Although critical for varied applications, such as cutting and welding, surgery and transmitting bits through optical fiber, lasers have some limitations – namely, they only produce light in limited wavelength ranges. Now, researchers from the Ginzton Lab at Stanford University have modified similar light sources, called optical parametric oscillators, to overcome this obstacle. Until now, […]
Stanford Professor Tests a Cooling System That Works Without Electricity
It looks like a regular roof, but the top of the Packard Electrical Engineering Building at Stanford University has been the setting of many milestones in the development of an innovative cooling technology that could someday be part of our everyday lives. Since 2013, Shanhui Fan, professor of electrical engineering, and his students and research […]
Insect Eyes Inspire New Solar Cell Design from Stanford
Packing tiny solar cells together, like micro-lenses in the compound eye of an insect, could pave the way to a new generation of advanced photovoltaics, say Stanford University scientists. In a new study, the Stanford team used the insect-inspired design to protect a fragile photovoltaic material called perovskite from deteriorating when exposed to heat, moisture […]
Stanford Researchers Develop A New Type Of Soft, Growing Robot
Imagine rescuers searching for people in the rubble of a collapsed building. Instead of digging through the debris by hand or having dogs sniff for signs of life, they bring out a small, air-tight cylinder. They place the device at the entrance of the debris and flip a switch. From one end of the cylinder, […]
Engineers Design a Robotic Gripper for Cleaning Up Space Debris
Right now, about 500,000 pieces of human-made debris are whizzing around space, orbiting our planet at speeds up to 17,500 miles per hour. This debris poses a threat to satellites, space vehicles and astronauts aboard those vehicles. What makes tidying up especially challenging is that the debris exists in space. Suction cups don’t work in […]
Wireless Charging Of Moving Electric Vehicles Overcomes Major Hurdle
If electric cars could recharge while driving down a highway, it would virtually eliminate concerns about their range and lower their cost, perhaps making electricity the standard fuel for vehicles. Now Stanford University scientists have overcome a major hurdle to such a future by wirelessly transmitting electricity to a nearby moving object. Their results are published in […]
Deep Learning Algorithm Does as Well as Dermatologists in Identifying Skin Cancer
It’s scary enough making a doctor’s appointment to see if a strange mole could be cancerous. Imagine, then, that you were in that situation while also living far away from the nearest doctor, unable to take time off work and unsure you had the money to cover the cost of the visit. In a scenario […]
Nanoscale View of Energy Storage
In a lab 18 feet below the Engineering Quad of Stanford University, researchers in the Dionne lab camped out with one of the most advanced microscopes in the world to capture an unimaginably small reaction. The lab members conducted arduous experiments – sometimes requiring a continuous 30 hours of work — to capture real-time, dynamic […]
Nanoscale View of Energy Storage
In a lab 18 feet below the Engineering Quad of Stanford University, researchers in the Dionne lab camped out with one of the most advanced microscopes in the world to capture an unimaginably small reaction. The lab members conducted arduous experiments – sometimes requiring a continuous 30 hours of work — to capture real-time, dynamic […]
Battery Cars A Better Choice For Reducing Emissions Than Fuel Cells, Stanford Study Finds
Many communities would be better off investing in electric vehicles that run on batteries instead of hydrogen fuel cells, in part because the hydrogen infrastructure provides few additional energy benefits for the community besides clean transportation. That’s according to a study in the November issue of the journal Energy by scientists at Stanford University and the Technical University of […]