#A new type of glass could double your smartphone's battery life The batteries inside our smartphones
and laptops are fighting a losing battle when it comes to keeping these devices juiced up
The glass can be used as an electrode material in lithium-ion batteries to almost double the amount of time they last between charges.
Various challenges had to be overcome to find a material that could both store battery capacity effectively
while staying stable enough to be viable for use in modern-day electronics. Chief among these challenges was to harness the potential of vanadium-based compounds
which can take more charge than materials currently used in cathodes but become unstable after a few charge/discharge cycles because of their crystalline structure.
and longer-lasting batteries says Dr Afyon of the motivations behind the research. He added that the vanadate-borate glass compound his team has developed could extend smartphone battery life by 1. 5 to 2 times
and allow electric cars to travel 1. 5 times further though these numbers are still theoretical projections for now.
It's not just gadgets that need better batteries of course: the number of electric cars boats and bikes in operation continues to grow
and it's essential for the future sustainability of the planet that these vehicles are able to cope with the increasing demands being put on them.
What's more wind farms and solar power plants need to be able to store generated electricity effectively for
when it's required another purpose that vanadate-borate glass could potentially be used for. The group's work has been published in full in Scientific Reports
and patents have already been applied for to enable the research to continue further. It could take between 10
or 20 years for the discovery made by Afyon and Nesper to actually appear in a consumer device
but it's good news for those perplexed by rapidly draining battery levels: help is on the way y
#ISAAC robot joins NASA to weave advanced composites The robot revolution continues at NASA this month as its Langley Research center in Hampton,
Virginia prepares to bring its Integrated Structural Assembly of Advanced Composites (ISAAC) robot online. One of only three robots like it in the world,
it will be formally commissioned on January 26 before being put to work making lighter, stronger composite components for aerospace vehicles.
Described as"a paradigm shift, "ISAAC is intended to remove a bottleneck currently hindering work at Langley.
but fabricating composites was not one of its strengths. What was needed was a versatile, flexible machine that can change functions quickly.
disc-like head holding up to 16 spools of various types of carbon-fiber ribbons. This allows ISAAC to not only swap quickly between materials,
The idea is that the ribbons are made up of partially cured resins mixed with carbon fibers.
According to NASA, more conventional composite manufacturing requires these ribbons to be laid down at one of three angles 0 degrees, 45, or 90.
NASA says that this versatility will not only help in creating better composites but it will also speed up the prototyping process As well as ISAAC begins work on the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Advanced Composites Project and the Space technology Mission Directoratecomposites for Exploration Upper Stage,
it will not only be able to create scale models for wind tunnel tests, but even fan blades for the wind tunnel itself.
#Voxel8 paves the way for 3d printed electronics The 3d printers of today can produce objects that may be quite intricate in shape
but by and large these objects are made still solely of dumb plastic. This may be about to change thanks to the Voxel8 a printer presented at CES that makes it much easier to blend plastic conductive ink
and other electronic components in the same object to manufacture highly customizable devices such as your very own quadcopter.
Special conductive inks and the right kind of printers already make it possible to build simple parts with embedded electronics.
The problem with current conductive inks however is that they're not very conductive at all:
Voxel8 a Harvard spin-off founded by professor Jennifer Lewis has designed a new ink that replaces carbon with highly conductive silver particles
and is reportedly five thousand times more conductive making it ideal for carrying higher currents such as those required by small electric motors and other actuators.
and used to reliably interconnect TQFP integrated circuits. The idea is that this new ink will enable users to easily wire together chips
and other electronic components within their 3d printed objects allowing a degree of design freedom that is simply not possible through standard methods of manufacturing.
Using interchangeable cartridges the Voxel8 prints out objects in either PLA plastic or conductive silver ink.
Thanks to its unique software (which was developed specifically by CAD software giant Autodesk and is hosted in the cloud) the printing can also pause at predetermined points
so that users can manually insert the components that will be embedded in their 3d printed objects. As printers go this one appears to be on the higher end of the spectrum with features including a 4. 3-inch touchscreen USB
and Wi-fi connectivity and a kinematically coupled bed that uses magnets to ensure high-precision printing even after the various components are inserted manually.
The XY resolution is 15 microns layer resolution is 200 microns and the device can reportedly print objects up to 4 x 6 x 4 inches (10 x 15 x 10 cm) in size.
The only two printing materials currently supported are standard PLA plastic and the silver conductive ink but the startup has said users will be able to upgrade their printer in the future as more functional
and matrix materials are released. Voxel8 printers are set to begin shipping late this year. The US$8999 standard price tag includes two PLA filament spools and five conductive ink cartridges.
