A new type of fiber-reinforced bendable concrete will be used for the first time in Michigan this summer-and University of Michigan scientists hope that their new material will find widespread use across the country.
Technology news // 30 April, 2005 06:05:32
Attempts to create controlled nuclear fusion - the process that powers stars - have been a source of continuing controversy. Scientists have struggled for decades to effectively harness nuclear fusion in hot plasma for energy generation - potentially a cleaner alternative to the current nuclear-fission reactors - but have so far been unsuccessful at turning this into an economically viable process.
Technology news // 28 April, 2005 04:04:19
European project started for the development of a new platform for walking in virtual worlds
Technology news // 24 April, 2005 08:04:12
Using a new electrically-assisted microbial fuel cell (MFC) that does not require oxygen, Penn State environmental engineers and a scientist at Ion Power Inc. have developed the first process that enables bacteria to coax four times as much hydrogen directly out of biomass than can be generated typically by fermentation alone.
Technology news // 21 April, 2005 05:04:39
Chip-scale refrigerators capable of reaching temperatures as low as 100 milliKelvin have been used to cool bulk objects for the first time, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) report. The solid-state refrigerators have applications such as cooling cryogenic sensors in highly sensitive instruments for semiconductor defect analysis and astronomical research.
Technology news // 21 April, 2005 08:04:16
A group of scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, is giving new relevance to the term "sharper image" by creating a superlens that can overcome a limitation in physics that has historically constrained the resolution of optical images.
Technology news // 19 April, 2005 05:04:52
Zhiyu Hu believes it is possible to match nature's highly efficient method to convert chemicals into thermal energy at room temperature, and he has data and a published paper to support his theory.
Technology news // 19 April, 2005 05:04:46
Nanocomposite materials seem to flout conventions of physics. In the latest example of surprising behavior, reported by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Brookhaven National Laboratory, a class of nanostructured materials that are key components of computer memories and other important technologies undergo a previously unrecognized shift in the rate at which magnetization changes at low temperatures.
Technology news // 13 April, 2005 03:04:52
Picture a flower that opens when facing the sunlight. In work that mimics that sensitivity to light, an MIT engineer and his German colleagues have created the first plastics that can be deformed and temporarily fixed into shape by light.
Technology news // 12 April, 2005 08:04:16
Scientists at Harvard University have shown how ultra-cold atoms can be used to freeze and control light to form the "core" – or central processing unit – of an optical computer. Optical computers would transport information ten times faster than traditional electronic devices, smashing the intrinsic speed limit of silicon technology.
