Blog

My Opinion: Energy Storage, Part 2

My opinion: I take a look at some cases where it makes sense to use non-battery methods to store energy.

Creating Synthetic Cell Images for Enhanced Microscopy Analysis

The images that come out of this model are ready to be used to train segmentation models. In a sense, it’s doing microscopy without a microscope.

Developing Next-Gen Solar Cells

Meet perovskite. The synthetic semiconducting material has the potential to convert substantially more solar power than silicon at a lower production cost.

Recreating ‘Star Trek’ Virtual Environments

A system for generating interactive 3D environments, Holodeck generates a virtually limitless range of indoor environments, using AI to interpret users’ requests.

A Soft Robot that Crawls like a Caterpillar

Researchers merged origami and modern materials science to create a soft robot that bends and twists through mazes with ease.

Adding Abundant Elements to Improve Li-ion Battery Cathodes

Researchers used X-ray absorption analysis and theoretical calculations to explore the fine details of changes in the structure of the cathode material caused by introducing different dopant elements.

Snail-Inspired Soft-Suction Climbing Robots

The team demonstrated that the sliding suction is a low-cost, energy-efficient, high-payload, and clean adhesive locomotion strategy, which has high potential for use in climbing robots, outdoor inspection robots, and robotic transportation.

My Opinion: We Should Take a Broad View of Energy Storage

My opinion: We need a holistic approach to energy storage — we should start with the general category and then analyze the pros and cons of different technologies to solve different problems.

Personalized Pills That Can Deliver Timed Doses

Researchers from the University of Nottingham have led work that has fabricated personalized medicine using Multi-Material InkJet 3D Printing (MM-IJ3DP).

Giving Household Robots Common Sense

Whereas prior works have focused on leveraging LLMs directly for planning in symbolic spaces, this work uses LLMs to guide the search of task structures and constraints implicit in multi-step physical demonstrations.

Universal Automated Dosing Systems Could Become Reality

Researchers have created and demonstrated a method of universalizing blood-glucose detection technology as a way of rapidly and inexpensively creating sensors that can monitor the dosing of chemotherapies and other drugs in real time.

Advanced Binders for Advancing Li-ion Batteries

The work involved fabricating electrodes containing PVPA, PAA, and PVDF as binders, and their performance was assessed through electrochemical experiments and density functional theory.

3D Printing Flexible Devices Sans Mechanical Joints

Manufacturing elastomers that can be shaped into complex 3D structures that go from rigid to rubbery has been unfeasible until now.

Biden-Harris Administration Invests $54 Million to Expand Clean Transportation Across American Communities

The Communities Taking Charge funding opportunity extends access to electrification opportunities beyond existing Joint Office–supported programs to more communities across America. Funding is available to academic, non-profit, for-profit, and government entities for planning, demonstration, and/or deployment projects that drive innovation in equitable clean transportation.

New Octopus-Inspired Gripper Enables Versatile Soft Adhesion

A new robotic suction cup which can grasp rough, curved, and heavy stone, has been developed by scientists at the University of Bristol. The team studied the structures of octopus biological suckers, which have superb adaptive suction abilities enabling them to anchor to rock.

A Breakthrough in Fast-Charging Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Research shows that the next generation of lithium-sulfur batteries may be capable of being charged in less than five minutes, instead of the current several hours it takes.

The First High-Resolution, 3D-Printed Brain

An international team has developed a "brain phantom," which was produced using a high-resolution 3D printing process.

A New Process for Turning CO2 into Sustainable Fuel

A process of heating carbon nitride to the required degree of crystallinity, maximizing the functional properties of this material for photocatalysis.

My Opinion: The IIoT Gave Birth to the IoT

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) gave birth to the Internet of Things (IoT), but applications of the IoT are growing at an uneven pace due to real-world constraints beyond the capabilities of the technology.

New AI Tool Can Predict People’s Vaccine Attitudes

The predictive system uses a small set of data from demographics and personal judgments such as aversion to risk or loss.

All-Liquid Iron Flow Battery Is Safe, Economical

A commonplace chemical used in water treatment facilities has been repurposed for large-scale energy storage in a new battery design by researchers at the DoE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Universal Controller May Lead to Breakthroughs in Robotic Prostheses, Exoskeletons

A team of Georgia Tech researchers in Aaron Young’s lab has developed a universal approach to controlling robotic exoskeletons that requires no training, no calibration, and no adjustments to complicated algorithms. Instead, users can don the “exo” and go.

Structurally Healable, Highly Conductive New Cathode for Solid-State Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a new cathode material for solid-state lithium-sulfur batteries that is electrically conductive and structurally healable — features that overcome the limitations of these batteries’ current cathodes.

Using AI to Track Professional Hockey Players

Researchers from the University of Waterloo used artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help capture and analyze data from NHL games faster and more accurately than ever before; the work has big implications for the business of sports.

My Opinion: Renewables' Weak Link — Transmission Lines

The electrification of practically everything these days calls for much more attention to be paid to the transmission system — the electric power grid.

Tesla Valve-Inspired Design Could Improve the Performance of Rotating Detonation Engines

Purdue University researchers are testing a patented Tesla valve-inspired injection manifold design that could improve the performance of rotating detonation engines (RDEs).

3D Ice Printing Artificial Blood Vessels

New research shows the possibility of using 3D ice printing to help create structures that resemble blood vessels in the body. 3D ice printing generally involves adding a stream of water to a very cold surface.

Using AI to Identify Poison Ivy

To find poison ivy before it finds you, University of Florida scientists published a new study in which they use artificial intelligence (AI) to confirm that an app can identify poison ivy.

Fast-Charging Li Battery Could Make ‘Range Anxiety’ a Thing of the Past

A team at Cornell University created a new lithium battery that can charge in under five minutes — faster than any such battery on the market — while maintaining stable performance over extended cycles of charging and discharging.