#Analyzing gold and steel--rapidly, precisely Optical emission spectrometers are used widely in the steel industry but the instruments currently employed are relatively large and bulky.
Jewelers in India are required by law to test the purity of gold using an optical emission spectrometer that analyzes the composition of the metal on the basis of the emitted light spectrum.
But goldsmiths are not the only users of these instruments the tools are more frequently found in steel foundries
and car factories where they help engineers to determine the characteristics of steel materials analyze their chemical composition
In order to analyze a piece of steel for example it has to generate sparks at regular intervals.
which it is possible to derive information on the composition of the steel sample. Experts refer to this result as a space-resolved measurement.
used X-ray crystallography to capture a three-dimensional structure of one of the conformations revealed in the Science paper.
"The antibodies used in the crystallography study are ones that we observed to stop the dance of the HIV envelope proteins,
and X-ray crystallography--can work hand in hand to help scientists describe the functions of molecules from the perspective motion,
and abetted by gelatinous sticky polymers produced by seaweed reports a research team headed by a UC Davis veterinary infectious-disease expert.
Using the parasite Toxoplasma gondii as a model they showed how these sticky polymers increase the chance that disease-causing organisms would be picked up by marine snails
Findings from the new study will be published Oct 8 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Discovering the role that these invisible polymers play in disease transmission in the ocean is a tremendous step forward in helping us better understand
In laboratory tests the researchers discovered that the gelatinous polymers excreted by seaweed act in two ways to provide an environment conducive to transmission of infectious diseases.
First the polymers act like glue binding together waterborne organic material into larger particles in
Secondly the polymers help to form sticky biofilms which can trap the T. gondii egg cells and coat kelp on which marine snails graze.
#How metallic alloys reorganize during microscale laser melting processes: Elements of successful connections High-power lasers that can selectively cut
Researchers investigating the feasibility of 3d-printed implant materials often turn to magnesium-aluminum (Mg-Al) alloys
Recently, the A*STAR team demonstrated that laser surface melting of these alloys enhances their corrosion resistance as a result of a notable enhancement in the surface concentration of aluminum.
however, to make the link between the initial alloy composition and the final product after laser processing,
which molten alloy elements are ejected into the laser plume. They positioned a thin silicon substrate perpendicular to a Mg-Al-based alloy a few millimeters from the laser firing point.
Laser pulses then generated a plume that deposited onto the silicon surface. When the researchers used a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to examine the deposits,
Zeng said the prototype lab-on-a-chip is made of a widely used silicone rubber called polydimethylsiloxane and uses a technique called on-chip immunoisolation.
and polyurethane paint to melt ice on sensitive military radar domes, which need to be kept clear of ice to keep them at peak performance.
but can be used to coat glass and plastic as well as radar domes and antennas. This scanning electron microscope image shows a closeup of the nanoribbon network in Rice university's high-density graphene nanoribbon film.
the nanoribbons were mixed with polyurethane, but testing showed the graphene nanoribbons themselves formed an active network when applied directly to a surface.
They were coated subsequently with a thin layer of polyurethane for protection. Samples were spread onto glass slides that were iced then.
#Researchers develop harder ceramic for armor windows The Department of defense needs materials for armor windows that provide essential protection for both personnel
With the highest reported hardness for spinel NRL's nanocrystalline spinel demonstrates that the hardness of transparent ceramics can be increased simply by reducing the grain size to 28 nanometers.
Sintering is a common method used to create large ceramic and metal components from powders.
and reposition nanoparticles very close to each other to help eliminate porosity in the sintered ceramic. NRL researchers then can exploit the increased surface potential of nanoparticles for surface energy-driven densification without coarsening.
when you make a ceramic material nanocrystalline. However in their work the NRL researchers have shown that the fracture resistance does not change suggesting that nanocrystalline ceramics can have an equivalent toughness to microcrystalline ceramics
which is important for high window lifetimes. The Hall-Petch relationship has been used to describe the phenomenon where a material's strength
However prior experimental work had shown a breakdown in this relationship (where hardness starts reducing with decreasing grain size) for certain ceramics at 130 nanometers.
#New Technique Increases Nanofiber Production Rate Fourfold Nanofibers polymer filaments only a couple of hundred nanometers in diameter have a huge range of potential applications, from solar cells
In the first, a polymer solution is pumped through a small nozzle, and then a strong electric field stretches it out.
