Rapid industrialisation, development of infrastructure and the growing use of electronics is happening quickly around the globe. As a result, managing energy supplies is becoming an increasingly urgent problem, calling for a more sustainable society. The plastic electronics market has been developing energy harvesting technologies as a part of this sustainable vision. Devices such as […]
Power Electronic Tips
What’s the best implementation of smart energy strategy that you have seen?
Ed Brorein, Agilent Technologies, Inc., Power and Energy Division While I haven’t seen any one particular smart energy strategy that stands out in orders of magnitude above others from my involvement as part of Agilent Technologies’ Power and Energy Division, I would say many of the best ones are based on what can first be […]
New Turbine Floats 1,000 Feet Above the Ground
For Altaeros Energies, a startup launched out of MIT, the sky’s the limit when it comes to wind power. Founded by alumni Ben Glass ’08, SM ’10 and Adam Rein MBA ’10, Altaeros has developed the world’s first commercial airborne wind turbine, which uses a helium-filled shell to float as high as a skyscraper and […]
Planting the ‘SEEDS’ of Solar Tech in the Home
In an effort to better understand what persuades people to buy photovoltaic (PV) systems for their homes, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are gathering data on consumer motivations that can feed sophisticated computer models and thus lead to greater use of solar energy. A primary goal of the project is to help increase the nation’s […]
New Lithium Battery Created in Japan
The long life of lithium ion batteries makes them the rechargeable of choice for everything from implantable medical devices to wearable consumer electronics. But lithium ion batteries rely on liquid chemistries involving lithium salts dissolved in organic solvents, creating flame risks that would be avoided if the cells were completely solid-state. Now a team of […]
5 Big Ideas in an Often Overlooked Field Get a Moment in the Sun
To promote innovative and potentially game-changing solutions to some of the hardest problems in alternative energy and the environment, Caltech’s Resnick Sustainability Institute has announced the winners of the 2014 Resonate Awards. The work being recognized is in several key areas: development of safe and cost effective energy storage; the most sophisticated mathematics for optimizing […]
New Tech Could Take Cancer Treatment Deep Inside the Body
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is an effective treatment for easily accessible tumors such as oral and skin cancer. But the procedure, which uses lasers to activate special drugs called photosensitizing agents, isn’t adept at fighting cancer deep inside the body. Thankfully, that’s changing due to new technology that could bring PDT into areas of the body […]
Silly Putty Material Inspires Better Batteries
Using a material found in Silly Putty and surgical tubing, a group of researchers at the University of California, Riverside Bourns College of Engineering have developed a new way to make lithium-ion batteries that will last three times longer between charges compared to the current industry standard. The team created silicon dioxide (SiO2) nanotube anodes […]
Quantum Simulator Gives Clues About Magnetism
Assembling the puzzles of quantum materials is, in some ways, like dipping a wire hanger into a vat of soapy water, says CIFAR (Canadian Institute for Advanced Research) Fellow Joseph Thywissen (University of Toronto). Long before mathematical equations could explain the shapes and angles in the soap foams, mathematicians conjectured that soap films naturally found […]
Lighting the Way to Graphene-Based Devices
Graphene continues to reign as the next potential superstar material for the electronics industry, a slimmer, stronger and much faster electron conductor than silicon. With no natural energy band-gap, however, graphene’s superfast conductance can’t be switched off, a serious drawback for transistors and other electronic devices. Various techniques have been deployed to overcome this problem […]