Should you choose to pre-order which entails a $500 deposit you'll get double the printing materials.
The video below demonstrates what the printer can do? including printing a working quadcopter r
#BMW VW join forces to build fast-charging stations for electric cars in US German car companies, BMW and Volkswagen are teaming up with Chargepoint to install a network of fast-charging stations for electric cars in the U s. The companies plan to install nearly 100 Chargepoint ports on the U s. East
and West Coasts by the end of 2015 as part of an effort to promote greater sales of EVS such as the BMW i3 and the VW e-Golf.
Chargepoint operates one of the leading EV charging networks, with more than 20 000 charging ports in North america.
Tom Gage, chairman of EV Grid and an expert in electric vehicle charging infrastructure, said BMW and VW were among the largest vehicle manufacturers to help fund development of the U s. charging network. ost people will rarely use it,
but knowing it is there seems to remove a big purchase barrierfor electric vehicles, said Mr. Gage.
Many EVS have relatively short driving ranges of less than 100 miles between charges. The BMW/VW endeavor follows the establishment by California-based electric car maker Tesla motors Inc of an extensive network of fast-charging stations for its battery-powered Model S sedan.
Tesla Supercharger network where Model S owners can quickly recharge their cars for free, now has nearly 2,
000 ports at more than 350 stations around the world, including 160 in the United states and Canada.
The Supercharger port uses a proprietary design that only works with Tesla cars. The Chargepoint network offers several kinds of ports that will accept SAE Combo connectors an industry standard type used on the i3
and the e-Golf as well as the CHADEMO connector used on the Nissan leaf. The stations will also have Level 2 chargers,
which can recharge most EVS at a much slower rate. BMW and VW said the Chargepoint DC Fast ports will be able to recharge an i3 or an e-Golf up to 80 percent in 20 to 30 minutes.
To access the Chargepoint network, owners need a special card or a Chargepoint smart phone app.
BMW and VW owners are enrolled automatically. VW and BMW are making equal investments in the Chargepoint venture,
but the automakers declined to disclose financial details l
#Roll to roll manufactured decorative solar panels to be 10 times cheaper Based on printing technologies, VTT Technical Centre of Finland has developed
and utilized a mass production method allowing the manufacturing of decorative, organic solar panels. Freedom of design increases the range of panel applications on the surfaces of interior and exterior building spaces.
VTT is also studying the feasibility of printing technology in the mass production of solar panels made from inorganic perovskite materials.
The new mass production method enables to create interior design elements from organic solar panels (OPV, organic photovoltaics) harvesting energy from interior lighting or sunlight for various small devices and sensors that gather information from the environment.
The panels can for example, be placed on windows and walls and on machines, devices and advertisement billboards.
Until now, it has only been possible to pattern OPV panels into a form of stripes.
The solar panel manufactured with VTT gravure and screen printing technologies is only around 0. 2 mm thick,
and includes the electrodes and polymer layers where the light is collected. Furthermore, graphics can be printed to improve its visual appearance.
VTT is also currently examining how well the roll-to-roll printing methods are suited to the manufacturing of inorganic solar panels made from perovskite materials.
The first perovskite solar cells manufactured in the laboratory using solution-based processes have been promising. The performance of this solar cell is roughly five times better than that of an organic photovoltaic cell,
and the material costs can be even ten times lower. Freely designed decorative organic solar panels are applicable also in indoor use to harvest energy from indoor Light production methods are cost-effective
and materials can be recycled after the use. New materials such as perovskite can be printed with same methods and increase efficiency in future.
VTT has proven the feasibility of the method in its own pilot manufacturing unit, using commercially available materials.
VTT is commercialising this manufacturing technology with different operators, and is actively seeking new final-stage appliers of the technology.
The research scientists have tested the feasibility of the method by printing leaf-shaped photovoltaic cells. Active surface of a one leaf is 0 0144 m2
and includes connections and a decorative part. Two hundred OPV leaves make one square metre of active solar panel surface that generates 3. 2 amperes of electricity with 10.4 watts of power at Mediterranean latitudes.
Organic solar panels are flexible and light, but their efficiency is lower compared to conventional, rigid silicon-based solar panels.
The solar panels are manufactured with printing machines based on conventional printing methods using the roll-to-roll method,
which enables the rapid mass production of the products: the printing machine can produce up to 100 metres of layered film per minute.
The manufacturing of the OPV cells is affordable; the material consumption is low, and after use, the OPV panels can be recycled.
The market for organic photovoltaic cells is developing, with a market breakthrough expected within three years.
The operating life of panel is few years which is enough for many applications. VTT is also developing a method to utilize light in wireless data transfer by using solar cells as data receivers.
