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    Category Physics

    New “Tissue Velcro” could help Repair Damaged Hearts

    August 30, 2015, Categories  Physics, Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    This animated .gif (slightly sped up) shows the honeycomb mesh of cells being compressed by contracting heart cells growing along the scaffold. (Photo: Boyang Zhang)

    This GIF (slightly sped up) shows the honeycomb mesh of cells being compressed by contracting heart cells growing along the scaffold (Image: Boyang Zhang).

    Engineers at the University of Toronto just made assembling functional heart tissue as easy as fastening your shoes. The team has created a biocompatible scaffold that allows sheets of beating heart cells to snap together just like Velcro™. “One of the main advantages is the ease of use,” says Professor Milica Radisic (ChemE, IBBME). “We can build larger tissue structures immediately before they are needed, and disassemble them just as easily. I don’t know of any other technique that gives this ability.”

    Growing heart muscle cells in the lab is nothing new...

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    FSU Engineering Professor has developed a new Highly Efficient and Cheap LED

    August 30, 2015, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

     

    “It can potentially revolutionize lighting technology,” said Assistant Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Zhibin Yu. “In general, the cost of LED lighting has been a big concern thus far. Energy savings have not balanced out high costs. This could change that.”

    Yu developed this new LED technology using a combination of organic and inorganic materials. The material, which dissolves and can be applied like paint, shines a blue, green or red light and can be used to make a light bulb. But what makes it really special is that it’s far simpler to manufacture than existing products on the market.

    Most LED materials require engineers to put 4 or 5 layers of material on top of each other to create the desired product or effect. Yu’s material only requires 1 layer.

    The res...

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    New Artificial Leaf safely creates Fuel from Sunlight and Water with record Efficiency and Stability

    August 29, 2015, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Illustration of an efficient, robust and integrated solar-driven prototype featuring protected photoelectrochemical assembly coupled with oxygen and hydrogen evolution reaction catalysts. [View full size] Credit: Image provided courtesy of Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis; artwork by Darius Siwek. - See more at: http://www.caltech.edu/news/artificial-leaf-harnesses-sunlight-efficient-fuel-production-47635#sthash.l86JNzpe.dpuf

    Illustration of an efficient, robust and integrated solar-driven prototype featuring protected photoelectrochemical assembly coupled with oxygen and hydrogen evolution reaction catalysts. [View full size] Credit: Image provided courtesy of Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis; artwork by Darius Siwek. – See more at: http://www.caltech.edu/news/artificial-leaf-harnesses-sunlight-efficient-fuel-production-47635#sthash.l86JNzpe.dpuf

    The new Artificial Leaf JCAP system has 3 main components: 2 electrodes–one photoanode and one photocathode, and a membrane. The photoanode uses sunlight to oxidize water molecules, generating protons and electrons as well as oxygen gas. The photocathode recombines the protons and electrons to form H2...

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    Seeing Quantum Motion & even one day ripples in the fabric of space-time?

    August 29, 2015, Categories  Physics

    Because quantum motion, or noise, is theoretically an intrinsic part of the motion of all objects, Schwab and his colleagues designed a device that would allow them to observe this noise and then manipulate it. The micrometer-scale device consists of a flexible aluminum plate that sits atop a silicon substrate. Credit: Chan Lei and Keith Schwab/Caltech

    Because quantum motion, or noise, is theoretically an intrinsic part of the motion of all objects, Schwab and his colleagues designed a device that would allow them to observe this noise and then manipulate it. The micrometer-scale device consists of a flexible aluminum plate that sits atop a silicon substrate. Credit: Chan Lei and Keith Schwab/Caltech

    For the 1st time, Caltech and other researchers have found a way to observe and control quantum motion of an object that is large enough to see. Even large objects obey quantum physics, ie they are never quite at rest.
    In classical physics, physical objects indeed can be motionless. Drop a ball into a bowl, and it will roll back and forth a few times, then gravity and friction will cause the ball to come to a stop.

    “In the past couple of yea...

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