All’interno intervista
esclusiva al Dott. Giuseppe Cotellessa di ENEA.
di: Marco La Rosa
Il “PALAZZO DELLA CIVILTA’ ITALIANA”, chiamato anche “della
Civiltà del Lavoro” e “Colosseo quadrato” (per via dei 54 archi per facciata),
è un edificio di carattere monumentale, sorge a Roma nel quartiere dell’EUR. Progettato nel 1936-37 fu iniziato nel 1938
ed inaugurato, ancora incompleto nel 1940. Fu ultimato dopo il 1945. Oggi è un
edificio di interesse culturale e quindi vincolato ad usi espositivi e museali.
Negli archi del piano terreno, sono collocate 28 statue
rappresentanti le virtù del popolo
italiano: EROISMO, MUSICA, ARTIGIANATO, GENIO POLITICO, ORDINE SOCIALE, LAVORO,
AGRICOLTURA, FILOSOFIA, COMMERCIO, INDUSTRIA, ARCHEOLOGIA, ASTRONOMIA, STORIA,
GENIO INVENTIVO, ARCHITETTURA, DIRITTO, PRIMATO DELLA NAVIGAZIONE, SCULTURA,
MATEMATICA, GENIO DEL TEATRO, CHIMICA, STAMPA, MEDICINA, GEOGRAFIA, FISICA,
POESIA, PITTURA, GENIO MILITARE.
ABBIAMO DIMENTICATO TUTTO
QUESTO. ABBIAMO PERDUTO LA NOSTRA IDENTITA’.
La “SCUOLA”, nel tempo è stata “cannibalizzata” di tutte le
risorse possibili, non è praticamente più in grado di trasmettere questi
valori, che nel tempo si sono prima diluiti e poi persi. Restano parole vuote
scolpite in qualche monumento, caduto pure quello nell'oblio.
Ma il DNA non è fantasia, per cui senza averne coscienza,
ognuno di noi ha dentro se il “seme” di questo immenso patrimonio. Quindi
nonostante tutto, esso continua a germogliare, ed anche se non ce ne
accorgiamo la pianta cresce, cresce e tende verso l’alto, verso il
sole, pure senza acqua.
Ho trovato una di queste "piante", non per caso. Perché se cerchi
trovi…eccome se trovi.
L’ ENEA, Agenzia
Nazionale per le nuove tecnologie, l’energia e lo sviluppo economico
sostenibile. E’ un fiore all’occhiello tutto italiano, specchio di quel
patrimonio “scolpito” nel travertino lassù. Fucina di idee e scoperte che fanno
invidia al mondo intero: Efficienza energetica, fonti rinnovabili, nucleare,
ambiente e clima, sicurezza e salute, nuove tecnologie… In questi tempi “cupi” è
come un gigante semi addormentato. Innumerevoli brevetti di importanza epocale
non solo per l’Italia, ma per tutti i paesi del mondo, giacciono polverosi nei
cassetti: mancano le aziende, mancano le risorse per “studiare” e “sviluppare”
i prototipi che poi faranno da volano al rilancio dell’economia… le eccezioni
sono poche, ma danno il polso di una situazione incredibile, basterebbe
veramente poco per cambiare le cose.
Leggete qua:
“ Un significativo passo avanti
per il rilancio dell’economia
italiana si sta compiendo grazie agli investimenti fatti nella ricerca e nel
sistema industriale ad alta tecnologia, che nonostante la crisi, è
uno dei pochi settori che ha accresciuto la propria competitività,
e la creazione di nuovi posti di lavoro.”
ha dichiarato Giovanni Lelli, Commissario dell’ENEA,
intervenendo alla cerimonia di avvio dei lavori per la costruzione di una
macchina sperimentale per la produzione di energia da fusione nucleare in
Giappone, con l’assemblaggio dei
primi componenti arrivati dall’Europa.
Si tratta di un programma internazionale tra Europa e Giappone, alla cui realizzazione
l’ENEA ha contribuito con il suo
progetto e lavorando in sinergia con le aziende italiane che forniscono alcuni
componenti essenziali. La collaborazione tra il sistema della ricerca pubblica
e quello dell’industria nazionale
dei sistemi energetici tecnologicamente avanzati ha portato alla qualificazione
di prodotti tecnologici che ora possono competere e vincere in tutti i mercati
mondiali. L’ENEA ha messo a
disposizione le infrastrutture tecnologiche dei Centri di ricerca di Frascati e del Brasimone, che sono tra i
più avanzati in Europa, e le
competenze tecnico-scientifiche dei suoi ricercatori per sviluppare e
qualificare i componenti tecnologici delle nostre maggiori realtà
industriali per il raggiungimento di quei livelli qualitativi di eccellenza che
hanno determinato il successo italiano
in tutti i programmi internazionali per la fusione nucleare.”
In particolare, le industrie italiane ad alta tecnologia
sono riuscite a cogliere l’opportunità
offerta dalla costruzione del reattore ITER, il più
importante programma internazionale di fusione nucleare, aggiudicandosi
commesse del valore totale di circa 750 milioni di euro per componenti
rilevanti, tra i quali i magneti superconduttori.
Un successo ottenuto grazie al ruolo che l’ENEA
svolge da più di 20 anni come
coordinatore nazionale dei programmi europei sulla fusione nucleare finalizzati
ad ottenere un’energia green,
che non comporta i rischi legati al nucleare da fissione, che è
la stessa energia che si verifica nelle stelle”.
Ecco un esempio
pratico:
Un’intervista esclusiva al Dott. Giuseppe Cotellessa appunto di
ENEA, che ci onora della sua presenza sul nostro sito-blog e che ringraziamo per la seguente spiegazione
semplificata della sua scoperta:
Metodo per l’analisi di
immagini acquisite da strumenti di indagine nucleare
“Giuseppe Cotellessa
dell’Istituto Nazionale di Metrologia delle Radiazioni Ionizzanti (INMRI) dell'ENEA è l’inventore di un
procedimento fisico-matematico che permette un’analisi corretta della “natura”
e la “misura” affidabile delle dimensioni degli oggetti osservati nelle
immagini acquisite da strumenti di indagine nucleare ed estensibile ad immagini
non nucleari, per esempio: immagini radar, sonar, TAC, RMN, radiografiche,
ecografiche, da microscopi elettronici, ottici e telescopi. Il procedimento può essere applicato anche per
migliorare la precisione della lettura dei rilevatori di tracce nucleari, come
quelli utilizzati per misurare l’esposizione al radon e ai neutroni in ambienti
di lavoro per la radioprotezione dei lavoratori, come anche garantire la
sicurezza meccanica nel funzionamento dei componenti utilizzati negli impianti
nucleari, contribuire in modo significativo agli studi di ricerca sulla fusione
nucleare ed agli studi di ricerca nucleare in generale in quanto è in grado di
rilevare ed eliminare i segnali provenienti dalle pseudo tracce, cioè quei
segnali prodotti dalla presenza di impronte digitali sul rilevatore o da
imperfezioni del materiale”.
“I sistemi di indagine nucleare finora utilizzati si basano
sulla osservazione da parte di sistemi automatici di analisi di oggetti su
immagini bidimensionali a diverse tonalità di grigio, ricostruiti a partire
dalla misura del numero di danni delle radiazioni nucleari, provocate sulla
superficie del rivelatore, captate da una telecamera, dopo riflessione o
trasmissione sul o attraverso il rivelatore di un fascio luminoso.
L’interpretazione dell’immagine ottenuta è affidata esclusivamente a
procedimenti matematici di software che analizzano nella maggior parte immagini
trasformate in formato binario con notevole perdita di informazioni utili per
l’interpretazione degli oggetti. Gli oggetti delle immagini analizzate in campo
diagnostico e non (immagini radar, sonar, TAC, RMN, radiografiche, ecografiche,
da microscopi elettronici, ottici e telescopi) spesso sono analizzate
attraverso l’occhio umano dell’operatore, con notevoli errori
nell’interpretazione della natura degli oggetti, nella misura nel numero e
delle dimensioni degli oggetti interpretati.
Il procedimento brevettato consente di ricostruire grafici
tridimensionali facilmente interpretabili dall’occhio umano, che sono ottenuti
effettuando più letture dello stesso rilevatore, per diversi valori di
intensità luminosa. Ciò permette di differenziare le tracce nucleari emesse o
trasmesse dall’oggetto indagato, dalle pseudo tracce reali dovute alla presenza
di impronte digitali sul rilevatore o a imperfezioni del materiale, e da quelle
virtuali dovute a una non corretta impostazione dei parametri di lavoro.
L’eliminazione dei segnali delle pseudo tracce consente di ottimizzare i
parametri di lavoro e migliorare l’accuratezza e la riproducibilità della
lettura”.
Il brevetto, di proprietà ENEA, è stato depositato il 13
dicembre 2012 con numero RM2012A000637. È consultabile nella banca dati Brevetti
ENEA dal 19 dicembre 2012 ed è disponibile per licensing.
Chi è Giuseppe Cotellessa:
Laurea in fisica alla
Sapienza 1982, ricercatore all’ENEA dal 1985.
Specializzato in
metrologia dei gas, ha sviluppato prototipi di misura del gas radioattivo radon
(celle elettrostatiche), ha contribuito alla risoluzione di problematiche
relative alla taratura degli strumenti di misura del radon e di sviluppo dei
campioni relativi.
Ha partecipato a
contratti nazionali ed internazionali con funzione da parte di ENEA di
laboratorio garanzia per la taratura degli strumenti di misura: Italia,
Germania Orientale (Lipsia).
Ha partecipato alla
realizzazione di due sistemi integrati per la misura del radon e dei figli del
radon, denominati Radotron. Ha partecipato nel progetto di realizzazione dei
prototipi di flussimetri “Seeback” dell’Istituto tedesco di Jena per le alte
tecnologie, occupandosi della caratterizzazione ambientale tramite flussimetri
miniaturizzati in ambiente controllato. Questo progetto è stato selezionato
dalla Comunità Europea come esempio di “successo storico”.
Ha partecipato al
primo interconfronto italiano degli strumenti di misura passivi in Italia.
Ha partecipato a
diversi interconfronti con strumenti di misura passivi del radon in Inghilterra
presso NRPB e a Berlino.
Nel laboratorio ha
preso parte alla progettazione e ristrutturazione del sistema di gestione della
camera radon con microclima controllato.
Ha effettuato studi di
caratterizzazione della radioprotezione dei lavoratori dal gas radon nella
camera radon praticabile del laboratorio.
Ha partecipato alla
realizzazione di numerosi circuiti ed apparati per differenti finalità.
Il compito attuale è
quello di realizzare il primo campione primario assoluto per il radon per
l’INMRI (Istituto Nazionale di Metrologia delle radiazioni Ionizzanti) in
Italia.
MLR: Dott.
Cotellessa, può farci qualche esempio pratico per aiutare la gente comune, a
capire che la sua scoperta può davvero migliorare in modo sensibile tanti
aspetti della vita di società?
G.C.: Finora lo stato dell’arte da me raggiunto è di aver
verificato sperimentalmente la validità del procedimento fisico-matematico, con
un lavoro di ricerca applicata durato quasi cinque anni (da
Agosto 2007) utilizzando i mezzi disponibili nel laboratorio di tracce nucleari
dell’INMRI, in cui ho avuto la possibilità di sviluppare l’attività di ricerca dal 1985. In questo periodo di
tempo sempre nel campo dell’uso dei rivelatori di trace nucleari a stato solido,
ho depositato altri due brevetti di invenzioni originali:
1)RM2008A000148
|
“Processo per lo Sviluppo di Tracce
Nucleari Identificabili mediante la Loro Intensità Luminosa Rispetto ad Altre
Tracce Agglomerate, e Dispositivo per la Sua Attuazione” del 17-3-2008
|
2)RM92A000540
|
“Procedimento per la Separazione
Automatica delle Tracce con un Analizzatore di Immagini Utilizzando
l'Immagine Originaria.” Del 15-7-1992.)
|
Queste ricerche e relativi
brevetti hanno un comune obiettivo di migliorare gli aspetti metrologici dei
processi basati sulle applicazioni delle
analisi delle immagini.
Hanno aperto delle prospettive
per applicazioni in diversi campi, anche nel settore industriale e pertanto l’ENEA
ha ritenuto opportuno di proteggere i
risultati con la deposizione di un brevetto.
I passi ulteriori da effettuare
sono quelli di trovare i finanziamenti adeguati per continuare le ricerche; di promuovere le applicazioni in
collaborazione con le ditte interessate, preferibilmente italiane, concedendo
loro la licenza d’uso del brevetto ed incorporare
poi, lo stesso, in prototipi multidisciplinari, con la prospettiva di immettere sul mercato
l’innovazione.
Tutto ciò, potrà portare alla realizzazione di nuovi
dispositivi in campo medico, migliorando
la qualità di diverse tecnologie diagnostiche basate sull’analisi delle
immagini.
Ad esempio, per quanto riguarda
i trapianti di organi, riconoscere in
modo automatico, in un campione composto
di cellule morte e vive, la percentuale di cellule vive, fondamentale nei test per la determinazione della compatibilità dei
tessuti tra donatore e ricevente.
Procedendo per ipotesi, senza aver
ancora ottenuto le dovute verifiche sperimentali, penso a nuovi dispositivi nel
campo della produzione industriale.
Il procedimento consente di migliorare
le prestazioni dei microscopi ottici, elettronici, che hanno larga
applicazione. ecc.
Si potrebbero affrontare i
problemi più complessi da un punto di vista fisico, come la gestione dei
sensori di centrali solari termodinamiche con un procedimento molto più snello
e semplificato.
MLR: Dott.
Cotellessa, quanto importante sarà la sensibilizzazione della società, della
scuola a tutti i livelli (in questo momento di profonda crisi generale), affinché
il “genio” e la “ricerca” italiana ritrovino “splendore” di fronte al mondo, ma
sopratutto a quella parte del nostro paese ormai profondamente disillusa?
G.C: L’innovazione
costituisce un fattore significativo per dare impulso alla ripresa
socio-economica del paese. Questo processo deve essere reso operativo a tutti i
livelli, in particolare nella scuola.
MLR: Dott.
Cotellessa, è d’accordo sul fatto che se le Istituzioni italiane arresteranno
l’”emorragia di cervelli” dal nostro paese, con atti concreti, l’economia tutta
ne beneficerebbe da subito?
G.C.: .: La ricerca italiana, sia pubblica che privata, consentirebbe
se opportunamente valorizzata, un impulso positivo per superare le attuali
condizioni di ristagno nel nostro paese, e quindi anche “mantenere” in Italia i ricercatori che
si sono formati nelle nostre università e nei centri di ricerca.
In conclusione vorrei
evidenziare che il lavoro sperimentale è frutto di lavoro di equipe con il
concorso di altri ricercatori, ma anche della struttura operativa dell’INMRI dell’ENEA
che ha consentito e valorizzato questa linea di ricerca, portando anche alla
brevettazione dei risultati e dell’innovazione.
In particolare ringrazio il
Dott. Pierino De Felice, responsabile attuale dell'INMRI, il Dott. Marco
Capogni responsabile della sezione dell'INMRI per lo sviluppo dei campioni
primari (appartengo a questa sezione) e il Dott. Giuliano Sciocchetti mio
ex-responsabile, attualmente in pensione, che ancora mi segue quasi
quotidianamente nelle mie avventure scientifiche, Elvio Soldano (chimico) e
Massimo Pagliari (tecnico). Queste personalità, eccezionali all'interno
dell'ENEA, mi hanno creato le condizioni indispensabili per poter
conseguire questi risultati importanti.
MLR: Dott.
Cotellessa, la ringraziamo per la sua disponibilità e chiarezza, nella viva
speranza che quel “seme” di cui parlavo all’inizio di questo articolo,
custodito nelle nuove generazioni, possa
davvero trovare in ITALIA “terreno fertile” in cui germogliare e crescere…
questa volta con abbondanza di acqua.
SE TI E' PIACIUTO QUESTO POST NON PUOI PERDERE:
LA VERA "GENESI" DELL'UOMO E' COME CI HANNO SEMPRE RACCONTATO? OPPURE E' UNA STORIA COMPLETAMENTE DIVERSA?
"L'UOMO KOSMICO", TEORIA DI UN'EVOLUZIONE NON RICONOSCIUTA"
" IL RISVEGLIO DEL CADUCEO DORMIENTE: LA VERA GENESI DELL'HOMO SAPIENS"
DI MARCO LA ROSA
SONO EDIZIONI OmPhi Labs
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Chemical bond formation observed by laser technique
Scientists have used an X-ray laser at the US Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to observe the moments when weak bonds form between two atoms.
This fundamental advance, reported in Science Express and long thought impossible, is expected to have a significant impact on the understanding of how chemical reactions take place and on efforts to design reactions that generate energy, create new products and fertilise crops more efficiently.
‘This is the very core of all chemistry…because it controls chemical reactivity,’ said Anders Nilsson, a professor at the SLAC/Stanford SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis and at Stockholm University who led the research. ‘But because so few molecules inhabit this transition state at any given moment, no one thought we’d ever be able to see it.’
The experiments took place at SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), a DOE Office of Science User Facility in Menlo Park, California. Its brilliant, strobe-like X-ray laser pulses are reportedly short enough to illuminate atoms and molecules, and fast enough to watch chemical reactions unfold in a way never possible before.
Researchers used LCLS to study the same reaction that neutralises carbon monoxide (CO) from car exhaust in a catalytic converter.
In the SLAC experiments, researchers attached CO and oxygen atoms to the surface of a ruthenium catalyst and encouraged reactions with a pulse from an optical laser. The pulse heated the catalyst to 2,000 kelvins - more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit – which facilitated the formation of CO2.
SEGUE SECONDA PARTE
DA DR. COTELLESSA
SECONDA PARTE
The team was able to observe this process with X-ray laser pulses from LCLS, which detected changes in the arrangement of the atoms’ electrons – subtle signs of bond formation – that occurred in femtoseconds.
‘First the oxygen atoms get activated, and a little later the carbon monoxide gets activated,’ Nilsson said. ‘They start to vibrate, move around a little bit. Then, after about a trillionth of a second, they start to collide and form these transition states.’
According to a statement, the researchers were surprised to see so many of the reactants enter the transition state – and equally surprised to discover that only a small fraction of them go on to form stable carbon dioxide. The rest break apart again.
‘It’s as if you are rolling marbles up a hill, and most of the marbles that make it to the top roll back down again,’ Nilsson said. ‘What we are seeing is that many attempts are made, but very few reactions continue to the final product. We have a lot to do to understand in detail what we have seen here.’
Theory played a key role in the experiments, allowing the team to predict what would happen and get a good idea of what to look for. ‘This is a super-interesting avenue for theoretical chemists. It’s going to open up a completely new field,’ said report co-author Frank Abild-Pedersen of SLAC and SUNCAT.
Scientists have used an X-ray laser at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to get the first glimpse of the transition state where two atoms begin to form a weak bond on the way to becoming a molecule
A team led by Associate Professor Henrik Öström at Stockholm University did initial studies of how to trigger the reactions with the optical laser. Theoretical spectra were computed under the leadership of Stockholm Professor Lars G.M. Pettersson, a longtime collaborator with Nilsson.
Preliminary experiments at SLAC’s Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL), another DOE Office of Science User Facility, also proved crucial. Led by SSRL’s Hirohito Ogasawara and SUNCAT’s Jerry LaRue, they measured the characteristics of the chemical reactants with an intense X-ray beam so researchers would be sure to identify everything correctly at the LCLS, where beam time is much more scarce. ‘Without SSRL this would not have worked,’ Nilsson said.
The team is already starting to measure transition states in other catalytic reactions that generate chemicals important to industry.
‘This is extremely important, as it provides insight into the scientific basis for rules that allow us to design new catalysts,’ said SUNCAT Director and co-author Jens Nørskov.
Researchers from LCLS, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin for Materials and Energy, University of Hamburg, Center for Free Electron Laser Science, University of Potsdam, Fritz-Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, DESY and Liverpool University also contributed to the research.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
World's strongest material found in limpet teeth
Researchers have found that limpet teeth possess biological structures so strong they could be copied and used in the structure of cars, boats and planes of the future.
The study from Portsmouth University examined the small-scale mechanical behaviour of teeth from limpets using atomic force microscopy.
In a statement project leader Prof Asa Barber from the University’s School of Engineering said: ‘Nature is a wonderful source of inspiration for structures that have excellent mechanical properties. All the things we observe around us, such as trees, the shells of sea creatures and the limpet teeth studied in this work, have evolved to be effective at what they do.
