Tech

When Thomas Schöps wants to create a three-dimensional model of the ETH Zurich main building, he pulls out his tablet computer. As he completes a leisurely walk around the structure, he keeps the device's rear-facing camera pointing at the building's façade. Bit by bit, an impressive 3D model of the edifice appears on the screen. It takes Schöps, a doctoral student at the Institute for Visual Computing, just 10 minutes to digitise a historical structure such as the main building.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers are using a technology likened to "mini force fields" to independently control individual microrobots operating within groups, an advance aimed at using the tiny machines in areas including manufacturing and medicine.

Until now it was only possible to control groups of microbots to move generally in unison, said David Cappelleri, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University.

Scientists have discovered that a commonly prescribed dementia drug could hold the key to helping prevent debilitating falls for people with Parkinson's.

The research, published today in The Lancet Neurology (1), shows people with Parkinson's who were given the oral drug rivastigmine were 45% less likely to fall and were considerably steadier when walking, compared to those on the placebo.

Toronto - Moral people have a pure heart. Immoral acts feel dirty. Expressions that describe morality in terms of purity abound in English and numerous other languages. The idea is rooted in religions around the world as well. For example, ritual purification of the physical body symbolizes moral purification, from baptism of Christianity and mikvah of Judaism, to ablution of Islam and Buddhism, to bathing in the Ganges of Hinduism and amrit of Sikhism. Across human societies, bodily purity seems deeply intertwined with morality.

A discovery by University of Strathclyde researchers could have a major impact on advancing smaller, cheaper, laser-driven particle accelerators - and their potential applications.

The research found that the diffraction of ultra-intense laser light passing through a thin foil could be used to control charged particle motion. This new observation in the fundamental physics of intense laser-plasma interactions could have a wide-reaching impact in medicine, industry and security.

At the National Institutes of Natural Sciences National Institute for Fusion Science, researchers have developed the high-energy heavy ion beam probe, in order to perform potential measurement inside a high-temperature plasma that was generated in the Institute's Large Helical Device (LHD). Engaging in collaborative research with Kyushu University's Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, they have discovered the new phenomenon of abrupt excitation of fluctuations and have clarified the mechanism of this phenomenon.

Turning your old banana peels and last night's leftovers into biogas sounds like a win-win situation for you and the environment: You don't have to feel guilty about having cooked too much pasta, and the use of biogas reduces CO2 emissions when it replaces fossil fuels.

But a new study from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) shows that it's not that simple.

Scientists have found a new way to tease out signals about Earth's climatic past from soil deposits on gravel and pebbles, adding an unprecedented level of detail to the existing paleoclimate record and revealing a time in North America's past when summers were wetter than normal.

TIFTON, GA - In the southeastern United States, eggplant is often produced with high levels of irrigation water and nitrogen fertilizer. Excessive irrigation rate not only wastes water and contributes to nitrogen leaching, and may also result in reduced crop yields. The authors of a report in the November 2015 issue of HortScience studied the effects of irrigation rates on eggplant, and say there is a potential to reduce current irrigation rates without negatively impacting fruit yield or quality.

Scientists at three Department of Energy national laboratories have discovered how to keep a promising new type of lithium ion battery cathode from developing a crusty coating that degrades its performance. The solution: Use a simple manufacturing technique to form the cathode material into tiny, layered particles that store a lot of energy while protecting themselves from damage.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. --- Humanity started recycling relatively early in its evolution: there are proofs that trash recycling was taking place as early as in the 500 BC. What about light recycling? Consider light bulbs: more than one hundred and thirty years ago Thomas Edison patented the first commercially viable incandescent light bulb, so that "none but the extravagant" would ever "burn tallow candles", paving the way for more than a century of incandescent lighting.

Every day all over the world, researchers work with artificial cell membranes. Despite the fact that they are so widely used, they still hold secrets. Now University of Southern Denmark researchers reveal how beautiful flower formations bloom and wither inside artificial cell membranes.

Artificial cell membranes are some of the most important tools in modern bio-science and they provide us with a better understanding of how cells function and thus help us understand diseases, develop drugs, etc.

A two-stage power management and storage system could dramatically improve the efficiency of triboelectric generators that harvest energy from irregular human motion such as walking, running or finger tapping.

Lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide, or NMC, is one of the most promising chemistries for better lithium batteries, especially for electric vehicle applications, but scientists have been struggling to get higher capacity out of them. Now researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have found that using a different method to make the material can offer substantial improvements.

UPTON, NY -- Building a better battery is a delicate balancing act. Increasing the amounts of chemicals whose reactions power the battery can lead to instability. Similarly, smaller particles can improve reactivity but expose more material to degradation. Now a team of scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory say they've found a way to strike a balance--by making a battery cathode with a hierarchical structure where the reactive material is abundant yet protected.