ScienceDaily: Engineering and Construction News |
- A more efficient, lightweight and low-cost organic solar cell: Researchers broke the 'electrode barrier'
- Toward quantum computing, spintronic memory, better displays: Nuclear spins control current in plastic LED
- Germanium tin could mean better and cheaper infrared cameras in smartphones, and faster computer chips
- New microscopy technique yields fresh data on muscular dystrophy
- Getting water from fog: Shorebird's beak inspires research on water collection
- American-made wind turbine blades
- Plant-based battery: Testing and improving with help of neutrons, simulation
| Posted: 18 Sep 2014 11:14 AM PDT For decades, polymer scientists and synthetic chemists working to improve the power conversion efficiency of organic solar cells were hampered by the inherent drawbacks of commonly used metal electrodes, including their instability and susceptibility to oxidation. Now for the first time, researchers have developed a more efficient, easily processable and lightweight solar cell that can use virtually any metal for the electrode, effectively breaking the 'electrode barrier.' |
| Posted: 18 Sep 2014 11:11 AM PDT Physicists read "spins" in hydrogen nuclei and used the data to control current in a cheap, plastic LED – at room temperature and without strong magnetic fields. The study brings physics a step closer to practical "spintronic" devices: superfast computers, more compact data storage and plastic or organic LEDs, more efficient than those used today in display screens for cell phones, computers and televisions. |
| Posted: 18 Sep 2014 09:13 AM PDT Researchers have fabricated a new semiconductor material that can be used to build better and less expensive infrared cameras for smartphone and automobiles. |
| New microscopy technique yields fresh data on muscular dystrophy Posted: 18 Sep 2014 06:14 AM PDT A new microscopy technique yields resolution an order of magnitude better than previously possible. Through this new technique, the researchers showed that dystrophin was responsible for regulating tiny molecular fluctuations in calcium channels while muscles are in use. The discovery suggests that a lack of functional dystrophin alters the dynamics of ion channels -- helping to cause the defective mechanical responses and the calcium imbalance that impair normal muscle activity in patients with muscular dystrophy. |
| Getting water from fog: Shorebird's beak inspires research on water collection Posted: 17 Sep 2014 02:33 PM PDT An engineering professor and his doctoral student have designed a device based on a shorebird's beak that can accumulate water collected from fog and dew. The device could provide water in drought-stricken areas of the world or deserts around the globe. |
| American-made wind turbine blades Posted: 17 Sep 2014 02:29 PM PDT New research is helping makers of wind turbine blades improve the labor productivity associated with blade fabrication and finishing. This improved productivity makes US blades more cost competitive with blades from countries that pay workers lower wages. |
| Plant-based battery: Testing and improving with help of neutrons, simulation Posted: 17 Sep 2014 09:05 AM PDT Lignin, a low-cost byproduct of the pulp, paper and biofuels industries, could be transformed into a cheaper version of highly engineered graphite through a simple and industrially scalable manufacturing process. |
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