Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers at Bilkent University in Turkey have recently created a small quadruped robot called SQuad, which is made of soft structural materials. This unique robot, presented in a paper published in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, is more flexible than existing miniature robots and is thus better at climbing or circumventing obstacles in its surroundings.

“We have been working on miniature robots for almost a decade now,” Onur Ozcan, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told TechXplore. “Even though miniature robots have many advantages, such as being cheap, as they require fewer materials, and the ability to access confined spaces, one of their major drawbacks is their lack of locomotion capabilities, especially on uneven terrain.”

Tiny robots tend to get stuck easily while moving in the surrounding environment, as their height does not allow them to climb or avoid obstacles. Ozcan and his colleagues tried to overcome this limitation by implementing a principle known as ‘body compliance.”

Rochester Institute of Technology scientists have developed the first three-dimensional mass estimate to show where microplastic pollution is collecting in Lake Erie. The study examines nine different types of polymers that are believed to account for 75 percent of the world’s plastic waste.

Plastic behaves differently in lakes than in oceans; previous studies on both have indicated the levels of plastic pollution found on the surface are lower than expected based on how much is entering the water. While massive floating “islands” of accumulated plastic waste have been found in oceans, previous studies have indicated the levels of plastic pollution found on the surface of Lake Erie are lower than expected based on how much is entering the water.

The new RIT estimate for the 3D mass—381 metric tons—is more than 50 times greater than the previous estimates at the surface. The study also generated the first estimate of how much plastic is deposited on the bottom of the lake. It accounts for the unique properties of different types of plastics and shows that the three polymers with the lowest density—polyethylene, polypropylene and expanded polystyrene—accumulate on the surface of the lake while the other six polymers were concentrated in the sediment.

As electronic devices become progressively smaller, the technology that powers them needs to get smaller and thinner.

One of the key challenges scientists face in developing this technology is finding materials that can perform well at an ultrathin size. But now, Berkeley researchers think they may have the answer.

Led by Sayeef Salahuddin, professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, and graduate student Suraj Cheema, a team of researchers has managed to grow onto silicon an ultrathin material that demonstrates a unique electrical property called ferroelectricity. The duo’s findings were published in the April 22 issue of Nature.

Circa 2010

An economical way to make sheets of the blingest material known to man could bring a new era of high-power electronics that don’t need cooling.

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A new nanotechnology promises to make future concrete stronger and more resilient.

The more clothing that you wear, the warmer you are … right? Well actually, scientists have developed a new textile that both warms wearers in cold environments, and cools them down when things heat up.

The experimental material was developed at China’s Huazhong University of Science and Technology, by a team led by Prof. Guangming Tao. It’s made by first freeze-spinning silk and chitosan, forming fibers with a porous microstructure – chitosan, incidentally, is a highly useful natural compound found in crustacean shells.

Next, the pores within the fibers are filled with polyethylene glycol (PEG), which is a phase-change material that takes the form of a liquid when warm, and a solid when cool. Finally, the fibers are coated with an organic polymer known as polydimethylsiloxane, to keep the PEG from leaking out while in its liquid state.

O,.o possible higgs field containment device could stop the rupture and other ways to destroy the root of the problem too.

New data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope details what may be the most powerful phenomena in the universe: the “quasar tsunami,” a cosmic storm of such terrifying proportions that it can tear apart an entire galaxy.

“No other phenomena carries more mechanical energy,” said principal investigator Nahum Arav of Virginia Tech in a statement. “The winds are pushing hundreds of solar masses of material each year. The amount of mechanical energy that these outflows carry is up to several hundreds of times higher than the luminosity of the entire Milky Way galaxy.”

Continue reading “Behold the ‘Quasar Tsunami,’ Which Can Kill an Entire Galaxy” »

In recent years, 3D printing has opened up interesting new possibilities for the large-scale production of electronic components, as well as of a variety of other objects. To this end, research teams worldwide have been trying to create materials and structures that can easily change shape, as these could be particularly useful for 3D printing applications.

Although many of the programmable and shape-shifting materials developed so far have proved to be promising for 3D printing, they are often not mechanically robust. This makes them unideal for printing objects that are resistant to a lot of weight or strain.

To overcome this limitation, researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology, Peking University and Beijing Institute of Technology have recently proposed a new shape-morphing material system that is also mechanically robust. This new material, created via the volatilization of a volatile component that has not fully reacted, was presented in a paper published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. The lead authors of this paper are Qiang Zhang and Xiao Kuang.