Tech

Fuel cells, which generate electricity from chemical reactions without harmful emissions, have the potential to power everything from cars to portable electronics, and could be cleaner and more efficient than combustion engines.

BUFFALO, N.Y. - The future of movies and manufacturing may be in 3-D, but electronics and photonics are going 2-D; specifically, two-dimensional semiconducting materials.

One of the latest advancements in these fields centers on molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), a two-dimensional semiconductor that, while commonly used in lubricants and steel alloys, is still being explored in optoelectronics.

An emotion detector which, potentially, can tell whether a person really finds you attractive on a first date has been created by researchers at Lancaster University.

The inspiration for the device came from a gadget featured in the 1982 sci-fi fantasy film, Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford and directed by Ridley Scott.

Replicating the Voight-Kampff machine, a fictional interrogation tool, the Lancaster team have created a device that mimics this emotion-detector.

If you're looking for a way to use a computer more efficiently, researchers at the University of Waterloo's David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science may have a solution for you.

Master's candidate Jingjie Zheng and Professor Daniel Vogel have recently filed a patent that would allow computer users to trigger different shortcut commands by pressing the same keyboard key with different fingers, hands, or hand postures.

Nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and methane are the most important greenhouse gases. Nitrous oxide also participates in the destruction of stratospheric ozone. To mitigate global warming, we have to control nitrous oxide emissions. A recent study by the University of Eastern Finland, the University of Helsinki and the Natural Resources Institute Finland provides new knowledge on nitrous oxide emissions and shows that there can be significant inaccuracies in the traditional emission measurements.

One of the caverns in the 75-metre long cave is full of spherical deposits of minerals known as cave clouds that form on rocks in a similar way to stalactites and stalagmites. In 2005, cave researchers discovered a large number of lines that looked like they could have been made by humans on the rock-hard surface of these cave clouds.

A new type of hydrostatic transmission that combines hydraulic and pneumatic lines can safely and precisely drive robot arms, giving them the delicacy necessary to pick up an egg without breaking it.

This transmission has almost no friction or play, offering extreme precision for tasks such as threading a sewing needle.

In experiments involving a simulation of the human esophagus and stomach, researchers at MIT, the University of Sheffield, and the Tokyo Institute of Technology have demonstrated a tiny origami robot that can unfold itself from a swallowed capsule and, steered by external magnetic fields, crawl across the stomach wall to remove a swallowed button battery or patch a wound.

Cincinnati, OH, May 13, 2016 -- The prevalence of celiac disease (CD), an autoimmune disease, is increasing. The only treatment for CD is a gluten-free diet. However, the increasing prevalence of CD does not account for the disproportionate increase in growth of the gluten-free food industry (136% from 2013 to 2015). A Commentary scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics discusses several of the most common inaccuracies regarding the gluten-free diet.

Mysterious spectacular mounds found in the earth in tropical wetlands in South America are created by earthworms, researchers have found.

The densely packed, regularly spaced mounds cover large areas of the Orinoco Llanos in Columbia and Venezuela. Until now it was not known how they were formed.

A new study shows these mounds, called surales, are largely made up of earthworm casts, heaps of muddy soil ejected by their guts. This is the first research to describe their formation.

PITTSBURGH--Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags are designed primarily for inventory control, but researchers at Disney Research and Carnegie Mellon University have found a way to process the tag signals with sufficient speed to make them suitable for use in games, physical interfaces and other interactive objects.

Their technique makes it possible to use RFID tags to sense movement or touch in near real-time. The low-cost tags could thus be incorporated into slider and rotary controls for games and toys or for use in other applications that demand prompt response.

Robots can keep their parts and still change their gender, according to Penn State researchers, who noted that the arrival of robots with screens has made it easier to assign distinct personalities.

In a study, people found that feminine cues on the robot's screen were enough to convince them that a robot was female, said Eun Hwa Jung, a doctoral student in mass communications. The findings may help robot developers economically customize robots for certain roles and to serve certain populations.

A piece of paper is one of the most common, versatile daily items. Children use it to draw their favorite animals and practice writing the A-B-Cs, and adults print reports or scribble a hasty grocery list.

Now, connecting real-world items such as a paper airplane or a classroom survey form to the larger Internet of Things environment is possible using off-the-shelf technology and a pen, sticker or stencil pattern.

"Pentameric quaternary structure of the intracellular domain of serotonin type 3A receptors," was published in the April issue of Scientific Reports. Along with her research team, Akash Pandhare, Ph.D., and Petar N. Grozdanov, Ph.D., Jansen's research demonstrated for the first time that the serotonin type 3A (5-HT3A) ICD assembles into stable pentamers in solution in the absence of the other two domains, thought to be the drivers for oligomerization.

ANN ARBOR--Checking email for work. Posting a photo to Facebook. Texting the kids to come downstairs. Sending a quick snap to a friend. People of all ages might use their smartphones in these ways during shared meals.

A new study from the University of Michigan explores how people use mobile phones during meals and how they feel about other people doing so. The researchers surveyed 1,163 people between the ages of 8 and 88 in English-speaking countries around the world.