‘Until now we thought that spider silk was the strongest biological material because of its super-strength and potential applications in everything from bullet-proof vests to computer electronics but now we have discovered that limpet teeth exhibit a strength that is potentially higher.’
Prof Barber found that the teeth contain goethite, a mineral that forms in the limpet as it grows.
He said: ‘Limpets need high strength teeth to rasp over rock surfaces and remove algae for feeding when the tide is in. We discovered that the fibres of goethite are just the right size to make up a resilient composite structure.
‘This discovery means that the fibrous structures found in limpet teeth could be mimicked and used in high-performance engineering applications such as Formula 1 racing cars, the hulls of boats and aircraft structures.
‘Engineers are always interested in making these structures stronger to improve their performance or lighter so they use less material.’
The research also discovered that limpet teeth are the same strength no matter what the size.
‘Generally a big structure has lots of flaws and can break more easily than a smaller structure, which has fewer flaws and is stronger. The problem is that most structures have to be fairly big so they’re weaker than we would like. Limpet teeth break this rule as their strength is the same no matter what the size.’
According to the University, the material Prof Barber tested was almost 100 times thinner than the diameter of a human hair so the techniques used to break such a sample have only just been developed.
He said: ‘The testing methods were important as we needed to break the limpet tooth. The whole tooth is slightly less than a millimetre long but is curved, so the strength is dependent on both the shape of the tooth and the material. We wanted to understand the material strength only so we had to cut out a smaller volume of material out of the curved tooth structure.’
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Testing begins on engines for world's largest aircraft
Hybrid Air Vehicles has started the Airlander 10 engine program, a series of full engine tests designed to bring the world’s largest aircraft into commercial operation.
The 92m long Airlander can take-off and land from a range of surfaces, including water, and carry passengers. Four 325hp, 4l V8 direct injection, turbocharged diesel engines help Airlander to fly for five days non-stop.
In flight, two engines are mounted forward on the hull and two on the stern of the hull for cruise operation. All four are configured in ducts with blown vanes to allow vectored thrust for take-off/landing/ground handling operation.
The US Army's Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle has successfully completed a maiden flight that saw the aircraft fly for over 90 minutes
The current engine tests are focused on identifying future improvements to Airlander propulsion systems prior to a series of trials and demonstrations with a range of civil and military customers during 2016.
The latest milestone in Airlander’s development has been made possible with assistance from Innovate UK and a £3.4m Regional Growth Fund Grant.
According to HAV, Innovate UK’s LOCATE (Low Carbon Aircraft Technology Experimentation) programme has supported key work in aerodynamics, automation and manufacturing technologies, and has underpinned the company’s ability to hire new staff in 2014.
In a statement Tom Grundy, HAV’s operations director said, ‘Airlander is an aircraft that can carry very large loads long distances and/or remain airborne for weeks at a time. We are showing customers worldwide that this can be a game-changer in many different airborne applications. [This] run of our highly efficient engine system is a big step towards the next flight of Airlander, and towards flight demonstrations of the aircraft’s capability in 2016.’
DA DR. COTELLESSA
3D printed guide helps repair of damaged nerves
Scientists at Sheffield University of have succeeded in using a 3D printed guide to help damaged nerves repair themselves.
The team used the device to repair nerve damage in animal models and say the method could help treat many types of traumatic injury.
The University said the device - a nerve guidance conduit (NGC) - is a framework of tiny tubes that guide the damaged nerve ends towards each other so that they can repair naturally.
Patients with nerve injuries can suffer complete loss of sensation in the damaged area and current methods of repairing nerve damage require surgery to suture or graft the nerve endings, a practice which often yields imperfect results.
According to the University, some NGCs are currently used in surgery but they can only be made using a limited range of materials and designs, making them suitable for a limited range of injuries.
The technique, developed in Sheffield’s Faculty of Engineering, uses Computer Aided Design (CAD) to design the devices, which are then fabricated using laser direct writing, a form of 3D printing. The advantage of this is that it can be adapted for any type of nerve damage or even tailored to an individual patient.
Researchers used the 3D printed guides to repair nerve injuries using a novel mouse model developed in Sheffield’s Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health to measure nerve regrowth. They were reportedly able to demonstrate successful repair over an injury gap of 3mm, in a 21-day period.
In a statement, John Haycock, Professor of Bioengineering at Sheffield said: ‘The advantage of 3D printing is that NGCs can be made to the precise shapes required by clinicians.
‘We’ve shown that this works in animal models, so the next step is to take this technique towards the clinic.’
The Sheffield team used polyethylene glycol, which is already cleared for clinical use and is also suitable for use in 3D printing.
‘Further work is already underway to investigate device manufacture using biodegradable materials, and also making devices that can work across larger injuries,’ said Dr Frederik Claeyssens, senior Lecturer in Biomaterials at Sheffield.
‘Now we need to confirm that the devices work over larger gaps and address the regulatory requirements,’ said Fiona Boissonade, Professor of Neuroscience at Sheffield.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Ricardo unveils rare earth-free electric vehicle motor
Ricardo has designed and built a prototype electric vehicle (EV) motor as part of a collaborative research and development project.
The West Sussex based company said its 85kW synchronous reluctance electric motor uses a conventional distributed stator winding, and has a rotor made from cut steel laminations that are used to direct and focus the flux across the air gap. By maximising this flux linkage between the stator and rotor, performance can be optimised within a tightly packaged, low weight and rare earth element free design.
In a statement, Paul Rivera, MD of the Ricardo hybrid and electric vehicle systems business said: ‘As the market for electric vehicles grows globally, there is an imperative to explore alternatives to permanent magnet traction motors which require the use of expensive and increasingly difficult to source rare earth elements.’
‘The Ricardo prototype that we have announced…demonstrates what can be achieved by using the latest electric machine design processes in the creation of a high performing, compact, lightweight, and rare earth element free concept.’
Since its launch in 2012, the RapidSR (Rapid Design and Development of a Switched Reluctance Traction Motor) project has been researching the design of next-generation economic electric motors that avoid expensive and potentially difficult to source rare earth elements typically used in permanent magnets.
By developing effective CAE-led design processes as well as prototype designs, the team has created a framework for the future design and manufacture of electric vehicle motors that offer the performance, compact packaging and light weight required for EV applications, but at a significantly reduced cost compared to permanent magnet machines.
Ricardo’s partners in this research include project leader Cobham Technical Services – which is developing its multi-physics CAE design software, Opera, as a part of the project – and Jaguar Land Rover. The research is being co-funded by Innovate UK.
‘By bringing together simulation technology with advanced electric machine design we have created a highly credible next generation EV motor concept that shows considerable promise,’ said Dr Will Drury, Ricardo team leader for electric machines and power electronics. ‘The Ricardo prototype is now built and will be rigorously tested over the coming weeks in order to validate the extremely positive results that it has shown in simulation.’
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Graphene targets cancer stem cells
Scientists have used graphene to target and neutralise cancer stem cells while not harming other cells.
This new from development from Manchester University is claimed to open up the possibility of preventing or treating a broad range of cancers, using a non-toxic material.
Writing in Oncotarget, the team of researchers led by Prof Michael Lisanti and Dr Aravind Vijayaraghavan has shown that graphene oxide, a modified form of graphene, acts as an anti-cancer agent that selectively targets cancer stem cells (CSCs).
In combination with existing treatments, this could eventually lead to tumour shrinkage as well as preventing the spread of cancer and its recurrence after treatment. However, more pre-clinical studies and extensive clinical trials will be necessary to move this forward into the clinic to ensure patient benefit.
In a statement, Prof Lisanti, the director of the Manchester Centre for Cellular Metabolism within the University’s Institute of Cancer Sciences, said: ‘Cancer stem cells possess the ability to give rise to many different tumour cell types. They are responsible for the spread of cancer within the body - known as metastasis- which is responsible for 90 per cent of cancer deaths.
‘They also play a crucial role in the recurrence of tumours after treatment. This is because conventional radiation and chemotherapies only kill the ‘bulk’ cancer cells, but do not generally affect the CSCs.’
Dr Vijayaraghavan said: ‘Graphene oxide is stable in water and has shown potential in biomedical applications. It can readily enter or attach to the surface of cells, making it a candidate for targeted drug delivery. In this work, surprisingly, it’s the graphene oxide itself that has been shown to be an effective anti-cancer drug.
‘Cancer stem cells differentiate to form a small mass of cells known as a tumour-sphere. We saw that the graphene oxide flakes prevented CSCs from forming these, and instead forced them to differentiate into non-cancer stem-cells.
‘Naturally, any new discovery such as this needs to undergo extensive study and trials before emerging as a therapeutic. We hope that these exciting results in laboratory cell cultures can translate into an equally effective real-life option for cancer therapy.’
The team is said to have prepared a variety of graphene oxide formulations for testing against six different cancer types - breast, pancreatic, lung, brain, ovarian and prostate.
The flakes inhibited the formation of tumour sphere formation in all six types, suggesting that graphene oxide can be effective across all, or at least a large number of different cancers, by blocking processes which take place at the surface of the cells. The researchers suggest that, used in combination with conventional cancer treatments, this may deliver a better overall clinical outcome.
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World's first biofuel from whisky residues aim for lead in £100m market
A Scottish company has revived a defunct fermentation technology to create biofuel from the residues of whisky production.
Edinburgh-based Celtic Renewables said it now plans to build a production facility in central Scotland after manufacturing the world’s first samples of bio-butanol from the by-products of whisky fermentation.
Celtic Renewables is a spin-out company from the Biofuel Research Centre (BfRC) at Edinburgh Napier University that has developed its process as part of a £1m programme funded by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) under its Energy Entrepreneurs Fund.
The company said it is now seeking funding from the Department for Transport’s (DfT’s) £25m advanced biofuel demonstration competition and, if successful, hopes to build its first demonstration facility at the Grangemouth petrochemical plant by 2018.
Company owners estimate it could be the market leader in an industry worth more than £100m to the UK economy.
Celtic Renewables, in partnership with the Ghent-based BioBase Europe Pilot Plant (BBEPP), produced the first samples of bio-butanol from waste using a process called Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol (ABE) fermentation earlier this month.
ABE fermentation was first developed in the UK a century ago, but died out in competition with the petrochemical industry. However bio-butanol is now recognised as an advanced biofuel and Celtic is seeking to reintroduce the process to Europe for the first time since the 1960s, using the millions of tonnes of annual whisky production residues as its raw material.
The biofuel is produced from draff - the sugar-rich kernels of barley which are soaked in water to facilitate the fermentation process necessary for whisky production – and pot ale, the copper-containing yeasty liquid that is left over following distillation.
In a statement, Prof Martin Tangney, the company’s founder and president, said: ‘We have successfully taken a defunct technology and adapted it to current market conditions, attracting the investment and partners required to scale-up to industrial production and prove that this works at scale.’
Winners of the DfT competition will receive funding of up to £12m over three years to build a biofuel facility that should be operational by December 2018 and producing at least one million litres of biofuel-a-year that is compatible with automotive engines.
Mark Simmers, CEO of Celtic Renewables, said: ‘The process we have perfected takes residues that present a disposal issue to the whisky industry and creates value by producing not only sustainable biofuel but also green chemicals and high grade animal feed.
‘The exciting challenge for us now as a business is to convert our proven technology into a multimillion pound industry, and building our first demonstration plant is the next critical step to achieving that goal.’
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Home kidney disease monitoring with £10 device
A new £10 medical device that combines nanotechnology with a pregnancy test-style kit could allow day-to-day monitoring of kidney disease by patients in their own homes.
Kidney dysfunction places suffers at increased risk of cardiovascular disease and acute kidney injury. Every day, 19 people in the UK are diagnosed with kidney failure, with dialysis treatment for each of those awaiting a transplant costing the NHS over £25,000 per year. As a whole, kidney disease currently costs the NHS over £1.4 billion - more than breast, lung, colon and skin cancer combined.
At present, the progress of kidney conditions is monitored through regular testing of urine. However, these tests can’t be carried out at the point of care - instead, the sample must be sent to a laboratory by a GP or nurse, with a wait of several days for the results.
Created by Bio Nano Consulting, a company jointly owned by Imperial College London and University College London, the new device – called quantitative electrochemical lateral flow assay (QELFA) – uses nanoparticles to determine the exact amount of protein in a patient’s urine. The device is dipped into a urine sample, giving a result as an exact number.
The QELFA test can be used by a patient at home, and gives a result in seconds. It can also transmit the protein level to the patient’s surgery via mobile technology for monitoring by health professionals.
‘Like a glucose monitor, QELFA is quick and non-invasive,’ said Dr Paulo Actis, Bio Nano Consulting consultant and project manager. ‘Over the next 18 months we will be taking the device from the laboratory to the prototype stage. Its development fits in well with the NHS five-year plan which involves decentralising medicine and letting patients have more control over their own health, as well as helping to reduce the workload for testing laboratories.’
QELFA recently won a Smart award from Innovate UK. It was developed alongside clinicians at the Royal Free Hospital, and further work on the commercialisation of the device is being supervised by professor Tony Cass of Imperial College, whose work led to the development of the first electronic blood glucose measuring system.
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Ultrasensitive UV detector for early fire warning
Researchers at Surrey University’s Advanced Technology Institute have created a ultra-violet light detector that is 10,000 times more sensitive to UV light than a traditional zinc oxide detector, paving the way for improved fire and gas detection.
Currently, photoelectric smoke sensors detect larger smoke particles found in dense smoke, but are not as sensitive to small particles of smoke from rapidly burning fires.
The ATI team manipulated zinc oxide to transform it from a flat film to a structure with bristle-like nanowires. This increased the sensor’s surface area and so its sensitivity and reaction speed, allowing the sensor to detect distinct particles emitted at the early stages of fires.
As well as fire and gas detection and air pollution monitoring, the team believes the sensor could also be incorporated into personal electronic devices, such as phones and tablets, to increase the speed they can interpret inputs.
‘We grew the zinc oxide nanowires and nano-syringes directly on the electrodes of the device. The beauty of the system we have developed is that the growth can be done in-situ, at low temperatures, and even on plastic substrates for flexible and maybe even transparent devices,’ said Prof Ravi Silva, co-author of the study and head of the Advanced Technology Institute.
‘We are in the midst of talking to interested parties in a number of fields to engage with the many different forms of designer nanomaterials we can produce in a manufacturable manner. By mixing these with organic materials, it opens to door for bespoke solid state flexible and large area devices that can be used in UV detectors, X-ray detectors, solar cells, lighting devices, transparent conductors, touch panels and so on.’
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Per i diabetici è possibile valutare i livelli di zucchero analizzando i fluidi della pelle attraverso sensori temporanei ed evitare così di andare incontro a crisi ipoglicemiche
Uno speciale tatuaggio di carta, invece degli aghi che bucano la punta del dito, per misurare, nei diabetici, i livelli di zucchero. L’invenzione è di una neolaureata all’University of California di San Diego, Amay Bandokar, che ha sperimentato, grazie alle nanotecnologie, un sistema non invasivo per valutare indirettamente la glicemia, analizzando quanto glucosio c’è nei fluidi che circondano le cellule della pelle (e che sono appunto correlati alla quantità presente nel sangue) .
Crisi ipoglicemiche
I pazienti diabetici, soprattutto quelli in terapia con insulina, sono costretti a monitorare la glicemia più volte al giorno per valutare quanto la terapia è in grado di tenerla sotto controllo e per evitare il rischio di andare incontro a crisi ipoglicemiche (glucosio troppo basso) o iperglicemiche (glucosio troppo alto). Per ora il nuovo dispositivo, studiato a San Diego, è un prof-of-concept come dicono gli anglosassoni, cioè l’abbozzo di un metodo che, però, sembra promettente, in futuro, non solo per rilevare gli zuccheri, ma anche altre sostanze che possono essere presenti nell’organismo (come per esempio droghe).
Sensori
Si tratta di un sistema, costituito, appunto, da una sorta di tatuaggio di carta da mettere sulla pelle, ma dotato di elettrodi. Attraverso questi ultimi viene applicata una minima corrente elettrica, per dieci minuti, che spinge gli ioni sodio, presenti nei fluidi fra le cellule cutanee, a migrare negli elettrodi. Questi ioni trasportano le molecole di glucosio anch’esse presenti nei fluidi fra le cellule della pelle. E un sensore misura quanta elettricità è necessaria per portare a termine questo lavoro. Il problema è interpretare i dati e arrivare e dire, valutando il glucosio presente in questi fluidi (che è infinitamente più basso di quello del sangue) quale è il reale valore della glicemia, cioè degli zuccheri presenti nel sangue (la glicemia, il vero parametro che interessa).
Bluetooth e cloud
Per ora il paziente non lo può sapere direttamente, ma si stanno studiando sistemi per rendere i dati subito accessibili, per trasmetterli attraverso Bluetooth al medico di fiducia e per archiviarli nel cluod (la nuvola di Internet). L’idea del tatuaggio misura-glicemia (il lavoro è pubblicato sulla rivista Analytical Chemistry) sembra dunque promettente. Un dispositivo simile, chiamato GlucoWatch, era stato messo in circolazione nel 2002, ma causava una serie di problemi come irritazione cutanea, mentre il nuovo dispositivo (per ora sperimentato su volontari sani fra i 20 e i 40 anni , dopo un ricco pasto a base di sandwich e bibite gassate che, si sa, aumentano moltissimo la glicemia) sembra non avere questi effetti collaterali perché utilizza una corrente elettrica più bassa.
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Saved by the 'Bot
In manufacturing situations, workers often must be protected from robots. In other situations, such as mining, workers can be saved by robots. In the case of mine collapses, human first responders are thwarted by structural instabilities and poisonous or explosive gases. One robotic first responder, which functions primarily as a scout, can carry up to 50 lbs of supplies to trapped miners, navigating stairs and steep slopes en route.
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Robots Reduce the Risk of Repetition
"Machine operators in small Australian factories will spend over 20 hours a week tending machines, taking out finished parts, and putting in new materials," a situation that causes repetitive stress injuries and accounts for 40% of workplace compensation claims in Australia. Robots with intelligent safety features can take over monotonous and often dangerous tasks, creating a safer work place for the (human) employees.
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Idle No More
Instead of deploying more large industrial robots, BMW is integrating collaborative robots into its (formerly) human-staffed production line and anticipates adding an uncaged, rolling robot arm to hand tools to people. "Eventually, by collaborating with human workers, the robots will provide a way to combine the benefits of automation with those of human ingenuity and handcraft." One of those benefits is reducing by as much as 85% a human worker's idle time.
Talking drones to improve airspace safety
In what is claimed to be a world first, RMIT University researchers have developed a talking drone that can converse with air traffic controllers like a normal pilot.
The research team in Australia said the development is a critical step towards the full integration of unmanned aircraft systems – or drones – into civil airspace.
The project, which is said to be part of a larger research initiative that aims to address safety and efficiency issues related to drones and air traffic management, is the result of a partnership between RMIT, Thales Australia and the company’s Centre for Advanced Studies in Air Traffic Management (CASIA), and UFA Inc.
RMIT researchers have developed a talking drone that can interact with air traffic controllers just like a normal pilot. The development is a critical step towards the full integration of unmanned aircraft systems into civil airspace
In a statement, Dr Reece Clothier, leader of the RMIT Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Research Team, said drones needed to be able to fly safely alongside other airspace users without causing disruption to air traffic management.
‘The majority of air traffic control services are provided to aircraft by voice radio – aircraft controllers speaking directly to pilots,’ said Dr Clothier said.
‘Our project aimed to develop and demonstrate an autonomous capability that would allow a drone to verbally interact with air traffic controllers.
‘Using the system we’ve developed, an air traffic controller can talk to, and receive responses from, a drone just like they would with any other aircraft.’
Philippe Bernard-Flattot, technical director at Thales Australia, said: ‘This is a significant project that is important for the future of air traffic control systems.
‘It brings the safe and seamless operation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles within civil airspace one step closer, and is an excellent example of close collaboration between different teams.’
The new system – which was presented by researchers in a paper at the Australian International Aerospace Congress held in Melbourne this week – enables a drone to respond to information requests and act on clearances issued by an air traffic controller, using ATVoice, UFA’s voice recognition and response technology.
Flight-testing of a prototype system was completed late last year, demonstrating integration to Thales’ Top Sky Air Traffic Control System. Further studies are now underway to better understand the benefits, and explore the human factor issues associated with the automation of drone to air traffic controller communications.
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Seeing Green
As lettuce progresses along a conveyor belt at a vegetable producer in Spain, vision and sensor systems weigh each bundle and assess its density. Then a vision-guided robot picks up the lettuce, using a pneumatic gripper to prevent damage, and presents it to a cutting machine for root removal. The 68 robots carefully package 400,000 heads of lettuce each day; that's 60,000 more than human workers could manage.