The cones are dipped in a polymer solution, and the electric field causes the solution to travel to the top of the cones,
and a dissolved polymer. When an electrode is mounted opposite the sawteeth and a voltage applied between them,
the water-ethanol mixture streams upward, dragging chains of polymer with it. The water and ethanol quickly dissolve, leaving a tangle of polymer filaments opposite each emitter, on the electrode.
The researchers were able to pack 225 emitters, several millimeters long, on a square chip about 35 millimeters on a side.
an ion crystal essentially, a grid of charged atoms in order to study friction effects, atom by atom.
To generate the ion crystal, the group used light to ionize, or charge, neutral ytterbium atoms emerging from a small heated oven,
and pull the ion crystal across the lattice, as well as to stretch and squeeze the ion crystal,
much like an accordion, altering the spacing between its atoms. An earthquake and a caterpillarin general, the researchers found that
when atoms in the ion crystal were spaced regularly, at intervals that matched the spacing of the optical lattice, the two surfaces experienced maximum friction,
when the ion crystal as a whole is dragged across the optical lattice, the atoms first tend to stick in the lattice troughs,
If enough force is applied, the ion crystal suddenly slips, as the atoms collectively jump to the next trough. t like an earthquake,
and squeeze the ion crystal to manipulate the arrangement of atoms, and discovered that if the atom spacing is mismatched from that of the optical lattice,
the crystal tends not to stick then suddenly slip, but to move fluidly across the optical lattice,
as the ion crystal is pulled across the optical lattice, one atom may slide down a peak a bit,
creating a stronger artificial muscle that they then placed inside a floating plastic case topped with shutters.
speculating that an improved version with stickier plastic tape and more spores could potentially generate even more power per unit area than a wind farm.
says Yet-Ming Chiang, the Kyocera Professor of Ceramics at MIT and a cofounder of 24m (and previously a cofounder of battery company A123).
which interact with each other within the silica fiber optic cables. The researchers note that this approach could be used in systems with far more communication channels.
Quantum dots, a type of nanocrystals discovered in the early 1980s, are made by combining metals such as lead
senior author Robert J. Wood, Charles river Professor of Engineering and Applied sciences at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of engineering and Applied sciences (SEAS) and core faculty member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired
said Wood. The co-first author of the paper is Michael Tolley of the University of California
There is currently a big push to make lower-cost solar cells using plastics rather than silicon,
The two components that make the UCLA-developed system work are a polymer donor and a nanoscale fullerene acceptor.
The polymer donor absorbs sunlight and passes electrons to the fullerene acceptor; the process generates electrical energy.
The plastic materials, called organic photovoltaics, are organized typically like a plate of cooked pasta a disorganized mass of long, skinny polymer paghettiwith random fullerene eatballs.
because the electrons sometimes hop back to the polymer spaghetti and are lost. The UCLA technology arranges the elements more neatly like small bundles of uncooked spaghetti with precisely placed meatballs.
The fullerenes inside the structure take electrons from the polymers and toss them to the outside fullerene
which can effectively keep the electrons away from the polymer for weeks. hen the charges never come back together,
Brandl had synthesized previously polymers that could be cleaved apart by exposure to UV light. But he and Bertrand came to question their suitability for drug delivery,
because we saw that the particles aggregate once you irradiate them with UV light. trap for ater-fearingpollutionthe researchers synthesized polymers from polyethylene glycol,
and polylactic acid, a biodegradable plastic used in compostable cups and glassware. Nanoparticles made from these polymers have a hydrophobic core and a hydrophilic shell.
Due to molecular-scale forces in a solution hydrophobic pollutant molecules move toward the hydrophobic nanoparticles,
In that case, both the plastic and the oil-based sauce are hydrophobic and interact together.
hormone-disrupting chemicals used to soften plastics, from wastewater; BPA, another endocrine-disrupting synthetic compound widely used in plastic bottles and other resinous consumer goods, from thermal printing paper samples;
and the polymers are biodegradable, minimizing the risks of leaving toxic secondary products to persist in,
from environmental remediation to medical analysis. The polymers are synthesized at room temperature, and don need to be prepared specially to target specific compounds;
a renewable fermentation process that seeks to act as a partial replacement for the an oil-based processes that goes into making synthetic rubber.
a technology that replaces the oil-based feedstock for part of the synthetic rubber-making process with renewable biomass.