This will open new application possibilities to utilize printable solar cells e g. in Iot (Internet of things) type applications, in
which the devices can also harvest energy from the ambient light. The first results have been very promising g
#Polymer gel that stores light energy A team led by Nicolas Giuseppone, professor at the Université de Strasbourg,
at CNRS Institut Charles Sadron, has developed a polymer gel that is able to contract through the action of artificial molecular motors.
When activated by light, these nanoscale motors twist the polymer chains in the gel, which as a result contracts by several centimeters.
Another advantage is that the new material is able to store the light energy absorbed. In biology, molecular motors are highly complex protein assemblies that can produce work by consuming energy:
they take part in fundamental biological functions such as copying DNA andprotein synthesis, and underlie all motion processes.
Individually, these motors only operate overdistances in the region of a nanometer. However, when millions of them join up they can work in a completely coordinated way,
and their action can have an effect at the macroscale. Chemists have sought for many decades to produce this type of motion using artificial motors.
To achieve this, the researchers at Institut Charles Sadron replaced a gel reticulation points, which cross-link the polymer chains to each other, by rotating molecular motors made up of two parts that can turn relative to each other when provided with energy.
For the first time they succeeded in getting the motors to work in a coordinated and continuous manner, right up to the macroscale:
as soon as the motors are activated by light they twist the polymer chains in the gel, which makes it contract.
Just as in living systems, the motors consume energy in order to produce continuous motion. However, this light energy is dissipated not totally:
it is turned into mechanical energy through the twisting of the polymer chains, and stored in the gel.
If the material is exposed to light for a long time, the amount of energy contained in the contraction of the polymer chains becomes very high,
and can even trigger a sudden rupture of the gel. The researchers at Institut Charles Sadron are
therefore now attempting to take advantage of this new way of storing light energy, and reuse it in a controlled manner e
#Justice department making it harder for cops to seize your assets The U s. Justice department announced today that state
and local police will no longer be able to use a federal law that allowed the seizure of assets of people for only believing a crime was committed.
The Washington post reports that changes announced by Attorney general Eric holder ould eliminate virtually all cash and vehicle seizures made by local and state police from the program.
Federal agencies shared in the proceeds under the program, called quitable Sharing. Civil forfeiture gained a great deal criticism in 2014 after attention was called to the fact that law enforcement can legally seize private property
if they so much as believe that property was used in the commission of a crime not after a successful conviction.
The law began in the 1970s as part of the early War on Drugs, and while it has spiked in recent years ostensibly to fight terrorism,
instead it led to local police lining their general funds with cash, cars and other assets seized for dubious reasons.
Often these seizures occurred after traffic stops for minor infractions. In training seminars, some investigators even copped to having ish listsfor cars they wanted to seize.
And since 2001, police have made cash seizures alone worth almost $2. 5 billion from drivers and others without search warrants
the Post reports. And then the onus is on the owners of the property to prove in court that it wasn used for crime,
which can be a lengthy and expensive process. Holder announcement limits police ability to use the federal law to make such seizures,
but they can still be done under state or local law. And they still do quite a bit of it:
Joint federal and local investigations accounted for just 9 percent of all seizures but 43 percent of the value of all seizures.
Local and state seizures without federal participation amounted to 57 percent of the dollar value of the seized items under Equitable Sharing since 2008$3 billion out of $5. 3 billon.
But it definitely progress, and that a good thing. Holder seems to think it will help:
#Gelatin Nanoparticles could Deliver Drugs to your Brain Stroke victims could have more time to seek treatment that could reduce harmful effects on the brain thanks to tiny blobs of gelatin that could deliver the medication to the brain non-invasively.
University of Illinois researchers and colleagues in South korea led by U. of I. electrical and computer engineering senior research scientist Hyungsoo Choi and professor Kyekyoon#Kevin#Kim published details about the gelatin
nanoparticles in the journal Drug Delivery and Translational Research. The researchers found that gelatin nanoparticles could be laced with medications for delivery to the brain
and that they could extend the treatment window for when a drug could be effective.
Gelatin is biocompatible biodegradable and classified as#Generally Recognized as Safe#by the Food and Drug Administration.
Once administered the gelatin nanoparticles target damaged brain tissue thanks to an abundance of gelatin-munching enzymes produced in injured regions.
Illinois professor Kyekyoon#Kevin#Kim graduate student Elizabeth Joachim and researchscientist Hyungsoo Choi developed tiny gelatin nanoparticles that can carry medicationto the brain which could lead to longer
treatment windows for stroke patients. The tiny gelatin particles have a huge benefit: They can be administered nasally a noninvasive and direct route to the brain.
