SciFi Insight

IMAGE: This image shows the interplay among electrode wettability, porous structure, and overpotential. With the decrease of wettability (moving left to right), the gas-evolving electrode transitions from an internal growth and… view more  Credit: Image courtesy of Ryuichi Iwata, Lenan Zhang, Evelyn Wang, Betar Gallant et al Using electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen

Scientists have developed a method to use lasers to control the movement of nanodiamonds with fluorescent centers. Scientists have long been working on improving their ability to use lasers to move small objects without actually touching them. This method of ‘optical trapping and manipulation’ is already utilized in optics, biological sciences and chemistry. But objects

Nanowires are vital components for future nanoelectronics, sensors, and nanomedicine. To achieve the required complexity, it is necessary to control the position and growth of the metal chains on an atomic level. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, a research team has introduced a novel approach that generates precisely controlled, helical, palladium-DNA systems that mimic the

At the entrance of Nature of Robotics a couple of robotic snails slither around the floor, leaving behind slimy trails. Two visitors, young boys, enter the exhibit and squat next to the slimy creatures, trying to follow both of them at once. Docents come over to explain that the robotic snails is an art instillation

On the nanometric scale (one billionth of a metre), materials can feature new properties. A French team together with an Austrian one recently took an important step forward by mapping one of these properties for the first time in 3D. Imagine a cube on which light is projected by a flashlight. The cube reflects the

IMAGE: Fig.1 Crystal Structure of One-Dimensional Charge Transfer Salt with an Infinite Anion Chain (TMTTF)(NbOF4) view more  Credit: NINS/IMS Salts are far more complicated than the food seasoning – they can even act as electrical conductors, shuttling current through systems. Extremely well studied and understood, the electrical properties of salts were first theorized in 1834. Now,

IMAGE: A train of molecular gears composed of star-shape molecules. view more  Credit: Gwénaël Rapenne (NAIST and UPS) Ikoma, Japan – Gear trains have been used for centuries to translate changes in gear rotational speed into changes in rotational force. Cars, drills, and basically anything that has spinning parts use them. Molecular-scale gears are a much

IMAGE: Electron microscope image of a microswimmer. The particle is 2.18 micrometres in diameter. The small, brighter dots on the particle are gold nanoparticles about 8 nanometres in size. view more  Credit: Photo: Leipzig University, Faculty of Physics and Earth Sciences Microswimmers are artificial, self-propelled, microscopic particles. They are capable of directional motion in a solution.

IMAGE: Bottlebrush polymer is a polymer consisting of a single main chain and numerous side chains grafting from the main chain. view more  Credit: NIMS NIMS and RIKEN have succeeded in synthesizing the longest ever bottlebrush polymer. This polymer–resembling a green foxtail–is composed of a main chain and numerous side chains grafting from it. The team

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have uncovered an innovative way to tap into the over-capacity of 5G networks, turning them into “a wireless power grid” for powering Internet of Things (IoT) devices that today need batteries to operate. The Georgia Tech inventors have developed a flexible Rotman lens-based rectifying antenna (rectenna) system capable,

IMAGE: sensor samples view more  Credit: sensor samples Scientists of Tomsk Polytechnic University jointly with colleagues from different countries have developed a new sensor with two layers of nanopores. In the conducted experiments, this sensor showed its efficiency as a sensor for one of the doping substances from chiral molecules. The research findings are published in

IMAGE: The transistor developed by EPFL researchers can substantially reduce the resistance and cut the amount of heat dissipation in high-power systems. view more  Credit: © EPFL Power converters are the little-known systems that make electricity so magical. They are what allow us to plug in our computers, lamps and televisions and turn them on in

ORLANDO, March 25, 2021 – Early screening can mean the difference between life and death in a cancer and disease diagnosis. That’s why University of Central Florida researchers are working to develop a new screening technique that’s more than 300 times as effective at detecting a biomarker for diseases like cancer than current methods. The

When we grow crystals, atoms first group together into small clusters – a process called nucleation. But understanding exactly how such atomic ordering emerges from the chaos of randomly moving atoms has long eluded scientists. Classical nucleation theory suggests that crystals form one atom at a time, steadily increasing the level of order. Modern studies