Tech

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- The cost of solar power is beginning to reach price parity with cheaper fossil fuel-based electricity in many parts of the world, yet the clean energy source still accounts for just slightly more than 1 percent of the world's electricity mix.

Most people know that e-mails and facebook messages from unknown senders can contain dangerous links. However, many users still click on them - and Dr. Zinaida Benenson from the Chair of Computer Science 1 at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) has investigated why. The results of the experiment were clear: up to 56 percent of e-mail recipients and around 40 percent of facebook users clicked on a link from an unknown sender although they knew of the risks of their computer becoming infected with a virus. And the main reason? Curiosity.

Daejeon, Republic of Korea, August 29, 2016--A research team led by Professor Keon Jae Lee from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and by Dr. Jae-Hyun Kim from the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) has jointly developed a continuous roll-processing technology that transfers and packages flexible large-scale integrated circuits (LSI), the key element in constructing the computer's brain such as CPU, on plastics to realize flexible electronics.

For those of you who take sandcastle building very seriously, listen up: MIT engineers now say you can trust a very simple equation to calculate the force required to push a shovel -- and any other "intruder"-- through sand. The team also found that the same concept, known as the resistive force theory, can generate useful equations for cohesive materials like muds.

Researchers have discovered an enzyme that plays a leading role in the formation of compounds that give aged wines their sought-after aroma.

Rome, Italy - 28 Aug 2016: The risk of traffic accidents is increased by 50% in patients with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) compared to age and gender matched controls, according to a Danish nationwide registry study presented at ESC Congress 2016 today.1

Light has reciprocity with bidirectional transmission in ordinary media. Circulators and isolators are indispensable components in classical and quantum information processing in an integrated photonic circuit. Therefore, all-optical controllable non-reciprocal devices are always a hot topic in the research of photonic chips. Normal non-reciprocal devices are based on magnetic-optical material. However, incorporating low optical-loss magnetic materials into a photonic chip is technically challenging.

Speed may not be witchcraft, but it is the basis for technologies that often seem like magic. Modern computers, for instance, are as powerful as they are because tiny switches inside them steer electric currents in fractions of a billionth of a second. The incredible data flows of the internet, on the other hand, are only possible because extremely fast electro-optic modulators can send information through fibre-optic cables in the shape of very short light pulses.

Engineers from MIT and Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) are using light to print three-dimensional structures that "remember" their original shapes. Even after being stretched, twisted, and bent at extreme angles, the structures -- from small coils and multimaterial flowers, to an inch-tall replica of the Eiffel tower -- sprang back to their original forms within seconds of being heated to a certain temperature "sweet spot."

Chemists at the University of Waterloo have developed a long-lasting zinc-ion battery that costs half the price of current lithium-ion batteries and could help enable communities to shift away from traditional power plants and into renewable solar and wind energy production.

Professor Linda Nazar and her colleagues from the Faculty of Science at Waterloo made the important discovery, which appears in the journal, Nature Energy.

Chemists at the University of Texas at Arlington have published a new study that indicates that highly variable contamination events registered in and around unconventional oil and gas developments are the result of operational inefficiencies and not inherent to the extraction process itself.

Spending a little to prove a commitment to sustainability can help tourism industry businesses such as hotels inspire customers to conserve resources--and save money in the process, according to new research from SFU's Beedie School of Business. The study found that hotel guests' willingness to conserve resources--such as turning off lights, reusing towels, or setting the thermostat at a specific temperature--is affected by how "green" they perceive the hotel to be.

The more environmentally friendly consumers perceived the firm to be, the more patrons themselves conserved.

Laser applications may benefit from crystal research by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and China's Shandong University. They have discovered a potential way to sidestep longstanding difficulties with making the crystals that are a crucial part of laser technology. But the science behind their discovery has experts scratching their heads.

Millions of college students returning to campus this month will likely have a single-serve coffee brewer among furnishings for their dorm rooms and apartments. As a result, students will contribute to the estimated 10 billion plastic brew cups discarded annually into the country’s landfills*.

A team of Korean researchers, affiliated with UNIST is receiving the media spotlight as they have proposed a green material strategy for the development of smart battery separators beyond the current state-of-the-art counterparts.

The findings appear in the July 6th issue of Nano Letters, co-authored by Prof. Sang-Young Lee (School of Energy and Chemical Engineering), Prof. Byeong-Su Kim (School of Natural Science), the lead authors of the study Jung-Hwan Kim (School of Energy and Chemical Engineering) and Minsu Gu (School of Energy and Chemical Engineering), and four others.