A research team headed by David Ginger, a University of Washington associate professor of chemistry, has found a way to make images of tiny bubbles and channels, roughly 10,000 times smaller than a human hair, inside plastic solar cells. These bubbles and channels form within the polymers as they are being created in a baking process, called annealing, that is used to improve the materials' performance.
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Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Uber-nano nanolasers could lead to faster computers, reliable internet
Researchers at Arizona State University and Technical University of Eindhoven in the Netherlands have been collaborating on a project to make lasers significantly smaller than the ones that are currently available, by finding a way around the traditionally accepted diffraction limit -- the idea that the size of lasers in any one dimension (say, thickness) is limited to half of the wavelength involved.
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Georgia Tech claims 100x copper conductivity for graphene interconnect
Georgia Tech is claiming 100MA/cm2 current densities for graphene interconnect.
Graphene, a single layer of graphite molecules discovered at the University of Manchester, is being touted both for future on-chip interconnect and super-fast semiconductors.
Graphene, a single layer of graphite molecules discovered at the University of Manchester, is being touted both for future on-chip interconnect and super-fast semiconductors.
Riding an Energy Beam to Space
This week at the 45th Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit in Denver, researchers, scientists, and engineers will discuss the latest advances in propulsion systems for spacecraft and commercial aircraft.
One topic being examined is beam-energy propulsion--using a beam of energy directed at a spacecraft either to heat up its propellant or to deliver electricity to its engine. By removing the energy source from the rocket itself, beam-energy propulsion has the potential to make launching spacecraft cheaper and more reliable.
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One topic being examined is beam-energy propulsion--using a beam of energy directed at a spacecraft either to heat up its propellant or to deliver electricity to its engine. By removing the energy source from the rocket itself, beam-energy propulsion has the potential to make launching spacecraft cheaper and more reliable.
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Panel narrows down NASA’s future options
A White House panel tasked with re-evaluating NASA's plans for future space exploration has begun culling a list of potential options — one that ranges from staying the current course to taking direct aim at sending humans to Mars.
The 10-member Review for U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee has trimmed a larger list of 3,000 options down to about seven general scenarios, which it plans to cull even further before presenting them to President Barack Obama later this month.
The 10-member Review for U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee has trimmed a larger list of 3,000 options down to about seven general scenarios, which it plans to cull even further before presenting them to President Barack Obama later this month.
Cluster bomb's 'humanitarian' alternative
As with landmines and napalm, cluster munitions are decidedly politically incorrect, and there is a concerted international effort to ban them. Problem is, they're highly effective, and countries that actually fight wars, like the U.S. and Russia, are loath to give them up.
However, a "humanitarian" version of the "cluster bomb" may head-off some objections to their continued production, or at least provide cover for those who want to keep them in the inventory. Billed as safer alternative to cluster munitions, Sensor fuzed weapons (SFW) contain independent self-destruct features based on altitude, time elapsed, and a battery "time-out" that shuts down all functions if no targets are detected within minutes of deployment, according to manufacture Textron Defense Systems.
However, a "humanitarian" version of the "cluster bomb" may head-off some objections to their continued production, or at least provide cover for those who want to keep them in the inventory. Billed as safer alternative to cluster munitions, Sensor fuzed weapons (SFW) contain independent self-destruct features based on altitude, time elapsed, and a battery "time-out" that shuts down all functions if no targets are detected within minutes of deployment, according to manufacture Textron Defense Systems.
Femtocells: the next big thing in mobile communications
When femtocells first emerged they were touted simply as home installed cellular base stations, backhauled over a broadband connection that would enable mobile operators to relieve traffic on their macro network and divert business and revenue away from fixed line phone and broadband service providers.
But with the first handful of operators now offering femtocells commercially these devices are evolving rapidly to support a whole range of new services through integration with the new generation of smartphones and other components of the digital home.
