Wireless device converts 'lost' energy into electric power: Metamaterial cells provide electric power as efficiently as solar panels. Using inexpensive materials configured and tuned to capture microwave signals, researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have designed a power-harvesting device with efficiency similar to that of modern solar panels. The device wirelessly converts the microwave signal to direct current voltage capable of recharging a cell phone battery or other small electronic device, according to a report appearing in the journal Applied Physics Letters in December 2013. It operates on a similar principle to solar panels, which convert light energy into electrical current.
But this versatile energy harvester could be tuned to harvest the signal from other energy sources, including satellite signals, sound signals or Wi-Fi signals, the researchers say. The key to the power harvester lies in its application of metamaterials, engineered structures that can capture various forms of wave energy and tune them for useful applications. Video. Portable Zombie-Resistant Shelter | buzzbrewery.com. Video. IBM researchers create nanomedicine to kill bacteria where antibiotics fail. IBM and a research group in Singapore have engineered a new kind of synthetic, biodegradable nano particle that could be used to attack bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics. The researchers believe that the nanomedicine breakthrough could eventually be used to fight infectious diseases better than antibiotics. If it works, the nanomedicine could save countless lives and protect people from illnesses that arise from bacterial infections, like staph.
Using a trick from chip manufacturing, the researchers figured out how to isolate certain kinds of cells and attack them. That gets around the problem of many drugs today that kill off the good red blood cells at the same time that they eradicate bad cells. The researchers said the synthetic polymers they created can seek out bacteria cells and destroy their membrane walls. It’s like a hammer,” said James Hedrick, advanced organic materials scientist at IBM’s Almaden research center in San Jose, Calif. A bottle of wastewater could be powering your house by next year. By mimicking the essential process that allows plants to produce energy, an MIT researcher has managed to create electricity out of water more efficiently than conventional solar cells, to the point where one and a half bottles of wastewater could power an entire house for a day.
Plants, being extremely clever, somehow manage to use sunlight to crack water into oxygen and hydrogen. They combine the hydrogen with carbon dioxide to make sugar (which is what I would do, 'cause sugar is good stuff), but we humans have been trying to figure out for about a century how to skip the sugar step and just recombine that oxygen and hydrogen back into water to generate electricity. Daniel Nocera, a chemistry and engineering researcher at MIT, has come up with an artificial "leaf" that uses cobalt and phosphate to split water molecules using nothing but sunlight.
Nocera has just teamed up with Tata Group to work towards commercializing this technology. Live Mint, via Fast Company. How To Make A Burning Laser Flashlight (Gadgets) How to turn a Minimag flashlight into a burning laser! CAUTION! As you know lasers can be dangerous. Never point them at any living object! Step 1: Take Apart Your DVD Burner First you'll need a 16X DVD burner. I'm using a LG that I had as a spare. Remove the drawer to expose the carriage assembly. Step 2: Remove The Laser Diod All DVD burners will have a set of rails that the laser assembly rides on. After pulling out the assembly, start removing all the little screws to get to the laser diod.
Step 3: Disassemble An AixiZ Laser Housing Then you'll need to pick up an AixiZ laser housing. You will have to disassemble it and also remove the laser that comes in the housing. I used the back end of an exacto knife handle and gently tapped out the existing laser diod. Step 4: Install The Laser Into The New Housing Then you're going to carefully install the DVD laser into the new laser housing. Step 5: Connect Up Your Laser Diod All DVD laser diods use a similar configuration. Blocking a gene stops cancer cells spreading.
24 January 2011Last updated at 11:19 By James Gallagher Health reporter, BBC News Blocking a gene could prevent cancer cells spreading A gene which encourages cancer to move around the body has been discovered by the University of East Anglia. Experiments on tissue cultures, published in Oncogene, suggest that blocking it would prevent cancers spreading. The researchers hope their work will lead to a new generation of cancer drugs within the decade. Cancer Research UK said the study improved understanding of the disease, but was still at the laboratory stage. There are treatments for primary cancers, but tumours have the potential to spread. Cells can break off and travel around the body, through the bloodstream or lymph fluid, and start a new or secondary tumour where they land, a process known as metastasis. Breast cancers are known to spread to lymph nodes, the bones and the lungs.
These secondary tumours are notoriously difficult to treat. The rogue gene. Electromagnetic Coilgun Doesn’t Need a License. Robert Wilsford created an Electromagnetic Coilgun from some very common items that can be found easily on the websites, so you can also try this and make a nice gadget sitting at your home sweet home. I like guns a lot, but we can’t keep them at our homes without a license but this gun doesn’t need any license such as the Steampunk Coilgun. Well! If you are arsenal lover like me, needless to say, you would dare to make this gun. Now promise me that you won’t create much fuss as your parents might get angry over me to have shared its creation basics. I got this amazing gun at the DIY portfolio, so you can also do it yourself after learning the schematics and physics behind this gun. The outer body of the coilgun is made from wood, plexiglass and metal while in the interior electromagnetic coils have been used coils to push a ferromagnetic projectile (here round ball like bullet of steel) at a great velocity through a barrel.
