Lifeboat Foundation

Macquarie University engineers have developed a new technique to make the manufacture of nanosensors far less carbon-intensive, much cheaper, more efficient, and more versatile, substantially improving a key process in this trillion-dollar global industry.

The team has found a way to treat each sensor using a single drop of ethanol instead of the conventional process that involves heating materials to high temperatures.

Their research, published in Advanced Functional Materials, is titled, ‘Capillary-driven self-assembled microclusters for highly performing UV detectors.’

A research team consisting of the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) and the Tokyo University of Science has developed the fastest electric double layer transistor using a highly ion-conductive ceramic thin film and a diamond thin film.

This transistor may be used to develop energy-efficient, high-speed edge AI devices with a wide range of applications, including future event prediction and pattern recognition/determination in images (including facial recognition), voices and odors. This research was published in the June 16, 2023, issue of Materials Today Advances.

An electric double layer transistor works as a switch using electrical resistance changes caused by the charge and discharge of an electric double layer formed at the interface between the electrolyte and semiconductor. Because this transistor is able to mimic the electrical response of human cerebral neurons (i.e., acting as a neuromorphic transistor), its use in AI devices is potentially promising.

A common metal paper clip will stick to a magnet. Scientists classify such iron-containing materials as ferromagnets. A little over a century ago, physicists Albert Einstein and Wander de Haas reported a surprising effect with a ferromagnet. If you suspend an iron cylinder from a wire and expose it to a magnetic field, it will start rotating if you simply reverse the direction of the magnetic field.

“Einstein and de Haas’s experiment is almost like a magic show,” said Haidan Wen, a physicist in the Materials Science and X-ray Science divisions of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory. “You can cause a cylinder to rotate without ever touching it.”

In Nature, a team of researchers from Argonne and other U.S. national laboratories and universities now report an analogous yet different effect in an “anti”-ferromagnet. This could have important applications in devices requiring ultra-precise and ultrafast motion control. One example is high-speed nanomotors for biomedical applications, such as use in nanorobots for minimally invasive diagnosis and surgery.

Space is a dangerous place. From micro-meteorites and electromagnetic interference to fires in space and extreme heat and cold, we need to develop new materials to enable the next generation of space travel and intergalactic travel.

New Swinburne research published in Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials highlights the cutting-edge materials that are solving these problems, including those being developed by Swinburne’s Multifunctional Materials and Composites team.

These include self-healing polymers, fire and thermally resistant materials, materials for thermal management, self-cleaning materials, EMI shielding materials and multifunctional carbon fiber composites.

Chinese researchers have announced in a video that they’ve verified LK-99’s ability to conduct current with zero resistance, but questions still linger.

Glossy white-concrete panels clad this holiday home with a pentagonal plan in Italy, which has been designed by Milan studio JM Architecture.

The dwelling is named Pinwheel after its distinctive shape, which was JM Architecture’s solution for the client’s “only request” – that it offers views of both the nearby Lake Maggiore and surrounding alpine valleys.

“While exploring several design options for a compact house to fit on this small plot, we realised that the building constraints and the client’s requirements resulted in the simple geometry of a pentagon shape,” said JM Architecture founder Jacopo Mascheroni.

Year 2001 😗😁

Stable levitation of one magnet by another with no energy input is usually prohibited by Earnshaw’s theorem. However, the introduction of diamagnetic material at special locations can stabilize such levitation. A magnet can even be stably suspended between (diamagnetic) fingertips. A very simple, surprisingly stable room temperature magnet levitation device is described that works without superconductors and requires absolutely no energy input. Our theory derives the magnetic field conditions necessary for stable levitation in these cases and predicts experimental measurements of the forces remarkably well. New levitation configurations are described which can be stabilized with hollow cylinders of diamagnetic material. Measurements are presented of the diamagnetic properties of several samples of bismuth and graphite.

New research uses protons to shine a light on the structure and imperfections of this two-dimensional wonder material.

Graphene is a two-dimensional wonder material that has been suggested for a wide range of applications in energy, technology, construction, and more since it was first isolated from graphite in 2004.

This single layer of carbon atoms is tough yet flexible, light but with high resistance, with graphene.

Massive implications with this one.

It’s been a rough few days in the condensed matter physics realm following claims of the world’s first room-temperature superconductor being achieved. However, work to verify and replicate the results.