INSIDER

“Tuning” Graphene Drums Might Turn Conductors Into Semiconductors

Tightening or relaxing the tension on a drumhead will change the way the drum sounds. The same goes for drumheads made from graphene, only instead of changing the sound,...

Researchers Move Closer to Creating Thermoelectric "Heat Engine"

Researchers who are studying a new magnetic effect that converts heat to electricity have discovered how to amplify it a thousand times over, which is the first step toward making...

Researchers Propose Single Photon Optical Isolator

Transistors, resistors, capacitors, and diodes. All of these are examples of common electrical circuit elements that can be found on a computer motherboard, for instance. Billions of...

New Image Sensors Could Focus Photos After They're Taken

At the heart of digital photography is a chip called an image sensor that captures a map of the intensity of the light as it comes through the lens and converts it to an electronic...

Barrier to Faster Graphene Devices Identified and Suppressed

These days, graphene is the rock star of materials science, but it has an Achilles heel – it is exceptionally sensitive to its electrical environment.

Butterflies Could Help Create Bug-Size Flying Robots

To improve the next generation of insect-size flying machines, Johns Hopkins engineers have been aiming high-speed video cameras at butterflies in an attempt to figure out how they flutter...

Researchers Increase Solar Concentrator Efficiency

A team of researchers at the University of California, Merced, has redesigned luminescent solar concentrators to be more efficient at sending sunlight to solar cells. The advancement could be...

'Nanoantennas' Show Promise In Optical Innovations

Researchers have shown how arrays of tiny "plasmonic nanoantennas" are able to precisely manipulate light in new ways that could make possible a range of optical innovations such as more...

Quantum Tunneling Produces Record Transistor Performance

Controlling power consumption in mobile devices and large scale data centers is a pressing concern for the computer chip industry. Researchers from Penn State and epitaxial wafer maker...

New Thermal Conductivity Technique Could Cool Computer Chips

The surprising discovery of a new way to tune and enhance thermal conductivity – a basic property generally considered to be fixed for a given material – gives engineers a new...

Researchers Create Record-Breaking Solar Cell

The most efficient colloidal-quantum-dot solar cell ever created will be described in a scientific paper to be published in a print edition of the journal Nature Materials by a team of scientists...

Scientists Use Transition Edge Sensor To Count Photons

Scientists have demonstrated that a superconducting detector called a transition edge sensor (TES) is capable of counting the number of as many as 1,000 photons in a single pulse of light...

New Battery Design Features Carbon Foam Cathode

A lighter, greener, cheaper, longer-lasting battery. Who wouldn’t want that?

Graphene Could Replace Copper in IC Interconnects

As new generations of computer chips continue to shrink in size, so do the copper pathways that transport electricity and information around the labyrinth of transistors and components. When...

Robotic Polisher Creates Large Free-Form Optical Surfaces

Deep in the bowels of the Optics Building on the campus of The University of Alabama in Huntsville, there exists a large Plexiglass enclosure, a whirling polishing head swirls over a...

'Low-Tech' Lighting Tool Could Lead to Biohybrid Solar Cells

Researchers at the Bio-SANS instrument at the High Flux Isotope Reactor are getting a leg up in their research from an ingenious "low tech" lighting tool that can be fixed to their...

Graphite Foam Technology Cools LED Light Fixtures and Extends Lifespan

Graphite foam technology developed by James Klett of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Materials Science and Technology Division extends the life of light-emitting diode...

Magnetic Energy Recovery Switch Controls Electrical Flow for Lighting

The Office of Naval Research Global (ONR Global) continues to pursue aggressive energy goals established by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, with the design of a system...

Organic LED Light Source for Home Electronics, Medicine, and Clean Energy

Electronic products pollute the environment with a number of heavy metals before, during, and after they're used. In the U.S. alone, an estimated 70% of heavy metals in...

Home's Electrical Wiring Acts as Antenna to Receive Low-Power Sensor Data

Sensors developed by researchers at the University of Washington and the Georgia Institute of Technology use residential wiring to transmit information to and from...

Microscopy Technique Reveals Lithium-Ion Battery Functionality

As industries and consumers seek improved battery power sources, a new microscopy technique developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) researchers is providing a novel...

Desalinating Water Using Solar Pond and Membrane Distillation System

Ecosystems of terminus lakes around the world could benefit from a system being developed at the University of Nevada, Reno that desalinates water using a specialized...

Enhanced Lithium Ion Battery Abuse Testing Laboratory

Sandia National Laboratories will use $4.2 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to modify and enhance its existing Battery Abuse Testing Laboratory (BATLab), with the...

Oil Refineries Could Improve Energy Efficiency With New Method

Chemical plants spend from 50 to 70 percent of their energy in "separations," which are usually distillation steps required to separate a raw material into various products. An...

Getting Real-Time Performance From A Full-Featured OS

Spend a few minutes at your local electronics store and it's obvious — the mobile phone is a device that far surpasses its original intent. With respect to functionality, today's mobile...

Taking PC/104 CPU Boards to the Next Performance Level

Since their introduction in 1991, PC/104 standard based systems have been widely adopted in various applications. Unmanned aircraft control, onboard vehicle control and navigation systems,...

Using Ethernet for Process Automation

The use of Ethernet communications in industrial applications is growing because it enables the real-time exchange of information between processing equipment and companies' Ethernet-based management...

How PCI Express Is Changing Machine Vision

PCI Express is the peripheral bus now being adopted by next-generation PCs, servers, and industrial computers. It provides a scaleable, high-bandwidth, point-to-point pathway between peripheral cards...

Cyber-Training Today’s Fighting Forces

Dramatic changes are taking place in the way U.S. service men and women prepare for their assignments. Since 9/11, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is moving from a training cycle in which...