New 3D Printable Phase-changing Composites can Regulate Temperatures Inside Buildings

New 3D printable phase-changing composites can regulate temperatures inside buildings
New phase-change material composites can regulate ambient temperatures inside buildings. Credit: Texas A&M University College of Engineering

Changing climate patterns have left millions of people vulnerable to weather extremes. As temperature fluctuations become more commonplace around the world, conventional power-guzzling cooling and heating systems need a more innovative, energy-efficient alternative, and in turn, lessen the burden on already struggling power grids.

In a new study, researchers at Texas A&M University have created novel 3D printable phase-change material (PCM) composites that can regulate ambient temperatures inside buildings using a simpler and cost-effective manufacturing process...

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Icequakes likely rumble along Geyser-spitting Fractures in Saturn’s Icy Moon Enceladus

A satellite image of the research study site on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica (top) shows two rifts in the ice from rising and falling tides. Similarly sized “tiger stripe fractures” crease the ice in Enceladus’ South Polar Terrain, in an image captured by the Cassini Imaging Team. From figure 1 of the new study.
Credit: AGU/ JGR: Planets

Seismic activity could give scientists a read on the thickness of the ice encasing the moon and the oceans believed to lie beneath. Tidal stresses may be causing constant icequakes on Saturn’s sixth largest moon Enceladus, a world of interest in the search for life beyond Earth, according to a new study. A better understanding of seismic activity could reveal what’s under the moon’s icy crust and provide clues to the habitability of its ocean.

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Scientists home in on recipe for entirely renewable energy

High-throughput screening and rational design to drive discovery in molecular water oxidation catalysis

Scientists from Trinity College Dublin are homing in on a recipe that would enable the future production of entirely renewable, clean energy from which water would be the only waste product.

Using their expertise in chemistry, theoretical physics and AI, the team is now fine-tuning the recipe with the genuine belief that the seemingly impossible will one day be reality.

Initial work in this area, reported just under two years ago, yielded promise. That promise has now been amplified significantly in the exciting work just published in leading journal, Cell Reports Physical Science.

Energy for a song — the theory, and the problem

Reducing humanity’s carbon dioxide (CO2) em...

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New Radio Receiver opens Wider Window to Radio Universe

Distribution of CO isotopologues in the Orion molecular cloud observed simultaneously with the newly developed broadband receiver. (Credit: Osaka Prefecture University/NAOJ)

Researchers have used the latest wireless technology to develop a new radio receiver for astronomy. The receiver is capable of capturing radio waves at frequencies over a range several times wider than conventional ones, and can detect radio waves emitted by many types of molecules in space at once. This is expected to enable significant progresses in the study of the evolution of the Universe and the mechanisms of star and planet formation.

Interstellar molecular clouds of gas and dust provide the material for stars and planets...

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