LSU researchers are exploring new ways to use the oldest energy source on our planet—sunlight—to create truly green energy on demand. You’ve already heard of solar cells and solar panels, but David Vinyard, assistant professor in LSU’s Department of Biological Sciences, is looking at another method of harnessing the power of the sun: Photosynthesis. The […]
Technology
Novel form of graphene-based optical material developed
Researchers at the University of Sydney, Swinburne University of Technology and the Australian National University have collaborated to develop a solar absorbing, ultrathin film with unique properties that has great potential for use in solar thermal energy harvesting. The 90-nanometre material is 1000 times finer than a human hair and can be rapidly heated up to 160 […]
Materials science is helping to transform China into a high-tech economy
By the time Dawei Zhang’s study visa to the United States had been renewed, it was too late. The 29-year-old materials scientist was back in China with his wife and son, ready to begin a postdoc at the University of Science and Technology Beijing — one of the country’s leading materials institutes. The delay had […]
Researchers find Americans set their thermostat to match African environmental temperatures
A team of researchers at North Carolina State University has found that people living in the United States tend to set their thermostats to temperatures that mimic natural environmental conditions in parts of Africa. In their paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, the group describes their study, which involved installing sensors in […]
One transistor for all purposes
In mobiles, fridges, planes – transistors are everywhere. But they often operate only within a restricted current range. LMU physicists have now developed an organic transistor that functions perfectly under both low and high currents. Transistors are semiconductor devices that control voltage and currents in electrical circuits. To reduce economic and environmental costs, electronic devices […]
Physicists reverse time using quantum computer
Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology teamed up with colleagues from the U.S. and Switzerland and returned the state of a quantum computer a fraction of a second into the past. They also calculated the probability that an electron in empty interstellar space will spontaneously travel back into its recent past. The study is […]
