Category Physics

The new hyperspectral imager contains two cameras and measures just 425 by 200 millimeters. With further miniaturization it could be incorporated into smartphones for personal use.

Innovative imager could find industrial, security, medical, cultural and agricultural applications. Researchers have developed a compact imaging system that can measure the shape and light-reflection properties of objects with high speed and accuracy. This 5D hyperspectral imaging system – so-called because it captures multiple wavelengths of light plus spatial coordinates as a function of time – could benefit a variety of applications including optical-based sorting of products and identifying people in secure areas of airports...

A simple liquid-based battery containing a methylene blue solution (left side), and a colorless solution of leuco methylene blue (right), which is methylene blue with added electrons.
Credit: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki/University at Buffalo

Methylene blue is a common ingredient in wastewater from textile mills. But scientists think it may be possible to give this industrial pollutant a second life. In a study, they show that the dye, dissolved in water, is good at storing and releasing energy on cue. This makes the compound a promising material for redox flow batteries, which could store energy for wind farms and solar homes.

“Methylene blue is a widely used dye...

A new material developed by University of Colorado Boulder engineers can transform into complex, pre-programmed shapes via light and temperature stimuli, allowing a literal square peg to morph and fit into a round hole before fully reverting to its original form.
Credit: Bowman Lab / University of Colorado Boulder

A new material developed by University of Colorado Boulder engineers can transform into complex, pre-programmed shapes via light and temperature stimuli, allowing a literal square peg to morph and fit into a round hole before fully reverting to its original form. The controllable shape-shifting material, described today in the journal Science Advances, could have broad applications for manufacturing, robotics, biomedical devices and artificial muscles.

“The ability to form materia...

Lithium.
Credit: © vchalup / Fotolia

Chemists from the University of Waterloo have successfully resolved two of the most challenging issues surrounding lithium-oxygen batteries, and in the process created a working battery with near 100% coulombic efficiency. The new work, which appears this week in Science, proves that four-electron conversion for lithium-oxygen electrochemistry is highly reversible. The team is the first to achieve four-electron conversion, which doubles the electron storage of lithium-oxygen, also known as lithium-air, batteries.

“There are limitations based on thermodynamics,” said Linda Nazar, Canada Research Chair of Solid State Energy Materials and senior author on the project...