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Beyond GPS: Discover the Top Trends in GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, and Beidou
Any GPS test system relies on standard software protocols. GPS, for the United States, and GLONASS, for Russia, are the primary Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) protocols used today. The European Space Agency (ESA) is testing, validating, and rolling out Galileo, a third GNSS that will be interoperable with both GPS and GLONASS. Galileo represents the next step in software protocols, and its development paves the way for any future protocol design. To create a Galileo-compatible receiver, developers need to test designs under controlled conditions in a laboratory for extended periods.
For decades, GPS was the only global satellite positioning system available. In 2011, the Russian radio navigation system GLONASS started to provide worldwide coverage. China and Europe are also deploying their own satellite positioning systems.
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Tailored radiology treatments made possible with 3D printed devices
3D printing could become a viable option for customising radiology treatments to individual patient needs, with doctors having the ability to construct devices to a specific size and shape.
This is the conclusion of a study presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology’s Annual Scientific Meeting.
In the study, researchers and engineers collaborated to print catheters, stents and filaments that were bioactive, giving these devices the ability to deliver antibiotics and chemotherapeutic medications to a targeted area in cell cultures.
‘3D printing allows for tailor-made materials for personalised medicine,’ said Horacio R. D’Agostino, M.D., FSIR, lead researcher and an interventional radiologist at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center (LSUH) in Shreveport. ‘It gives us the ability to construct devices that meet patients’ needs, from their unique anatomy to specific medicine requirements. And as tools in interventional radiology, these devices are part of treatment options that are less invasive than traditional surgery,’ he added.
Using 3D printing technology and resorbable bioplastics, D’Agostino and his team of biomedical engineers and nanosystem engineers at LSUH and Louisiana Tech University are said to have developed bioactive filaments, chemotherapy beads, and catheters and stents containing antibiotics or chemotherapeutic agents. The team then tested these devices in cell cultures to see if they could inhibit growth of bacteria and cancer cells.
When testing antibiotic-containing catheters that could slowly release the drug, D’Agostino’s team found that the devices inhibited bacterial growth. Researchers also saw that filaments carrying chemotherapeutic agents were able to inhibit the growth of cancer cells.
‘We treat a wide variety of patients and, with some patients, the current one-size-fits-all devices are not an option,’ D’Agostino said in a statement. ‘3D printing gives us the ability to craft devices that are better suited for certain patient populations that are traditionally tough to treat, such as children and the obese, who have different anatomy. There’s limitless potential to be explored with this technology.’
The research team is also able to print biodegradable filaments, catheters and stents that contain antibiotics and chemotherapeutic agents. These types of devices may help patients avoid the need to undergo a second procedure or treatment when conventional materials are used.
D’Agostino believes that this early success with 3D-printed instruments in the lab warrants further studies, with the goal of receiving approval to use these devices in humans.
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Polymer-based photovoltaics show promise against silicon and germanium
A University of Cincinnati research partnership is reporting advances on how to make solar cells stronger, lighter, more flexible and less expensive compared with silicon or germanium technology.
Yan Jin, a UC doctoral student in the materials science and engineering program, Department of Biomedical, Chemical, and Environmental Engineering, reported results of the research on March 2, at the American Physical Society Meeting in San Antonio, Texas.
Jin described how a blend of conjugated polymers resulted in structural and electronic changes that increased efficiency three-fold, by incorporating graphene into the active layer of the carbon-based materials. The technique is said to have resulted in better charge transport, short-circuit current and a more than 200-per cent improvement in the efficiency of the devices.
‘We investigated the morphological changes underlying this effect by using small-angle neutron scattering [SANS] studies of the deuterated-P3HT/F8BT with and without graphene,’ Jin said in a statement.
The partnership with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee is exploring how to improve the performance of carbon-based synthetic polymers, with the ultimate goal of making them commercially viable.
Unlike the silicon-or germanium-powered solar cells on the market, polymer substances are less expensive and more malleable.
‘It would be the sort of cell that you could roll up like a sheet, put it in your backpack and take it with you,’ said Vikram Kuppa, Jin’s advisor and a UC assistant professor of chemical engineering and materials science.
One of the main challenges involving polymer-semiconductors is that they have significantly lower charge transport coefficients than traditional, inorganic semiconductors, which are used in the current solar technology.
Although polymer cells are thinner and lighter than inorganic devices, these films also capture a smaller portion of the incoming light wavelengths and are much less efficient in converting light energy to electricity.
‘Our approach is significant because we have now shown peak improvement of over 200 per cent on a few different systems, essentially a three-fold increase in the efficiency of the cell by addressing the fundamental problem of poor charge transport,’ said Kuppa.
Jin led the research conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and at UC’s Organic and Hybrid Photovoltaics Laboratory in the UC College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS).
‘We’re finding that these enhancements resulted from improvements in both charge mobility and morphology,’ said Jin. ‘The morphology is related to the physical structure of the blend in the polymer films and has a strong impact on the performance and the efficiency of the organic photovoltaic cells.’
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Lockheed Martin has deployed a 30kW fibre laser weapon to disable the engine of a truck.
Dubbed ATHENA (Advanced Test High Energy Asset) the ground-based prototype is said to have quickly burned through the engine manifold from over a mile away.
The truck was mounted on a test platform with its engine and drive train running to simulate what Lockheed Martin describes as ‘an operationally-relevant test scenario’.
In a statement, Keoki Jackson, Lockheed Martin chief technology officer said: ‘Fibre-optic lasers are revolutionising directed energy systems.
‘We are investing in every component of the system – from the optics and beam control to the laser itself – to drive size, weight and power efficiencies.
‘This test represents the next step to providing lightweight and rugged laser weapon systems for military aircraft, helicopters, ships and trucks.’
The demonstration is said to have marked the first field-testing of an integrated 30kW, single-mode fibre laser weapon system prototype. Through spectral beam combining, multiple fibre laser modules form a single, powerful, high-quality beam that provides greater efficiency and destructiveness than multiple individual 10kW lasers used in other systems.
ATHENA is based on the Area Defense Anti-Munitions (ADAM) laser weapon system developed by Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, California, which has been proven in demonstrations against small airborne and sea-based targets. It incorporates the 30kW Accelerated Laser Demonstration Initiative (ALADIN) fibre laser developed by the company in Bothell, Washington.
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Project seeks to improve the efficiency of microbial fuel cells
Glasgow University scientists are working on a project to increase the efficiency of microbial fuel cells (MFCs).
In MFCs, electrons from microbial metabolism flow from bacteria toward an anode then on through an external circuit, finally converting oxygen into water at the cathode and closing the cycle.
Susan Rosser, principal investigator on the EPSRC-funded project, told The Engineer: ‘Bacteria use carbon when they metabolise and they produce electrons as a by-product.’
‘Certain strains of bacteria have the capability to transfer those electrons to electrodes, which can produce a current,’ she explained.
Rosser claimed that the power generated by MFCs is still too low for practical application despite work being done to improve this situation, such as altering the hardware of microbial fuel cells or changing the electrode material.
‘We’re taking a biological engineering approach where we’re using synthetic biology in order to engineer the bacteria to be more productive,’ Rosser added.
There are a variety of ways through which bacteria transfer electrons to electrodes and Rosser hopes to pinpoint and further understand these in her research.
‘Certain bacteria create nanowires and electrons are transferred along these, while other bacterium transfer electrons through direct contact with the electrode,’ she said.
‘In addition, there are types of bacteria that create electron mediator compounds that travel back and forth between the bacteria to the electrode and dump the electrons at the electrode,’ added Rosser.
She hopes to further understand these methods and engineer bacteria that have combined ways of transferring electrons.
MFCs have the potential to generate renewable electricity from a vast array of carbon sources, such as wastewater, agricultural by-products and industrial pollutants.
Rosser said: ‘There are huge potential applications. We’re hoping to use pollutants as carbon sources. This would mean that pollutants would be captured by an MFC placed at the end of a pipe instead of being released into the environment.’
MFCs also have the potential to power remote environmental sensors that currently rely on batteries that have to be changed when they run out.
In addition, NASA has shown an interest in MFC technology, which could be used in conjunction with human waste produced by astronauts.
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Urine powered fuel cells are set to light up refugee camps
A university urinal is being used to test the effectiveness of urine-powered microbial fuel cells.
The prototype toilet is the result of a partnership between researchers at the West of England (UWE Bristol) and Oxfam. It is hoped the urine-power technology will light cubicles in refugee camps, which are often dark and dangerous places particularly for women.
Students and staff are being asked to use the urinal, which is located near the Student Union bar, to donate urine to fuel microbial fuel cell (MFC) stacks that generate electricity to power indoor lighting.
A prototype urinal is the result of a partnership between researchers at UWE Bristol and Oxfam. It is hoped the pee-power technology will light cubicles in refugee camps, which are often dark and dangerous places particularly for women
The research team is led by Prof Ioannis Ieropoulos , director of the Bristol BioEnergy Centre located in the Bristol Robotics Laboratory at UWE Bristol.
In a statement Prof Ieropoulos said: ‘The microbial fuel cells work by employing live microbes which feed on urine [fuel] for their own growth and maintenance.
‘The MFC is in effect a system which taps a portion of that biochemical energy used for microbial growth, and converts that directly into electricity - what we are calling urine-tricity or pee power. This technology is about as green as it gets, as we do not need to utilise fossil fuels and we are effectively using a waste product that will be in plentiful supply.’
The urinal on the University campus resembles toilets used in refugee camps by Oxfam to make the trial as realistic as possible. The technology that converts the urine into power sits underneath the urinal and can be viewed through a clear screen.
Andy Bastable, Head of Water and Sanitation at Oxfam, says, ‘It is always a challenge to light inaccessible areas far from a power supply. This technology is a huge step forward. Living in a refugee camp is hard enough without the added threat of being assaulted in dark places at night. The potential of this invention is huge.’
Prof Ieropoulos and Bastable believe the cheap, sustainable aspect of this technology - which relies on the abundant, free supply of urine - makes it practical for aid agencies to use in the field.
Prof Ieropoulos said: ‘One microbial fuel cell costs about £1 to make, and we think that a small unit like the demo we have mocked up for this experiment could cost as little as £600 to set up, which is a significant bonus as this technology is in theory everlasting.’
The Urine-tricity project is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the wider Microbial Fuel Cell work is funded by the EPSRC.
In 2011 Dr Ioannis Ieropoulos, Prof John Greenman and Prof Chris Melhuish from Bristol Robotics Lab published ’Urine utilisation by microbial fuel cells; energy fuel for the future’
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Scientists take step towards artificial leaves
Researchers in the US have taken their inspiration from nature to develop a special coating that they claim could pave the way for devices able to harness sunlight to split hydrogen fuel from water.
Developed by a team at Caltech’s Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, the conductive nickel oxide film could, it is claimed, be applied to semiconducting materials to form so-called “artificial leaves” that replicate the natural process of photosynthesis used by plants.
The device - which is the subject of a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - consists of three main components: two electrodes (a photoanode and a photocathode) and a membrane.
Conceptual drawing of an artificial phtosynthetic system
The photoanode uses sunlight to oxidise water molecules to generate oxygen gas, protons, and electrons, while the photocathode recombines the protons and electrons to form hydrogen gas. The membrane, which is typically made of plastic, keeps the two gases separate in order to eliminate any possibility of an explosion, and lets the gas be collected under pressure to safely push it into a pipeline.
According to Prof Nate Lewis, who has been heading up the research, the team experimented with a number of different light-absorbing semiconductor materials such as silicon or gallium arsenide (which are already used in solar panels) but found that they developed an oxide layer when exposed to water.
The group’s specially developed nickel oxide coating – created using a technique which involves smashing atoms of argon into a pellet of nickel atoms at high speed - offers a solution to this problem and, according to the team, enables fuels to be produced with efficiently and safely.
Crucially, the team’s nickel oxide film works well in conjunction with the membrane that separates the photoanode from the photocathode and staggers the production of hydrogen and oxygen gases.
‘Without a membrane, the photoanode and photocathode are close enough to each other to conduct electricity, and if you also have bubbles of highly reactive hydrogen and oxygen gases being produced in the same place at the same time, that is a recipe for disaster,’ Prof Lewis said in a statement. ‘With our film, you can build a safe device that will not explode, and that lasts and is efficient, all at once.’
Certain components of the system, such as the photocathode, will also need to be perfected before a commercial product converting sunlight into fuel can be developed, cautioned Prof Lewis.
‘Our team is also working on a photocathode,’ he said. ‘What we have to do is combine both of these elements together and show that the entire system works. That will not be easy, but we now have one of the missing key pieces that has eluded the field for the past half-century.’
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uel cell deal marks transition for AFC Power
British fuel cell manufacturer AFC Power has committed to build a 50MW fuel cell park in South Korea, as part of a joint venture with two local companies, Samyoung and Changsing Chemical.
The park is to be built in two phases in Daesan, a port city in the west of South Korea.
Based in Surrey, AFC specialises in alkaline fuel cells which do not require precious metal catalysts. These, it says, have an energy efficiency of 60 per cent and operate between 70°-100°C, making them the most efficient fuel cell currently available. The company was formed in 2006, and boasts Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich as its largest shareholder.
The Korean agreement will see AFC install first 5MW of capacity at the new fuel cell park by the end of next year, with a further 45MW to be added by the end of 2019. The joint venture is expecting this to generate revenues of some $1bn over its first 10 years of operation.
Today’s agreement is expected to be the first of several projects from the joint venture company, in which AFC holds some 40 per cent to Samyoung’s 45 per cent and Changsing’s 15 per cent.
AFC will sell its fuel cell equipment into the joint venture and supply technical and operational advice, while Samyoung will manage engineering procurement, construction (EPC) and permitting, and Changsing will provide land, hydrogen and logistics.
AFC sees this agreement as marking its transition from an R&D company to a fully-fledged member of the energy industry, and chose South Korea in part because of its strong incentives for fuel cell deployment.
It is hoping to demonstrate the world’s largest alkaline fuel cell system, a 240kW installation called ‘Power-Up’, in December this year at Air Products’ industrial gas plant in Satde, Germany.
‘I am confident our new partners are strongly aligned with AFC’s renewed and aggressive commercialisation strategy into South Korea,’ AFC CEO Adam Bond said in a statement.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Fujitsu launches its own 'Fourth Industrial Revolution'
Fujitsu has announced plans to help manufacturing robots work more closely alongside human workers through more advanced networking and data-sharing technology.
The Japanese ICT company is designing systems that can collect, analyse and share data between humans and machines more effectively in order to enable factories to respond more quickly to changing levels of demand and new product designs.
The move follows the Japanese government’s attempts to boost Japan’s manufacturing competitiveness through programmes such as the “New Robot Strategy”, and initiatives by German companies such as Siemens to introduce a “Fourth Industrial Revolution” through greater use of automation and networking.
As with German “Industry 4.0” systems, Fujitsu’s new technologies will make heavy use of the “Internet of Things”, the concept of connecting any machine or object to the internet to enable remote operation and greater data sharing and analysis.
In practice, this will mean being able to predict manufacturing quality and perform real-time optimisation of production equipment, allocating and changing orders without stopping operations, and including real-time data in virtual simulations in order to improve factory design.
The company is also working on software to help production robots learn to complete tasks in collaboration with humans, and working with automation firms to make it easier for manufacturers to use machines that rely on a variety of robotic control languages.
A new Manufacturing Solution Operations Promotion Office within Fujitsu will develop the company’s internal automation and networking practices into a reference model that can help customers build their own advanced manufacturing systems.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
The Single-molecule Sensor
A methodology developed by researchers at two UK universities turns a single molecule into a magnetic field sensor — no easy task, given the weakness of a molecule's response (in electric current flow) as the magnetic field changes. The article describes how the team leveraged the quantum mechanical tunneling phenomenon as part of their solution, and how tiny magnetic sensors like this one enhance magnetic hard disk drive storage capacities.
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Spectrometry-based Materials Testing for Consumers
Optical spectrometry — by non-invasively analyzing material properties — can judge an apple's ripeness, warn of spoiled milk, or distinguish fake wine from the real stuff. A startup company with a newly-developed $10 "spectrometer-on-a-chip" may bring this heretofore exotic and typically lab-based analysis technique to consumer and medical applications.
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Un occhio elettro-ottico 'leggerà' nei reattori per la fusione nucleare.
Realizzato nel Centro di ricerca di Frascati e brevettato dall’ENEA, un sistema ottico dotato di specchi rotanti consentirà di effettuare ispezioni mai realizzate in precedenza all’interno delle macchine nucleari, senza interrompere l’attività e ridurre la produzione di energia.
Ispezionare l’interno dei reattori nucleari è da sempre considerata un’operazione sfidante: adesso, grazie ad un ‘occhio elettro-ottico’ costituito da specchi montati su basi rotanti sarà possibile eseguire scansioni ad alta velocità e risoluzione, trasmettendo i dati in tempo quasi reale al computer. L’occhio capace di ‘vedere’ in un ambiente così complesso è un laser-radar, in grado di effettuare indagini e verifiche in presenza di alte temperature, vuoto, agenti chimici, radiazione gamma e flussi neutronici. Nello specifico, si tratta di un fascio laser che viene ‘inviato’ all’interno della macchina nucleare per studiarne le caratteristiche di riflessione attraverso le superfici scansite.
Questo sofisticato sistema, realizzato nei laboratori del centro di ricerca di Frascati e brevettato dall’ENEA, è pilotato da motori ceramici in grado di resistere alle radiazioni (i cosiddettihard rad) e di non subire influssi da campi magnetici elevati.
La compattezza e la robustezza di questa nuova configurazione consentono di risolvere le problematiche dei sistemi di scanning in luoghi ‘ostili’, dove è impossibile utilizzare i dispositivi tradizionali.
"L’aspetto innovativo sta nell’aver utilizzato un’architettura elettro-ottica assolutamente non convenzionale e componenti speciali – (come fibre ottiche di quarzo, specchi dielettrici, encoder ottici ad alta precisione) - per realizzare una sonda capace di ‘leggere’ le deformazioni provocate sulle pareti del reattore dagli impulsi di plasma ad altissima temperatura’" spiega l’esperto dell’ENEA Giorgio Fornetti. In questo modo si riesce a ispezionare, quantificandole, le polveri di grafite che si depositano sulle pareti del reattore e che ne pregiudicano il funzionamento.
L’occhio elettro-ottico è stato sviluppato in forma di prototipo ed è attualmente oggetto di una gara internazionale per la produzione industriale e l’impiego nelle future macchine fusionistiche a partire dal ITER che verrà completato nei prossimi anni.
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Injectable polymer could stem battlefield injuries
University of Washington researchers have developed PolySTAT, a new injectable polymer that strengthens blood clots.
Administered via injection, the polymer is claimed to find any unseen or internal injuries and starts working immediately.
The University said the new polymer - described in Science Translational Medicine - could become a first line of defence in a host of trauma scenarios.
A 3D rendering of fibrin forming a blood clot, with PolySTAT binding strands together
It has been tested in rats, and the researchers said it could reach human trials in five years.
In the initial study with rats, 100 per cent of animals injected with PolySTAT survived a typically lethal injury to the femoral artery. Only 20 per cent of rats treated with a natural protein that helps blood clot survived.
“Most of the patients who die from bleeding die quickly,” said co-author Dr. Nathan White, an assistant professor of emergency medicine who teamed with UW bioengineers and chemical engineers to develop the macromolecule. “This is something you could potentially put in a syringe inside a backpack and give right away to reduce blood loss and keep people alive long enough to make it to medical care.”
According to a statement, the UW team was inspired by factor XIII, a natural protein found in the body that helps strengthen blood clots.
Normally after an injury, platelets in the blood begin to congregate at the wound and form an initial barrier. Then a network of specialised fibres called fibrin start weaving themselves throughout the clot to reinforce it.
If that scaffolding can’t withstand the pressure of blood pushing against it, the clot breaks apart and the patient keeps bleeding.
Both PolySTAT and factor XIII strengthen clots by binding fibrin strands together and adding cross-links that reinforce the latticework of that natural bandage.
The synthetic PolySTAT offers greater protection against natural enzymes that dissolve blood clots. Those help during the healing process, but they work against doctors trying to keep patients from bleeding to death.
The enzymes, which cut fibrin strands, don’t target the synthetic PolySTAT bonds that are now integrated into the clot. That helps keep the blood clots intact in the critical hours after an injury.
The synthetic polymer offers other advantages over conventional haemorrhaging treatments, said White, who also treats trauma patients at Harborview Medical Center.