Via: Hacknmod. New Contact Lenses With LED Displays is Must-See TV, Literally - Technology News by ExtremeTech. We recently profiled a new crop of Augmented Reality video games designed for your mobile phone. How adorably 2010. The whole concept of mobile AR is already behind the curve, the real future will be in Augmented Vision—a virtual layer on reality, no smart phone necessary. And “AV” may have just taken one giant step closer to feasibility. A research team at the University of Washington has designed a contact lens that has the ability to project LED displays directly into the irises. The concept originated in 2008 when the UoW team developed a proof-of-concept contact lens embedded with electronics that gave diabetes patients the ability to monitor glucose levels in their tear fluid.
Lead researcher Babak Parvis comments “You won’t necessarily have to shift your focus to see the image generated by the contact lens,” it would just appear in front of you and your view of the real world will be completely unobstructed when the display is turned off. via NewScientist, image via Sensimed. Video: Dust Ball Robotic Vacuum Smartly Sucks Debris As It Tumbles Across Your Floor. Roombas are cute and everything, but when they annoy you, they don't respond well to being kicked in the side. Not so with Dust Ball, a new robotic vacuum cleaner concept designed by a Dutch engineer. Inspired by a hamster ball and resembling a pollen grain, Dust Ball can be pushed or kicked in any direction to clean. Watch it roll in this video. It moves by shifting its internal weight; an internal ball bearing moves on two axes and can move Dust Ball in any direction.
Creator Dave Hakkens says he wanted Dust Ball to be tough and industrial-strength, but also friendly-looking. While Roomba and a host of other robotic vacuums are mostly intended for households, Hakkens says Dust Ball's tough and simple construction could be used in large spaces with impediments like cables, door thresholds and walls, like airports, for instance. And if it rolls in front of your feet, just kick it out of the way. EAA Video Player - Your Source for Aviation Videos. Channels Home News & Features AirVenture Hints for Homebuilders General, Sheet Metal, Tube / Fabric, Wood, Composite, Electrical Homebuilding Learning to Fly General Aviation Vintage Aircraft Warbirds Aerobatics Ultralights Light Sport Aircraft Aviation History Webinars October 13, 2010 - Steve Saint of I-TEC drove his road-legal flying car from Florida to Oshkosh this summer.
For more information about EAA, visit us at: www.eaa.orgCopyright © 2014 EAA, Inc. | Privacy Policy & Disclaimer | Contact Us. Chicken Powered Steadicam proves poultry has a future in Hollywood (video) CES Gadgets: OLEDs Makes for Foldable TV. Dude Builds Snow Plowing Robot Video. Textured substrate increases efficiency of polymer solar cells by 20 percent. Researchers have created a process to produce a light-absorbing layer on textured substrates to improve the efficiency of polymer solar cells (Image: Jeremy Levine Design via Flickr) Image Gallery (2 images) The idea of boosting the performance of solar cells by coating them with a textured substrate is commonly used in silicon-based cells.
The idea is to traps more light so that it bounces around inside the cell instead of reflecting back out, but for a number of reasons, attempts to use textured substrates in polymer solar cells have failed. Now researchers from Iowa State University and the Ames Laboratory have developed a process of producing a thin and uniform light-absorbing layer on textured substrates that improves the efficiency of polymer solar cells by 20 percent. Previous attempts to use textured substrates in polymer solar cells have proven problematic because they require extra processing steps or technically challenging coating technologies. About the Author. Giant microwave turns plastic back to oil - environment - 26 June 2007.
A US company is taking plastics recycling to another level - turning them back into the oil they were made from, and gas. All that is needed, claims Global Resource Corporation (GRC), is a finely tuned microwave and - hey presto! - a mix of materials that were made from oil can be reduced back to oil and combustible gas (and a few leftovers). Key to GRC's process is a machine that uses 1200 different frequencies within the microwave range, which act on specific hydrocarbon materials. As the material is zapped at the appropriate wavelength, part of the hydrocarbons that make up the plastic and rubber in the material are broken down into diesel oil and combustible gas. GRC's machine is called the Hawk-10. Its smaller incarnations look just like an industrial microwave with bits of machinery attached to it. "Anything that has a hydrocarbon base will be affected by our process," says Jerry Meddick, director of business development at GRC, based in New Jersey.
Simplified recycling Less landfill. Jem Melts Rock Using Sunshine - Bang Goes The Theory - Series 3, Episode 5 Preview - BBC One. Woody Norris invents amazing things. Seabreacher is pure fun « smalltok. Fishbowl Faucet Encourages Water Conservation - Or Else. So you’re a conservationist, eh? Can you prove it? Can you stop washing your hands before this fish runs out of water? For his appropriately titled Poor Little Fishbowl Sink, designer Yan Lu created a very direct incentive to minimize water usage – when you turn the faucet on, the water level in the fishbowl decreases. It reminds us how precious this resource is, and how our everyday actions can affect the creatures around us. It also reminds us of our childhood pet goldfish, aww. Read on to learn more about this fish-traumatizing faucet.
In case you were worried, the water sources for the fish bowl and the faucet are separate: you wouldn’t be washing your hands in fish excrement or sending soapy water back into the bowl. . + Yan Lu Via GOOD.