In a laboratory in Ohio, an ongoing experiment is looking at why batteries lose their ability to hold a charge as they age -- specifically lithium-ion batteries, which have generated a lot of buzz for their potential to power the electric cars of the future.
Researchers from Massachusetts have found a way to store energy in thin carbon nanotubes by adding fuel along the length of the tube, chemical energy, which can later be turned into electricity by heating one end of the nanotubes.
In remote, rural areas of southwestern China, villagers cook and dry their clothes by burning pieces of coal they pick up off the ground. This fuel releases a toxin that may be poisoning millions of people, according to an ongoing investigation by researchers in New York and China.
Researchers in California are aiming to create some of the tiniest batteries on Earth, the largest of which would be no bigger than a grain of sand. These tiny energy storage devices could one day be used to power the electronics and mechanical components of tiny micro- to nano-scale devices.
A research group in Australia is working on techniques to permanently bind antibacterial coatings to medical devices by binding them to a polymer layer.
Researchers at Shanxi University in China have announced progress in understanding the single-molecule magnet, which combines the classical macroscale properties of a magnet with the quantum properties of a nanoscale entity -- as described in the Journal of Applied Physics.
Chinese researchers, reporting in the Journal of Applied Physics, have described a new breakthrough in understanding the way electrons travel around quantum dots. This might lead to promising new fabrication methods of novel quantum devices.
A group of researchers at Korea's Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology has demonstrated an optimal combination of materials and processing for a resistive memory circuit design -- described in the journal Applied Physics Letters.
Understanding conditions that cause oscillators to fall in or out of synchronization is necessary to achieve the optimal functioning of oscillator networks that underlie many technologies. The transition from synchronization to desynchronization is the subject of a new investigation by a team of Japanese scientists that appears in the journal CHAOS.
The long-held dream of creating atomically precise three-dimensional structures in a manufacturing environment is approaching reality, according to the top scientist at a Texas company making tools aimed at that ambitious goal.
THE 2010 NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS will be awarded to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov of the University of Manchester, U.K. for their pioneering work with graphene, a single-atom-thick sheet of carbon. Discovered in 2004 by Geim and his colleagues, graphene is an extraordinary and versatile material.
A prototype device developed in Hong Kong will allow laboratory researchers to non-invasively test drugs for their ability to kill tumors by subjecting cancerous cells with different concentration gradients. The new device is described in the journal Biomicrofluidics.
This month in Albuquerque, New Mexico, scientists and engineers from around the world will convene to discuss some of the latest breakthroughs in nanotechnology, alternative energy, materials research, and medicine at the AVS 57th International Symposium & Exhibition, from October 17-22, 2010 in the Albuquerque Convention Center.
A disposable device designed to efficiently capture cancer cells overexpressing the protein HER2 in circulating blood is described in the journal Biomicrofluidics. It may help identify advanced breast cancer patients who are candidates for therapy with the drug trastuzumab (Herceptin).
Research reported in the Journal of Chemical Physics describes a technique that analyzes the reflection of neutrons to locate buckyballs within composite materials. The work, conducted by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, may lead to more effective research on photovoltaic devices.
Researchers in Ukraine and the United States have uncovered a novel way to power tiny devices using waste heat. In an article in the Journal of Applied Physics, the arrays of tiny ferroelectric nanowires are shown to rapidly generate a current in response to any change in the ambient temperature.
Laser ablation is well known in medical applications like dermatology and dentistry, and for more than a decade it has been used to vaporize materials that are difficult to evaporate for high-tech applications like the deposition of superconductors. Now researchers in the Journal of Applied Physics have studied the properties of femtosecond laser ablation plumes to better understand how to apply them to specialized films.
A group of researchers in England and Spain has discovered that certain barium titanate ceramics do not follow Ohm's Law. Applying a voltage to them gradually changes their electrical resistance. The work, described in the journal Applied Physics Letters, may help explain how ceramics used in electrical circuits degrade.
Next-generation high-density storage devices may keep more than 70 times the contents of the entire U.S. Library of Congress on a single disc -- but only if that data can be written quickly enough. In the Journal of Applied Physics, researchers in China have demonstrated a way to record onto ferromagnetic films thirty times faster than today's technologies.
Research published in The Journal of Chemical Physics describes the emerging technique of X-ray powder diffraction, which has been used to map the movement of electrons in real time and to observe a concerted electron and proton transfer that is quite different from any previously known phase transitions in the model crystal, ammonium sulfate.
Investigators in New York are giving factory production of solar energy cells a modern makeover. Their new approach, described in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, includes the use of "continuous electronic sheets," something like a computer flattened into wrapping paper.
Over the past 60 years, lead zirconate titanate, or PZT, has been the material of choice for piezoelectric applications from ink jet printers to gas grill igniters. Despite this success, many scientists would like to find a more environmentally-friendly, lead-free material. Now an article in the journal Applied Physics Letters shows the theoretical potential of another class of materials.
A new "on-chip" method for sorting and identifying bacteria has been created by biomedical engineers in Taiwan. Described in the journal Biomicrofluidics, the discovery may lead to portable devices that could be used for analyzing bacteria-infected blood, finding the causes of urethral irritation, and for screening raw milk and other foods.
Earthquakes, homicide surges, magnetic storms, and the U.S. economic recession are all kindred of a sort, according to a theoretical framework presented in the journal CHAOS. Researchers in the United States and Russia contend that these four types of events share a precursory development pattern that can be detected and tracked, possibly improving crisis prediction.
Research reported in The Journal of Chemical Physics uses fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) to investigate the processes at the surface of a growing crystal. This work may help to improve the crystallization of biomolecules -- an important tool in pharmaceutical research and other fields.