Blood products are expensive, need careful storage, and they can grow bacteria or carry infectious diseases, he said. Plus, the hundreds of proteins introduced into a patient’s body during a transfusion can have unintended consequences.
After a traumatic injury, the body also begins to lose a protein that’s critical to forming fibrin. Once those levels drop below a certain threshold, existing treatments stop working and patients are more likely to die.
In the study, researchers found PolySTAT worked to strengthen clots even in cases where those fibrin building blocks were critically low.
The UW team also used a highly specific peptide that only binds to fibrin at the wound site. It does not bind to a precursor of fibrin that circulates throughout the body. That means PolySTAT shouldn’t form dangerous clots that can lead to a stroke or embolism.
The team said next steps include testing on larger animals and additional screening to find out if it binds to any other unintended substances. They also plan to investigate its potential for treating haemophilia and for integration into bandages.
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Ingestible gas sensor could help diagnose bowel problems
New gas-sensing capsules that can send data from inside the gut directly to a mobile phone could open new possibilities for diagnosis, treatment and health analysis.
Intestinal gases have been linked to colon cancer, irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease, and could potentially be used as key biomarkers for assessing overall health.
The new technology – developed by researchers from RMIT Monash universities in Melbourne, Australia – measures the concentration of selected intestinal gases through a swallowable capsule with a built-in gas sensor, microprocessor and wireless high-frequency transmitter.
Lead investigator, RMIT’s Prof Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh, said current non-invasive methods of measuring intestinal gas – such as breath testing – were unreliable.
‘We know gut microorganisms produce gases as a by-product of their metabolism, but we understand very little about how that affects our health,’ he said in a statement.
‘Being able to accurately measure intestinal gases could accelerate our knowledge about how specific gut microorganisms contribute to gastrointestinal disorders and food intake efficiency, enabling the development of new diagnostic techniques and treatments.
‘But these high-tech capsules could also help people work out precisely how particular foods affect their guts.
‘With nearly half of Australia’s population complaining of digestive problems in any 12 month period, this technology could be the simple tool we need to methodically tailor our diets to our individual bodies and improve our digestive health.’
Animal trials have demonstrated the effectiveness and safety of the capsules, which transmit data as they move through the gut to a handheld device such as a mobile phone, before passing out of the body.
The researchers from RMIT’s MicroNano Research Facility and Monash have detailed the technology in an article for Trends in Biotechnology, which also describes a second novel method of analysing intestinal gases, using ‘in vitro fermentation’.
‘Australia’s CSIRO [Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation] has developed different gas capsule technologies for ruminants – animals such as cows and sheep that can acquire nutrients from plant-based food by fermenting it in a specialised stomach prior to digestion – but the RMIT-Monash research is focused on capsules suitable for humans,’ said Kalantar-zadeh.
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Self-cleaning paint withstands hard knocks
A new damage resistant paint that can be used to create robust self-cleaning surfaces has been developed by a team led by researchers at University College London.
Self-cleaning surfaces are extremely repellent to water but may stop working when damaged or exposed to oil. The new paint, which is made using coated titanium dioxide nanoparticles, is resistant to everyday wear and tear and can be applied to clothes, paper, glass and steel.
When combined with adhesives, it maintains its hydrophobic and self-cleaning properties after being wiped or scratched with a knife. In tests, it also survived being scuffed with sandpaper for over 40 cycles. The research team hope that this will make the paint suitable for applications such as car bodies, where frequent scratching can occur, though it could also be used to create art using the water droplets’ patterns, or for easy-clean surfaces in hospitals.
Ivan Parkin, Claire Carmalt and Yao Lu, scientists at UCL, discuss the treatment they have developed, which can turn many materials including glass, metal and fabric, into highly water repellent and self-cleaning surfaces
“The surface is highly textured - on a very small scale - but has a waxy, low water affinity surface on top. The water forms spherical shapes when it hits this, and when it rolls off, it takes any dirt with it,’ said Prof Claire Carmalt, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at UCL Chemistry. “We used two sizes of nanoparticles to make the texture. However, most surfaces like this are mechanically weak. To counter this we used a spray adhesive, which allowed the material to be used on large surfaces.”
The discovery involved researchers from UCL, Imperial College London and Dalian University of Technology (China). Different coating methods were used to create the water repellent surfaces, depending on the material. An artist’s spray-gun was used to coat glass and steel, dip-coating for cotton wool and a syringe to apply the paint onto paper.
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Recycling technology set to target world's biggest iron smelting waste stock
Technology that harvests blast furnace waste and converts it into an ingredient for cement is being trialled for commercialisation in China, where 60 per cent of the world’s iron waste is produced.
The process, dubbed “dry slag granulation” (DSG), produces a “glassy” product that is said to be ideal for cement manufacture but with significantly lower associated greenhouse gas emissions than cement produced by conventional methods.
Its developers at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, have just signed an agreement with the Beijing MCC Equipment Research & Design Corporation (MCCE) to demonstrate the technology at industrial scale.
This smart Australian technology is set to transform global steelmaking by making a cement product from blast furnace waste, saving water, recovering energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions
“Our collaboration is an exciting step towards the uptake of an innovation with real prospects of transforming the productivity and environmental performance of global iron smelting,” said Jonathan Law, CSIRO director of the Mineral Resources Flagship, in a statement.
“The benefits from wide uptake of DSG technology on blast furnaces will be profound in helping the global industry to reduce water and energy use and greenhouse gas emissions while sustaining metal production.”
The DSG technology fitted to blast furnaces includes a spinning disc and granulation chamber that separates molten slag into droplets under centrifugal forces, uses air to quench and solidify the droplets, and extracts a granulated slag product as well as heated air.
Air at 500-600°C extracted from the DSG process can be used onsite for drying, preheating or steam generation.
Researchers claim the technology can also save water and eliminate the underground water pollution that can be associated with alternative wet granulation processes.
“The benefits each year from full commercialisation and adoption of DSG technology are in the order of 60 billion litres of water, 800 petajoules of heat energy and 60 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions,” said Law.
“Those savings are equivalent to 14 per cent of Australia’s energy use and about 10 per cent of our greenhouse gas emissions each year.”
Under the agreement, MCCE is to scale-up and demonstrate the technology at industrial scale and commercialise it in China and then potentially worldwide.
The agreement is the culmination of more than a decade of DSG technology development by CSIRO and industry partners including Arrium and BlueScope.
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Research brings 'breakthrough' solar cells closer to production
A new kind of solar cell that is exciting energy researchers could be manufactured much faster thanks to research in the US.
Perovskite cells, made from crystalline material with a specific molecular structure, have recently shown a rapid improvement in their ability to convert sunlight into electricity and so have been touted as a replacement for conventional silicon cells.
Scientists at Brown University in Rhode Island have developed a way to make perovskite films much faster and on a wider range of substrates than is currently possible, using a room-temperature solvent bath rather than the blast of heat used in existing crystallisation methods.
The new process can produce very thin but high-quality perovskite films.
“We think this could be a significant step toward a variety of commercially available perovskite cell products,” said Nitin Padture, professor of engineering at Brown and director of the Institute for Molecular and Nanoscale Innovation.
Perovskite cells, named for the crystalline structure of their light-absorbing material that mirrors the molecular shape of the mineral perovskite, were invented in 2009 but have already shown efficiencies of over 20 per cent – a level it took traditional silicon cells decades to reach.
As silicon cells are still only a few percentage points more efficient than this – and more expensive to make – some researchers believe perovskite has the potential to become the leading solar technology, although questions have been raised over the stability and durability of perovskite cells.
Perovskite films are usually made by coating a substrate with a solution of chemicals and then removing the unwanted solvent by applying temperatures of 100-150°C.
However, this can cause the crystals to form unevenly and reduce efficiency, as well as limiting the kinds of substrates it is possible to use. Plastic, for example, would be damaged by the heat.
The new solvent-solvent extraction (SSE) method, developed by Brown PhD student Yuanyuan Zhou, uses a second solvent instead of heat to remove the first solvent, leaving an ultra-smooth film of perovskite crystals.
The process produces very thin but high-quality films with efficiencies of over 15 per cent and takes less than two minutes, compared to an hour or more for heat-treating, making it more amenable to mass production.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
l Parco delle Dolomiti Lucane produce biometano Quasi completata, in Basilicata, la centrale a biomasse che produrrà elettricità e biometano dagli scarti delle potature e dalla coltivazione del bosco In Basilicata, all’interno dell’area protetta delle Dolomiti Lucane, è quasi terminato l’impianto per la produzione di energia elettrica e biometano da utilizzare per i servizi del Parco. Il progetto è stato interamente finanziato dalla Regione: è costato circa 500 mila euro e vede già completato l’impianto di gassificazione. Manca poco, invece, al termine dei lavori su quello di meta nazione, progettato e realizzato dall’Enea. L’obiettivo è valorizzare gli scarti legnosi recuperati dalla coltivazione del bosco, utilizzando tecnologie innovative e a basso impatto ambientale per produrre energia elettrica. «Questo progetto vuol essere un esempio di best practice per l’avvio di una filiera lucana sulla bioenergia –spiega Giacobbe Braccio, Direttore dell’Unità Tecnologie Trisaia – La politica di incentivazione introdotta dal DM 6 luglio 2012 rende la produzione di energia elettrica e calore da gassificazione conveniente e integrabile nel sistema di produzione nazionale, soprattutto per piccoli impianti. Lo stesso tipo di interesse c’è per la produzione di biometano, una finalità di grande prospettiva, ma più complessa soprattutto se le materie prime sono biomasse legnose». Negli ultimi anni, gli impianti che producono elettricità e calore dalla combustione o gassificazione di biomasse legnose si stanno diffondendo in diverse regioni italiane. Quasi sempre si tratta di centrali di media o piccola taglia, che utilizzano come materia prima biomasse di diversa natura: dalle potature di vigneti e uliveti a materiale proveniente dalla manutenzione di boschi o dalla pulizia dei letti fluviali del territorio circostante. Tuttavia, come sottolinea Vito Pignatelli, Responsabile del Coordinamento Tecnologie Biomasse e Bioenergie dell’Enea, «per guidare il processo di crescita in atto ed evitare distorsioni che potrebbero influire negativamente su un comparto vitale e dalle grandi potenzialità per la salvaguardia del territorio e la decarbonizzazione dell’economia, serve una strategia chiara e condivisa, coerente con gli indirizzi del Piano di settore per le bioenergie». Il Piano, elaborato da un gruppo di lavoro istituito dal Ministero delle Politiche Agricole (e approvato nell’agosto 2014 dalla Conferenza Stato-Regioni), definisce una strategia complessiva e individua priorità di intervento e strumenti operativi per la promozione e la diffusione delle bioenergie. «Si tratta di un primo, importante passo per uno sviluppo equilibrato del settore, perché finalmente si è iniziato a parlarne come di opportunità per l’agricoltura e per il Paese e non solo come un’occupazione nefasta di suolo agricolo obbligatoriamente destinato alla produzione di alimenti», conclude Pignatelli.
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US to help China develop new kind of cheaper, safer nuclear reactor
The US and China have teamed up to develop a new kind of nuclear reactor that would be cheaper and safer than current designs.
Representatives from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP) met at ORNL to discuss plans for building a salt-cooled test reactor.
Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP) have agreed to work together to advance salt-cooled nuclear reactor technologies that operate at low pressures and with passive safety systems that don’t require human intervention.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences already has plans to build a prototype of a fluoride high-temperature reactor (FHR) and hopes to learn from Oak Ridge’s experience of building and running the world’s only molten salt reactor in the 1960s.
FHRs are an emerging class of salt-cooled reactors that feature low-pressure liquid fluoride salt cooling and solid coated particle fuel. The design provides a high-temperature power cycle that improves efficiency and a passive safety system designed to handle potential accident conditions without human intervention.
China is particularly interested in the FHR design because its high thermal efficiency means it would require much less cooling water than conventional reactors, making it particularly suitable for power generation in regions where water is scarce.
The US hopes its collaboration in the $5m-a-year project, which is entirely funded by China, will help give its nuclear manufacturing companies greater opportunities to operate in a future salt-cooled reactor market – as well as giving researchers access to the information and expertise created by China’s programme.
Oak Ridge will provide expertise in fuels, materials, instrumentation and controls, design concepts, and modelling and simulation for advanced reactors, as well as the lab’s experience with molten salt reactors, which are very different to FHRs but use some similar technologies.
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Magnetic plasma plucking helps control fusion heat bursts
A new breakthrough could help nuclear fusion researchers to stabilise their reactors, increasing the length of time that fusion can occur
Researchers in the US have discovered how potentially damaging heat bursts inside the type of nuclear fusion reactor being built for the Iter experiment in Southern France can be controlled. This discovery could prolong the duration of fusion reactions, bringing steady-state fusion a stage nearer, the team hopes.
The small distortions at the top and bottom of the left-hand image indicate how an ELM was suppressed inside the DIII-D tokamak; the image on the right is an unsuccessful attempt.
Tokamak reactors - where the hot plasma that undergoes nuclear fusion is constrained by magnetic fields inside a toroidal vacuum chamber - suffer from an effect known as ELMs (edge-localised modes), where the plasma becomes unstable near the edge of the chamber. This can damage the walls of the chamber, especially at the base where the waste products of fusion are removed.
A team from the US Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), working on the DIII-D tokomak at General Atomics’ San Diego facility, discovered some years ago that ELMs could be suppressed with magnetic fields much smaller than those that confine the plasma, which seemed to allow the edge of the plasma to release heat slowly rather than in a damaging burst. A new team, led by Carlos Paz-Soldan of General Atomics, now believes they have discovered how this happens.
Pas-Soldan and his team, along with another team led by Raffi Nazikian of PPPL, have found that the small fields create two effects, rather than one as was previously thought. They used two sets of magnetic coils: one to create the field and the other to act as a pick-up to detect the plasma’s response, like a guitar pick-up detects the vibrations of a plucked string. The teams have reported their findings in Physical Review Letters.
The equipment detected the ripple in the plasma that allowed heat to leak, but also identified exactly what form the ripples took. The magnetic field seemed to tear in a narrow layer. “The configuration changes suddenly when the plasma is tapped in a certain way, and it is this response that suppresses the ELMs,” Nazikian said in a statement,
This result could help the teams at Iter stabilise the magnetic field in such a way as to allow long plasma pulses to be sustained, as in previous Tokamaks ELMs have cut short plasma generation.
“The identification of the physical processes that lead to ELM suppression when applying a small 3D magnetic field to the inherently 2D tokamak field provides new confidence that such a technique can be optimised in eliminating ELMs in Iter and future fusion devices,” said Mickey Wade, the DIII-D program director.
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Underwater robot holds promise for oil-spill clean-up operations
A US-designed underwater robot could be used to help clean up oil-spills resulting from accidents like the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.
The remotely operated vehicle (ROV) developed by a team at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, is able to use acoustic signals to gauge the volume of a spill, and locate the thickest part of the slick, a task that is currently performed by visual surveillance from aircraft ands boats. The difficulty of assessing spill size and volume is likely to increase as oil exploration and recovery moves into Arctic waters, where ice and bad weather can hinder access and visibility.
The robot uses acoustic signals from below to guage the thickness of a slick.
Developed with funding from the US government’s Oil Spill Response Research program, and tested in the program’s 2.6 million-gallon Ohmsett wave tank in Leonardo, New Jersey, the ROV gauges the thickness of a slick by emitting sound waves from below. These waves reflect off the density boundaries between water and oil, oil and air, or oil and ice. Measuring the slight delay between the reception of these reflected echoes allows the vehicle’s software to gauge the thickness of surface and below-ice oil slicks at very fine resolution—from slicks less than 0.5 millimetres thick to more substantial accumulations of up to several centimetres.
The ROV’s main electronics reside in a plastic case that stays topside. The ROV is tethered to the electronics by about 130 feet of cables. The controlling computer—a laptop with a joystick—connects to the electronics via Wi-Fi so that the operator can operate the electronics-ROV package from a pool-deck, or in the case of experiments at the Ohmsett tank, an observation tower.
“Our ROV will provide a test platform for developing other sensors and for field applications,’ said project leader Prof Paul Panetta. ‘It’s one step along the path to developing platforms for use in the ocean to measure slick thickness and other oil properties using acoustics.”
The ultimate goal, he added, is to continue refining the technology so that it can one day be used to help respond to an actual spill in the open ocean. “We’ve already thought of several improvements,” he said, “including integrating the video stream into the ROV software for more seamless operation. We’d also like to create a database of the acoustic properties of different types of oil as a function of temperature.”
Panetta said that future iterations of the technology might mount the sensors on an autonomous underwater vehicle or other free-swimming platform for greater flexibility and wider coverage.
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Researcher Sees Hope in Germanium
Lately, there is renewed interest in germanium as a semiconductor material for optoelectronic and electronic devices. At the recent American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting, Ohio State University assistant professor Joshua Goldberger reported progress in a form of germanium called germanane. The goal is to make a material that is much faster than silicon with better light-absorbing and light-emitting characteristics.
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The future of electronics—now in 2D
Work could ultimately lead to electrical conductors that are 100 percent efficient
The future of electronics could lie in a material from its past, as researchers from The Ohio State University work to turn germanium—the material of 1940s transistors—into a potential replacement for silicon.
At the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting, assistant professor of chemistryJoshua Goldberger reported progress in developing a form of germanium called germanane.
In 2013, Goldberger’s lab at Ohio State became the first to succeed at creating one-atom-thick sheet of germanane—a sheet so thin, it can be thought of as two-dimensional. Since then, he and his team have been tinkering with the atomic bonds across the top and bottom of the sheet, and creating hybrid versions of the material that incorporate other atoms such as tin.
The goal is to make a material that not only transmits electrons 10 times faster than silicon, but is also better at absorbing and emitting light—a key feature for the advancement of efficient LEDs and lasers.
“We’ve found that by tuning the nature of these bonds, we can tune the electronic structure of the material. We can increase or decrease the energy it absorbs,” Goldberger said. “So potentially we could make a material that traverses the entire electromagnetic spectrum, or absorbs different colors, depending on those bonds.”
As they create the various forms of germanane, the researchers are trying to exploit traditional silicon manufacturing methods as much as possible, to make any advancements easily adoptable by industry.
Aside from these traditional semiconductor applications, there have been numerous predictions that a tin version of the material could conduct electricity with 100 percent efficiency at room temperature. The heavier tin atom allows the material to become a 2D “topological insulator,” which conducts electricity only at its edges., Goldberger explained. Such a material is predicted to occur only with specific bonds across the top and bottom surface, such as a hydroxide bond.
Goldberger’s lab has verified that this theoretical material can be chemically stable. His lab has created germanane with up to 9 percent tin atoms incorporated, and shown that tin atoms have strong preference to bond to hydroxide above and below the sheet. His group is currently developing routes towards preparing the pure tin 2D derivatives.
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Plastic LCD Display is Bendable
Flexible electronic circuits manufacturer FlexEnable has partnered with organic materials supplier Merck to develop plastic LCD displays that are flexible as well as thinner and lighter than glass-based displays. The plastic LCD display employs active-matrix in-plane switching (IPS) using organic transistors on a plastic sheet. The project is co-funded by the seventh Framework Program of the European Union.
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Simple epoxy device can steer light through sharp turns
A microscopic epoxy plastic lattice that can steer light through sharp curves could be a key technology for future superfast optical computers
A simple epoxy plastic could be an important key to optical computing, thanks to research by engineers from the Universities of Texas at El Paso (UTEP and Central Florida (UCF). The engineers have used a form of 3D printing to make a microscopic plastic lattice which guides light through sharp turns, an important property for guiding laser light that encodes data through the labyrinthine routes that would be needed in superfast optical computing systems.
The 20µm lattice turns light through sharp angles without losing energy.
Metallic wires used to carry datas encoded in electrical signals into semiconductor devices in conventional computers are fast, but using light rather than electricity is potentially a thousand times faster. But guiding light is difficult. Conventional waveguides use optical fibres, but these work by refelecting light off the internal surface of the fibre so they can only carry light through gentle curves: try a shap curve and the light will not reflect and will leak out. ‘The name of the game is being able to control these light beams,’ explained Javier Pazos of UTEP, who worked with research leader Ray Rumpf. ‘And we were able to do just that, with unprecedented success.’
‘Like this, but much smaller’. Ray Rumpf shows off his lattice design to masters student Nancy Tepezano Cabral
The team used a technique called multiphoton lithography, or direct laser writing, to create a microscopic honeycomb lattice out of a photosensitive epoxy resin, which sets when hit with laser light of a specific wavelength. This lattice can turn a laser through a right-angle without losing energy. ‘The fact that we can do this with a simple plastic — an epoxy — is a pretty big deal,’ said Pazos. ‘Normally, you’d need an exotic, unheard-of material to even attempt this.’
