Research helps bacteria-powered microrobots plot a course
The problem with having a microscopic robot propelled by a horde of tail-flailing bacteria is you never know where it's going to end up. The tiny, bio-robots, which amount to a chip coated with a...
View ArticleMicroagents with revolutionary potential
Micro and nanorobots that attack tumors with maximum precision using drugs: this is what the fight against cancer may look like in the future. A group of ETH researchers led by Salvador Pané are...
View ArticleResearchers propose new way to improve beam quality in laser wakefield...
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which helped scientists discover the Higgs boson, is a huge instrument buried under the Swiss-French border. It needs 27 kilometers of track to accelerate particles...
View ArticleCooling chips with the flip of a switch
Turn on an electric field, and a standard electrocaloric material will eject heat to its surroundings as its internal dipoles reorder themselves. Do the same thing, and a negative electrocaloric...
View ArticleResearchers create super stretchy, self-healing material that could lead to...
If there's such a thing as an experiment that goes too well, a recent effort in the lab of Stanford chemical engineering Professor Zhenan Bao might fit the bill.
View ArticleSystem creates on-demand 'nanotube forests,' has potential industry applications
A system that uses a laser and electrical current to precisely position and align carbon nanotubes represents a potential new tool for creating electronic devices out of the tiny fibers.
View ArticlePersonal cooling units on the horizon
Firefighters entering burning buildings, athletes competing in the broiling sun and workers in foundries may eventually be able to carry their own, lightweight cooling units with them, thanks to a...
View ArticleDistance wireless charging enhanced by magnetic metamaterials
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona researchers have developed a system that efficiently transfers electrical energy between two separate circuits. The system, made with a shell of metamaterials that...
View ArticleEnhancing lab-on-a-chip peristalsis with electro-osmosis
If you've ever eaten food while upside down - and who hasn't indulged this chimpanzee daydream? - you can thank the successive wave-like motions of peristalsis for keeping the chewed bolus down and...
View ArticleChanges in strength of Earth's magnetic field mapped
With more than two years of measurements by ESA's Swarm satellite trio, changes in the strength of Earth's magnetic field are being mapped in detail.
View ArticleHow repeated spot microdischarges damage microdevices
In microelectronics, devices made up of two electrodes separated by an insulating barrier are subject to multiple of microdischarges - referred to as microfilaments - at the same spot. These stem from...
View ArticleTampering the current in a petri dish
Electricity plays a key role in cell studies, but practical issues linked with the shape of the laboratory cultureware have troubled this research. Laboratory cultureware are the plastic containers...
View ArticleModel that can give accurate descriptions of behavior in ferroelectric...
(Phys.org)—A team of researchers with the Carnegie Institution for Science and the University of Pennsylvania has developed a model that allows for accurately predicting how ferroelectric materials...
View Article'Electric wind' can strip Earth-like planets of oceans, atmospheres
Venus has an "electric wind" strong enough to remove the components of water from its upper atmosphere, which may have played a significant role in stripping Earth's twin planet of its oceans,...
View ArticleSweet! Electrical trick may lead to less fat in chocolate
Get a charge out of chocolate? New research suggests candy companies may be able to make lower fat versions of the tasty treat with a little electrical trick.
View ArticleStudying acoustic waves at microwave frequencies in diamonds brings...
A collaborative of Russian researchers has mathematically modelled diamond-based microstructures for producing compact, high-sensitivity sensors.
View ArticleResearchers devise new tool to measure polarization of light
Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new tool for detecting and measuring the polarization of light based on a single spatial sampling of the light, rather than the...
View ArticleChemists establish fundamentals of ferroelectric materials
Ferromagnetic materials, like compass needles, are useful because their magnetic polarization makes them rotate to align with magnetic fields. Ferroelectric materials behave in a similar way but with...
View ArticleNew microfluidic device offers means for studying electric field cancer therapy
Researchers at MIT's research center in Singapore have developed a new microfluidic device that tests the effects of electric fields on cancer cells. They observed that a range of low-intensity,...
View ArticleGerms add ripples to make 'groovy' graphene
Graphene, a two-dimensional wonder-material composed of a single layer of carbon atoms linked in a hexagonal chicken-wire pattern, has attracted intense interest for its phenomenal ability to conduct...
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