A new imaging system using six different wavelengths to illuminate the interior of the eyeball (ocular fundus) may pave the way for doctors to easily screen patients for common diseases of the eye, such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. The system is described in the journal Review of Scientific Instruments.
In December 2010, IceCube -- the world’s first kilometer-scale neutrino observatory, located beneath the Antarctic ice -- will finally be completed after two decades of planning. In an article in the journal Review of Scientific Instruments, Francis Halzen, the principal investigator of the IceCube project, and his colleague Spencer Klein of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory provide a comprehensive description of the observatory, its instrumentation, and its scientific mission.
In the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, scientists in India report success in boosting the ability of zinc oxide solar cells to absorb visible light simply by applying a blended mixture of various off-the-shelf dyes commonly used in food and medical industries -- in a soak-then-dry procedure not unlike that used to color a tee-shirt in a home washing machine.
The Optical Society (OSA), along with co-sponsors SPIE and the Materials Research Society (MRS), have selected their 2010-2011 Congressional Science and Engineering Fellows.
Physicists at China's Wuhan University discovered that nanospheres combined with a nanorod dimer could be used to solve the problem of measurement sensitivity at the nanoscale -- work reported in the Journal of Applied Physics.
Future flash memory could be faster and store more data without changing its basic design by using a clever nanocrystal material proposed by scientists at Taiwan's Chang Gung University, who describe a new logical element made with the rare earth material gadolinium in the journal Applied Physics Letters.
Chinese scientists have shown that magnetic memory, logic and sensor cells can be made faster and more energy efficient by using an electric, not magnetic, field to flip the magnetization of the sensing layer only about halfway, rather than completely to the opposite direction -- as described in the Journal of Applied Physics.
Because they are portable and easy to operate at ambient temperatures, cold atmospheric pressure plasma jets (APPJs) should find innovative applications in biomedicine, materials science and fabrication industries. Research reported in the Journal of Applied Physics investigates an APPJ that extends from the ground electrode of a circuit.
In the 1990s, a wave of emigration swept through Russia and Eastern Europe. Hundreds of highly-trained nuclear physicists and engineers left because of the political and economic situation and moved to the West in search of better opportunities.
Scientists in Japan have recorded data at a density of 4 trillion bits per square inch, a world record for the experimental "ferroelectric" data storage method. As described the journal Applied Physics Letters, this density is about eight times the density of today's most advanced magnetic hard-disk drives.
The basis for solar energy is absorbing light and then effectively disassociating electrical charges. University of Cambridge researchers report in the journal Applied Physics Letters that conjugated polymers are excellent materials for such a system, thanks to their light absorption and conduction properties.
In a paper in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, Australian researchers provide new estimates of the wave-energy potential of Australia's near-shore regions. They also calculate how much of Australia's energy needs could be obtained from wave energy alone.
A scientist at the Indian Institute of Technology in Roorkee, India has developed a method, described in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, to assess the installation and operating costs of small hydroelectric power projects, which represent a potentially large but largely untapped source of energy for developing countries.
Just as the path of photons of light can be directed by a mirror, atoms possessing a magnetic moment can be controlled using a magnetic mirror. Research reported in the Journal of Applied Physics investigates the feasibility of using magnetic domain walls to direct and ultimately trap individual atoms in a cloud of ultracold atoms.
A new optical imaging technique described in the journal Review of Scientific Instruments holds the potential to greatly improve angioplasty, a surgery commonly performed to treat patients with a partially or completely blocked coronary artery that restricts blood flow to the heart.
Researchers at the University of Cincinnati Nanoelectronics Laboratory are actively pursuing an alternative approach for low-power displays and hope to provide details about what's ahead for display technology. Their assessment appears in the American Institute of Physics' Applied Physics Letters.
A new paper in The Journal of Chemical Physics provides a theoretical model that compares the transport characteristics of straight- and branched-chain polymers in various channels -- work that could aid in the development of carrier molecules for delivering drugs at a controlled rate in the body.
One of the most promising technologies for making inexpensive but reasonably efficient photovoltaic cells just got much cheaper. Scientists in Canada have shown that inexpensive nickel can work just as well as gold for one of the critical electrical contacts that gather the electrical current produced by colloidal quantum dot solar cells.
Researchers in Hawaii say that the Leeward side of Hawaiian Islands may be ideal for future ocean-based renewable energy plants based on a technology referred to as Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC), which is described in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy.
By embedding the element selenium in zinc oxide, a team at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California has made a relatively inexpensive material that could be promising for solar power conversion by making more efficient use of the sun's energy. They describe their work in the journal Applied Physics Letters.
Researchers in Canada have combined DNA microarrays with microfluidic devices, which are used for the precise control of liquids at the nanoscale. An article in an upcoming issue of the journal Biomicrofluidics, describes how the first combined device can be used for sorting DNA.
The Optical Society (OSA) is pleased to recognize the groundbreaking research presented yesterday at its topical meeting, Integrated Photonics Research, Silicon and Nano Photonics (IPR), by Intel Corporation. IPR is currently being held at the Monterey Plaza Hotel in Monterey, Calif., USA through today.
UK researchers report in the journal Review of Scientific Instruments have developed a way to use a kite itself to measure wind speed.
Imagine building cheaper electronics on a variety of substrates -- materials like plastic, paper, or fabric. Researchers at Taiwan's National Chiao Tung University have made a discovery that opens this door, allowing them to build electronic components like diodes on many different substrates.
A group of researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is developing a way to treat cancer by using lasers to light up tiny nanoparticles and destroy tumors with the ensuing heat.
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