According to Rumpf, the technique can bend light through whatever angle is needed, simply by changing the geometry of the lattice. Rumpf’s electrical and computer engineering lab was responsible for the theory behind the device and its design, while UCF carried out the fabrication and testing under Stephen Keubler, a chemist, as the teams explain in a paper in the journal Optics Express.
‘Direct laser writing has the potential to become a flexible means for manufacturing next-generation computer devices,’ said Kuebler.
The device is likely to first find use in high-performance supercomputers, Rumpf said, but could also be used in compact, laptop-sized devices in future generations of the technology.
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The EPRSC has unveiled a series of grants for UK science worth a total of £70, including £30m for funding of new equipment.
EPSRC grants will enable research from electrons to airports
The grants cover projects across the spectrum of science from fundamental particle physics to allocating resources at airports.
The capital grants include funding for ultra-bright lasers, electron microscopes and X-ray imaging.
‘Put simply, investment in world-class projects, equipment and people makes the UK the best place in the world to research, discover and innovate,’ said Prof Philip Nelson, EPSRC chief executive. ‘This £70m package will fuel the UK’s technological progress, help address thechallenges of today and tomorrow, and contribute to a strong economy.’
The University of Lancaster is to look into mathematical methods for allocating resources at airports
New projects announced as part of the package include SeeBiByte, a £4.5m project at Oxford University to develop computer vision methods to analyse, describe and search images and video, with a particular emphasis on image analytics — extracting useful information from large amounts of image data. This, the team said, could have applications in medicine, environmental monitoring, and defence surveillance; elsewhere at Oxford, a £5m effort to develop mobile robotics as ‘a pervasive technology of the future’ is to begin. Lancaster University is launching a £2.3m maths project called Or-Master, which will develop new ways to allocate airport resources
At Cambridge, meanwhile, a £5.1m project is to look at control of sub-atomic particle behaviour in organic and hybrid organic/inorganic semiconductors, which could have implications for digital memory; a £6.4m project at Surrey University will look at methods for making and using new optical semiconductor devices.
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UK team eyes solar-powered airship potential
Researchers from the University of Lincoln, UK, have completed a three year investigation into stratospheric passenger airships as part of a multi-national engineering project designed to provide a future sustainable air transport network.
Academics from the University’s School of Engineering have been members of a pan European research team that believes airships may be the ‘green’ answer to the future growth of aviation.
The Multibody Advanced Airship for Transport (MAAT) project aims to position airships as the solution for future air transportation that is safe, efficient, cheap and environmentally friendly.
The MAAT’s primary energy source will be photovoltaic arrays on the airship’s upper surface
The EU-funded MAAT project, made up of eight nations and led by the Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia in Italy, envisages the design of a cruiser which can travel across the globe on a set route. Smaller feeder ships carrying people and goods would then be able to dock onto the cruiser while it is still moving.
The primary energy source for the MAAT is through harvesting sunlight from photovoltaic arrays mounted on the upper airship surface to provide sufficient electric power during the day to operate the airship’s systems, and provide life support, propulsion and control, while also producing sufficient excess energy that can be stored to facilitate continuous MAAT operation at night.
The University of Lincoln team’s research has focused on how to make the most efficient use of energy generated by the photovoltaic cells on the airships and its subsequent use in the electrical power systems, energy storage and the propulsive power requirements. It is hoped that with the introduction of innovative propulsion systems that the limitations of traditional propellers at high altitudes will be overcome resulting in an efficient propulsive system.
A paper detailing the Lincoln group’s initial findings was previously published in the Journal of Aerospace Engineering.
The team believes airships represent the best hope for sustainable civil aviation
It described the energy systems and presented various design options that could be adopted for airships, particularly highlighting the issues of day/night operation and its impact on the on-board energy storage systems.
SEGUE SECONDA PARTE
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SECONDA PARTE
The project has moved on significantly since then with a revised approach to the energy harvesting, distribution and storage utilising a modular approach to simplify future scaling and address system integrity under failure conditions.
Tim Smith, Senior Research Fellow at the Lincoln School of Engineering, said: “While the concept of a feeder-cruiser arrangement for airships is not entirely novel, the projected scale and operating altitude of the proposed MAAT is unprecedented. Operation is based on a large-scale ‘cruiser’ ship at high altitudes of around 15km, at airspeeds of up to 200km/h for extended periods, on pan European routes along which there exist exchange points where VTOL ‘feeder’ airships operate from ground stations rendezvousing and docking with the cruiser in order to exchange passengers and freight. The underlying concept is to have multiple feeders docking with the cruiser.”
It is forecast that by 2020 the number of aircraft passengers will reach 400 million. The movement of freight by air is expected to increase by more than 340 per cent over the next 20 years. During the same period congestion at many of the UK’s airports will squeeze out cargo operations because of economic and environmental reasons. Consequently if the market demand for air freight is to be met, either there will have to be significant investment in new airport infrastructure or alternative transport forms need to be considered.
It is claimed that MAAT could lead to lower transportation costs than currently existing systems as it does not require fuelling and vertical take-offs would reduce delivery times and free-up runway space across the globe. Also, silent landing and take-off operations would reduce the environmental impact of air travel allowing 24-hour operation within busy cities.
Smith added: “The design of an all-electric airship is demanding, as by its very nature it is unforgiving as increasing efficiency invariably increases weight which impacts the size, which impacts drag and so on. The greatest challenge has been managing the electrical systems efficiency and weight, thus preventing the spiral – this will be a continuing challenge.”
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Biomass Waste Becomes Feedstock
Catalytic process converts lignin into useful chemical products.
A team of researchers at the Center for Direct Catalytic Conversion of Biomass to Biofuels(C3Bio) at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., has developed a process to convert lignin into valuable chemical commodities.
Catalyst Researcher
“We are able to take lignin, which most biorefineries consider waste to be burned for its heat, and turn it into high-value molecules that have applications in fragrance, flavoring and high-octane jet fuels,” says lead researcher Mahdi Abu-Omar, professor of chemical engineering and associated director of C3Bio. “We can do this while simultaneously producing from the biomass lignin-free cellulose, which is the basis of ethanol and other liquid fuels. We do all of this in a one-step process.”
The process starts with untreated chipped and milled wood from sustainable poplar, eucalyptus or birch trees. A solvent is added to help dissolve and loosen the materials. Then, the material gets heated for several hours in a pressurized reactor, where a catalyst helps break up the lignin molecules to create lignin-free cellulose and a liquid stream that contains two phenols — a class of aromatic hydrocarbon compounds used in perfumes and flavorings.
The liquid stream containing the solvent is easily evaporated and recycled, adds Abu-Omar. The catalyst also can be recycled and reused.
A recent issue of Green Chemistry provides more details.
Key challenges include scaling-up and running the process in a continuous mode as well as working out efficient products separation. The catalyst is expensive, so the team plans to further study efficient ways to recycle it. The researchers also need to demonstrate that pellet form of the catalyst would be suitable for industrial use.
Current work includes scaling-up the reaction and developing a continuous reactor. “We have been investigating some model compounds to learn more about the mechanism of action and which bonds and oxygen atoms are removed first,” notes Abu-Omar. He hopes to have results and progress to report within the next nine months.
“We have demonstrated the continuous mode of operation at hundreds of milligram scale and are moving towards larger scale. In this configuration we can use the catalyst for tens of hours of operation without loss of activity. We are also looking at using transition metal catalyst that is based on earth-abundant metals that are cheap,” he adds.
The researchers also are currently working on direct production of propylbenzene from the methoxypropylpenols produced from lignin. They use another catalyst to convert the two phenol products into high-octane hydrocarbon fuel suitable for use as drop-in gasoline.
“In collaboration with colleagues in chemical engineering, we have developed a hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) catalyst that is highly selective for removing oxygens from methoxyphenols in the vapor phase. In my colleague Professor Ribeiro’s laboratory they are able now to go directly from methoxyphenols to propylbenzene, a high-octane aromatic hydrocarbon,” Abu-Omar explains.
Abu-Omar says the fuel produced has a research octane rating greater than 100, whereas the average gas for cars has an octane rating in the 80s.
Some smaller companies are in conversations with Abu-Omar, and the team has been working with Purdue startup Spero Energy to utilize this reaction chemistry.
“We are looking for potential toll manufacturing to use our process to make dihydroeugenol at kilos scale and partner potentially with technologists in advancing this process towards commercialization to enable the use of lignin for manufacturing high value chemicals,” he adds.
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Data Transmitting Lasers Could Replace Copper Wires
Copper wires may eventually yield to optical interconnects which, researchers say, will speed data between computer processors faster and more efficiently. A team from Germany-based researcher Forschungszentrum Juelich and from Switzerland's Paul Scherrer Institute has devised a germanium-and-tin laser that can grow directly on the silicon chip itself and emits light at a wavelength of 3 micrometers. Eventually the technology may result in implantable chips for medical applications which, for example, will gather information about blood sugar levels or other parameters via spectroscopic analysis.
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The Germanium-Tin Laser: Answer to the On-Chip Data Bottleneck?
Photonics engineers dream about using light to zap data between processor cores on multicore CPU chips. By replacing copper wires, such optical interconnects could make chips much faster and more power efficient. The holy-grail for optical on-chip communication is a laser made of silicon.
Now a European research team has built a germanium-tin laser that they say could be used instead. Germanium and tin, like silicon, are group IV elements, which means their crystal layers can be grown directly on silicon. So a germanium-tin laser would be compatible with silicon manufacturing processes.
The proof-of-concept laser, reported in the journal Nature Photonics, operates at-183°C and is powered by light instead of electricity. But the researchers’ eventual goal is to make an electrically pumped laser that operates at room temperature.
One approach for optical interconnects is to make compound semiconductor lasers separately and then bonding them to silicon chips. Intel and Luxtera have, for example, made on-chip communication systems using hybrid silicon/indium phosphide lasers bonded on silicon. But some engineers believe that for mass production creating lasers directly on silicon would be more cost-effective and less error-prone.
The problem with germanium and silicon is that they are bad light emitters, because they have an indirect band gap. When electrons in the materials are excited by light or electricity and then drop back to their lower-energy states, they emit the excess energy as heat instead of light.
Scientists have managed to tease light out of silicon nanowires. And some researchers have engineered germanium’s band gap to make a laser by doping it with phosphorus or putting it under mechanical strain.
The research team from Forschungszentrum Juelich in Germany and the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland gave germanium a direct band gap by alloying it with tin; the resulting material has a tin concentration of 9 percent. They made the laser by growing the germanium-tin layer on a germanium layer that they grew directly on a silicon wafer.
The new laser emits light at a wavelength of 3 micrometers, which the researchers say makes it suitable for detecting carbon compounds as well. And the laser could have other uses, according to the press release:
Gas sensors or implantable chips for medical applications which can gather information about blood sugar levels or other parameters via spectroscopic analysis are examples. In the future, cost-effective, portable sensor technology —which may be integrated into a smart phone—could supply real-time data on the distribution of substances in the air or the ground and thus contribute to a better understanding of weather and climate development.
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Major Quantum Breakthrough? First Ever Error Correction Device
Before the dream of quantum computing is realised, a number of inherent problems must be resolved first. One of the main challenges in Quantum Technology 2.0 or QT2 devices and systems is the ability to maintain a stable memory system that overcomes the intrinsic instability of the basic unit of information in quantum computing – the Quantum bit or “Qubit”. To address this problem, physicists working at the University of California at Santa Barbara claim to have created breakthrough circuitry that continuously self-checks for inaccuracies to consistently maintain the error-free status of the quantum memory!
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Hyperloop Industry Born?
In 2013, entrepreneur Elon Musk unveiled an idea for a transportation system called the Hyperloop, which would use linear induction motors, vacuum tubes, and other technologies to carry passengers from city to city at supersonic speeds. What seemed like a fantasy then has now become a business, with three groups moving forward with the technology. Forbes reports in this article about the nascent Hyperloop industry.
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Prototype headlamp technology takes cue from driver’s eyes
Engineers at Opel/Vauxhall are working on the development of car headlamp systems that are directed by the driver’s eyes.
Unlike other eye-tracking systems that have been trialled for use, which tend to rely on a high number of cameras, the system under development uses a simple webcam. Focused on the driver’s head, this scans prominent points, such as the nose and eyes, to detect movement and thereby the driver’s line of sight.
The system uses complex algorithms to convert a driver’s eye movements into cues for the headlamp actuators
During trials the team has optimised the performance of the camera with an eye-tracking algorithm, and the addition of peripheral infra-red sensors and central photo-diodes which enable it to scan the driver’s eyes more than 50 times per second in dusk and night-time conditions.
The system then translates the information gathered into data commands for electronically-controlled actuators, which react instantaneously to make horizontal and vertical adjustments to the headlamp projectors.
The team is also said to have developed a sophisticated “delay” algorithm that is able to account for the way in which a driver’s eyes naturally jump from one point to another. This solution prevents the headlamps from jerking around erratically in response to these cues
Parallel to the development of the eye-tracking system, engineers at Opel/Vauxhall’s International Technical Development Center in Rüsselsheim, Germany are currently completing the final tests on their so-called LED matrix light system that automatically adjusts the lighting levels for varying traffic situations. The system is set to appear on vehicles within the next 18 months
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Shape-memory alloy 'muscle fibres' give a helping hand to prosthetics
German engineers use bundles of hair-fine wires to form a multifunctional drive and sensor mechanism in a powerful, lightweight prototype artificial hand
Bundles of hair-thin shape-memory alloy (SMA) wires performing duty as muscle analogues could for the basis for a new generation of powerful, lightweight artificial hands both for industrial robots and prosthetics, according to engineers at Saarland University in Germany. The alloy wires can contract and relax, and also act as position sensors within the hand.
Artificial hands often depend on other external systems for their movement, such as electric motors or pneumatics. This makes them complex, bulky, heavy and inflexible. ”In contrast, tools fabricated with artificial muscles from SMA wire can do without additional equipment, making them light, flexible and highly adaptable,” said research leader Prof Stefan Seelecke of the Centre for Mechatronics and Automation Technology (ZeMA) at Saarland.
The artificial muscles are composed of bundles of wire made from a nickel-titanium alloy; each wire being around 30µm in diameter. ”These wires have the largest energy density of all known drive mechanisms, which enables them to perform powerful movements in restricted spaces,” Seelecke said in a statement. The wires are arranged in bundles around the thickness of cotton sewing thread, with one bundle on the connecting the joints on the front side of each finger and another on the back. Each thread has the tensile strength of a thick steel wire.
”Unlike a single thick wire, a bundle of very fine wires can undergo rapid contractions and expansions equivalent to those observed in human muscle”
Filomene Simone, Saarland University ZeMA
Moving a finger in either direction stretches the bundle on the opposite side, and passing an electric current through the stretched fibres warms them up and induces a phase-change in the alloy. ”The material transforms its lattice structure causing it to contract like a muscle,” said Seelecke. The bundle on the front acts like the hand”s flexor muscles (moving the fingers in to grip) and the back bundle acts as an extensor (straightening them out). ”The bundle can rapidly contract and relax while exerting a high tensile force,” said Filomene Simone, a graduate engineering student working on the project for her PhD. ”The reason for this behaviour is the rapid cooling that is possible because lots of individual wires present a greater surface area through which heat can be dissipated. Unlike a single thick wire, a bundle of very fine wires can undergo rapid contractions and expansions equivalent to those observed in human muscles. As a result, we are able to achieve fast and smooth finger movements.”
As the wires change shape, their electrical resistance also changes. A microprocessor inside the hand monitors these changes, allowing the hand to always know what position the fingers are in and enabling fine control of their relative movements, making very precise movements of the hand possible.
The team is now working on modelling movement patterns in real hands and using the sensor properties of the wires to improve their control of its movements in grasping operations, and will be displaying the hand at the upcoming Hannover Messe exhibition in mid-April, where Seelecke hopes to attract development partners for industrial and medical applications.
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Record-breaking' motor could make large electric aircraft a reality claims Siemens
A new type of electric motor designed specifically for use in aircraft could help make electric-powered passenger flight a reality its developer has claimed.
Developed by researchers at Siemens in Germany the motor, which weighs just 50kg, delivers a continuous output of about 260kW – five times more than comparable drive systems.
The new motor boasts a power to weight ratio of five kW per Kg.
The team claims that the motor’s power-to-weight ratio of 5kW per kilogram could enable larger aircraft with take-off weights of up to two tons to make use of electric drives for the first time.
Electric motors of comparable strength that are used in industrial applications typically deliver less than 1kW per kg, whilst the performance of drive systems used in electric vehicles is about 2kW per kg. Siemens claims that it achieved the improved performance by employing advanced simulation techniques and reducing the weight of every component of the system.
Because the motor delivers its performance at rotational speeds of just 2,500 revolutions per minute, it is able to drive propellers directly without the use of a transmission.
“This innovation will make it possible to build series hybrid-electric aircraft with four or more seats,” said Frank Anton, head of eAircraft at Siemens Corporate Technology, the company’s central research unit.
The motor is scheduled to begin flight-testing before the end of 2015. In the next step, the Siemens researchers will boost output further. “We’re convinced that the use of hybrid-electric drives in regional airliners with 50 to 100 passengers is a real medium-term possibility,” said Anton.
In 2013, Siemens, Airbus and Diamond Aircraft successfully flight-tested a series hybrid-electric drive in a DA36 E-Star 2 motor glider for the first time. The test aircraft had a power output of 60kW.
Siemens is not alone in pursuing the goal of electric flight. Airbus has made big strides with electric propulsion technology. Its two-seater E-Fan aircraft performed its first public flight last year (2014) whilst the company has a longer-term stated vision to develop a 90-seater electric passenger plane. Meanwhile the Solar Impulse aircraft, which is currently attempting the world’s first solar-powered round the world flight is also helping to generate interest in the concept.
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UK researchers to develop 'immortal membrane'
Development of the next generation of long lasting membranes is underway, thanks to a £4.6m EPSRC research grant.
The five-year project, led by Newcastle University, will explore the potential of new materials to replace existing industrial membrane systems in four main industry sectors: energy, manufacturing, pharma and water. Also involved are industry partners including Johnson Matthey, Evonik, GSK, BP, Pervatech, Bluestone Global Tech, Anglian Water, Severn Trent Water, Thames Water and Scottish Water.
Currently, over 15 per cent of world energy is used in separation systems, covering everything from processing sewage to creating microscopic nanoparticles. Although this could be improved, users are reluctant to try new technologies if their reliability is not proven, so there has been little innovation in the sector. Many widely used membranes are still made from traditional materials and systems which are often short-lived, require regular cleaning and are costly and energy intensive.
The new EPSRC-supported virtual membrane centre SynFabFun - from membrane material synthesis to fabrication and function - will bring together experts from the universities of Newcastle, Bath, Imperial, Edinburgh and Manchester to develop and implement new membrane systems and techniques.
To prove their reliability, the researchers will subject the membranes to the equivalent of 30 years of use in a shorter timescale through the development and use of accelerated ageing tests, employing membranes at higher temperatures and in the presence of higher concentrations of poisons that they would otherwise experience. Their aim is to develop an immortal membrane – or at least, one that will outlive the lifetime of the industrial plant or equipment where it is being used. Another key aim is to develop a low-energy technology.
“The membrane separation of molecules from organic solvents would result in very significant energy savings,’ explained project lead Ian Metcalfe, professor of chemical engineering at Newcastle University. ‘Hydrogen and/or carbon dioxide removal from a water-gas shift process in-situ - over a range of temperatures depending upon the nature of the membrane - could change the way we produce hydrogen.”
“In terms of organic membranes we are seeking to work on systems that are already in a relaxed or equilibrium state,’ he added. ‘Such membranes cannot lose permeance as they evolve towards some equilibrium structure. For inorganic membranes we will study - for example - routes to self-healing membranes using techniques such as secondary wetting phases. We will also study hybrid membranes where for example we can introduce two permeation pathways, one for carbonate ions and one for oxygen ions, with the net outcome of a carbon dioxide permeable membrane. Such membranes would allow carbon dioxide permeation under conditions not available to organic membranes.”
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Micropacemaker could help treat foetal heart condition
Researchers in the US have developed what is claimed to be the first fully implantable micropacemaker for use in a foetus.
Developed by a team from the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital and the University of Southern California the device has been designed to treat complete foetal heart block, a relatively rare condition that occurs when the electrical signal from the upper chambers of the heart is prevented from reaching the lower chambers.
