Category Technology/Electronics

As soon as it comes out of the printing nozzle, the solvent evaporates and the ink solidifies. It takes the form of filaments slightly bigger than a hair. The manufacturing work can then begin. Credit: Polytechnique Montréal

Carbon nanotubes have made headlines in scientific journals for a long time, as has 3D printing. But when both combine with the right polymer, in this case a thermoplastic, something special occurs: electrical conductivity increases and makes it possible to monitor liquids in real time. This is a huge success for Polytechnique Montréal. In practical terms, the result of this research looks like a cloth; but as soon as a liquid comes into contact with it, said cloth is able to identify its nature. In this case, it is ethanol, but it might have been another liquid...

Illustration of the polar directions in relaxor-ferroelectric solid solutions where a small amount of polar nanoregions embedded in a long-range ferroelectric domain leads to dramatically enhanced piezoelectric and dielectric properties. Credit: Xiaoxing Cheng/ Penn State

All ferroelectric materials possess piezoelectricity in which an applied mechanical force can generate an electrical current and an applied electrical field can elicit a mechanical response. Ferroelectric materials are used in a wide variety of industrial applications, from ultrasound and sonar to capacitors, transducers, vibration sensors and ultrasensitive infrared cameras...

Researchers created an optomechanical silicon bullseye disk that traps optical waves in the outermost ring via total internal reflection while the radial groves confine the mechanical waves to the same area. Credit: Thiago P. Mayer Alegre, University of Campinas

Trapping light and mechanical waves within a tiny bullseye, design could enable more sensitive motion detection. The new device is highly customizable and compatible with commercial manufacturing processes. Optomechanical devices use light to detect movement. They can be used as low-power, efficient building blocks for the accelerometers that detect the orientation and movement of a smart phone or that trigger a car’s airbag to deploy split seconds after an accident...

Speedy mini-apps are designed to address depression and anxiety

A novel suite of 13 speedy mini-apps called IntelliCare resulted in participants reporting significantly less depression and anxiety by using the apps on their smartphones up to 4 times a day, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study. The apps offer exercises to de-stress, reduce self-criticism and worrying, methods to help your life feel more meaningful, mantras to highlight your strengths, strategies for a good night’s sleep and more. Most apps designed for mental health typically offer a single strategy to feel better or provide too many features that make them difficult to navigate.

But participants robustly used the IntelliCare interactive apps an average of 195 times for 8 weeks of the study...