This allows the drug to bypass the blood-brain barrier a biological fence that prevents the vast majority of drugs from entering the brain through the bloodstream.#
#Overcoming the difficulty of delivering therapeutic agents to specific regions of the brain presents a major challenge to treatment of most neurological disorders#said Choi.#
#However if drug substances can be transferred along the olfactory nerve cells they can bypass the blood-brain barrier
#To test gelatin nanoparticles as a drug-delivery system the researchers used the drug osteopontin (OPN)
However a significant number of stroke victims don t get to the hospital in time for the treatment#Kim said.
By lacing gelatin nanoparticles with OPN the researchers found that they could extend the treatment window in rats so much
so that treating a rat with nanoparticles six hours after a stroke showed the same efficacy rate as giving them OPN alone after one hour#70 percent recovery of dead volume in the brain.
The researchers hope the gelatin nanoparticles administered through the nasal cavity can help deliver other drugs to more effectively treat a variety of brain injuries and neurological diseases.#
#Gelatin nanoparticles are a delivery vehicle that could be used to deliver many therapeutics to the brain#Choi said.#
In addition they can be used for drugs of high toxicity or a short half-life.##Both Choi and Kim are members of the Micro and Nano technology Laboratory at the U. of
I. Kim is affiliated also with the Neuroscience Program the Institute for Genomic Biology the Beckman Institute and the departments of bioengineering of materials science and engineering and of nuclear plasma and radiological engineering at the U. of I d
#Abusive Spouses are Using Spyware to Track their Victims The use of surveillance software by abusive spouses to monitor the phones
and computers of their partners secretly has reached pidemic proportionsand police are ill-equipped to tackle it,
Helplines and women refuge charities have reported a dramatic rise in the use of spyware apps to eavesdrop on the victims of domestic violence via their mobiles and other electronic devices,
The Independent has established that one device offering the ability to spy on phones is being sold by a major British high-street retailer via its website.
The proliferation of software packages, many of which are marketed openly as tools for covertly tracking a heating wife
has prompted concern that police and the criminal justice system in Britain are failing to understand the extent of the problem and tackle offenders.
or harassed using electronic devices. A second study this year by the Digital Trust, which helps victims of online stalking,
or former partner, using Christmas or birthday presents such as phones, computers and toys pre-loaded with spyware to infiltrate a target home.
Polly Neate, chief executive of Women Aid, told The Independent: omestic abuse is about control and perpetrators will use any means available to maintain
and increase their control. e increasingly hear stories of abusers adding tracking software to phones,
placing spyware on personal computers and using the internet to gather information about their partner. Many software packages are marketed openly as tools for covertly tracking a heating wife
or girlfriendand cost less than £50 Many software packages are marketed openly as tools for covertly tracking a heating wife
or girlfriendand cost less than £50 (Rex) owever, in many cases the police are trained not to recognise
and understand the impact of online abuse, including tracking, and action is taken rarely against abusers.
Campaigners are concerned particularly at the insidious nature of spyware, which once installed on a computer
or smartphone is virtually untraceable to the user. Nearly all offer a GPS tracking function,
allowing the user to pinpoint an individual to within a few metres, as well as covert access to keystrokes, texts, pictures and emails.
The Independent has been told of a case where a woman had a conversation she had held with a friend on her mobile played back to her by her partner,
who had bugged her phone with spyware. He then told her he had connections with criminals
and had had killed people. In another incident an abusive husband managed to gain access to his spouse ebay account using spyware
and found a delivery address. He then lay in wait and attacked his wife in an assault so vicious that she lost sight in one eye.
The software is being used routinely to exert psychological pressure or for harassment, allowing controlling or potentially violent men to confront their victims over their movements.
In failed relationships, tales are rife of email accounts being hacked to send abusive messages to a spouse friends or employer.
The tracking packages are widely available on the internet with many marketed as ways for employers to monitor the movements of their workers
or for parents to check electronically on the whereabouts of their children. But others openly boast that they can detect infidelity.
One product, Flexispy, is marketed with a heavy emphasis on what it describes as the superior ability of women to lie.
lexispy lets you conduct pycalls remotely activating the phone microphone to listen in on its surroundings. This is particularly useful once you confirm she not actually where she told you she was.
the eavesdropping technology is also available in Britain through specialist retailers and also the website of the high-street electronics retailer Maplin.
The company has been marketing a ell phone spy softwaredevice sold for £99. 99 with the ability o monitor SMS text messages,
emails and calls and also keep track of a mobile phone location The website of the manufacturer, Cell Phone Recon,
states that the user of the targeted mobile device will not see the application running. The product listing featured a question from a customer stating she wanted to use the software to spy on her partner texts.