As reported in the journal Heart Rhythm the team has done preclinical testing and optimisation and the device has been designated a Humanitarian Use Device by the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA). The team anticipates the first human use of the device in the near future.
“Up until now, the pacemaker devices that have been used in an attempt to treat this condition in a fetus were designed for adults,” said Yaniv Bar-Cohen, MD, pediatric cardiologist at CHLA and lead author on the paper. “We have lacked an effective treatment option for fetuses.”
With each beat of a healthy heart, an electrical signal moves from the upper to the lower chambers of the heart. As this signal moves, it results in the heart contracting and pumping blood. Congenital heart block is a defect of the heart’s electrical system that originates in the developing foetus, greatly slowing the rate of the heart and impacting its ability to pump blood. Although the condition can be diagnosed in utero, all attempts to treat the condition with a standard pacemaker have failed.
“We now have a pacemaker that can be implanted in utero, potentially without harm to the fetus or the mom,” said Ramen H. Chmait, MD, Director of the CHLA-USC Institute for Maternal-Fetal Health. “This novel device provides a real opportunity to prevent miscarriage and premature birth in babies affected with these abnormalities.”
Each year, approximately 500 pregnancies in the US are affected by foetal heart block and could be candidates for receiving this device
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Alarm device helps partially sighted to walk and avoid collisions
US researchers develop an audible walking navigation aid for people with field of vision impairment, based on time-to-collision
An audible alarm system that warns partially-sighted people of impending collisions could make a valuable contribution to them navigating through crowded environments safely and comfortably, according to its developers at the Schepens Eye Research Institute at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Hospital. The device is wearable or can be carried in a pocket, and is claimed to be particularly useful for people who have suffered brain injury or other conditions which limit their visual field.
walk_unafraid
Guang Luo of Schepens Eye Research Institute adjusts the collision-alert device
The device works by using machine vision to predict time to impact with an obstacle rather than proximity, explained senior researcher Guang Luo. ‘It gives warnings only when the users approach to obstacles, not when users stand close to objects and not when moving objects just pass by,’ he added. ‘So, the auditory collision warnings given by the device are simple and intuitively understandable.’
People suffering from conditions like tunnel vision or hemianopia, when half of the visual field is lost, are particularly prone to falls and collisions; and therapies to restore vision are still in their infancy, making technological solutions an attractive option. Luo’s team, who discuss their research in Investigative Opthalmology and Visual Science, tested the device by asking people with visual conditions (or using devices that mimicked them) to walk through an obstacle course both with and without the warning device. They found that using the device reduced collisions by 37 per cent, with barely any change in walking speed, and no patients had more collisions when using the device than without it.
‘We are excited about the device’s potential value for helping visually impaired and completely blind people walk around safely,’ Luo said in a statement. ‘Our next job is to test its usefulness in patients’ daily lives in a clinical trial study.’
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UK researchers to develop giant space catapult
Researchers at the UK’s newly launched catapult Catapult centre have received a £500m public-private funding boost to develop a magnetic launch system capable of slinging objects from the Earth’s surface into space.
The technology, based on a system originally developed by researchers from Hertfordshire’s space technology innovation centre and Hitchin-based engineering consultancy Snazzbox Industries, could, it is claimed, dramatically reduce the cost of sending a payload into space.
Similar in principle to the maglev train, or the magnetic slingshots currently being investigated for use aboard aircraft carriers, the system uses powerful magnets and a vertical tunnel track to accelerate the payload to a high speed before launching it into the atmosphere.
The catapult Catapult team tested a scaled-down prototype device at Baikonur Kazakhstan earlier this year, where they successfully accelerated a frozen chicken to around 29,000km/h before firing it into the Stratosphere.
The next step is to use the new funding injection to scale up the system to launch a larger payload into space.
The team says that the technology is expected to dramatically reduce the cost of putting a payload into space. Project leader Dr Alan Banana said that as well as drastically reducing the cost of putting satellites into orbit around the earth the technology could also open up a host of new applications such as nuclear waste disposal.
Banana added that in the longer term the system could even be used to launch humans into space. In an early effort to test this theory the team hopes to fire a small spacecraft containing a guinea pig at the International Space Station later next year.
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US researchers demonstrate thought-controlled bionic hand
A non-invasive brain-machine interface could help usher in a new geration of smart prosthetics claim researchers in the US
The team from the University of Houston has created an algorithm that allowed a man to grasp a bottle and other objects with a prosthetic hand that was powered only by his thoughts
The technique, demonstrated with a 56-year-old man whose right hand had been amputated, uses non-invasive brain monitoring, capturing brain activity to determine what parts of the brain are involved in grasping an object.
With that information, researchers created a computer program, or brain-machine interface (BMI), that harnessed the subject’s intentions and allowed him to successfully grasp objects, including a water bottle and a credit card. The subject grasped the selected objects 80 per cent of the time using a high-tech bionic hand fitted to the amputee’s stump.
Previous studies involving either surgically implanted electrodes or myoelectric control, which relies upon electrical signals from muscles in the arm, have shown similar success rates, according to the researchers.
Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal, a neuroscientist and engineer at UH, said the non-invasive method offers several advantages: It avoids the risks of surgically implanting electrodes by measuring brain activity via scalp electroencephalogram, or EEG. And myoelectric systems aren’t an option for all people, because they require that neural activity from muscles relevant to hand grasping remain intact.
The work, funded by the US National Science Foundation, demonstrates for the first time EEG-based BMI control of a multi-fingered prosthetic hand for grasping by an amputee. It also could lead to the development of better prosthetics, Contreras-Vidal said.
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Primo passo in chimica del futuro, spinta per energia solare
Per la prima volta diventa possibile osservare quello che accade nelle reazioni chimiche rapidissime, che avvengono nell' arco di femtosecondi, ossia di milionesimi di miliardesimi di secondo. Il risultato, pubblicato sulla rivista Nature, apre la strada alla possibilità di sfruttare l' energia solare in modo più efficiente. Per riuscire nell' impresa é stata necessaria la collaborazione di 21 ricercatori di 11 centri, coordinati dal tedesco Helmholtz Virtual Institute. Quello raggiunto é un livello di dettaglio senza precedenti, al punto che si arriva a poter vedere come una particella di luce (fotone) innesca una trasformazione in un composto metallico nel momento in cui lo colpisce. La chimica si sposta così nel regno dell' infinitamente piccolo studiato dalla meccanica quantistica. Grazie alla chimica quantistica, quindi, diventa possibile riprodurre e controllare in laboratorio il processo di immagazzinamento dell' energia solare che le piante compiono naturalmente e che finora era stato impossibile osservare considerando i tempi ultra-rapidi nei quali avviene. '' Il risultato potrà aiutare a utilizzare questi processi per ottenere una conversione più efficiente dell' energia solare in energia chimica'', ha osservato il coordinatore della ricerca, Philippe Wernet. Riuscire ad esplorare fenomeni così rapidi nel mondo dell' infinitamente piccolo ha richiesto un lavoro enorme, con un anno di test, almeno 60 ore di misure, quattro anni di valutazione dei dati.
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RFID Tag Senses Dangerous Chemicals
The ability to detect hazardous chemicals and biologics at our ports, in our airports, and even in the environment sounds great, but is it feasible? Well, a new flexible RFID tag has this ability. When the tag is placed on a shipping container or any other surface, and it senses the presence of a dangerous explosive, the tag's sensing material changes its electronic properties and triggers the tag to send an alert to a cell phone-sized reader or central station for monitoring.
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Hydrogen-from-corn process has automotive promise
US researchers develop method to make hydrogen from corn waste.
A method for making hydrogen from agricultural waste could greatly increase the availability of the gas as an automotive fuel while also reducing the cost, according to its developers at Virginia Tech. The technique, which uses enzymes from biological organisms use to break down plant sugars, is fast and produces very low carbon emissions.
The research, led by Joe Rollin, builds on work by Percival Zhang, who used enzymes from a variety of microorganisms which have evolved to survive at high temperatures to break down xylose, a simple sugar that occurs in stover - the stalks, cobs and husks - of corn that are normally discarded.
Rollin analysed the steps that the enzymes use to break down the material using genetic and mathematical algorithms, and confirmed that they can also break down glucose and xylose simultaneously.
Known as a cell-free enzymatic pathway, this technique is three times faster than the organisms themselves to breaking down the material, and therefore would need a much smaller plant to provide enough hydrogen to meet the demand of a filling station.
Having demonstrated the reaction at a small scale, Rollin and Zhang now plan to scale up to an industrial demonstration scale.
“We believe this exciting technology has the potential to enable the widespread use of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles around the world and displace fossil fuels,” Rollin said in a statement.
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New insights into cancer mechanisms from acoustic tweezer separation method
American researchers have developed a low-energy way of separating cancer cells from blood samples using sound waves, which leaves the cells undamaged for study
An improvement in the ability of clinicians to diagnose cancer and to understand how it spreads through the body could result from a new technique that uses sound waves to isolate cancer cells in blood samples. Developed by engineers from Penn State University, Carnegie Mellon University and MIT, the ‘acoustic tweezers’ will give doctors a low-cost method of separating cancer cells without damaging them.
In blood samples from cancer patients, typically one cell in a billion is a circulating cancer cell (CTC). “Looking for CTCs is like looking for a needle in a haystack,” said research leader Tony Jun Huang.
The acoustic tweezers use a phenomenon called tilted-angle surface acoustic waves to separate out tumour cells. This is much gentler than centrifugation, which spins the sample at 3,000rpm for ten minutes. The team used a microfluidic device to analyse the blood samples continuously, and chose acoustic pressures that would nudge the CTCs, which are heavier than blood cells, out of the stream and into a collection channel.
The technique works by placing two sound sources on either side of the flow, emitting the same wavelength: this creates a region where the two sounds cancel each other out, and the sources are positioned so that this ‘neutral zone’ is in the collection channel. The technique uses very small amounts of energy — about the same as that used for ultrasonic imagery, which is known to not damage cells — and does not require cell labelling.
The tweezers use two sound sources to nudge heavier cancer cells out of a flowing blood sample.
The team used two types of cultured human cancer cell to test the technique, and achieved a separation rate of 83 per cent.
“Because these devices are intended for use with human blood, they need to be disposable,” Huang said in a statement. “We are currently figuring out manufacturing and mass production possibilities.”
Another member of the research team, Subra Suresh of Carnegie Mellon, said the technique “promises to offer new avenues for basic research into the pathology and metastasis, and for clinical diagnosis of rare tumor cells.”
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nkjet-printing brings flexibility to soft robots and wearable electronics
Inkjet-printing technology can be used to mass-produce electronic circuits made of liquid-metal alloys for soft robots and flexible electronics.
Elastic technologies could enable a new class of pliable robots and stretchable clothing that people might wear for therapeutic purposes or to interact with computers. However, new manufacturing techniques must be developed before soft machines become commercially feasible, said Rebecca Kramer, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University.
“We want to create stretchable electronics that might be compatible with soft machines, such as robots that need to squeeze through small spaces, or wearable technologies that aren’t restrictive of motion,” she said in a statement. “Conductors made from liquid metal can stretch and deform without breaking.”
A new potential manufacturing approach focuses on harnessing inkjet printing to create devices made of liquid alloys.
“This process now allows us to print flexible and stretchable conductors onto anything, including elastic materials and fabrics,” Kramer said.
Printable ink is made by dispersing the liquid metal in a non-metallic solvent using ultrasound, which breaks up the bulk liquid metal into nanoparticles. This nanoparticle-filled ink is compatible with inkjet printing.
“Liquid metal in its native form is not inkjet-able,” Kramer said. “So what we do is create liquid metal nanoparticles that are small enough to pass through an inkjet nozzle. Sonicating liquid metal in a carrier solvent, such as ethanol, creates the nanoparticles and disperses them in the solvent. Then we can print the ink onto any substrate. The ethanol evaporates away so we are just left with liquid metal nanoparticles on a surface.”
After printing, the nanoparticles must be rejoined by applying light pressure, which renders the material conductive. This step is necessary because the liquid-metal nanoparticles are initially coated with oxidised gallium, which acts as a skin that prevents electrical conductivity.
“But it’s a fragile skin, so when you apply pressure it breaks the skin and everything coalesces into one uniform film,” Kramer said. “We can do this either by stamping or by dragging something across the surface, such as the sharp edge of a silicon tip.”
The approach is said to make it possible to select which portions to activate depending on particular designs, suggesting that a blank film might be manufactured for many potential applications.
“We selectively activate what electronics we want to turn on by applying pressure to just those areas,” said Kramer.
The process could make it possible to rapidly mass-produce large quantities of the film. Future research will explore how the interaction between the ink and the surface being printed on might be conducive to the production of specific types of devices.
A research paper about the method will appear on April 18 in Advanced Materials. The paper generally introduces the method - mechanically sintered gallium-indium nanoparticles - and describes research leading up to the project. It was authored by postdoctoral researcher John William Boley, graduate student Edward L. White and Kramer.
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Durham researchers explore evolutionary electronics
Carbon nanotube composites that can be trained to behave in a particular way could be used to replace conventional silicon-based transistors in some electronics applications according to a group of researchers from Durham University in the UK and the University of São Paulo-USP
The group’s work, reported in the Journal of Applied Physics, centres around the use of single-walled carbon nanotube composites (SWCNTs) as a material in ’unconventional’ computing.
“Instead of creating circuits from arrays of discrete components (transistors in digital electronics), our work takes a random disordered material and then ‘trains’ the material to produce a desired output,” explained Mark K. Massey, research associate, School of Engineering and Computing Sciences at Durham University.
This emerging field of research is known as ’evolution-in-materio,’ and blends together materials science, engineering and computer science.
Although still in its early stages, the concept has already shown that by using an approach similar to natural evolution, materials can be trained to mimic electronic circuits without needing to design the material structure in a specific way.
“The material we use in our work is a mixture of carbon nanotubes and polymer, which creates a complex electrical structure,” Massey said in a statement. “When voltages (stimuli) are applied at points of the material, its electrical properties change. When the correct signals are applied to the material, it can be trained or ‘evolved’ to perform a useful function.”
While the group doesn’t expect to see their method compete with high-speed silicon computers, it could turn out to be a complementary technology.
“With more research, it could lead to new techniques for making electronic devices,” he said. The approach may find applications within the realm of “analog signal processing or low-power, low-cost devices in the future.”
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Pronte batterie del futuro, si ricaricano in un minuto .
Sono in alluminio, più ' verdi', economiche e sicure.
Sono pronte le batterie del futuro. Sono fatte di alluminio e sono così economiche, veloci, ' verdi, e sicure da poter sostituire in poco tempo le batterie tradizionali oggi in circolazione. Per avere un' idea delle loro prestazioni, basti pensare che riescono a ricaricare uno smartphone in un minuto. Il prototipo é pronto, é descritto sulla rivista Nature Communications ed é stato ideato e costruito nell' università californiana di Stanford. I ricercatori, coordinati dal chimico Hongjie Dai, sono convinti che in pochi anni le nuove batterie in alluminio potranno rimpiazzare quelle alcaline, molto inquinanti, e quelle agli ioni di litio, potenzialmente pericolose se utilizzate in modo scorretto. Da decenni l' alluminio é stato ' inseguito' come un materiale interessante da utilizzare per costruire batterie, soprattutto a causa del suo basso costo, ma finora non nessuna tecnologia ha mai permesso di raggiungere questo obiettivo. A trovare la soluzione é stato il gruppo di Stanford, la cui ricerca é stata finanziata dal Dipartimento Usa per l' Energia e dall' Istituto di ricerca tecnologica di Taiwan. Il prototipo che é stato costruito ha l' elettrodo negativo (anodo) in alluminio e quello positivo (catodo) fatto di grafite. I due elementi sono stati posti in una soluzione liquida a base di sale e a temperatura ambiente, all' interno di polimero flessibile che ha la funzione di conduttore (elettrolita). Le nuove batterie hanno '' tempi di ricarica senza precedenti'', pari a meno di un minuto, osservano i ricercatori di Stanford. Un altro vantaggio importante é nella durata: se quelle tradizionali ' resistono' per 100 cicli di ricarica e quelle al litio arrivano a 1.000, le nuove batterie in alluminio riescono a completare almeno 7.500 cicli senza perdere in efficienza. Un risultato da record, secondo gli autori della ricerca. '' Un altro vantaggio é la flessibilità'', osservano i ricercatori. '' Possono essere piegate e arrotolate - spiegano - e per questo motivo potranno essere facilmente utilizzate per alimentare i futuri telefonini o i display pieghevoli''. Oltre che in pc, smartphone e in qualsiasi altro piccolo dispositivo, le nuove batterie potranno essere utilizzate nelle reti elettriche per immagazzinare energia da fonti rinnovabili.
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Printable biosensors to speed diagnosis
Researchers in Canada have developed a new way to print paper biosensors, an advance that could simplify the diagnosis of many bacterial and respiratory infections.
The new platform from McMaster University is said to be the latest in a progression of paper-based screening technologies, which now enable users to generate a clear, simple answer in the form of letters and symbols that appear on the test paper to indicate the presence of infection or contamination in people, food or the environment.
In use, the biosensors could be incorporated into packaging that provides text warnings when food is contaminated with pathogens like E. coli and Salmonella, and patients could receive real-time diagnoses of infections such as C. difficile in their doctors’ surgeries.
“The simplicity of use makes the system easy and cheap to implement in the field or in the doctor’s office,” said John Brennan, director of McMaster’s Biointerfaces Institute, where the work was done with biochemist Yingfu Li and graduate student Carmen Carrasquilla.
“Imagine being able to clearly identify contaminated meat, vegetables or fruit. For patients suspected of having infectious diseases like C. diff, this technology allows doctors to quickly and simply diagnose their illnesses, saving time and expediting what could be life-saving treatments. This method can be extended to virtually any compound, be it a small molecule, bacterial cell or virus,” he said.
Although in its formative, stage, the research reportedly addresses a key problem facing current paper-based biosensing techniques which are labour-intensive, sometimes costly and inconvenient, and often difficult to mass-produce.
Using methods to produce “bio-inks”, researchers can now use conventional office ink-jet printers to print man-made DNA molecules with very high molecular weight on paper. The size of the DNA, which produces a signal when a specific disease biomarker is present, is enough to ensure it remains immobilised and stable. According to a statement from McMaster, the paper sensor emerges from the printer ready to use, like pH paper.
The implications are significant, said Brennan, since the new technology could be used in many fields where quick answers to important questions are critical.
“We could conceivably adapt this for numerous applications which would include rapid detection of cancer or monitoring toxins in the water supply,” he said. “There are hundreds of possibilities.”
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Digital Fiber Optics Download Downhole Data
Downhole data acquisition has evolved. Many oil well completions now integrate fiber optic technology so that engineers and operators can get a better understanding of well and reservoir behavior. Some of these installations are permanent, but new distributed fiber optic sensing systems are also being used for flow profiling, seismic imaging, hydraulic fracture monitoring, and monitoring of well integrity. The latest distributed sensing technologies feature acoustic sensors capable of detecting waves along kilometers of cable, and sensing systems that can withstand the hazards of downhole injection processes.
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Comet's Reflection May Reveal Water
European Space Agency scientists are using imaging data from the Rosetta spacecraft's Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System, or OSIRIS, to study the region between comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko's head and tail. False color imaging revealed a reflective area that may indicate the presence of frozen water mixed in with the dust on the comet's surface.
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CNTs in 3D
In the past, scientists have used two-dimensional surface imaging to study the structure and properties of polymers with embedded carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Now, researchers have discovered a scanning electron microscope technique that uses a high-energy beam to provide quantitative 3D information at an imaging depth up to one micron.
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Ultrasonic Tech Pinpoints Cracks in Metal
Engineers at Bristol University in the UK say they have developed a way to use ultrasonic nonlinear imaging techniques to find structural weakness and cracks in materials used to build bridges and airplanes. They use phased arrays to send hundreds of sound signals through the materials and then "listen" to them to get a picture of what's inside the metal and to detect otherwise invisible damage and cracks.
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Parallel Scanning Serves Semiconductors, Solar Cells
A multiple parallel scanning probe microscope (SPM) heads system developed by researchers in the Netherlands offers 1000x the throughput of existing single SPM devices. The high speed and accuracy mean the new multiple heads system shows promise for industrial applications like measuring surface roughness or detecting defects in semiconductors, data storage devices, and solar cells.
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Partners Developing Imaging Tech for Aerospace
A consortium of universities and companies is working on imaging technology to design and manufacture carbon composite aircraft. Academic and industrial experts in computed tomography and metrology are partnering to scan and visualize the insides of large, flat components using X-rays. They will also use a laminography system and an algorithm to accumulate scan data and reconstruct it into a 3D image.