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But with the first handful of operators now offering femtocells commercially these devices are evolving rapidly to support a whole range of new services through integration with the new generation of smartphones and other components of the digital home.
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Google getting On2 video compression
Google's reasoning is that "Today video is an essential part of the web experience, and we believe high-quality video compression technology should be a part of the web platform," according to Sundar Pichai, Google's vice president, product management.
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Toshiba to Launch Fuel-cell Charger Soon
Toshiba plans to launch an external battery charger based on a DMFC (direct methanol fuel cell) in the next two months, its new president said on Wednesday.
The charger will be a portable device that can be used to charge the batteries in portable gadgets such as cell phones, music players and portable game devices instead of plugging them into an electrical outlet.
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The charger will be a portable device that can be used to charge the batteries in portable gadgets such as cell phones, music players and portable game devices instead of plugging them into an electrical outlet.
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New clues about a hydrogen fuel catalyst
To use hydrogen as a clean energy source, some engineers want to pack hydrogen into a larger molecule, rather than compressing the gas into a tank. A gas flows easily out of a tank, but getting hydrogen out of a molecule requires a catalyst. Now, researchers reveal new details about one such catalyst. The results are a step toward designing catalysts for use in hydrogen energy applications such as fuel cells.
Scientists from the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory combined experimental and theoretical studies to identify the characteristics of the catalyst, a cluster of rhodium, boron and other atoms. The catalyst chemically reacts with ammonia borane, a molecule that stores hydrogen densely, to release the hydrogen as a gas. Their results, which reveal many molecular details of this catalytic reaction, appear August 5 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
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Scientists from the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory combined experimental and theoretical studies to identify the characteristics of the catalyst, a cluster of rhodium, boron and other atoms. The catalyst chemically reacts with ammonia borane, a molecule that stores hydrogen densely, to release the hydrogen as a gas. Their results, which reveal many molecular details of this catalytic reaction, appear August 5 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
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5 Shark-Inspired Technologies
Think "shark" and chances are images of technology are not the first to dance in you're head. But plenty of technology is inspired by shark, from its skin to its speed.
Solid-state rivalry sizzles: Toshiba ships 512GB SSD
Toshiba has begun volume shipments of solid-state drives ranging up to 512GB in size, as these hyper-fast storage options bulk up on capacity.
Drives are also offered in 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB capacities and are built on a 43-nanometer manufacturing process using multi-level cell (MLC) technology. MLC technology allows drive makers to increase capacity while keeping production costs under control.
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Drives are also offered in 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB capacities and are built on a 43-nanometer manufacturing process using multi-level cell (MLC) technology. MLC technology allows drive makers to increase capacity while keeping production costs under control.
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An Iron Key to High-Temperature Superconductivity?
The new iron compounds knocked the cuprates off their pedestal as a seemingly unique class of high-temperature superconductors. For more than 20 years the cuprates had resisted all attempts by researchers to formulate a theory explaining all of their properties, most particularly their high transition temperatures. Now with two species to compare and contrast, experimenters might finally uncover the vital clues that theorists could use to solve the mystery of high-temperature superconductivity.
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Century-Old Physics Law Violated
In 1900 legendary physicist Max Planck described the way energy gets dissipated from any nonreflective object, called a blackbody. But even Max said if something else is really, really close to the object, his law might not hold.
Now physicists from M.I.T. have finally shown that if you can get another object near enough to the blackbody, but still not touching it, Planck’s blackbody radiation law really does break down.
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Now physicists from M.I.T. have finally shown that if you can get another object near enough to the blackbody, but still not touching it, Planck’s blackbody radiation law really does break down.
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New Technology Could Drill Deeper Into the Earth Than Ever Before
An adaptation of oil drills for deep water could bring scientists closer to the goal of drilling all the way through the earth's crust to the wonders beneath
The International Ocean Drilling Project announced today that, with the help of a company called AGR Drilling Services, they have engineered a type of technology called Riserless Mud Recovery (RMR) for extremely deep drilling. RMR allows for a closed drilling system -- where the mud and drilling fluid are kept separate from surrounding seawater -- without the need for risers surrounding the drill to draw mud up to the surface.
