Category Physics

The new device is smaller than a thumbnail with a size of 0.1 x 4mm, and could be integrated into everyday electronic devices like smartphones. Credit: CUDOS

Researchers develop new platform making next-generation electronic devices more advanced. Integrated circuits, ie chips, are used in everyday electronic equipment like mobile phones and computers. It is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece of semiconductor material, normally silicon. But this material has some limitations when it comes to processing data. To overcome this, researchers are developing optical circuits made of chalcogenide glass. This is used for ultrafast telecommunication networks, transferring information at the speed of light.

Integrating these glass optical circuits into silicon chips could lead to a...

Vanderbilt undergraduate Thomas Metke demonstrates the ultrathin energy harvesting device which is taped across his elbow. As he flexes his arm the current the device generates is displayed on the computer display. Credit: John Russell, Vanderbilt University

Imagine slipping into a jacket, shirt or skirt that powers your cell phone, fitness tracker and other personal electronic devices as you walk, wave and even when you are sitting. A new, ultrathin energy harvesting system developed at Vanderbilt University’s Nanomaterials and Energy Devices Laboratory has the potential to do just that...

Coupling the Leidenfrost Effect and Elastic Deformations to Power Sustained Bouncing, Nature Physics, DOI: 10.1038/nphys4194

Water droplets float in a hot pan because of Leidenfrost effect. Now, physicists have discovered a variation: the elastic Leidenfrost effect. It explains why hydrogel balls jump around on a hot plate making high-pitched sounds. Physicist Scott Waitukaitis (Leiden University / AMOLF) stumbled across a YouTube video of bouncing hydrogel balls on a hot plate and was so inspired that he decided to write an NWO Veni grant proposal to explore the phenomenon.

The dance of water droplets in a frying pan is a well-known phenomenon called the Leidenfrost effect. The warm undersides of the droplets vaporize so quickly that they float around on a cushion of vapor...

1. A schematic of the sampling device built by researchers to measure levels of toxic particulate matter present during rush hour inside of a typical car cabin
2. A dashboard view from a vehicle taking measurements of certain types of pollutants during rush hour in Atlanta

In-car air study of commuting cars finds dangers to human health. The first in-car measurements of exposure to pollutants that cause oxidative stress during rush hour commutes has turned up potentially alarming results. The levels of some forms of harmful particulate matter inside car cabins was found to be twice as high as previously believed. Most traffic pollution sensors are placed on the ground alongside the road and take continuous samples for a 24-hour period...