Hi Tech & Innovation news

Energy & Green Tech

Fungi turn shredded mattress foam into lightweight building insulation

Swinburne researchers have turned old, unwanted mattresses into safe and sustainable building insulation materials using fungi. The team grew a common fungus together with shredded mattress foam to create a new material that ...

Electronics & Semiconductors

Extending optical fiber's ultralow loss performance to photonic chips

Caltech scientists have developed a way to guide light on silicon wafers with low signal loss approaching that of optical fiber at visible wavelengths. This accomplishment paves the way for a new generation of ultra-coherent ...

Hi Tech & Innovation

New AI system fixes 3D printing defects in real time

Additive manufacturing has revolutionized manufacturing by enabling customized, cost-effective products with minimal waste. However, with the majority of 3D printers operating on open-loop systems, they are notoriously prone ...

Engineering

Transparent windows can shield buildings from powerful electromagnetic pulses

Electromagnetic pulses (EMPs)—high-energy-density and ultra-wideband beams of electromagnetic radiation—are generated from sources such as nuclear explosions, high-power electromagnetic pulse devices, and intentional ...

Energy & Green Tech

Electric eel biology inspires powerful gel battery

Power sources used in devices found in or around biological tissue must be flexible and nontoxic, while still powerful enough to support demanding technologies such as medical devices or soft robotics. To achieve this balance, ...

Engineering

Origami-inspired ring lets users 'feel' virtual worlds

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are technologies that allow users to immerse themselves in digital worlds or enhance their surroundings with computer-generated filters or images, respectively. Both these technologies ...

Electronics & Semiconductors

Novel carbon nanotube-based transistors reach THz frequencies

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), cylindrical nanostructures made of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, have proved to be promising for the fabrication of various electronic devices. In fact, these structures exhibit outstanding ...

Energy & Green Tech

Making it easier to recycle your house

According to Statistics Norway, an average of approximately 1,100 detached houses have been demolished each year in Norway over the course of the past decade. However, only 7% of the wood from these buildings was recycled.

Energy & Green Tech

Nanoporous silicon generates electricity from friction with water

A European research team involving Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) and Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY has developed a novel way for converting mechanical energy into electricity—by using water confined in ...