Maplin reply stated: nstalling on the phone is very fast and simple, you will be able to read all texts sent
and received in full. After it was contacted by The Independent, Maplin changed the description of the device to ell phone backup softwareand amended the answer to the customer question to make it clear that it should only be used with the permission of a phone owner.
In a statement, the company said: his product is a brilliant piece of innovation and,
gives users peace of mind. Maplin does not condone using any of its products surreptitiously or as a means of tracking people without their consent and recommends that the product is used legally. hilst
I am not aware of significant levels of reporting to the police, we are determined to support all those affected by coercive and threatening behaviour. o
#Millennials and the Potential Fall of American Cities Three seismic shifts, in housing, transportation and employment, deserve blame for the fall of the American city.
Skyscrapers, our most visible icons of employment, have continued to sprout even in otherwise dead downtowns like Hartford and Little rock.
Even during America recent urban renaissance streetcars, apartment buildings and farmers markets, oh my! the centrifugal force in job growth has reversed not.
In all but nine of the largest 100 U s. metro areas, the share of employment located downtown declined during the first decade of the millennium.
work and infrastructure out of the American city was interconnected a deeply process. If it can be reversed, the return of residents,
it looks increasingly like employment is lagging behind. If youe looking for evidence of a shift toward urban life
the data in housing is probably the strongest. The country is building more apartment buildings than at any time in decades,
which is believed to portend a long-term structural shift. Most large U s. cities have gained residents since the 1990s, reversing decades of population loss.
According to Pew findings from this summer, the nation is deadlocked virtually between preferring a community where he houses are larger and farther apart,
and one where he houses are smaller and closer to each other, but schools, stores and restaurants are within walking distance.
American Community Survey data, crunched by City Observatory, reveals that the number of college-educated young adults (ages 25 to 34) living within three miles of city centers has risen 37 percent since the millennium.
Non-automobile transportation, meanwhile, is mixed a bag. Cycling is surging as a commuter method. Adjusted for population growth,
total miles driven has fallen for nine straight years. And yet, transit ridership per capita is virtually the same now as it was in 1975.
Eric Jaffe reports that young people are actually commuting by car at a slightly greater rate than they were in 1980.
St louis, Minneapolis, Baltimore, San antonio and San diego car commuting is more popular than it used to be.
because these places registered some of the largest percent increases in college-educated millennials living downtown between 2000 and 2010:
Whatever reat inversionmay be occurring in housing choices is emphatically not happening in employment geography.
Employment, however, ain where it used to be. prawling development patterns are very difficult for any mode of transportation besides the automobile,
says Adie Tomer at Brookings. t leaves millennials or really any other worker with limited accessibility options if they decide not to use a car.
The great outward migration of jobs, deftly chronicled by Kenneth T. Jackson in rabgrass Frontier,
Delaware, 66 percent of jobs were located in the core city in 1940. By 1970, its share had fallen below one in four.
Philadelphia lost 140,000 jobs between 1970 and 1980, many from shuttered factories. But standard office work followed executives out of the city, too.
Over a period of 25 years, between 1955 and 1980, more than 50 corporations left New york city, including IBM, Gulf Oil, Texaco, Union carbide, General Telephone, Xerox, Pepsico and U s. Tobacco.
For most of American urban history, people followed jobs, living beneath clouds of factory smoke or in cramped quarters near bustling ports.
But the transportation revolution from the horse-drawn omnibus to the private car, untied that knot.
Most people can now live miles from work. Suburban office parks joined corporate campuses, malls and semirural factories to create a donut of employment around the old city.
Jobs followed people. In response, cities have dished out corporate welfare with abandon. There are anecdotal signs that some jobs will indeed return:
The rebirth of national retail in urban areas, for example, is a promising development commercial vacancy rates are now much lower than in the suburbs.
Corporate giants like Motorola, Coca-cola and Yahoo have made well-publicized moves toward downtown Chicago, Atlanta and San francisco (respectively) to attract
But in large, the boom in core city employment hasn materialized. The result of this mismatch between urban living
and urban employment is a new culture of city life, where leisure is king and work outside of restaurants,
stores and bars is nowhere to be seen. This shift is particularly evident in formerly mixed-use neighborhoods
where factories become art galleries, warehouses become lofts, and storefronts that were once spaces of production (craftsmen,
tailors and so on) become places to consume food, beer and goods produced in factories far away. To take one indicative example:
The Homestead steel mill, across the river from Pittsburgh, is now a mall e
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