Chemistry: Thermodynamics Energy: Technology Environmental: General Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Revolutionary loop heat pipe transports 10 kW of waste heat -- No electricity required      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have unveiled a new loop heat pipe capable of transporting up to 10 kW of heat without using electric power. The loop heat pipe's design aims to contribute to energy savings and carbon neutrality in various fields, including waste heat recovery, solar heat utilization, electric vehicle thermal management, and data center cooling.

Engineering: Robotics Research Environmental: General Geoscience: Earthquakes Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geography
Published

Towards smart cities: Predicting soil liquefaction risk using artificial intelligence      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Soil liquefaction that results in infrastructure damage has long been a point of contention for urban planners and engineers. Accurately predicting the soil liquefaction risk of a region could help overcome this challenge. Accordingly, researchers applied artificial intelligence to generate soil liquefaction risk maps, superseding already published risk maps.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineering: Robotics Research Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General
Published

Shape-shifting 'transformer bots' inspired by origami      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Inspired by the paper-folding art of origami, engineers have discovered a way to make a single plastic cubed structure transform into more than 1,000 configurations using only three active motors.

Chemistry: Thermodynamics Computer Science: General Computer Science: Virtual Reality (VR) Energy: Technology Physics: General
Published

AI method radically speeds predictions of materials' thermal properties      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers developed a machine-learning framework that can predict a key property of heat dispersion in materials that is up to 1,000 times faster than other AI methods, and could enable scientists to improve the efficiency of power generation systems and microelectronics.

Biology: Biochemistry Chemistry: Biochemistry Chemistry: General Energy: Alternative Fuels Engineering: Robotics Research
Published

New understanding of fly behavior has potential application in robotics, public safety      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists have identified an automatic behavior in flies that helps them assess wind conditions -- its presence and direction -- before deploying a strategy to follow a scent to its source. The fact that they can do this is surprising -- can you tell if there's a gentle breeze if you stick your head out of a moving car? Flies aren't just reacting to an odor with a preprogrammed response: they are responding in context-appropriate manner. This knowledge potentially could be applied to train more sophisticated algorithms for scent-detecting drones to find the source of chemical leaks.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Chemistry: General Chemistry: Thermodynamics Energy: Alternative Fuels Energy: Nuclear Energy: Technology Physics: General Physics: Optics
Published

Fresh light on the path to net zero      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have used magnetic fields to reveal the mystery of how light particles split. Scientists are closer to giving the next generation of solar cells a powerful boost by integrating a process that could make the technology more efficient by breaking particles of light photons into small chunks.

Chemistry: Thermodynamics Physics: Optics
Published

Engineer develops technique that enhances thermal imaging and infrared thermography for police, medical, military use      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new method to measure the continuous spectrum of light is set to improve thermal imaging and infrared thermography.

Chemistry: Thermodynamics Computer Science: General Energy: Technology Engineering: Robotics Research
Published

Next-gen cooling system to help data centers become more energy efficient      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is hot right now. Also hot: the data centers that power the technology. And keeping those centers cool requires a tremendous amount of energy. The problem is only going to grow as high-powered AI-based computers and devices become commonplace. That's why researchers are devising a new type of cooling system that promises to dramatically reduce energy demands.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: General Chemistry: Biochemistry Engineering: Robotics Research Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

It's got praying mantis eyes      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The praying mantis is one of the few insects with compound eyes and the ability to perceive 3D space. Engineers are replicating their visual systems to make machines see better.

Engineering: Robotics Research Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General
Published

Foam fluidics showcase lab's creative approach to circuit design      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Engineers have shown that something as simple as the flow of air through open-cell foam can be used to perform digital computation, analog sensing and combined digital-analog control in soft textile-based wearable systems.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Chemistry: General Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry Chemistry: Thermodynamics Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry
Published

Researchers develop more environmentally friendly and cost-effective method for soil remediation      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Chemists have developed a rapid electrothermal mineralization (REM) process, which in seconds can remediate the accumulation of synthetic chemicals that can contaminate soil and the environment.

Chemistry: General Chemistry: Thermodynamics Energy: Alternative Fuels Physics: General
Published

3D-printed microstructure forest facilitates solar steam generator desalination      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Faced with the world's impending freshwater scarcity, researchers turned to solar steam generators, which are emerging as a promising device for seawater desalination. The team sought design inspiration from trees and harnessed the potential of 3D printing. They present technology for producing efficient SSGs for desalination and introduces a novel method for printing functional nanocomposites for multi-jet fusion. Their SSGs were inspired by plant transpiration and are composed of miniature tree-shaped microstructures, forming an efficient, heat-distributing forest.

Chemistry: Thermodynamics
Published

Aluminum scandium nitride films: Enabling next-gen ferroelectric memory devices      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Aluminum scandium nitride thin films could pave the way for the next generation of ferroelectric memory devices, according to a new study. Compared to existing ferroelectric materials, these films maintain their ferroelectric properties and crystal structure even after heat treatment at temperatures up to 600 C in both hydrogen and argon atmospheres. This high stability makes them ideal for high-temperature manufacturing processes under the H2-included atmosphere used in fabricating advanced memory devices.

Chemistry: General Chemistry: Thermodynamics Physics: Optics
Published

3D printing of light-activated hydrogel actuators      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

An international team of researchers has embedded gold nanorods in hydrogels that can be processed through 3D printing to create structures that contract when exposed to light -- and expand again when the light is removed. Because this expansion and contraction can be performed repeatedly, the 3D-printed structures can serve as remotely controlled actuators.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Computer Science: General Engineering: Robotics Research Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General
Published

Ant insights lead to robot navigation breakthrough      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Have you ever wondered how insects are able to go so far beyond their home and still find their way? The answer to this question is not only relevant to biology but also to making the AI for tiny, autonomous robots. Drone-researchers felt inspired by biological findings on how ants visually recognize their environment and combine it with counting their steps in order to get safely back home. They have used these insights to create an insect-inspired autonomous navigation strategy for tiny, lightweight robots. It allows such robots to come back home after long trajectories, while requiring extremely little computation and memory (0.65 kiloByte per 100 m). In the future, tiny autonomous robots could find a wide range of uses, from monitoring stock in warehouses to finding gas leaks in industrial sites.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Chemistry: General Chemistry: Thermodynamics Engineering: Nanotechnology Physics: Optics
Published

New technique pinpoints nanoscale 'hot spots' in electronics to improve their longevity      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers engineered a new technique to identify at the nanoscale level what components are overheating in electronics and causing their performance to fail.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Chemistry: General Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry Chemistry: Thermodynamics Environmental: General Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry
Published

Capturing carbon with energy-efficient sodium carbonate-nanocarbon hybrid material      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Carbon capture is a promising approach for mitigating carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Different materials have been used to capture CO2 from industrial exhaust gases. Scientists developed hybrid CO2 capture materials containing sodium carbonate and nanocarbon prepared at different temperatures, tested their performance, and identified the optimal calcination temperature condition. They found that the hybrid material exhibits and maintains high CO2 capture capacity for multiple regeneration cycles at a lower temperature, making it cost- and energy-effective.