Category Technology/Electronics

1. A closer look at one of the cylinders comprising a new non-metal metamaterial. The arrows depict how different aspects of an electromagnetic field interact with the cylinder.
2. Each cylinder of this new non-metal metamaterial is made of boron-doped silicon and precisely tailored to absorb electromagnetic waves.

Electrical engineers at Duke University have created the world’s first electromagnetic metamaterial made without any metal. The device’s ability to absorb electromagnetic energy without heating up has direct applications in imaging, sensing and lighting. Metamaterials are synthetic materials composed of many individual, engineered features that together produce properties not found in nature...

MIT Media Lab spinout Changing Environments is the brains behind the solar-powered Soofa Bench, which is equipped with an embedded charging station for mobile devices that also connects to wireless networks. Recently, the startup released the solar-powered Soofa Sign, which displays public transit times, weather, and events, among other city information. Credit: Changing Environments

Equipped with high-tech versions of common city fixtures—namely, smart benches and digital information signs—and fueled by a “deploy or die” attitude, MIT Media Lab spinout Changing Environments is hoping to accelerate the development of “smart” cities that use technology to solve urban challenges...

A simulation of one-dimensional boron under stress shows the theoretical material changing phase from a ribbon to a chain of atoms when pulled. The chain returns to ribbon form when the stress is relieved. Credit: Yakobson Research Group

Simulations demonstrate 1D material’s stiffness, electrical versatility, Hold on, there, graphene. You might think you’re the most interesting new nanomaterial of the century, but boron might already have you beat, according to scientists at Rice University. A Rice team that simulated one-dimensional forms of boron – both two-atom-wide ribbons and single-atom chains – found they possess unique properties.

Eg, if metallic ribbons of boron are stretched, they morph into antiferromagnetic semiconducting chains, and when released they fold back into ribbons...

Image of diamond anvils compressing molecular hydrogen. At higher pressure the sample converts to atomic hydrogen, as shown on the right. Credit: R. Dias and I.F. Silvera

Physicists succeed in creating ‘the holy grail of high-pressure physics’. Nearly a century after it was theorized, Harvard scientists have succeeded in creating the rarest – and potentially one of the most valuable – materials on the planet. The material – atomic metallic hydrogen – was created by Thomas D. Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences Isaac Silvera and post-doctoral fellow Ranga Dias. In addition to helping scientists answer fundamental questions about the nature of matter, the material is theorized to have a wide range of applications, including as a room-temperature superconductor.

“This is the holy grail of...