone
Circling the globe in an aircraft that used no fuel would be enough for some to rest on their laurels, but the pilots of Solar Impulse 2 on Monday spoke of their new project. “An unmanned version of Solar Impulse,” aviator and engineer Andre Borschberg told reporters when asked what groundbreaking mission the Swiss-based team […]
Drone Safety: User-Centric Control Software Improves Pilot Performance And Safety
A new study into the safety of drone control interfaces suggests that an overhaul of remote control methods ranging from joysticks to smartphone apps could reduce the number of drone accidents. The findings, published this week in Interacting with Computers, suggest that current user interfaces used in some drones makes it difficult for pilots to perceive […]
Germany Conducting Inquiry Into Tesla Autopilot System
Germany said Saturday it was still investigating the operation of the autopilot system on cars made by electric automaker Tesla, as German media reported an internal ministerial report called it “dangerous”. According to the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel, an internal ministry report had concluded that the autopilot function represents “a considerable danger for traffic”, […]
Quantum Research Race Lights Up The World
The race towards quantum computing is heating up. Faster, brighter, more exacting – these are all terms that could be applied as much to the actual science as to the research effort going on in labs around the globe. Quantum technologies are poised to provide exponentially stronger computational power and secured communications. But the bar […]
Researchers Generate Proton Beams Using A Combination Of Nanoparticles And Laser Light
Light, when strongly concentrated, is enormously powerful. Now, a team of physicists led by Professor Jörg Schreiber from the Institute of Experimental Physics – Medical Physics, which is part of the Munich-Centre for Advanced Photonics (MAP), a Cluster of Excellence at LMU Munich, has used this energy source with explosive effect. The researchers focus high-power […]
Researchers Develop More Efficient, Reliable Means Of Electrically Contacting Graphene
Researchers from the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific (SSC Pacific) devised a new way to electrically contact graphene with liquid metals rather than typical rigid electrodes such as gold and silver. Using this new method, the team demonstrated low-contact resistance with a graphene material that is comparable to the best examples published in […]
More Precise Measurements Of Phosphorene Suggest It Has Advantages Over Other 2-D Materials
A large team of researchers from China, the U.S. and Japan has developed a more precise means for measuring the various band gaps in layered phosphorene, and in so doing, have found that it possesses advantages over other 2-D materials. In their paper published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, the group describes their technique and what […]