For an idea of the impact, consider that approximately 50 percent of consumer tires are made from polymers
The closest printer to me, for example, is a Prusa Mendel I2 that uses#ABS Plastic in numerous colors.
And unlike the Miseq, both the PGM and 454 have problems with accuracy concerning homopolymers,
electric scooters and more Can this polystyrene pedal-powered plane break world records? Solar group to World bank:
works with any material except for metal, meaning almost any surface at home or in a business space could be designed to deliver power.
The new plastic is made from mushrooms Poking around in my mom s attic recently, I was reminded that I still have the shipping box from my Macintosh SE,
But the equally colossal pieces of Styrofoam that protected the computer in shipping more than two decades ago are gone long,
a patent-pending technology that uses a growing organism and byproducts from food production (oat hulls from New york, cotton hulls from Texas and rice hulls from Arkansas) to create a strong composite material.
You say Styrofoam is one of the biggest culprits in our landfills, taking up 25 percent of the space.
We talk about Styrofoam because of how it s used, and that s in a highly disposable way.
You have this polymer that s made from carcinogenic compounds like benzene and it will last up to 10,000 years.
We have a plastic that s alive a living polymer. Our vision is to replace plastics where ever they don t make sense
which could even be your computer or TV. Steelcase one of the largest office furniture makers in the world--they ve been really happy with Ecocradle,
It's like a conventional plastic, but it s alive. It has a five-day growth period.
There s a lot of places where we can just replace Styrofoam. That s our first-generation technology.
We see using it for all sorts of plastic material like the hard plastic around your TV.
made from plant-based polymers, comes into contact with blood. Vetigel cofounder, Joe Landolina, started working on the project
which was to use a polymer to seal up a wound very quickly. In the beginning I wasn expecting that the polymer itself would be able to quickly stop bleeds.
We realized that if we put it onto a wound something really remarkable would happenwhich is that it would actually change shape,
#A Tunable Liquid Metal Antennas for Tuning in to Anything Tuning in is getting to be complicated a thing.
a liquid metal antenna that can continuously adapt to different wavelengths by changing its length inside a capillary.
Instead of external pumps, the NC State researchers used a voltage to control the amount of liquid metal allowed to flow into a capillary.
Michael Dickey, a chemical engineer at NC State, discovered that a voltage across the interface of a liquid metal,
such as an alloy of gallium and indium, combined with an electrolyte could cause the liquid metal to spread
or to contract, depending on whether the voltage is positive or negative. A positive voltage causes the formation of an oxide layer on the metal,
lowering the surface tension and allowing it to flow easily, while a negative voltage removes this oxide layer,
causing the metal to contract, resisting flow. The researchers used the electrochemical control of the fluidity of the liquid metal to coax it into and out of a capillary.
Their setup resembled a fever thermometer, where the length of the mercury column in a capillary is controlled by the thermal expansion of the mercury in a reservoir connected to the capillary.
For centimeter-wavelengths, liquid metal antennas would remain separate elements in the circuitry, but for millimeter waves they could be integrated on microfluidic chips,
In the lab, ionic liquid was applied to the cellulose fibers, causing the biopolymer to swell, and the individual polymer chains to start separating.
At this point instead of allowing the material to completely dissolve, the ionic liquid was mixed with carbon particles,
and then attached them to gold metal electrodes of differing sizes. The results were impressive.
they used much smaller fibers. f you chop down the wood into nanosize fibers, you find that the fibers are single crystals.
If you put this material together to make a substrate, it becomes very strongtronger than the paper we use,
placing the heating element inside a metal box that reflects back most of the infrared energy,
While polymer coatings have been used to achieve more or less this same effect, the polymers degrade rapidly. Even worse, the polymer coatings are sometimes so thick that they actually pose a bigger problem to the heat transfer than the films they are supposed to be combating.
After testing the material in an environment of pure water vapor at 100 degrees Celsius the researcher found that the graphene coating offered a fourfold improvement in heat transfer compared to bare metal.
