ScienceDaily: Engineering and Construction News |
- Power outage? Robots to the rescue
- Mechanized human hands: System designed to improve hand function lost to nerve damage
- On the road to artificial photosynthesis
- How to make stronger, 'greener' cement: New formula could cut greenhouse-gas emissions
- Solar cell compound probed under pressure
- New organic semiconductor material: Organic tin in polymers increases their light absorption
- Airway muscle-on-a-chip mimics asthma
| Power outage? Robots to the rescue Posted: 25 Sep 2014 03:25 PM PDT Big disasters almost always result in big power failures. Not only do they take down the TV and fridge, they also wreak havoc with key infrastructure like cell towers. That can delay search and rescue operations at a time when minutes count. Engineers have now developed a tabletop model of robotic first responders that can bring power to places that need it the most —- like communications towers. |
| Mechanized human hands: System designed to improve hand function lost to nerve damage Posted: 25 Sep 2014 02:26 PM PDT Engineers have developed and successfully demonstrated the value of a simple pulley mechanism to improve hand function after surgery. The device, tested in cadaver hands, is one of the first instruments ever created that could improve the transmission of mechanical forces and movement while implanted inside the body. |
| On the road to artificial photosynthesis Posted: 25 Sep 2014 12:08 PM PDT The excessive atmospheric carbon dioxide that is driving global climate change could be harnessed into a renewable energy technology that would be a win for both the environment and the economy. That is the lure of artificial photosynthesis in which the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide is used to produce clean, green and sustainable fuels. However, finding a catalyst for reducing carbon dioxide that is highly selective and efficient has proven to be a huge scientific challenge. New experimental results have revealed the critical influence of the electronic and geometric effects in the carbon dioxide reduction reaction and might help make the problem easier to tackle. |
| How to make stronger, 'greener' cement: New formula could cut greenhouse-gas emissions Posted: 25 Sep 2014 11:12 AM PDT Concrete is the world's most-used construction material, and a leading contributor to global warming, producing as much as one-tenth of industry-generated greenhouse-gas emissions. Now a new study suggests a way in which those emissions could be reduced by more than half -- and the result would be a stronger, more durable material. |
| Solar cell compound probed under pressure Posted: 25 Sep 2014 10:27 AM PDT Gallium arsenide a semiconductor composed of gallium and arsenic is well known to have properties that promise practical applications. In the form of nanowires it has particular potential for use in solar cell manufacture and optoelectronics in many of the same applications that silicon is commonly used. But its natural semiconducting ability requires tuning to make it more desirable for use in manufacturing. New work offers a novel approach to such tuning. |
| New organic semiconductor material: Organic tin in polymers increases their light absorption Posted: 25 Sep 2014 10:13 AM PDT Researchers have integrated organic tin into semiconducting polymers (plastics) for the first time. Semiconducting polymers can be used, for example, for the absorption of sun light in solar cells. By incorporating organic tin into the plastic, light can be absorbed over a wide range of the solar spectrum. |
| Airway muscle-on-a-chip mimics asthma Posted: 23 Sep 2014 08:07 AM PDT New drugs are urgently needed to treat asthma. Hope may be on the horizon thanks to a team that has developed a human airway muscle-on-a-chip that accurately mimics the way smooth muscle contracts in the human airway, under normal circumstances and when exposed to asthma triggers. It also offers a window into the cellular and even subcellular responses within the tissue during an asthmatic event, researchers say. |
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