Strawscraper concept calls for a wind energy-harvesting toupee

STRAWSCRAPER is an extension of Söder Torn on Södermalm in Stockholm with a new energy producing shell covered in straws that can recover wind energy. What was supposed to become a building of 40 flights became 26. Söder Torn on Södermalm in central Stockholm was finalized 1997, but the architect Henning Larsen had already left the contract after having lost influence over the... More »

Opening Doors to Foldable Electronics with Inkjet-Printed Graphene

Imagine a bendable tablet computer or an electronic newspaper that could fold to fit in a pocket. The technology for these devices may not be so far off. Northwestern University researchers have recently developed a graphene-based ink that is highly conductive and tolerant to bending, and they have used it to inkjet-print graphene patterns that could be used for extremely detailed, conductive... More »

Drawing closer to Alzheimer’s magic bullet?

Imagine a pharmaceutical prevention, treatment or even cure for Alzheimer’s disease. It is almost impossible to overstate how monumental a development that would be and how it would answer the prayers of millions. Though science isn’t there yet, a new study published in The Journal of Neuroscience spearheaded by USC Davis School of Gerontology researchers offers a tantalizing glimpse... More »

Solar-powered ship beats its own trans-Atlantic speed record

With its previous circumnavigation of the planet, it had already set the record for longest distance traveled by a purely solar-powered boat. Now, the Tûranor PlanetSolar (which is also the world’s largest solar-powered watercraft), has broken its own 2010 record for fastest Atlantic crossing by a solar-powered boat. As part of a scientific expedition that began last month, the... More »

Solar Kettle boils water using the Sun's rays

The solar kettle gives you hot/boiling water on tap wherever there is sunshine. Whether camping in a tent, motor-home, caravanning or on manoeuvres with the army; the solar kettle means no more reliance on gas stoves just to make a cuppa. You have an unlimited source of free energy! The Solar Kettle is an ideal companion for bird watchers, fishing enthusiasts and anyone else who enjoys... More »

Acrobatic XRL robot takes cliffs and valleys in its stride

XRL is a lighter version of X-RHex, designed to be more agile while maintaining the same leg spacing as RHex, and features the same modular payload architecture to support a variety of research needs. X-RHex Lite (XRL) is a design study in methods of utilizing the same laboratory on legs components as X-RHex, in a slightly different configuration to simplify fabrication, while minimizing... More »

Advance in Nanotech Gene Sequencing Technique

The allure of personalized medicine has made new, more efficient ways of sequencing genes a top research priority. One promising technique involves reading DNA bases using changes in electrical current as they are threaded through a nanoscopic hole

Now, a team led by University of Pennsylvania physicists has used solid-state nanopores to differentiate single-stranded DNA molecules containing sequences of a single repeating base. The study was led by Marija Drndić, an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the School of Arts and Sciences, along with graduate students Kimberly Venta and Matthew Puster and... More »

New World Record in Wireless Data Transmission

Capacity of Fiber Optics Reached - Radio Links May Close Gaps in Future Broad-band Internet Supply

Researchers of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics and the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology have achieved the wireless transmission of 40 Gbit/s at 240 GHz over a distance of one kilometer. Their most recent demonstration sets a new world record and ties in seamlessly with the capacity of optical fiber transmission. In the future, such radio links will be able to close gaps... More »

Asteroid 1998 QE2 to Sail Past Earth Nine Times Larger Than Cruise Ship

On May 31, 2013, asteroid 1998 QE2 will sail serenely past Earth, getting no closer than about 3.6 million miles (5.8 million kilometers), or about 15 times the distance between Earth and the moon. And while QE2 is not of much interest to those astronomers and scientists on the lookout for hazardous asteroids, it is of interest to those who dabble in radar astronomy and have a 230-foot (70-meter)... More »

Skills learning program in middle schools dramatically reduces fighting

A social-emotional skills learning program for sixth-graders decreased physical fighting by 42 percent, suggests a study led by educational psychologist Dorothy Espelage in the College of Education.

Middle school children who completed a social-emotional skills learning program at school were 42 percent less likely to engage in physical fighting a year later, according to a new study in the Journal of Adolescent Health. The study, which is ongoing, involves more than 3,600 children at 36 middle schools across Illinois and Kansas, the largest sample to date used to investigate the impact of a... More »

This Crawling Inchworm Robot Can Be Printed Out and Folds Itself

Building robots is difficult, expensive work. Wouldn’t it be great if robots could just somehow build themselves? We’ve seen robots that can be printed and robots that can be folded, but this little guy manages to do both of those things all by himself.

Self-folding happens thanks to shape memory polymers that contract when heated. By printing these polymers on one side of a hinged substrate and then heating them, the hinge can be made to bend. The amount of bend is controlled by etching flexible connectors that connect both sides of the hinge, and with enough hinges heated in the right order, it’s possible to create fairly complex folded... More »

Fat-fuelled power station to run UK’s biggest sewage works

Fat and oil from restaurants and build-ups in drains will soon be powering Britain’s biggest sewage works, it was announced today

According to plans, the grease will be fed into what will be the world's largest fat-fuelled power station at Beckton in East London. The plant, developed and run by 2OC and financed by a consortium led by iCON Infrastructure, is set to produce 130 Gigawatt hours (GWh) a year of renewable electricity - enough to run 39,000 average-sized homes. Thames Water has agreed to buy 75 GWh of this... More »

Reversing Paralysis with a Restorative Gel

Some parts of the body, like the liver, can regenerate themselves after damage. But others, such as our nervous system, are considered either irreparable or slow to recover, leaving thousands with a lifetime of pain, limited mobility, or even paralysis. Now a team of Tel Aviv University researchers, including Dr. Shimon Rochkind of TAU's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Tel Aviv Sourasky... More »

Photonic quantum computers: a brighter future than ever

Harnessing the unique features of the quantum world promises a dramatic speed-up in information processing as compared to the fastest classical machines. Scientists from the Group of Philip Walther from the Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna succeeded in prototyping a new and highly resource efficient model of a quantum computer – the boson sampling computer. The results will be... More »

Data storage: Synchronized at the write time

Numerical simulations show how to avoid imperfections in the next generation of high-density data storage

The rise of the internet and the move from paper to digital information has driven a need for large-volume electronic data storage. Maria Yu Lin and her co‐workers at the A*STAR Data Storage Institute, Singapore, have now established some important design principles to consider when developing bit patterned media recording (BPMR)1,2 — a potential high-density magnetic recording system of the... More »