ScienceDaily: Engineering and Construction News

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• Rattled atoms mimic high-temperature superconductivity
• A new look at the finer details of rust show an assumed atomic structure has been wrong all along
• The walls can talk: New optical technique extracts audio from video
• Engineer applies robot control theory to improve prosthetic legs
• New model to detect aggressive driving
• Milestones in human-machine cooperation
• Research could improve nuclear power plant safety, and stop your kettle furring up
• Controlled emission and spatial splitting of electron pairs demonstrated
• Upsetting the stability of super-small gold clusters generates multifaceted nanocrystals with potent catalytic properties
• Broadband and ultrathin polarization manipulators developed
• A molecular thread: Flexible metal–organic frameworks with a range of pore sizes are made by threading through molecular ligands
• Green route to key molecular building blocks: Ruthenium catalyst goes with the flow
• Confining tiny gold colloids inside nanoscale templates reveals how to design complex structures

Rattled atoms mimic high-temperature superconductivity Posted: 04 Dec 2014 01:03 PM PST An experiment has provided the first fleeting glimpse of the atomic structure of a material as it entered a state resembling room-temperature superconductivity – a long-sought phenomenon in which materials might conduct electricity with 100 percent efficiency under everyday conditions.

A new look at the finer details of rust show an assumed atomic structure has been wrong all along Posted: 04 Dec 2014 11:26 AM PST Scientists have been studying the behavior of iron oxide surfaces. The atomic structure of iron oxide, which had been assumed to be well-established, turned out to be wrong. The behavior of iron oxide is governed by missing iron atoms in the atomic layer directly below the surface. This is a big surprise with potential applications in chemical catalysis, electronics or medicine.

The walls can talk: New optical technique extracts audio from video Posted: 04 Dec 2014 11:10 AM PST A simple new optical technique to extract audio information from silent high-speed video has been demonstrated. The work is based on an image-matching process.

Engineer applies robot control theory to improve prosthetic legs Posted: 04 Dec 2014 08:08 AM PST New research enables powered prosthetics to dynamically respond to the wearer's environment and help amputees walk. Wearers of the robotic leg could walk on a treadmill almost as fast as an able-bodied person.

New model to detect aggressive driving Posted: 04 Dec 2014 06:11 AM PST Researchers have developed a system capable of detecting patterns of reckless driving behavior with non intrusive methods for the driver.

Milestones in human-machine cooperation Posted: 04 Dec 2014 06:11 AM PST Major technical progress has been made on several fronts with the Robo-Mate exoskeleton. A key focus of the initial twelve months of the Robo-Mate project was to define the various production processes of end-users from different industries (e.g. automotive, automotive components, dismantling, and scrap recycling).

Research could improve nuclear power plant safety, and stop your kettle furring up Posted: 04 Dec 2014 04:41 AM PST Taking inspiration from nature, researchers have created a versatile model to predict how stalagmite-like structures form in nuclear processing plants – as well as how lime scale builds up in kettles.

Controlled emission and spatial splitting of electron pairs demonstrated Posted: 04 Dec 2014 04:40 AM PST In quantum optics, generating entangled and spatially separated photon pairs (e.g. for quantum cryptography) is already a reality. So far, it has, however, not been possible to demonstrate an analogous generation and spatial separation of entangled electron pairs in solids. Physicists have now taken a decisive step in this direction. They have demonstrated for the first time the on-demand emission of electron pairs from a semiconductor quantum dot and verified their subsequent splitting into two separate conductors.

Upsetting the stability of super-small gold clusters generates multifaceted nanocrystals with potent catalytic properties Posted: 03 Dec 2014 01:01 PM PST Researchers have devised a way to destabilize gold nanoclusters so that they form tiny atomic nuclei that then grow together into perfectly proportioned, 12-sided dodecahedron crystals. These unique polyhedra have energy-rich surfaces that can boost the catalytic efficiency of important chemical reactions and serve as potential adsorption sites for targeted sensor devices.

Broadband and ultrathin polarization manipulators developed Posted: 03 Dec 2014 01:00 PM PST Scientists have developed a technology that can manipulate a polarized light in broadband operation with the use of a metamaterial. When an object or its structure is analyzed by using a polarized light such as a laser, the results are generally affected by the polarization state of the light.

A molecular thread: Flexible metal–organic frameworks with a range of pore sizes are made by threading through molecular ligands Posted: 03 Dec 2014 01:00 PM PST The ability to 'thread' a molecular ligand through a metal-organic framework (MOF) to alter the pore size of the material -- and yet allow the MOF to retain its crystallinity and principal structural features -- has been demonstrated in a new study.

Green route to key molecular building blocks: Ruthenium catalyst goes with the flow Posted: 03 Dec 2014 01:00 PM PST An efficient catalyst has opened up an environmentally benign route to a family of molecular building blocks found in many pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals, a study shows.

Confining tiny gold colloids inside nanoscale templates reveals how to design complex structures Posted: 03 Dec 2014 01:00 PM PST Gold nanoparticles smaller than 10 nanometers spontaneously self-organize in entirely new ways when trapped inside channel-like templates. A new study shows that this feature could facilitate easier nanoscale manufacturing of biosensors and plasmonic devices with intricate, high-density surface structures.

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