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20 hours ago
Scientists
at the Georgia Institute of Technology recently achieved a 17% increase
in boiling efficiency by using an acoustic field to enhance heat
transfer. The acoustic field does this by efficiently removing vapor
bubbles from the heated surface and suppressing the formation of an
insulating vapor film.
May 24
It's not magic, but new materials designed by two Northwestern University researchers seem to exhibit magical properties. Some contract when they should expand, and others expand when they should contract.
May 24
Researchers in Germany have for years been studying fire beetles of the genus <i>Melanophila</i>
and their sophisticated infrared sensors, which these pyrophilous
insects use to detect forest fires. They have unraveled the functional
principle of this photomechanical sensor and have started to work on a
technical reconstruction.
May 24
The
highly pathogenic hantavirus causes a condition known as hantavirus
pulmonary syndrome (HPS), which has a case fatality rate of 35-40%. To
help the fight against a disease that has no vaccine, U.S. Army
scientists and industry collaborators have successfully protected
laboratory animals from lethal hantavirus disease using a novel approach
that combines DNA vaccines and duck eggs.
May 23
Some
37 cameras shot 132 musicians running through the score of Gustav
Holst's "The Planets” on the specially-blacked out stage at Watford
Colosseum, just outside London, early this year. That footage has been
used by a London museum to put the conductor's baton in visitors' hands,
allowing guests to direct a virtual orchestra using 3D motion sensors.
May 23
A new collaboration between Oxford University
and the Lausanne Museum of Zoology will use the latest genetic
techniques to
investigate organic remains that some have claimed belong to the 'Yeti'
and
other 'lost' hominid species.
May 21
A team of engineers at Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania has for the first time used plasmonic cloaking to create a device that can see without being seen—an invisible machine that detects light. It is the first example of what the researchers describe as a new class of devices that controls the flow of light at the nanoscale to produce both optical and electronic functions.
May 21
In
experiments with gamma rays in France, researchers have recently proven
that these extremely high-energy electromagnetic waves can be focused
by lenses like conventional light. This finding that gamma rays can be
refracted overturns a fundamental assumption of theoretical physics.
May 18
The
first purely silicon oxide-based “resistive RAM” memory chip that can
operate in ambient conditions has been developed by researchers in the
U.K., and it needs just a thousandth of the energy of Flash-based chips.
Unlike other attempts to develop similar silicon-oxide chips, this
invention does not require a vacuum to operate.
May 18
An
international team of researchers has discovered how adding trace
amounts of water can tremendously speed up chemical reactions—such as
hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis—in which hydrogen is one of the
reactants, or starting materials. Previous research had indicated this
phenomenon, but until now the true importance of water to its effect has
eluded chemists.