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The International Ocean Drilling Project announced today that, with the help of a company called AGR Drilling Services, they have engineered a type of technology called Riserless Mud Recovery (RMR) for extremely deep drilling. RMR allows for a closed drilling system -- where the mud and drilling fluid are kept separate from surrounding seawater -- without the need for risers surrounding the drill to draw mud up to the surface.
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New System To Allow For Automated Predator Drone Landings
While the UAVs can follow a pre-programmed flight path, they still need a human to bring them safely down to the tarmac. And that means a lot of UAVs crashing due to human error.
Image analysis company 2d3 is developing new software that will finally allow the UAVs to land themselves.
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Image analysis company 2d3 is developing new software that will finally allow the UAVs to land themselves.
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Nikon Unveils Pocket Camera with Onboard Projector
Nikon’s new Coolpix S1000pj camera is a theater in your pocket. In playback mode, you can open a second lens on the front of the camera that casts images and movie clips as large as 40 inches onto any surface up to 6.5 feet away.
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New super lattice structure offers effective means for developing quantum functional devices
Shinichi Shikata (Deputy Director of Diamond Research Center and concurrently Leader), Hideyuki Watanabe (Research Scientist) and others of the Device R&D Team, the Diamond Research Center of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) have succeeded in the vapor-phase synthesis of a stack of nanometer-scale thin films of diamond using carbon isotopes 12C and 13C, which differ in mass. Electrons and holes were confined to a single material for the first time using the diamond stack.
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Hypersonic Test Flight Targeted For December
First flight of the X-51A scramjet demonstrator is now on track for early December while captive carriage tests on the NASA-operated B-52H mothership at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., are set to begin in October.
A joint effort by the U.S. Air Force, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, and Boeing, the hypersonic vehicle is designed to be the first air-breathing craft to demonstrate sustained speeds in excess of Mach 4 using a “logistically friendly” hydrocarbon fuel.
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A joint effort by the U.S. Air Force, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, and Boeing, the hypersonic vehicle is designed to be the first air-breathing craft to demonstrate sustained speeds in excess of Mach 4 using a “logistically friendly” hydrocarbon fuel.
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USAF Could Deploy Massive Ordnance Bomb from 2010
According to information presented on August 2nd, the Pentagon is looking to accelerate the introduction of an immense new weapon into the Unites States Air Force's inventory. A so-called "bunker buster" bomb may become a standard fit on USAF B-2 Spirit strategic bombers from July 2010 onwards - two years earlier than previously thought.
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Russian missile chief fired amid speculation
Col. Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov, commander of the Strategic Missile Forces, has been replaced by his deputy, Lt. Gen. Andrei Shvaichenko, amid media speculation over failed missile launches.
Solovtsov is reported to have been discharged from military service on reaching the mandatory retirement age of 60. His replacement Shvaichenko, 56, was first appointed deputy SMF commander and SMF chief of staff in 2001.
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Solovtsov is reported to have been discharged from military service on reaching the mandatory retirement age of 60. His replacement Shvaichenko, 56, was first appointed deputy SMF commander and SMF chief of staff in 2001.
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WaveRider test vehicle meets B-52
Airmen successfully mated the X-51A WaveRider flight test vehicle to a B-52 Stratofortress July 17 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The fit check followed integration earlier in the month of the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne scramjet propulsion system into the X-51 at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, Calif.
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Missile Defense Goes to Sea
Another missile development for the Navy is the sea-based terminal capability, aimed to a great extent at the threat of antiship ballistic missiles under development by China. The first phase in the program was deployment of new software and SM-2 Block IV missiles on board Aegis ships. The third and latest test of the Block IV took place in March off Point Mugu, Calif. The next phase is the integration of a new interceptor missile.
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