We've constructed a world out of fibre optic cable and silicon, but Arizona State University researchers think their new material can do better. They have synthesised a new kind of single-crystal nanowire from a compound of erbium - a material generally used to dope fibre optic cables to amplify their signals - and they claim it could increase the speed of the Internet, spawn a new generation of computers, and improve photovoltaic solar cells, sensor technologies, and solid-state lighting.
Today in relatively obscure but nonetheless meaningful scientific pursuits: two researchers at the Max-Planck Institute claim to have turned hydrogen into metal. That may seem unremarkable, but the fact is hydrogen - being an alkali metal - should exhibit the qualities of a metal under the right circumstances. Yet no one has ever coaxed the universe's most abundant element into showing metallic qualities until now. Perhaps.
For years, battery designers have been looking for the next big thing in energy storage technology that could replace the lithium-ion batteries currently found in everything from laptops to smartphones to cars. It turns out they may have simply needed to rethink the existing li-ion battery. Northwestern University researchers have re-engineered a lithium-ion battery that can hold ten times the charge of current batteries on the market, and can charge ten times faster.
The James Dyson Award winners for 2011 have been announced, and the grand prize winner is a piece of clever biomimicry that sits so perfectly in our wheelhouse that we couldn't resist the urge to write about it. Edward Linacre of Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne has tapped the Namib beetle - a desert dwelling species that survives in the most arid conditions on Earth - to create an irrigation system that can pull liquid moisture straight out of dry desert air.
When Roy Buol stepped into the mayor's office of the city of Dubuque in 2005, he did so with a handful of imperatives. There were the needs of his citizens, who throughout his campaign had voiced concerns on issues like public transit, green space, water quality, and recycling. There was the need to live up to his campaign message, which centered on engaging citizens as partners in the administration of the city. And then there were his private concerns about the larger world.
We detect the faint spice of irony in the tale of a supercomputer whose day-job consists of both searching for new reservoirs of fossil fuels while also running modelling simulations on the impacts of climate change. And yet, that's the life of Franklin, the American supercomputer housed at theNational Energy Research Scientific Computing Centre in California.