Category Physics

Self-Ventilating Workout Suit keeps Athletes Cool and Dry

Ventilating flaps lined with live cells open and close in response to an athlete’s sweat. MIT team has designed a breathable workout suit with ventilating flaps that open and close in response to an athlete’s body heat and sweat. These flaps, which range from thumbnail- to finger-sized, are lined with live microbial cells that shrink and expand in response to changes in humidity. The cells act as tiny sensors and actuators, driving the flaps to open when an athlete works up a sweat, and pulling them closed when the body has cooled.

They have also fashioned a running shoe with an inner layer of similar cell-lined flaps to air out and wick away moisture...

A self-assembling membrane for water purification. Credit: Image courtesy of Weizmann Institute of Science

Separation technology is at the heart of water purification, sewage treatment, and materials reclamation, as well as numerous basic industrial processes. Membranes are used to separate out the smallest nanoscale particles, and even molecules and metal ions. Prof. Boris Rybtchinski and his group of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Organic Chemistry have developed a new type of membrane that could extend the life of a separation system, lower its cost and, in some cases, increase its efficiency as well.

The membranes Prof...

SrTiO3 mesocrystal light emission. Credit: Image courtesy of Kobe University

Hydrogen is an alternative source of energy that can be produced from renewable sources of sunlight and water. A group of Japanese researchers has developed a photocatalyst that increases hydrogen production tenfold. The discovery was made by a joint research team led by Associate Professor TACHIKAWA Takashi (Molecular Photoscience Research Center, Kobe University) and Professor MAJIMA Tetsuro (Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Osaka University). Their findings were published on April 6 in the online version of Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

When light is applied to photocatalysts, electrons and holes are produced on the surface of the catalyst, and hydrogen is obtained when these electro...

This is an artistic view of the decay of a quantum-mechanical monopole into a Dirac monopole.
Credit: Image by Heikka Valja

1st experimental observations of the dynamics of isolated monopoles in quantum matter have been made by scientists at Amherst College (USA) and Aalto University (Finland). The new study provided a surprise: the quantum monopole decays into another analogue of the magnetic monopole. Understanding monopole dynamics may help in the future to build even closer analogues of the magnetic monopoles. Unlike usual magnets, magnetic monopoles are elementary particles that have only a south or a north magnetic pole, but not both. They have been theoretically predicted to exist, but no convincing experimental observations have been reported...