The MIT researchers have calculated also that these numbers could be improved to a five to seven times improvement by optimizing temperature differences in the system.
a polymer coating solution started to degrade in the environment within three hours and completely failed within 12.
and graphene-based on-chip optical communications. n work published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology researchers suspended graphene above a silicon substrate by attaching it to two metal electrodes
The grids linked to two metal edestalsthat jutted out of Sorto skull. Within one month of surgery, Sorto was ready to get to work.
it a hoto batterywhere the anode itself is made of titanium nitride and ambient light. Under artificial light, this prototype battery has a capacity of 77.8 mah/g. Itl quite happily power a small fan or LED light for about 30 seconds,
Instead of a periodic structure of metal, which absorbs light, they use two dielectric materials, a Teflon substrate studded with cylinders made of a ceramic.
The ceramic has a high refractive index, and the Teflon has a low refractive index. When combined, they create a metamaterial, capable of bending light in unusual ways.
The team also varied the height of the cylinders by a small amount, in a pattern devised by their computer.
Reeds naturally absorb silica from the soil, which accumulates in sheetlike structures around micro-compartments in the plants.
The only exotic component is the carbon nanotube aerogel sheet used for the fiber sheath
#The First White Laser Scientists and engineers at Arizona State university, in Tempe, have created the first lasers that can shine light over the full spectrum of visible colors.
Growing such mismatched crystals right next to each other often results in fatal defects throughout each of these materials.
But now scientists say theye overcome that problem The heart of the new device is a sheet only nanometers thick made of a semiconducting alloy of zinc, cadmium, sulfur, and selenium.
The researchers grew this alloy in stages, carefully varying the temperature and other growth conditions over time.
they ensured that these different crystals could coexist. The scientists can individually target each segment of the nanosheet with a light pulse.
#Spintronic Devices Possible Without Magnetic material Spintronics, which has offered a promising alternative to electronics, may have just been given a boost that moves it from mere promise to likely future backbone of computing.
A young researcher at Argonne National Laboratory has stumbled upon the amazing discovery that a magnetic material may not be required
You can use either a paramagnetic metal or a paramagnetic insulator to do it now. c
These small plastic spinning pieces cost almost nothing and keep hundreds or thousands of dollars of advanced technology from cooking itself.
Finally, you can use it with private cloud infrastructure services including virtual machines, bare metal and Openstack.
This is actually an interchangeable piece of plastic that determines the color nkused for the digital notes,
and crafty composition hin layers of plastic topped and tailed with conductive film so there no mechanical gullies to harvest the crumbs of your lunch.
By pairing a piece of plastic with an inexpensive smartphone ophthalmologists are able to address eye care problems anywhere in the world.
It mounted on a thick steel post, and equipped with a tracking mechanism that continuously points it at the sun. The slab is made of over 100,000 small lenses
Right now Roost has a working prototype in a plastic box about the size of an external hard drive;
and plastic but they were stiff and painful. Yet Herr found that he could still excel in the vertical world of rock climbing.
and plastic molds of human feet. At the center of the space is raised a platform with a treadmill and a set of hip-high parallel bars.
#Shape-Shifting Carbon Composites Could Save Fuel Airbus and researchers at MIT are developing shape-shifting materials that could make aircraft simpler and lighter potentially saving fuel.
Made of carbon fiber composites the materials shift between two or more shapes in response to changes in heat air pressure or other environmental factors.
First most shape-shifting materials don t use carbon composites which are common in aircraft because of their light weight and high strength.
And though others have worked on carbon composites that can respond to a specific stimulus such as heat Cros says in the new approach the carbon composites can be paired with a variety of shape-shifting materials that respond to different environmental triggers.
Another advantage to the new approach is that it doesn t require the electrical connections some other shape-changing composites need.
Skylar Tibbits director of MIT s Self-Assembly Laboratory begins with novel carbon fiber composites developed by the startup Carbitex based in Kennewick Washington.
Most carbon fiber composites are rigid: the glue that holds the fibers together known as matrix doesn t allow them to bend.
Some result in carbon composites that are floppy like a cotton sheet. Others are springy like a sheet of metal.