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Researchers Sink Their Teeth into Nature's Strongest Material
Engineers and scientists have had their difficulties turning spider silk into commercial use. Perhaps industrial scientists will do better with limpet teeth. The conical shelled aquatic snail is now credited with growing teeth that represent the strongest material in the natural world, superior to spider silk in tensile strength. Researchers at England's University of Portsmouth studied the mechanical behavior of the teeth, discovering hard mineral goethite fibers that are right-sized for making resilient composite structures. The discovery is hoped to lead to mimicking the fibrous structures for use in applications as race cars, boat hulls, and aircraft.
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ARTE: Batteri 'restauratori' per le fontane e le statue dei Giardini Vaticani
Restaurare le opere d’arte, con risultati talvolta migliori, utilizzando batteri e sostanze naturali invece di prodotti chimici potenzialmente più rischiosi per la salute. Si chiama “biorestauro” ed è una tecnologia tutta italiana, perfezionata dall’ENEA, che presto potrà essere utilizzata anche per le fontane e le statue dei giardini della Città del Vaticano.
Questo metodo di pulitura bio-based prevede l’uso di microrganismi capaci di rimuovere depositi di varia natura, con indubbi vantaggi in termini di selettività dell’intervento, sicurezza per l’opera d’arte, non tossicità per i restauratori, basso costo e ridotto impatto ambientale.
Dell’applicazione al restauro di biotecnologie già usate per il disinquinamento del suolo si è parlato in questi giorni nel workshop “Tecnologie e prodotti BIO-based per strategie sostenibili di conservazione dei Beni Culturali e di risanamento dei suoli”, organizzato dall’ENEA con la partecipazione di esponenti del mondo dei beni culturali e artistici, fra i quali il responsabile del Gabinetto di Ricerche Scientifiche dei Musei Vaticani, Ulderico Santamaria, e Giuseppina Fazio dell’Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione e il Restauro.
“La ricerca scientifica ha individuato nei microrganismi formidabili alleati per un nuovo strumento utilizzabile per la tutela e la conservazione del patrimonio artistico. L’idea dalla quale siamo partiti è stata di trasformare in risorsa un problema, ovvero sfruttare le capacità metaboliche dei microrganismi che vivono in aree degradate di interesse archeologico per intervenire sugli stessi manufatti artistici bisognosi di restauro”, spiega Anna Rosa Sprocati, coordinatrice del laboratorio ENEA di “Microbiologia Ambientale e Biotecnologie Microbiche”, presso il quale collaborano alle applicazioni del biorestauro le ricercatrici Chiara Alisi, Flavia Tasso, Paola Marconi, Giada Migliore, oltre a diversi dottorandi e tesisti che negli anni hanno contribuito a queste attività di ricerca.
SEGUE SECONDA PARTE
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SECONDA PARTE
Batteri e funghi vengono portati in laboratorio e isolati per poi essere utilizzati negli interventi di restauro: finora il laboratorio dell’ENEA ne ha selezionati ben 500 ceppi, un vero e proprio esercito di potenziali “micro-riparatori” con i quali è possibile realizzare interventi ‘su misura’, a seconda dei materiali sui quali si interviene (dipinti, affreschi, carta, pergamena, marmo o legno) e a seconda delle sostanze da rimuovere nella pulitura delle opere d’arte (colle animali e sintetiche, resine, idrocarburi, oli, gessi o carbonati).
I risultati, ad oggi, sono molto positivi anche perché gli addetti ai lavori vedono nel biorestauro un’alternativa promettente ai tradizionali metodi di intervento che richiedono l’uso di prodotti più aggressivi.
Qualche esempio? La ricerca ENEA ha fatto il suo ingresso nel Palazzo dei Papi di Avignone, individuando, in laboratorio, una procedura per rimuovere colle viniliche dagli affreschi. Nella rinascimentale Casina Farnese sul Palatino, i ricercatori ENEA hanno applicato la “biopulitura” di parte delle logge affrescate con la leggenda di Ercole e Caco, mettendo a punto una procedura di intervento che ha portato al deposito di un brevetto nazionale ed internazionale.
Tante le collaborazioni, dall’Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione e il Restauro, ai Musei Vaticani, alla Galleria Nazionale di Arte Moderna: in quest’ultima sono state esposte due sculture in marmo sulle quali i ricercatori ENEA hanno affiancato i restauratori utilizzando la biopulitura con microrganismi che hanno completamente rimosso i depositi di cera dalla “Testa di Donna” di Emilio Quadrelli e i residui di smog dalla “Lupa” di Giuseppe Graziosi, rimasta all’aperto per 40 anni.
Dal biorisanamento ambientale alle biotecnologie per il restauro e la conservazione dei beni artistici il passo è stato breve. Il mix di microrganismi utilizzato per la biopulitura della “Lupa” aveva già dimostrato tutta la sua efficacia nella bonifica di un terreno inquinato da idrocarburi. Una tecnologia, quella del biorisanamento, in grado di trasformare i contaminanti senza danneggiare le funzioni e la fertilità del suolo. Per il momento, forse, l’unica.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
New 'safe' aluminium battery offers 60-second charging
A new breakthrough in aluminium-ion battery technology could produce devices that charge in minutes and are cheaper, safer and longer lasting than current systems.
Scientists at Stanford University in California claim to have invented the first high-performance, commercially viable aluminium-based battery, although more work is needed to increase its voltage to that of existing equivalent technology.
“We have developed a rechargeable aluminium battery that may replace existing storage devices, such as alkaline batteries, which are bad for the environment, and lithium-ion batteries, which occasionally burst into flames,” said research leader Prof Hongjie Dai in a statement. “Our new battery won’t catch fire, even if you drill through it.”
Previous batteries using an aluminium anode (the negative electrode) have either been non-rechargeable or used materials for the cathode (the positive electrode) that produced a very low voltage after repeated cycles of charging and discharging.
“People have tried different kinds of materials for the cathode,” said Dai. “We accidentally discovered that a simple solution is to use graphite, which is basically carbon. In our study, we identified a few types of graphite material that give us very good performance.”
Dai admitted that the 2 volts produced by the battery was about half that of an equivalent lithium ion device but said this was still higher than anyone had ever previously achieved with aluminium.
“Improving the cathode material could eventually increase the voltage and energy density. Otherwise, our battery has everything else you’d dream that a battery should have: inexpensive electrodes, good safety, high-speed charging, flexibility and long cycle life. I see this as a new battery in its early days. It’s quite exciting.”
The new battery comprises the aluminium anode and graphite cathode along with an ionic liquid electrolyte inside a flexible polymer-coated pouch. This design helps to make the technology safer than existing batteries, such as those used in mobile phones, laptops and vehicles, said Dai.
“We have videos showing that you can drill through the aluminum battery pouch, and it will continue working for a while longer without catching fire,” he said. “But lithium batteries can go off in an unpredictable manner – in the air, the car or in your pocket.”
The researchers claim the new battery prototype can also charge within one minute, compared to the several hours needed for lithium ion, and can withstand more than 7,500 recharging cycles without loss of capacity, compared to around 1,000 cycles for lithium ion. Previous aluminium batteries only lasted around 100 cycles, they said.
“Another feature of the aluminum battery is flexibility,” Ming Gong, co-lead author of a paper on the research published in the journal Nature. “You can bend it and fold it, so it has the potential for use in flexible electronic devices. Aluminum is also a cheaper metal than lithium.”
The scientists also believe the technology could be particularly helpful in introducing grid-scale energy storage systems for renewable electricity.
“The grid needs a battery with a long cycle life that can rapidly store and release energy,” said Dai. “Our latest unpublished data suggest that an aluminum battery can be recharged tens of thousands of times. It’s hard to imagine building a huge lithium-ion battery for grid storage.”
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General Atomics starts winding operations on fusion magnet
The main contribution from the US for the world’s largest fusion experiment, ITER, is now under construction
US firm General Atomics (GA) has started construction on one of the most important components of ITER, the experimental nuclear fusion reactor currently being built in the South of France: the huge superconducting electromagnet that will sit at the centre of the doughnut-shaped reactor. Called the Central Solenoid (CS), it will weigh 1,000 tonnes when completed, making it among the most powerful magnets ever built and one of the heaviest single components of ITER.
The ITER CS will comprise six identical modules
The CS has two roles in ITER: its 13.1T magnetic field (some 500 times stronger than the magnetic field at the Earth’s surface) will keep the electrically-charged plasma inside ITER away from its inner walls, and will also help set up a current that will keep the charged particles of the plasma circulating around the reactor. The solenoid, which is made of six stacked modules, will store some 5.5 gigajoules of energy: enough to lift the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford, which weighs around 100,000 tonnes.
The winding machine for the CS modules in San Diego
GA is building seven modules for the magnet at its facility in San Diego; one of these is a spare part. Each module is 4.1m in diameter and 3m high, and contains 6km of niobium-tin (Nb3Sn) alloy superconducting wire wound onto a stainless steel core, giving it total mass of around 120tonnes. The total height of the CS is 18m — the entire height of the ITER reactor — and it will be cooled to a few degrees above absolute zero in operation. GA expects to be winding consuctor onto the module cores until 2017. It will be in place in the reactor at Cadarache, near Marseilles, by 2019.
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General Atomics starts winding operations on fusion magnet
The main contribution from the US for the world’s largest fusion experiment, ITER, is now under construction
US firm General Atomics (GA) has started construction on one of the most important components of ITER, the experimental nuclear fusion reactor currently being built in the South of France: the huge superconducting electromagnet that will sit at the centre of the doughnut-shaped reactor. Called the Central Solenoid (CS), it will weigh 1,000 tonnes when completed, making it among the most powerful magnets ever built and one of the heaviest single components of ITER.
The ITER CS will comprise six identical modules
The CS has two roles in ITER: its 13.1T magnetic field (some 500 times stronger than the magnetic field at the Earth’s surface) will keep the electrically-charged plasma inside ITER away from its inner walls, and will also help set up a current that will keep the charged particles of the plasma circulating around the reactor. The solenoid, which is made of six stacked modules, will store some 5.5 gigajoules of energy: enough to lift the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford, which weighs around 100,000 tonnes.
The winding machine for the CS modules in San Diego
GA is building seven modules for the magnet at its facility in San Diego; one of these is a spare part. Each module is 4.1m in diameter and 3m high, and contains 6km of niobium-tin (Nb3Sn) alloy superconducting wire wound onto a stainless steel core, giving it total mass of around 120tonnes. The total height of the CS is 18m — the entire height of the ITER reactor — and it will be cooled to a few degrees above absolute zero in operation. GA expects to be winding consuctor onto the module cores until 2017. It will be in place in the reactor at Cadarache, near Marseilles, by 2019.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Engineers work to prevent electric vehicle charging from overloading grids
New research could help prevent electric vehicles (EVs) from overloading the grid when large numbers of them are charging.
Engineers from the Fraunhofer Society in Germany are testing new software designed to allow local grid operators to estimate how many EVs can be safely connected to their network at any one time.
The researchers claim this will allow operators to better plan for an increased takeup in EV ownership, for example by increasing general capacity or creating specific charge spots.
“A vehicle draws up to 22KW of power. So if you have multiple vehicles plugged in at the same time, then current grids quickly reach their limits,” said research leader Dr. Michael Agsten from the Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation (IOSB).
“Charging electric vehicles leads to a significantly higher household power draw – and the problem is exacerbated if people charge multiple vehicles at home at different times of the day.
“As the power draw continues to steadily increase, network operators will need to know as early as possible how much room they still have for manoeuvre. Otherwise they won’t know that the limits have been reached until their customers actually start reporting problems.”
The software works by modelling a random selection of several thousand possible scenarios in which households charge their EVs at different time. This “Monte Carlo” method is used because modeling every scenario would take so long as to be impractical.
The program then calculates the degree of overload risk and how many electric vehicles can be charged simultaneously in a specific local, low-voltage grid.
This enables operators to answer questions such as how will adding more vehicles affect the load distribution, at what point should they expand network capacity and would it be better to spend money on new cables or build smart charging spots.
“The IT platform is already running very smoothly in the laboratory with test data,” said Agsten. “In the next stage we’re hoping to analyze real distribution grids.”
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Looking into the depths of a masterpiece without scraping the surface
British researchers have refined a technique to look at the composition of Old Master paintings without damaging them
When art experts restore or conserve paintings, they have to know what they’re getting into. Old Master paintings are usually varnished, often several times at various points through their history; although originally intended to protect the surface of the painting, the varnish can degrade, dulling the colours. An important stage in conservation is removing the old varnish, but to do this the conservators must understand the layers of material that make up the picture: how many coats of varnish, of what composition; and what the various layers of paint in the picture actually are. Generally, this is done by taking tiny samples from the picture — around a quarter of a millimetre across — and analysing them. Optical specialists at Nottingham Trent University have now worked with the National Gallery to upgrade a technique that can look below the surface of an Old Master without damaging it; it could also be used to study old documents, they say.
The group was looking at Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), a medical technique already used by art historians but which until now has not been able to resolve the many fine layers of an Old Master. The technique works by splitting a beam of light, with one side scattered off the surface of the painting and the other sent to a reference mirror. Recombining both beams gives an indication of what frequencies of light were absorbed by the materials in the painting.
Left, the painting being scanned; right, (above) Nottingham Trent OCT of the surface, (below) conventionsal OCT. The upper image shows more detail of the painting’s varnish layers.
The team, led by Haida Liang of Notitngham Trent, used a newly-available wide-spectrum laser-like beam as a light source, and scanned a 16th-century copy of a Raphael painting from the National Gallery’s collection. This gave as much information as an invasive technique, the team reports in Optics Express.
“We are able to not only match the resolution but also to see some of the layer structures with better contrast,’ said Liang . ”That’s because OCT is particularly sensitive to changes in refractive index.”
The team is now working to combine long-wavelength light, which penetrates most deeply into the surface of the painting, with short wavelengths, which provide the best resolution.
“The next challenge is perhaps to be able to do that in one instrument, as well as to extract chemical information from different layers,” said Liang.
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This Floating Solar Balloon Can Power Remote Villages From Above
The Zéphyr could unfurl at the touch of a button and generate enough energy to keep a whole hospital running.
When relief agencies set up refugee camps, they need to bring in power quickly. That normally means diesel generators, which, while reliable, can be expensive to operate.
One possible alternative: floating blimps covered in solar cells.
The idea comes from Cédric Tomissi and two other French designers, Karen Assaraf and Julie Dautel. The balloon would be stored in a generator-like unit and unfurl at the touch of a button. Tomissi says it could provide power for 50 people or run a whole makeshift hospital.
"We are working on the folding part of the balloon, because we need to find a solution to deploy it easily. We want the balloon to be something automatic, so you inflate it and it deploys itself, and when you deflate it, it folds itself," he says.
Tomissi's team first developed the Zéphyr at an art-design center in Paris, Le Laboratoire. The concept has since won several startup awards, including the French leg of the Dyson Award and an energy challenge organized by EDF, the French utility.
It's just a prototype for now, but Tomissi says EDF and a local nonprofit are helping to develop it. He hopes to have a working version by July 2015.
The canopy is covered with a thin-film plastic, with power sent back down a cord to the base. There, the electricity is either used immediately, or stored in batteries for night-time purposes.
"It's designed to be used during the day and night. Because of the batteries, we can store and share for a hospital or to light up the camp for safety," Tomissi says.
He thinks the Zéphyr will be fine even in "medium strength" wind conditions, though it would need to be taken down in a full-blown gale.
It's an interesting counterpart to more advanced wind kites, like the Google-owned Makani, though we'll have to see if the final product actually sees the light of day.
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Towards faster-than-light transmission by slowing down light
Bringing light pulses to a complete halt in optical fibre, then restarting them, may be an important step towards instantaeous data transmission
Quantum teleportation is one of the weirdest concepts in the very weird field of quantum mechanics. It refers to the instantaneous transmission of information over long distances, which should be impossible under classical physics, where no information can be transmitted instantaneously because of the insurmountable limit of the speed of light. But physicists at the Technical University of Vienna believe they may have taken an important step towards it — not by speeding up the transmission of information but by slowing a light pulse to a dead stop, then speeding it up again.
The team, led by Professor Arno Rauschenbeutel, who is also attached to the Vienna Centre for Quantum Science and Technology, was looking at the transmission of data by light pulses along optical fibre: a standard method of moving information. When light enters transparent glass, it slows down a little because even though glass is transparent, its atoms interact with photons. The Vienna team slowed the pulse down to a much greater degree than usual by coupling the glass atoms in a tapered scetion of the fibre to caesium atoms.
This, Rauschenbeutel explained, creates a very strong interaction between light and matter. The caesium is sent into a higher energy state, by using the light from a laser whose energy, which is related directly to the wavelength of its light, matches the gap between the caesium’s high and low energy states exactly. This slowed the light pulse down to 180km/hr. “Any express train can top that,” Rauschenbeutel comented.
The team then introduced light from second laser, which coupled the high-energy caesium to a third atomic state within the fibre. This effectively turns the photon from the laser pulse into a collective excitation of atoms in the fibre. After two milliseconds — long enough for the light to travel a third of a kilometre under normal conditions — this excitation was still in exactly the same place. A further pulse from the second laser released the trapped light pulse back into the fibre without changing any of its properties.
This ability to trap photons then release them is a vital step in quantum communication over great distances, Rauschenbeutel said. “Quantum physics allows us to create a connection between sender and receiver, which makes eavesdropping impossible. The fundamental laws of quantum physics make sure that no one can tap the connection without being noticed.”
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Reusable Vulcan space rocket unveiled by United Launch Alliance
A new space rocket that could enable partly-reusable launch systems and end US reliance on Russian technology has been unveiled.
The Vulcan Next Generation Launch System (NGLS), developed by the Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture United Launch Alliance (ULA), features reusable main booster engines that deploy a parachute and be caught by a helicopter in mid-air after separating from the rest of the rocket.
ULA, which is NASA’s current rocket provider, claims the rocket will make space services more affordable and accessible because of its reusable main booster engines, which is the most expensive portion of a launcher’s first stage.
“More capabilities in space mean more capabilities here on earth,” said Tory Bruno, president and CEO of ULA, in a statement.
“Because the Next Generation Launch System will be the highest-performing, most cost-efficient rocket on the market, it will open up new opportunities for the nation’s use of space.”
Responding to political pressure, ULA has also partnered with Blue Origin, the aerospace firm owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, to produce the first stage engine in the US and end ULA’s reliance on Russian-made RD-180 motors.
Each Vulcan rocket will comprise a reusable liquid natural gas BE-4 engine from Blue Origin for the first stage of the launch, a high-energy Centaur second stage engine (as used in NASA’s current Atlas V rockets) and a 4- or 5-metre-diameter payload.
Up to four solid rocket boosters (SRB) augment the lift off power of the 4-meter configuration, while up to six SRBs can be added to the 5-meter version.
Eventually the Centaur engine will be replaced by a more powerful Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage (ACES) that will enable Vulcan to match the capability of the Delta IV Heavy rocket (which can carry much heavier payloads than Atlas V) and extend on-orbit operating time from hours to weeks.
Vulcan, which was named by a public vote, will also feature new Sensible, Modular, Autonomous Return Technology (SMART). This will enable the first stage engine to detach from the rest of the rocket, deploy an inflatable heat-shield to protect it from burning up on re-entry through the atmosphere and then a parachute to slow its descent before it can be caught by a helicopter in mid-air for re-use.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Software pins down correct vertebra for surgery
Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a software program that works with currently available procedures to assist surgeons in determining which vertebra to operate on.
According to Jeffrey Siewerdsen, Ph.D., a professor of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins, there are up to four incidents of “wrong-level” spine surgery per week in the US, a situation that can arise because the spine is made up of repeating elements that look alike.
However, results from its first clinical evaluation show that LevelCheck software achieves 100 per cent accuracy in 26 seconds. Details of the study will appear in the April 15 issue of the journal Spine.
Surgeons go to great lengths to get their procedures right, because mistakes are costly to patient health. They can result in pain, require follow-up surgeries, and create instability or degeneration of the spine, said to Jean-Paul Wolinsky, M.D., an associate professor of neurosurgery and oncology at Johns Hopkins and co-author of the study.
According to JHU, patients receive a diagnostic CT or MRI scan before a standard spinal operation that the surgeon uses to plan the surgery. Once the patient is on the operating table the surgeon typically counts down from the skull or up from the tailbone to determine which vertebra to operate on, often marking the patient’s anatomy with thin metal pins. These pins are visible in an X-ray image taken in the operating room to verify the target site. But the doctor’s initial planning on the preoperative scan is not visible in the X-ray image, leaving room for error, particularly when working on challenging cases exhibiting missing or extra vertebrae, a loss of anatomical landmarks from previous surgeries, or other anomalies.
