ScienceDaily: Engineering and Construction News

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• Ultra-stiff and lightweight: Carbon-fiber epoxy honeycombs mimic material performance of balsa wood
• Space industry: Does 3-D printing have the right stuff?
• Spintronic technologies: Advanced light source provides new look at skyrmions
• Mathematical models explain how a wrinkle becomes a crease
• A farewell to arms? Scientists developing a novel technique that could facilitate nuclear disarmament
• Eco-friendly versatile nanocapsules developed
• Demonstrating a driverless future: Promise of driverless cars
• Engineered muscle-mimic research: Technique uses living cells to build engineered muscle tissue
• New study uses blizzard to measure wind turbine airflow
• Metal particles in solids aren't as fixed as they seem, new memristor study shows

Ultra-stiff and lightweight: Carbon-fiber epoxy honeycombs mimic material performance of balsa wood Posted: 25 Jun 2014 12:15 PM PDT For centuries, the fast-growing balsa tree has been prized for its light weight and stiffness relative to density. But balsa wood is expensive and natural variations in the grain can be an impediment to achieving the increasingly precise performance requirements of turbine blades and other sophisticated applications. Materials scientists have now developed cellular composite materials of unprecedented light weight and stiffness.

Space industry: Does 3-D printing have the right stuff? Posted: 25 Jun 2014 10:33 AM PDT 3D-printed parts promise a revolution in the space industry, rapidly creating almost any object needed. But do the results really have the right stuff for flying in space? The European Space Agency is now checking if their surface finish comes up to scratch.

Spintronic technologies: Advanced light source provides new look at skyrmions Posted: 25 Jun 2014 10:25 AM PDT Researchers for the first time have used x-rays to observe and study skyrmions, subatomic quasiparticles that could play a key role in future spintronic technologies.

Mathematical models explain how a wrinkle becomes a crease Posted: 25 Jun 2014 10:25 AM PDT Wrinkles, creases and folds are everywhere in nature, from the surface of human skin to the buckled crust of the Earth. They can also be useful structures for engineers. Wrinkles in thin films, for example, can help make durable circuit boards for flexible electronics. A new mathematical model developed by researchers from Brown University could help engineers control the formation of wrinkle, crease, and fold structures in a wide variety of materials. It may also help scientists understand how these structures form in nature.

A farewell to arms? Scientists developing a novel technique that could facilitate nuclear disarmament Posted: 25 Jun 2014 10:24 AM PDT A proven system for verifying that apparent nuclear weapons slated to be dismantled contained true warheads could provide a key step toward the further reduction of nuclear arms. The system would achieve this verification while safeguarding classified information that could lead to nuclear proliferation. Scientists are developing the prototype for such a system. Their novel approach, called a "zero-knowledge protocol," would verify the presence of warheads without collecting any classified information at all.

Eco-friendly versatile nanocapsules developed Posted: 25 Jun 2014 07:14 AM PDT This new technology suggests a possible application of eco-friendly solvents that can address environmental, safety and economic issues all at once. Since various kinds of metal nanoparticles can be employed on the surface of polymer nanocapsules, it is also potentially useful for other applications in the field of nano-medicine and bioimaging.

Demonstrating a driverless future: Promise of driverless cars Posted: 24 Jun 2014 02:23 PM PDT In the coming decades, we will likely commute to work and explore the countryside in autonomous, or driverless, cars capable of communicating with the roads they are traveling on. A convergence of technological innovations in embedded sensors, computer vision, artificial intelligence, control and automation, and computer processing power is making this feat a reality.

Engineered muscle-mimic research: Technique uses living cells to build engineered muscle tissue Posted: 24 Jun 2014 02:18 PM PDT Biomedical engineers are designing and testing a biomaterial that regenerates damaged skeletal muscle. Living cells secrete fibrous proteins and polysaccharide gels called extracellular matrix, which support cell survival and tissue strength. Minor muscle injuries affect tissue cells but not the extracellular components. In severe injuries, however, the extracellular matrix does not function properly and cannot initiate the healing process. Engineered "muscle-mimics" provide the molecules necessary to cue regeneration.

New study uses blizzard to measure wind turbine airflow Posted: 24 Jun 2014 11:24 AM PDT A first-of-its-kind study using snow during a Minnesota blizzard is giving researchers new insight into the airflow around large wind turbines. This research is essential to improving wind energy efficiency, especially in wind farms where airflows from many large wind turbines interact with each other.

Metal particles in solids aren't as fixed as they seem, new memristor study shows Posted: 24 Jun 2014 11:23 AM PDT In work that unmasks some of the magic behind memristors and 'resistive random access memory,' or RRAM -- cutting-edge computer components that combine logic and memory functions -- researchers have shown that the metal particles in memristors don't stay put as previously thought.

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