As they change they force the carbon composite on which they re deposited to bend
He and his colleagues are developing design software that simulates the way different patterns of these materials printed onto different kinds of composite materials will behave under different conditions.
or even reduce the glare during a snowfall by distributing light between snowflakes. Improving the ability to drive in the dark
The sensors developed at another lab at Harvard include embedded channels filled with a conductive liquid that changes in resistivity as the silicone is stretched.
Some are waxy some like salt crystals. He points to a gap in the rows of vials where a vial is conspicuously missing.
and joints they could make ceramics metals and other materials that can recover after being crushed like a sponge.
Ceramics for example are strong but also heavy so they can t be used as structural materials where weight is critical##for example in the bodies of cars.
And when ceramics fail they tend to fail catastrophically shattering like glass. But at the nanoscale the same rules do not apply.
In this size range the structural and mechanical properties of ceramics become less tied to properties such as weight
For ceramics smaller is tougher says Greer who was named one of MIT Technology Review s 35 Innovators Under 35 in 2008 for her work on nanoscale mechanics.
Greer worked with the company to characterize the material and later chose to take on the greater challenge of making ceramics with similar properties.
First they use this method to create the desired structure a lattice out of a polymer.
The polymer lattice is coated then with a ceramic such as alumina. Oxygen plasma etches out the polymer leaving behind a lattice of hollow ceramic tubes.
Greer s lab showed that by changing the thickness of the tube walls it s possible to control how the material fails.
When the walls are thick the ceramic shatters under pressure as expected. But trusses with thinner walls just 10 nanometers thick buckle
The new materials might be particularly interesting for use in batteries notes Nicholas Fang a mechanical engineer at MIT who is also working on nanostructured ceramics.
They first laminate a sheet of plastic to glass and then deposit the materials for the pixels and the electronics on top of both.
and afterwards the plastic, together with display and electronic components, is lifted off the glass. Manufacturers have known how to do this for years.
While the lithium-polymer batteries used in smartphones today are somewhat flexible they can survive being bent many times.
The design uses new materials from Light Polymers, a startup based in South San francisco. In an LCD,
Technology presented by Light Polymers at the 2014 Emerging Display Technologies conference in San jose this week could allow switching in less than 60 microseconds.
Marc Mcconnaughey, CEO of Light Polymers, says the company materials are being evaluated by flat-panel display manufacturers.
Chernev and co aim to start by analysing the resonances of each of the monomer
The signatures from these should provide a kind of alphabet from which to work out the resonances of more complex polymers.
and the large amount of steel and concrete needed to keep the apparatus steady makes the approach expensive.
The conventional approach to making sheets of sapphire is to saw a large crystal of the materialay 40 centimeters acrossnto wafers a few hundred micrometers thick.
causing the metal to migrate into the holes, forming an electrical connection between the electrodes.
Imprint Energy, of Alameda, California, has been testing its ultrathin zinc-polymer batteries in wrist-worn devices
Ho developed a solid polymer electrolyte that avoids this problem, and also provides greater stability,
#A Cleaner, Cheaper Way to Make Metals In lab space across from a yoga studio in an office park in Natick, Massachusetts,
Adam Powell holds up a brilliant white ceramic tube that he says is the key to making the production of many widely used metals significantly cheaper
While Infinium approach can be used to produce other metals, including magnesium and aluminum, the company is starting with rare earths
and high costs and environmental challenges have prevented companies from processing rare earth ore to make metals domestically.
transforming partially processed oresetal oxidesnto metals. This can be done by immersing the oxides in a bath of molten salt and running electricity through the mixture.
and separating rare earth oxides from other materials in the ore (other new processes are being developed to address those issuesee he Rare-Earth Crisis. But for metals such as aluminum and magnesium,
Making these metals much cheaper could, for one thing, transform car-making. Parts made of these metals weigh far less than the steel parts ordinarily used in cars,
while being just as strong. The weight savings could reduce fuel consumption by 10 percent, according to an auto industry consortium.
If the ceramic doesn last the company may not have a cost advantage. Finding an alternative to carbon has long been the reamof the metals industry,
says Donald Sadoway, a professor of materials science at MIT who is not involved with the company. believe Infinium technology is sound.
If it produces a good metal at a lower cost, people will be interested. l
#Military Funds Brain-Computer Interfaces to Control Feelings Researcher Jose Carmena has worked for years training macaque monkeys to move computer cursors and robotic limbs with their minds.
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