Category Technology/Electronics

A team of researchers has developed tiny 10-gram robots that are inspired by ants: they can communicate with each other, assign roles among themselves and complete complex tasks together. These reconfigurable robots are simple in structure, yet they can jump and crawl to explore uneven surfaces. Individually, ants have only so much strength and intelligence. However, as a colony, they can use complex strategies to complete sophisticated tasks and evade larger predators.

At EPFL, robotics researchers in Professor Jamie Paik’s Laboratory have reproduced this phenomenon, developing tiny robots that display minimal physical intelligence on an individual level but t...

Team identifies dark trions as the next carrier of quantum information. Move aside, electrons; it’s time to make way for the trion. A research team led by physicists at the University of California, Riverside, has observed, characterized, and controlled dark trions in a semiconductor – ultraclean single-layer tungsten diselenide (WSe2) – a feat that could increase the capacity and alter the form of information transmission.

In a semiconductor, such as WSe2, a trion is a quantum bound state of three charged particles. A negative trion contains two electrons and one hole; a positive trion contains two holes and one electron...

A window film with a specially designed molecule could be capable of taking the edge off the worst midday heat and instead distributing it evenly from morning to evening. The molecule has the unique ability to capture energy from the sun’s rays and release it later as heat. This is shown by researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, in the scientific journal Advanced Science.

On sunny summer days it can be little short of unbearable to stay indoors or in cars. The heat radiates in and creates an unpleasantly high temperature for people, animals and plants...

Researchers at EPFL have developed a method that uses artificial intelligence to design next-generation heat-pump compressors. Their method can cut the pumps’ power requirement by around 25%. In Switzerland, 50 – 60% of new homes are equipped with heat pumps. These systems draw in thermal energy from the surrounding environment – such as from the ground, air, or a nearby lake or river – and turn it into heat for buildings.

While today’s heat pumps generally work well and are environmentally friendly, they still have substantial room for improvement...