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New Quantum Nanodevice can simultaneously act as a Heat Engine and a Refrigerator

image of an engine and a refrigerator
 RIKEN researchers have produced a quantum nanodevice that can behave both as an engine and a refrigerator—at the same time. Left: © Martin Steinthaler/Getty; Right: © lilographik/Getty

A multitasking nanomachine that can act as a heat engine and a refrigerator at the same time has been created by RIKEN engineers. The device is one of the first to test how quantum effects, which govern the behavior of particles on the smallest scale, might one day be exploited to enhance the performance of nanotechnologies.

Conventional heat engines and refrigerators work by connecting two pools of fluid. Compressing one pool causes its fluid to heat up, while rapidly expanding the other pool cools its fluid...

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Perfect Transmission through Barrier using Sound

The perfect transmission of sound through a barrier is difficult to achieve, if not impossible based on our existing knowledge. This is also true with other energy forms such as light and heat.

A research team led by Professor Xiang Zhang, President of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) when he was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, (UC Berkeley) has for the first time experimentally proved a century old quantum theory that relativistic particles can pass through a barrier with 100% transmission. The research findings have been published in the top academic journal Science.

Just as it would be difficult for us to jump over a thick high wall without enough energy accumulated...

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A DNA-based Nanogel for Targeted Chemotherapy

A DNA-based nanogel (shown above) is broken down in cancer cells to release chemotherapy drugs.
Credit: Adapted from Nano Letters 2020, DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolet.0c03671

Current chemotherapy regimens slow cancer progression and save lives, but these powerful drugs affect both healthy and cancerous cells. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Nano Letters have designed DNA-based nanogels that only break down and release their chemotherapeutic contents within cancer cells, minimizing the impacts on normal ones and potentially eliminating painful and uncomfortable side effects.

Once ingested or injected, chemotherapy medications move throughout the body, indiscriminately affecting healthy cells along with those that are responsible for disease...

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Soil-powered Fuel Cell promises Cheap, Sustainable Water Purification

Bath researchers with Soil Microbial Fuel Cells in Brazil
Bath researchers Jakub Dziegielowski, Dr Jannis Wenk and Dr Mirella Di Lorenzo testing Soil Microbial Fuel Cells in Brazil

Soil microbial fuel cells proven to be capable of creating energy to filter a person’s daily drinking water in Brazil test. Engineers at the University of Bath have shown that it’s possible to capture and use energy created by the natural reactions occurring in microorganisms within soil.

A team of chemical and electrical engineers has demonstrated the potential of cheap, simple ‘soil microbial fuel cells’ (SMFCs), buried in the earth to power an electrochemical reactor that purifies water.

The proof-of-concept design was demonstrated during field testing in North-East Brazil that took place in 2019 and showed that SMFCs can purify about three litres of water...

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