Category Technology/Electronics

This illustration shows the flow of a magnetic property of electrons known as spin current from a magnetic material (blue), to a nonmagnetic material (red). Credit: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

The result, which revealed a surprising loss of current along the way, is an important step toward realizing next-gen “Spintronics”. Spin current is an inherent magnetic property common to all electrons – as it travels across materials. Modern computing relies on the precise control of electric charges that zip around from component to component in labyrinth-like channels in semiconductors. Spintronics could change that by tapping electrons’ spin, with “up” or “down” orientation, rather than their charge.

Finding a way to directly control this up or down property would rule out the need to f...

Bathing the Earth with enough energy in one hour to meet human needs for an entire year, the sun represents the ultimate source of clean, green sustainable energy. Credit: courtesy of NASA

By combining designer quantum dot light-emitters with spectrally matched photonic mirrors, a team of scientists with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois “achieved a luminescent concentration ratio greater than 30 with an optical efficiency of 82% for blue photons,” the highest luminescent concentration factor ever recorded. This breakthrough paves the way for the future development of low-cost solar cells that efficiently utilize the high-energy part of the solar spectrum.

The solar energy industry in the United States is soaring with the number of photovoltaic instal...

Mark Pollock and trainer Simon O’Donnell Courtesy of Mark Pollock

Robotic step training, noninvasive spinal stimulation enable patient to take thousands of steps. A 39yo man who had had been completely paralyzed for 4 years was able to voluntarily control his leg muscles and take many steps in a robotic exoskeleton during 5 days of training with the aid of the robotic device combined with a novel noninvasive spinal stimulation pattern that does not require surgery, UCLA scientists report.

This is the first time that a person with chronic, complete paralysis has regained enough voluntary control to actively work with a robotic device designed to enhance mobility...

Gerard Coté, professor of biomedical engineering and director of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station’s Center for Remote Health Technologies and Systems. Credit: Texas A&M University

It could significantly improve malaria diagnoses, Rx in developing countries that often lack the resources to address the life-threatening disease. The add-on device, which is similar in look and feel to a protective phone case, uses a smart phone’s camera features to produce high-resolution images of objects 10X smaller than the thickness of a human hair, says Prof Gerard Coté who developed the mobile-optical-polarization imaging device (MOPID).

MOPID is capable of accepting a small cartridge containing a patient’s blood-smear sample, which is then imaged using polarized light in order to detect ...