Category Technology/Electronics

Thermoelectric paint being applied to an alumina hemisphere. The paint provides closer contact with the heat-emitting surface than conventional planar thermoelectric devices do. Credit: Park et al. ©2016 Nature Communications

Paint these days is becoming much more than it used to be. Already researchers have developed photovoltaic paint, which can be used to make “paint-on solar cells” that capture the sun’s energy and turn it into electricity. Now in a new study, researchers have created thermoelectric paint, which captures waste heat from hot painted surfaces and converts it into electrical energy.

“I expect that the thermoelectric painting technique can be applied to waste heat recovery from large-scale heat source surfaces, such as buildings, cars, and ship vessels,” said Jae Sung Son...

An artistic representation of the data showing the breaking of spatial inversion and rotational symmetries in the pseudogap region of superconducting materials — evidence that the pseudogap is a distinct phase of matter. Rings of light reflected from a superconductor reveal the broken symmetries. Credit: Hsieh Lab/Caltech

One of the greatest mysteries of experimental physics is how high-temperature superconducting materials work. They still operate at chilly temperatures < -135C or 138K, but higher than 0K. They can be used to make superefficient power cables, medical MRIs, particle accelerators, and other devices. Cracking the mystery of how these materials actually work could lead to superconducting devices that operate at room temperatures—and could revolutionize laptops and phones etc...

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a combination of software and hardware that will allow them to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and insect cyborgs, or biobots, to map large, unfamiliar areas — such as collapsed buildings after a disaster. Credit: Edgar Lobaton

North Carolina State Uni researchers have developed a combination of software and hardware that will allow them to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and insect cyborgs, or biobots, to map large, unfamiliar areas – such as collapsed buildings after a disaster...

A Yale-led group of researchers has derived a formula for understanding where quantum objects land when they are transmitted. Credit: Illustration by Michael S. Helfenbein/Yale University

If objects in motion are like rainwater flowing through a gutter and landing in a puddle, then quantum objects in motion are like rainwater that might end up in a bunch of puddles, all at once. Figuring out where quantum objects actually go has frustrated scientists for years. Now a Yale-led group of researchers has derived a formula for understanding where quantum objects land when they are transmitted.This offers insight for controlling open quantum systems in a variety of situations.

“The formula we derive turns out to be very useful in operating a quantum computer,” said Victor Albert...