Category Technology/Electronics

Research developments create faster changes at lower temperatures, more colors. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) report a breakthrough in developing a next-generation thermochromic window that not only reduces the need for air conditioning but simultaneously generates electricity.

Heat generated by sunlight shining through windows is the single largest contributor to the need for air conditioning and cooling in buildings. Because residential and commercial buildings use 74% of all electricity and 39% of all energy in the United States, the shading effect from tinting windows helps buildings use less energy.

The...

In a world first, researchers from the University of Ottawa in collaboration with Israeli scientists have been able to create optical framed knots in the laboratory that could potentially be applied in modern technologies. Their work opens the door to new methods of distributing secret cryptographic keys — used to encrypt and decrypt data, ensure secure communication and protect private information. The group recently published their findings in Nature Communications.

“This is fundamentally important, in particular from a topology-focused perspective, since framed knots provide a platform for topological quantum computations,” explained senior author, Professor Ebrahim Karimi, Canada Research Chair in Structured Light at the University of Ottawa.

“In addition, we used these non-...

A world-first study by Monash University engineers has demonstrated improvements in the fatigue life of high strength aluminium alloys by 25 times — a significant outcome for the transport manufacturing industry.

Published today (Thursday 15 October 2020) in the journal Nature Communications, researchers demonstrated that the poor fatigue performance of high strength aluminium alloys was because of weak links called ‘precipitate free zones’ (PFZs).

The team led by Professor Christopher Hutchinson, a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Monash University in Australia, was able to make aluminium alloy microstructures that can heal the weak links while in operation (i.e...

In the era of electric cars, machine learning and ultra-efficient vehicles for space travel, computers and hardware are operating faster and more efficiently. But this increase in power comes with a trade-off: They get superhot.

To counter this, University of Central Florida researchers are developing a way for large machines to “breathe” in and out cooling blasts of water to keep their systems from overheating.

The findings are detailed in a recent study in the journal Physical Review Fluids.

The process is much like how humans and some animals breath in...