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News: Green Design & Manufacturing

In order to lower energy costs, more and more homeowners are investing in insulation facades. But the typical insulation layers on the market have one drawback: they add bulk. The thick...

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Computer Modeling Improves Coast Guard Search-And-Rescue Plan

Purdue University has developed a system to analyze the historic response of U.S. Coast Guard search-and-rescue operations in the Great Lakes and assess the potential risks associated with hypothetical changes in the allocation of resources in the region.

The agency is required to...

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Unmanned Aircraft System Offers Real-Time Emergency Data

A project known as SIERRA (Surveillance for Intelligent Emergency Response Robotic Aircraft) integrates small, unmanned aircraft with global positioning systems, environmental data, video and fire-prediction software to give real-time information about where a fire is burning, and where...

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Algorithm Predicts Likely Car Behavior

Researchers at MIT have devised an algorithm that predicts when an oncoming car is likely to run a red light. Based on parameters such as the vehicle’s deceleration and its distance from a light, the group was able to determine which cars were potential “violators” — those likely to cross into an...

News: Green Design & Manufacturing

Researchers with DOE’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have engineered the first strains of Escherichia coli bacteria that can digest switchgrass biomass and...

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Question of the Week: Unmanned Systems
Will the rover reveal that Mars might once have been hospitable for microbial life — or might even still be conducive to life?

This week's Question: The Curiosity rover, NASA's biggest extraterrestrial explorer, was launched toward Mars last week. The mobile laboratory, 10 feet long by 9 feet wide, will search for evidence that the planet was...

INSIDER: Electronics & Computers

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

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INSIDER: Electronics & Computers

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...

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News: Energy

Pyrite - or “fool’s gold” - has recently helped researchers at Oregon State University discover related compounds that offer new, cheap, and promising options for solar energy. These new...

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Army Tests New Water and Fuel Bladders for Airdrop

Army paratroopers completed two of three test drops to certify a new water and fuel container system for airdrops in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Each drop of two Lifeliner container-unitized bulk equipment, or CUBEs, delivered hundreds of gallons of water safely to the ground under dual,...

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Air Force Develops “Snubber” to Prevent Engine Damage

A $35 "snubber" developed by the Air Force Research Lab’s Propulsion Directorate, is a vibration damper that will prevent cracks in the J-seal on the F-119's engine inlet case, a spoked, ring-like device that helps control the air going into the engine.

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Flight Control Software Helps Pilots Stick Landings on Carrier Decks

Select pilots early next year will begin testing new flight control software, funded in part by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), intended to facilitate aircraft landings on Navy carrier decks with unprecedented accuracy.

Pilots performing carrier landings today line...

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Hypothesis Challenges Conductivity at the Interface of Complex Oxides

To improve electronic devices, scientists are on the hunt for new semiconductor materials, which control the flow of electricity. A group of scientists were recently surprised to find the interface of two particular complex oxides — the polar lanthanum chromium oxide,...

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Integrated Semiconductor Nanowires Improve Solar Cell Production

Tiny wires could help engineers realize high-performance solar cells and other electronics, according to University of Illinois researchers. The research group, led by electrical and computer engineering professor Xiuling Li, developed a technique to integrate compound...

News: Government

Creating a scientific field just out of societal and policy need is a bold concept. But Los Alamos National Laboratory and Indiana University researchers say that for the emerging field of...

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Single-Mode LED Offers Energy-Efficient Nanoscale Data Transmission

A team at Stanford’s School of Engineering has demonstrated an ultrafast nanoscale light-emitting diode (LED) that is orders of magnitude lower in power consumption than today’s laser-based systems and is able to transmit data at the rapid rate of 10 billion bits per second....

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New Material Enhances Solar, Computers, Lighting Applications

Arizona State University researchers have created a new compound crystal material, called erbium chloride silicate, that can be used to develop the next generation of computers, improve the capabilities of the Internet, increase the efficiency of silicon-based photovoltaic cells to...

News: Energy

As the market for liquid crystal displays and other electronics continues to drive up the price of indium — the material used to make the indium tin oxide (ITO) transparent...

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Question of the Week: Physical Sciences
Will we be able to design an "operating system" for a living biological cell?
This week's Question: As part of a five-year, $1.58 million research project named AudACiOus, a group of University of Nottingham scientists will attempt to program the genetic components of a cell to perform any desired function, without requiring extensive modification...
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Terahertz Pulse Generation Offers New Sensing, Imaging Capabilities

Using leftover high-speed electrons from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory’s Linac Coherent Light Source, researchers have successfully generated intense pulses of light in a largely untapped part of the electromagnetic spectrum: the so-called terahertz gap.

Falling...

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Mobile Robot with Onboard Camera Provides Emergency Response

A mobile robot, designed with spider-like legs, can explore terrain that is beyond human reach. With a camera and measurement equipment on board, the robot will provide emergency responders with an image of the situation on the ground, along with any data about poisonous substances....

News: Energy

A research team from the University of Georgia has developed a "super strain" of yeast that can efficiently ferment ethanol from pretreated pine - one of the most common species of trees in the U.S. Their...

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Force of Light Controls Mechanical Devices

New research by engineers at the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science demonstrates that nanomechanical resonators can operate at much higher amplitudes than previously thought. The results represent an advance in optomechanics, in which the force of light is used to control mechanical devices....

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Biomimetic Pressure Sensors Guide Underwater Vehicles

'Lateral lines' in fish contain hundreds of tiny pressure and velocity sensors that enable them to navigate through currents and eddies as efficiently as possible. To mimic that ability, MIT researchers have developed sensitive, MEMS-based pressure sensors and mounted them on a small...

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Stay Tuned: Antennas May Increase Solar Panel Efficiency

Solar-powered energy collected by panels made of silicone is limited — contemporary panel technology can only convert approximately seven percent of optical solar waves into electric current. Researchers at Tel Aviv University are now working to develop a more efficient solar panel...

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Helping Underwater Robots Gain a Better Grip

Underwater vehicles have become good at using propellers and thrusters to stay in one place, even in strong currents. But holding on to a surface while exerting force to do a job has been a challenge. Now, MIT researchers are tackling this issue by designing a “controllable adhesion system” that...

News: Materials
Read November's Lighting Technology

The new issue of Lighting Technology is here! Check out more new feature articles, application stories, tech briefs, products, videos, and research news - all on the latest advances in LEDs and solid-state lighting.

News: Transportation

With the DOE, Virent, Inc., and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) working together, planes may soon take to the skies using less petroleum. In June, DOE announced an award of up to $13.4 million dollars...

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Question of the Week
Are you concerned that children are spending more time than ever in front of screens?
This week's Question: A new study from Common Sense Media shows that infants and toddlers spend twice as much time with screen media as they do with books. While television is still the dominant media device in most young children's lives, the study, based on...

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