The Ink of the Future in Printed Electronics

The Polymer ink. The blue one is the donor polymer solution, while the red one is the acceptor polymer solution. Both pristine polymers are non-conductive because there are no free moving charges inside the polymers. When they meet each other, electrons from the donor polymer will automatically be transferred to the acceptor polymer, leaving free moving charges on both polymers.THOR BALKHED

Ground-state electron transfer in all-polymer donor-acceptor heterojunctions. A research group led by Simone Fabiano at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics, Linköping University, has created an organic material with superb conductivity that doesn’t need to be doped. They have achieved this by mixing two polymers with different properties.

In order to increase the conductivity of polymers, ...

Read More

‘Strange’ Glimpse into Neutron Stars and Symmetry Violation

Inner vertex components of the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (righthand view) allow scientists to trace tracks from triplets of decay particles picked up in the detector’s outer regions (left) to their origin in a rare “antihypertriton” particle that decays just outside the collision zone. Measurements of the momentum and known mass of the decay products (a pi+ meson, antiproton, and antideuteron) can then be used to calculate the mass and binding energy of the parent particle. Doing the same for the hypertriton (which decays into different “daughter” particles) allows precision comparisons of these matter and antimatter varieties.

New results from precision particle detectors at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) offer a fresh glimpse of the particle...

Read More

‘Primitive’ Stem Cells shown to Regenerate Blood Vessels in the Eye

Human vascular progenitor cells (green), made from Zambidis’ lab-grown naive stem cells, engraft into blood vessels (red) in a mouse retina. Credit: Elias Zambidis, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists say they have successfully turned back the biological hands of time, coaxing adult human cells in the laboratory to revert to a primitive state, and unlocking their potential to replace and repair damage to blood vessels in the retina caused by diabetes. The findings from this experimental study, they say, advance regenerative medicine techniques aimed at reversing the course of diabetic retinopathy and other blinding eye diseases.

“Our study results bring us a step closer to using stem cells more widely in regenerative medicine, without the historical problems...

Read More

Drones can now Scan Terrain and Excavations without Human Intervention

Measuring and documenting gravel and limestone quarries, cliff faces and similar natural and man-made formations is often done using drones that photograph the area. New research may make the pilots superfluous. (NB: The vertical rod on top of the drone carries a wind detector for test purposes, and it is not present on the final version of the drone.) Photo: Erdal Kayacan.

Drone pilots may become superfluous in the future. New research from Aarhus University has allowed artificial intelligence to take over control of drones scanning and measuring terrain.

A research project at Aarhus University (AU) in collaboration with the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) aims to make measuring and documenting gravel and limestone quarries much faster, cheaper and easier in the future.

Read More