Topics

Physical Sciences

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INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Twisted nanoscale semiconductors manipulate light in a new way. This effect could be harnessed to accelerate the discovery and development of life-saving medicines as well as photonic...

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INSIDER: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

A pair of University of Houston engineers has discovered that they can create upward fountains in water by shining laser beams on the water’s surface. Jiming Bao, professor of...

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INSIDER: Energy

Using ultrabright X-rays from the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, a team of researchers led by Rice University has determined that sunlight itself can improve the efficiency of 2D...

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INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control

Carnegie Mellon University's Iris rover is bolted in and ready for its journey to the moon.

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INSIDER: Semiconductors & ICs

Stacking extremely thin films of material on top of each other can create new materials with exciting new properties. But the most successful processes for building those...

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INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Researchers have utilized two-dimensional hybrid metal halides in a device that allows directional control of terahertz radiation generated by a spintronic...

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INSIDER: Electronics & Computers

Atomically thin materials are a promising alternative to silicon-based transistors; now researchers can connect them more efficiently to other chip elements.

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INSIDER: Electronics & Computers

Physicists from the University of Sussex have developed an extremely thin, large-area semiconductor surface source of terahertz, composed of just a...

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INSIDER: Power

In collaboration with groups from China and the United States, a research team from TU Wien set out to find the optimal heat conductor. They finally found what they were...

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INSIDER: Physical Sciences

Scientists at University of California, Davis, have proposed a solution to dendrite growth in rechargeable lithium metal batteries using microfluidics. The group proved that flowing ions...

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INSIDER: Electronics & Computers

A hacker can reproduce a circuit on a chip by discovering what key transistors are doing in a circuit — but not if the transistor “type” is...

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INSIDER: Power

Electric vehicles (EVs) hold great promise for our energy-efficient, sustainable future but among their limitations is the lack of a long-lasting, high energy density battery...

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INSIDER: Electronics & Computers

A simpler and more efficient way to predict performance will lead to better batteries, according to Rice University engineers. That their method is 100,000 times faster than existing modeling...

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INSIDER: Design

A team of University of Arkansas physicists has successfully developed a circuit capable of capturing graphene’s thermal motion and converting it into an electrical current.

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INSIDER: Materials

Researchers at the University of Nottingham have cracked the conundrum of how to use inks to 3D-print novel electronic devices with useful properties, such as an...

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INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have invented a miniature superconducting thermometer with big potential applications, such as monitoring the...

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INSIDER: Physical Sciences

A team of Brown University physicists has developed a new type of compact, ultra-sensitive magnetometer, 20 times more sensitive than many traditional sensors. The...

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INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition

University of Wisconsin–Madison engineers have made it possible to remotely determine the temperature beneath the surface of certain materials using a new technique they call depth...

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INSIDER: Wearables

Wearable tech and electronic cloth may be the way of the future, but to get there the wiring needs to be strong, flexible, and efficient.

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INSIDER: Design

Improvements to a class of battery electrolyte first introduced in 2017 — liquefied gas electrolytes — could pave the way to a high-impact and long-sought advance for rechargeable...

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INSIDER: Semiconductors & ICs

Scientists have visualized the electronic structure in a microelectronic device for the first time, opening up opportunities for finely tuned,...

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Blog: Imaging

With another year of Tech Briefs almost in the books, it's time to look at our most-read news articles of 2017.

Top stories included a look back at the life of Robert Goddard, and a look forward to...

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Sound-Off: Automotive
Sound-Off: How Should Universities Prepare Tomorrow’s Vehicle Designers?
The skill set for tomorrow’s automotive designer? A combination of traditional engineering, physical sciences, mathematics, and, more than ever, ethics.
Q&A: Physical Sciences

Gravitational waves from colliding black holes were first observed by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO)...

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News: Imaging

In 2006, the International Astronomical Union demoted Pluto to "non-planet" status. Johns Hopkins University scientist Kirby Runyon led a group of six researchers to draft a new definition of...

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Question of the Week: Physical Sciences

This week’s Question: Last week at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Johns Hopkins University's Kirby Runyon reignited an often fierce debate within the scientific community:...

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Briefs: Physical Sciences

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center is developing a lightweight space-based solar power array with a high power-to-stowed-volume and weight ratio. The system provides power to small...

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Briefs: Physical Sciences
Solid-State Ultracapacitor

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center has developed a solid-state ultracapacitor utilizing a novel nanocomposite dielectric material. The material’s design is based on the internal barrier layer capacitance (IBLC) concept, and it uses novel dielectric and metallic conductive ink formulations.

Briefs: Physical Sciences

The Hall effect thruster (HET) was designed for long-duration operation with gaseous iodine as the propellant. Iodine is an alternative to the state-of-the-art propellant xenon. Compared to xenon,...

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