Category Physics

Long in the Bluetooth: Scientists develop a more Efficient way to Transmit Data between Our Devices

Headphones and mobile phones

University of Sussex researchers have developed a more energy-efficient alternative to transmit data that could potentially replace Bluetooth in mobile phones and other tech devices. With more and more of us owning smart phones and wearable tech, researchers at the University of Sussex have found a more efficient way of connecting our devices and improving battery life. Applied to wearable devices, it could even see us unlocking doors by touch or exchanging phone numbers by shaking hands.

Professor Robert Prance and Professor Daniel Roggen, of the University of Sussex, have developed the use of electric waves, rather than electromagnetic waves, for a low-power way to transmit data at close range, while maintaining the high throughput needed for multimedia applications.

Bluetooth...

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Research reveals Rare Metal could offer Revolutionary Switch for Future Quantum Devices

Image shows a representation of emergent symmetry, showing a perfectly symmetric water droplet emerging from a layering of snow. The ice crystals in the snow, by contrast, have a complex shape and therefore a lower symmetry than the water droplet. The purple colour denotes the purple bronze material in which this phenomenon was discovered.University of Bristol

Quantum scientists have discovered a rare phenomenon that could hold the key to creating a ‘perfect switch’ in quantum devices which flips between being an insulator and superconductor.

The research, led by the University of Bristol and published in Science, found these two opposing electronic states exist within purple bronze, a unique one-dimensional metal composed of individual conducting chains of atoms.

Tiny changes in...

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Inverted Perovskite Solar Cell Breaks 25% Efficiency Record

Inverted perovskite solar cell breaks 25% efficiency record
Northwestern University researchers have raised the standards again for perovskite solar cells with a new development that helped the emerging technology hit new records for efficiency. Credit: Sargent Lab/Northwestern University

Northwestern University researchers have raised the standards again for perovskite solar cells with a new development that helped the emerging technology hit new records for efficiency.

The findings, published today (Nov. 17) in the journal Science, describe a dual-molecule solution to overcoming losses in efficiency as sunlight is converted to energy...

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New technique could Speed up the Development of Acoustic Lenses, Impact-resistant Films and other Futuristic Materials

Seven tall, rectangular columns stand against a black background. The columns are made of a lattice-like pattern and some of them tilt at the top. In the center of the image, a green beam of light reaches between the top of the image and the middle column.
Caption: This optical micrograph shows an array of microscopic metamaterial samples on a reflective substrate. Laser pulses have been digitally added, depicting pump (red) and probe (green) pulses diagnosing a sample in the center. The LIRAS technique sweeps through all samples on the substrate within minutes.
Credits:Credit: Courtesy of the researchers

Metamaterials are products of engineering wizardry. They are made from everyday polymers, ceramics, and metals. And when constructed precisely at the microscale, in intricate architectures, these ordinary materials can take on extraordinary properties.

With the help of computer simulations, engineers can play with any combination of microstructures to see how certain materials can transform, for instance, into sound-focusing acoustic ...

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