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Archive for the ‘materials’ category: Page 255

Feb 22, 2016

RMIT Researchers Examine Environmental and Health Risks Posed by 3D Printing

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, computing, health, materials

3D Printing hazardous to the environment due to toxins.


Three-dimensional (3D) printing, also known as additive manufacturing, refers to those technologies capable of developing 3D objects from raw materials, like metals and polymers based on computerized 3D parametric models.

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Feb 21, 2016

The audacious plan to end hunger with 3D printed food

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, food, materials

Anjan Contractor’s 3D food printer might evoke visions of the “replicator” popularized in Star Trek, from which Captain Picard was constantly interrupting himself to order tea. And indeed Contractor’s company, Systems & Materials Research Corporation, just got a six month, $125,000 grant from NASA to create a prototype of his universal food synthesizer.

But Contractor, a mechanical engineer with a background in 3D printing, envisions a much more mundane—and ultimately more important—use for the technology. He sees a day when every kitchen has a 3D printer, and the earth’s 12 billion people feed themselves customized, nutritionally-appropriate meals synthesized one layer at a time, from cartridges of powder and oils they buy at the corner grocery store. Contractor’s vision would mean the end of food waste, because the powder his system will use is shelf-stable for up to 30 years, so that each cartridge, whether it contains sugars, complex carbohydrates, protein or some other basic building block, would be fully exhausted before being returned to the store.

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Feb 21, 2016

Interesting Engineering Animation

Posted by in categories: engineering, materials, nanotechnology

The nanoscale coating that’s at least 95% air repels the broadest range of liquids of any material in its class, causing them to bounce off the treated surface, according to the University of Michigan engineering researchers who developed it.

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Feb 19, 2016

Scientists discover electrons moving like honey in graphene

Posted by in categories: materials, physics

#sweet!


Electrons which act like slow-pouring honey have been observed for the first time in graphene, prompting a new approach to fundamental physics.

Electrons are known to move through metals like bullets being reflected only by imperfections, but in graphene they move like in a very , University of Manchester researchers have found.

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Feb 18, 2016

Oxford Instruments and SPECS Surface Nano Analysis GmbH sign agreement for Nanonis Tramea quantum transport measurement system

Posted by in categories: computing, electronics, materials, quantum physics

This agreement places Oxford in a very nice position.


Quantum transport measurements are widely used in characterising new materials and devices for emerging quantum technology applications such as quantum information processing (QIP), quantum computing (QC) and quantum sensors. Such devices hold the potential to revolutionise future technology in high performance computing and sensing in the same way that semiconductors and the transistor did over half a century ago.

Physicists have long used standard electrical transport measurements such as resistivity, conductance and the Hall effect to gain information on the electronic properties and structure of materials. Now quantum transport measurements such as the quantum Hall effect (QHE) and fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) in two-dimensional electron gases (2DEG) and topological insulators – along with a range of other more complex measurements – inform researchers on material properties with quantum mechanical effects.

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Feb 17, 2016

Atom Thick, 2D Semiconducting Material Could Revolutionize Computer Speed

Posted by in categories: computing, materials, particle physics

This 2D material is only one atom thick and allows electrical charges to move through it much faster, which would make computers remarkably faster.

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Feb 17, 2016

Whitewood Encryption Systems Announces the Awarding of a Third Patent Arising From Los Alamos National Laboratory Technology Transfer

Posted by in categories: encryption, internet, materials, quantum physics

I have mentioned in my previous posts about the Quantum Internet work that Los Alamos has been leading; today Los Alamos has been awarded a patent on their Quantum Communication (QC) Optical Fiber.


Whitewood received a Notice of Allowance for a patent application that addresses issues that arise when employing quantum communications techniques to share cryptographic material over fiber networks.

ArcPoint Strategic Communications.

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Feb 17, 2016

Wonder material graphene has been turned into a superconductor

Posted by in categories: energy, materials

Researchers in Japan have found a way to make the ‘wonder material’ graphene superconductive — which means electricity can flow through it with zero resistance. The new property adds to graphene’s already impressive list of attributes, like the fact that it’s stronger than steel, harder than diamond, and incredibly flexible.

But superconductivity is a big deal, even for graphene, because when electricity can flow without resistance, it can lead to significantly more efficient electronic devices, not to mention power lines. Right now, energy companies are losing about 7 percent of their energy as heat as a result of resistance in the grid.

Before you get too excited, this demonstration of superconductivity in graphene occurred at a super cold −269 degrees Celsius, so we’re not going to be making power lines out of graphene any time soon.

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Feb 16, 2016

Mind-Controlled Prosthetics: New Study Allows Patient To Move Fingers With Mind

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cyborgs, materials, neuroscience

With the success of Graphene as a material for BMI plus the new micro stints that can travel through blood cells to the brain; prosthetic technology is only going to continue to improve to maybe even a point where some athletes may wish to have physical and endurance capabilities improved through this type of technology if it is approved and allowed by the various athletic associations.


A team of researchers has demonstrated the first-ever successful prosthetic arm that can control individual fingers with thoughts.

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Feb 16, 2016

A black hole on a chip made of a metal that behaves like water

Posted by in categories: computing, cosmology, materials

In a new paper published in Science, researchers at the Harvard and Raytheon BBN Technology have observed, for the first time, electrons in a metal behaving like a fluid (credit: Peter Allen/Harvard SEAS)

A radical discovery by researchers at Harvard and Raytheon BBN Technology about graphene’s hidden properties could lead to a model system to explore exotic phenomena like black holes and high-energy plasmas, as well as novel thermoelectric devices.

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