Category Technology/Electronics

Dartmouth College Professor David Kotz demonstrates a commercial prototype of ‘Wanda’ imparting information such as the network name and password of a WiFi access point onto a blood pressure monitor. Credit: Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College researchers have developed a digital “magic wand” to improve home healthcare and to prevent hackers from stealing your personal data. The system, called “Wanda,” will be presented at the IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications in April. “Wanda” is part of a National Science Foundation-funded project led by Dartmouth called “Trustworthy Health and Wellness...

A patented breakthrough by researchers at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology improves efficiency of organic photovoltaic cells by 50%, and could someday provide a huge boost for the viability of solar power as a major source of energy.

Organic photovoltaic cells convert solar energy into electric power through organic molecules. One of their advantages over “traditional” solar cells made of silicon is that they can be mounted on lightweight, flexible, and easy-to-replace sheets, which can be spread on roofs and buildings like wallpaper, converting solar energy into electrical current. In the future, they could also be used to provide a cost-efficient and reliable source of electricity in isolated regions...

This artist’s rendition shows a laser light guiding the evolution of an electronic spin within an atomic-scale defect in diamond. These light-driven loops give rise to a geometric phase, a quantum logic operation that shows remarkable resilience to noise. Credit: Peter Allen

The quantum bit ie ‘qubit’ is represented by a vector, pointing to a simultaneous combination of the 1 and 0 states. To fully implement a qubit, it is necessary to control the direction of this qubit’s vector, which is generally done using fine-tuned and noise-isolated procedures. Researchers have demonstrated the ability to generate a quantum logic operation, or rotation of the qubit, that – surprisingly—is intrinsically resilient to noise as well as to variations in the strength or duration of the control...

The new carbon-based material for sodium-ion batteries can be extracted from apples. Credit: KIT/HIU

A carbon-based active material produced from apple leftovers and a material of layered oxides might help reduce the costs of future energy storage systems. Both were found to have excellent electrochemical properties and stand for the environmentally compatible and sustainable use of resources. Sodium-ion batteries are not only far more powerful than nickel-metal hydride or lead acid accumulators, but also represent an alternative to lithium-ion technology, as the initial materials needed are highly abundant, accessible, and low cost. Hence, sodium-ion batteries are a very promising technology for stationary energy storage systems.

Schematic structure of the layered oxides produced...