Category Technology/Electronics

Engineers have captured the full complexity of bat flight in a 3D computer model for the first time, potentially inspiring the future design of better drones and other aerial vehicles. Bats are among nature’s best flyers – able to fly for long periods of time, maneouvre in mid-air with pinpoint precision and get into some very tight spaces. However, scientists have not fully understood exactly how bats manage to fly so well, until now.

Engineers at the University of British Columbia have captured the full complexity of bat flight in a 3D computer model for the first time, potentially inspiring the future design of better drones and other aerial vehicles.

Researcher...

Technology designed to advance self-powering devices such as consumer electronics and defense innovations. A fascination with movie technology that showed robots perform self-repair through a liquid formula inspired a Purdue University professor to make his own discoveries – which are now helping to lead the way for advancements in self-powering devices such as consumer electronics and defense innovations.

The Purdue team, led by Wenzhuo Wu, the Ravi and Eleanor Talwar Rising Star Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering, has created wearable technology to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy.
“Our work presents an important step toward the practical...

Rechargeable lithium metal batteries with increased energy density, performance, and safety may be possible with a newly-developed, solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI), according to Penn State researchers. As the demand for higher-energy-density lithium metal batteries increases – for electric vehicles, smartphones, and drones – stability of the SEI has been a critical issue halting their advancement because a salt layer on the surface of the battery’s lithium electrode insulates it and conducts lithium ions.

“This layer is very i...

Researchers at Delft University of Technology have created a quantum circuit that enables them to listen to the weakest radio signal allowed by quantum mechanics. This new quantum circuit opens the door to possible future applications in areas such as radio astronomy and medicine (MRI). It also enables researchers to do experiments that can shed light on the interplay between quantum mechanics and gravity.

We have all been annoyed by weak radio signals at some point in our lives: our favourite song in the car turning to noise, being too far away from our wifi router to check our email...