LevelCheck uses a standard desktop computer outfitted with a graphics-processing unit to align a patient’s 3D preoperative CT image with the 2D X-ray image taken during surgery. The result is an X-ray image showing the pins that act as landmarks for the surgeon, overlaid with the planning information from the CT scan.
“LevelCheck does not replace the surgeon’s expertise. It offers helpful guidance and decision support, like your GPS,” Siewerdsen said in a statement.
To test its accuracy, the team analysed pre- and intraoperative images of 20 consecutive patients who had undergone spine surgery. By shifting the images, they simulated 10,000 surgeries and measured how long the software needed to correctly line up the images 100 per cent of the time.
“This study is the first to demonstrate that LevelCheck works with real patient images,” said Siewerdsen. “It shows that the software can deal with challenges like changes in patient anatomy and the presence of surgical tools in the X-ray image.”
Sheng-Fu Lo, M.D., evaluated the results to find what factors can cause the software to fail. “The software doesn’t always get it right if it is stopped early, but given 26 seconds or more, LevelCheck found the right level every time.”
Wolinsky said: “We can’t eliminate the possibility of wrong-level surgeries but this is an additional level of security — an independent check — that works quickly within our standard surgical workflow. Although LevelCheck in its current form requires a preoperative CT scan for most patients, the benefit is well worth it.”
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Using Light to Communicate On-chip
Optical communications for on-chip and chip-to-chip data transfer has been an area of active research worldwide. Now, researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle and Stanford University, California, have jointly created an on-chip laser that can be electro-modulated for easy optical communications. The researchers have developed a thin laser, just 0.7 nm thick, that can be integrated onto standard silicon chips.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
ARFL confirms feasibility of Reaction Engines’ SABRE engine concept
Analysis undertaken by the United States’ Air Force Research Laboratory has confirmed the feasibility of Reaction Engines’ Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE) engine cycle concept.
The analysis was undertaken by AFRL as part of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (‘CRADA’) with the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Aerospace Systems Directorate (AFRL/RQ) which was entered into in January 2014. These investigations examined the thermodynamic cycle of the SABRE concept and found no significant barrier to its theoretical viability provided the engine component and integration challenges are met.
According to a statement, Oxforshire-based Reaction Engines and AFRL are now formulating plans for continued collaboration on the SABRE engine; the proposed work will include investigation of vehicle concepts based on a SABRE derived propulsion system, testing of SABRE engine components and exploration of defence applications for Reaction Engines’ heat exchanger technologies.
The Sabre engine, with its heat exchanger system in place
Barry Hellman, AFRL/RQ program manager said: “The activities under the CRADA have allowed AFRL to understand the SABRE engine concept, its pre-cooler heat exchanger technology, and its cycle in more detail. Our analysis has confirmed the feasibility and potential performance of the SABRE engine cycle.
“While development of the SABRE represents a substantial engineering challenge, the engine cycle is a very innovative approach and warrants further investigation. The question to answer next is what benefit the SABRE could bring to high-speed aerospace vehicles compared to other propulsion systems.
“Although application of the SABRE for single stage to orbit space access remains technically very risky as a first application, the SABRE may provide some unique advantages in more manageable two stage to orbit configurations. Furthermore, the heat exchanger technology also warrants further investigation for applications across the aerospace domain.”
SABRE - through the combination of unique thermodynamic cycles and Reaction Engines’ heat exchangers - can reportedly power aircraft from stand still on a runway to Mach 5.5 in the atmosphere and then switch to a rocket mode of operation allowing spaceflight at up to Mach 25.
Reaction Engines’ ultra-lightweight air heat exchanger technology is designed to cool air from 1,000°C to minus 150°C in 1/100th second whilst preventing the formation of ice at sub-zero temperatures. In doing so the technology is able transfer the same amount of heat generated by electricity power stations (~450MW) using equipment that weighs less than < 1.5 tonnes.
Furthermore, through its ability to ‘breathe’ air from the atmosphere, SABRE is said to offer a significant reduction in propellant consumption compared to conventional rocket engines, which have to carry their own oxygen.
The weight saved by carrying less oxygen can be used to increase the capability of launch vehicles including options for high performance reusable launch vehicles with increased operational flexibility, such as horizontal take-off and landing. Additionally, the SABRE engine concept could potentially be configured to efficiently power aircraft flying at high supersonic and hypersonic speeds.
The viability of the SABRE engine has been independently validated by the European Space Agency during a review undertaken at the request of the UK government, which committed £60m in July 2013 towards the development to aid preparations for the design, manufacture and testing of SABRE demonstrator engines.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Portable sensor warns of rotting meat
Chemists at MIT have developed a portable sensor that can detect gases emitted by rotting meat, an advance that may allow consumers to determine the edibility of meat.
The sensor, which consists of chemically modified carbon nanotubes, could be deployed in “smart packaging” that would offer much more accurate safety information than the expiration date on the package, said Timothy Swager, the John D. MacArthur Professor of Chemistry at MIT.
It could also cut down on food waste, he added.
“People are constantly throwing things out that probably aren’t bad,” said Swager, who is the senior author of a paper describing the new sensor in Angewandte Chemie. The paper’s lead author is graduate student Sophie Liu. Other authors are former lab technician Alexander Petty and postdoc Graham Sazama.
MIT said in a statement that the sensor is similar to other carbon nanotube devices that Swager’s lab has developed in recent years, including one that detects the ripeness of fruit. All of these devices work on the same principle, namely that carbon nanotubes can be chemically modified so that their ability to carry an electric current changes in the presence of a particular gas.
In the current research, the team modified the carbon nanotubes with metalloporphyrins, which contain a central metal atom bound to several nitrogen-containing rings.
For this sensor, the researchers used a metalloporphyrin with cobalt at its centre. Metalloporphyrins are very good at binding to nitrogen-containing compounds called amines. Of particular interest to the researchers were the so-called biogenic amines, such as putrescine and cadaverine, which are produced by decaying meat.
When the cobalt-containing porphyrin binds to any of these amines, it increases the electrical resistance of the carbon nanotube, which can be easily measured.
“We use these porphyrins to fabricate a very simple device where we apply a potential across the device and then monitor the current. When the device encounters amines, which are markers of decaying meat, the current of the device will become lower,” Liu said in a statement.
In this study, the researchers tested the sensor on pork, chicken, cod, and salmon. They found that when refrigerated, all four types stayed fresh over four days. Left unrefrigerated, the samples all decayed, but at varying rates.
There are other sensors that can detect the signs of decaying meat, but they are usually large and expensive instruments that require expertise to operate. “The advantage we have is these are the cheapest, smallest, easiest-to-manufacture sensors,” Swager said.
The new device also requires very little power and could be incorporated into a wireless platform Swager’s lab recently developed that allows a regular smartphone to read output from carbon nanotube sensors such as this one.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Oil-catching net could help clean up pollution
Cleaning up oil spills could become easier thanks to a new steel net that captures the fossil fuel but lets water pass through.
Scientists at the Ohio State University in the US created the technology by applying a nearly invisible oil-repelling coating to a stainless steel mesh, inspired partly by the bumpy surface of lotus leaves that naturally repel water.
The researchers demonstrated the mesh by pouring a mixture of oil and water through it. The water filtered through while the oil collected on top of the mesh and rolled off easily when it was tilted.
“If you scale this up, you could potentially catch an oil spill with a net,” said research leader Prof Bharat Bhushan. The technology could also be used to detect and track oil deposits underground.
To create a surface that does the opposite of lotus leaves – repels oil rather than water – Bhushan and fellow researcher Philip Brown covered a bumpy surface with a polymer embedded with molecules of surfactant – a substance that changes the surface properties of a liquid.
The scientists sprayed a fine dusting of silica nanoparticles onto the stainless steel mesh to create a randomly bumpy surface and layered the polymer and surfactant on top.
The silica, surfactant, polymer, and stainless steel are all non-toxic and relatively inexpensive, said Brown, estimating that a larger mesh net could be created for less than a dollar per square foot.
Because the coating is only a few hundred nanometers thick, it is almost undetectable. It is around 70 per cent transparent and so could also work for certain automotive glass applications, such as mirrors, but not most windows or smartphone surfaces.
“Our goal is to reach a transparency in the 90 per cent range,” Bhushan said in a statement. “In all our coatings, different combinations of ingredients in the layers yield different properties. The trick is to select the right layers.”
He added: “We’ve studied so many natural surfaces, from leaves to butterfly wings and shark skin, to understand how nature solves certain problems. Now we want to go beyond what nature does, in order to solve new problems.”
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Synthetic muscles set for work out on International Space Station
Astronauts are due to test a synthetic muscle that could give future space robots more agility.
The artificial muscle, developed by polymer chemist Lenore Rasmussen from the US Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Lab (PPPL), was part of the payload launched this week aboard an International Space Station (ISS) re-supply mission. On arrival at ISS, the synthetic muscle, which adheres to metal electrodes, will be subject to periodic assessments.
It is believed that these synthetic muscles could enable the development of more dexterous robots for space exploration, which will better mimic the natural body movements of humans.
“We can’t explore space without robots,” Rasmussen said in a statement. “The humans can only withstand a certain amount of radiation so that limits the time that people can be in space, whereas robots, particularly if they’re radiation-resistant, can be up there for long periods of time without being replaced.”
Rasmussen patented her synthetic muscle, which expands and contracts like a human muscle and is made of a gel-like material called electro-active polymer, in 1998.
Rasmussen’s challenge has been to get her material to adhere to metal electrodes, which need to be implanted inside the gel in order to control its movements.
The answer was to treat steel and titanium surfaces with a special plasma solution that was super-heated and electrically charged. This altered the surface chemistry of the metal and allowed the gel to bond more closely, continuing to adhere even after repeated muscle simulations.
Tests on Earth have shown that the material can withstand extreme levels of radiation, far exceeding amounts considered lethal to humans. In 2014, researchers exposed the synthetic muscle to 20 times the gamma radiation a human could survive, which they said was about the equivalent of a non-stop return trip from Earth to Mars. According to PPPL, a second test was made lasting 45 hours.
While the material underwent a slight change of colour, researchers said its strength, electro activity and durability did not falter. Further tests revealed that it could hold up against extreme temperatures close to absolute zero.
Synthetic muscle that could give future space robots more agility has been launched into space for tests
“The next step is to see how it behaves in a space environment,” said Charles Gentile, an engineer who worked on the technology. “From there the next step might be to use it on a mission to Mars.”
The synthetic muscle was packaged aboard the SpaceX Dragon Capsule, which was launched this week aboard Falcon 9 rocket.
The material will be kept in a zero gravity storage rack in the US National Laboratory on the ISS for 90 days, with astronauts taking photographs of the synthetic muscle every three weeks. When it returns in July 2015, it will be tested and compared with the materials that remained on Earth. The objective is to test its radiation resistance in a space bound environment.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
LOCUST displays potential for multifunctional UAV swarms
The US Navy is demonstrating a development version of a system to launch an autonbomous swarm of drones for a variety of missions.
A system to launch and co-ordinate a swarm of small, cheap drones is being demonstrated by the US Office of Naval Research (ONR). Dubbed LOCUST (Low-Cost UAV Swarming Technology), the system is ship-based and can launch several UAVs in rapid succsession which then act together to overwhelm a target.
The Coyote UAV is compatible with the LOCUST launcher
The system is aimed at reducing the cost of UAV missions, as even hundreds of the LOCUST UAVs cost less than a single large tactical aircraft, the ONR claims.
LOCUST uses a launcher consisting of a series of tubes, each holding a single UAV in a folded configuration. Once launched, the wings unfold, and the single drone can communicate with other UAVs launched from adjacent tubes, ‘enabling autonomous collaborative behaviour in either defensive or offensive missions,’ ONR states.
The launcher is compatible with 1m-long Coyote UAVs, developed a Advanced Ceramics Researchg, a company acquired by BAE Systems in 2009; these aircaft are are electrically propelled and can carry a variety of different payloads. The ONR team has also launched nine UAVs together and demonstrated autonomous synchronisation and formation flight.
“This level of autonomous swarming flight has never been done before,” said programme manager Lee Mastroianni. “UAVs that are expendable and reconfigurable will free manned aircraft and traditional weapon systems to do more.”
The launcher system is small enough to be deployed from a variety of platforms, including ships, tactical land vehicle, aircraft or unmanned systems. LOCUST is intended to be used with a human monitoring the drone mission and capable of taking over control from the autonomous systems if necessary.
Further development will continue, with a demonstration of a rapid launch of a 30-strong swarm from a ship scheduled for next year, Mastroianni said.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Researchers Develop Cool-temperature Process to Make Better Graphene
A technique invented at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) to produce graphene--a material made up of an atom-thick layer of carbon--at room temperature could help pave the way for commercially feasible graphene-based solar cells and light-emitting diodes, large-panel displays and flexible electronics. The graphene's properties include a tensile strength said to be 200 times stronger than steel and an electrical mobility that is two to three orders of magnitude better than silicon.
Existing techniques require temperatures of 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 degrees Celsius), which is too hot for incorporating graphene fabrication with current electronic manufacturing.
Caltech Staff Scientist David Boyd realized the need to have a clean surface devoid of copper oxide. When he tried to clean the copper under vacuum conditions, Boyd reconstructed a system to generate hydrogen gas to remove the copper oxide at much lower temperatures than usual. The technique worked, but it simultaneously produced graphene. Boyd later discovered that this occurred because of two leaky valves that allowed trace amounts of methane into the experiment chamber.
The new technique not only reduces manufacturing costs, but also results in a better product because fewer defects are generated. "Typically, it takes about 10 hours and 9-10 different steps to make a batch of high-mobility graphene using high-temperature growth methods," says Caltech Physics Professor Nai-Chang Yeh. "Our process involves one step, and it takes five minutes."
This new process, however, could make it possible to use graphene in solar cells, LEDs, large panel displays, and flexible electronics.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Artifical biosynthesis breakthrough claimed
US researchers have combined semiconducting nanowires with bacteria to create useful chemicals from CO2, water and sunlight
Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley are claiming a major advance in artificial biosynthesis after developing a system which can capture carbon dioxide and, using sunlight, convert it into biodegradable polymers, pharmaceutical ingredients or liquid fuels. The system combines the use of semiconductor nanowires and bacteria in a hybrid network.
The researchers claim a solar-to-chemical conversion efficiency about the same as a leaf.
The system consists of an ‘artificial forest’ of nanowires made out of silicon and titanium oxides, which lead researcher Peidong Yang says are analoguous to the chloroplasts in green plants — the chlorophyll-containing cells where photosynthesis takes place. When sunlight hits these structures, electrons are freed from the titanium and silicon atoms, which absorb different light wavelengths, and are passed on to Sporomusa ovata bacteria which are nestled within the nanowires “like Easter eggs buried in tall grass,” as co-author Michelle Yang describes it; these bacteria then reduce the carbon dioxide, transforming the usually very stable carbon atom into a more reactive form. Meanwhile, the positively-charged ‘holes’ left by the electrons force water molecules in the air to split apart, generating reactive oxygen that reacts with the reduced CO2 to form acetate, a useful building-block for other organic molecules.
The acetate is then fed to genetically-engineered E coli bacteria which stynthesises it into a variety of product molecules. In the team’s experiment, the two bacterial populations were kept separate but they could be combined, the researchers say.
Sporomusa ovata was chosen because it readily accepts electrons from its environment. It is usually oxygen-sensitive, but the protective effect of the surrounding nanowires have a protective effect. “We were able to uniformly populate our nanowire array with S. ovata using buffered brackish water with trace vitamins as the only organic component,” said Chang.
Separating the light capture and solar conversion and the catalytic activity boosts the efficiency of the process, which the team claims was around 0.38 per cent: about the same as a leaf. They claim yields of about 26 per cent for the liquid fuel butanol; 25 per cent for the antimalarial drug precursor amorphadiene; and 52 per cent for the biodegradable plastic PHB. “We are currently working on our second generation system which has a solar-to-chemical conversion efficiency of three per cent,” Yang says. “Once we can reach a conversion efficiency of 10 per cent in a cost effective manner, the technology should be commercially viable.”
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Plasma implants protect against counterfeit goods
An ultra-fast laser system that creates unique images within glass bottles could protect consumers from potentially dangerous counterfeit medicines and alcoholic drinks.
The technology, used to create plasma that is implanted into the glass, generates individual patterns on the surface of the bottle.
These could be used to identify individual bottles or batches of alcoholic beverages, pharmaceuticals or perfumes, according to its developer Dr Matthew Murray, a research fellow in the School of Chemical and Process Engineering at Leeds University.
“Our aim is to create a security measure that is in place right from the moment that the glass comes out of the furnace, up to the point that it goes into a customer’s home,” said Murray, who was recently awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering ERA Foundation Entrepreneurs’ Award for the technology, known as Alpin.
To create the patterns, the system uses a femtosecond laser, which creates a series of very short light pulses. When these pulses, which contain large amounts of energy, are focused onto a target material, it converts it into plasma in an ablative process, said Murray. “Because of the tremendous amounts of energy involved, it causes [this plasma] to explode off the surface at high velocity, in what looks like an aerosol spray.”
This plasma is then captured in the glass bottle to become implanted within the material, said Murray. “We are mixing up the target and substrate material during this implantation process, and when we do that we create a unique environment that can’t be replicated through any other kind of process,” he said.
In this way the system is able to create unique optical signatures that can describe where or when a product was manufactured, and by whom. Since the technique implants permanent colour into the glass with very fine levels of detail, it could also be used to add decorative features to perfume bottles, for example, Murray said.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
ISS laser plan to clear space debris
Japanese engineers are proposing using the ISS to test a space-based system combining a telescope with a high-power laser to blast space debris out of orbit
A plan to use high-powered lasers to clear space debris could be tested on the International Space Station. Proposed by scientists at the RIKEN research institute neat Tokyo, the plan would use a space telescope designed to study the effects of cosmic rays to spot debris, which would then be nudged out of orbit by an optical-fibre based laser.
The RIKEN team, led by Toshizaku Ebisuzki, has published its proposal in the journal Acta Astronautica. They suggest repurposing a telescope with a super-wide field of view, which is being developed at RIKEN as part of a project called Extreme Universe Space Observatory (EUSO) and is set to be mounted on the Japanese Experiment Module of the ISS. EUSO will scan a wide area of the Earth’s atmosphere looking for flashes of light that indicate the impact of a cosmic ray. We realised that we could put it to another use,” Ebisuzaki explained. “During twilight, thanks to EUSO’s wide field of view and powerful optics, we could adapt it to the new mission of detecting high-velocity debris in orbit near the ISS.”
The EUSO telescope is proposed to look for ‘air-showers’ resulting from cosmic rsays hitting the atmosphere, but at twilight it could spot space debris
The team plans to combine this extra functionality of EUSO with an optical fibre laser, developed to power particle accelerators. Known as CAN (coherent amplification network) lasers, these produce ultrafast pulses of laser energy while using relatively small amounts of energy by directing the pulse along a bundle of optical fibres. The idea is that these pulses would be directed at pieces of space debris of the size which causes the most trouble for orbital infrastructure: about a centimetre across. The laser would vaporise a portion of the debris, and the Newtonian reaction force of this ablation would slow the debris down, forcing its orbit to decay so that it fell harmlessly into the atmosphere where it would burn up long before reaching the ground. ““Our proposal is radically different from the more conventional approach that is ground based, and we believe it is a more manageable approach that will be accurate, fast, and cheap,’ said Ebisuzkai.
The RIKEN team is proposing a test of the technique by mounting a small version of the EUSO telescope on the ISS, 20cm across, accompanied by a 100-fibre CAN laser. ““If that goes well,” said Ebisuzaki, “we plan to install a full-scale version on the ISS, incorporating a three-meter telescope and a laser with 10,000 fibers, giving it the ability to deorbit debris with a range of approximately 100 kilometers.” The ultimate goal would be to mount thesystem on a free-flying platform that would be placed in a lunar orbit some 800km above the Earth, where the greatest concentration of centimetre-scale debris is found. “We may finally have a way to stop the headache of rapidly growing space debris that endangers space activities,” Ebisuzaki claimed. “We believe that this dedicated system could remove most of the centimetre-sized debris within five years of operation.”
DA DR. COTELLESSA
DNA Study Gets Easier
Sometimes the best solutions are the simple ones. That axiom certainly applies to a new technique for unraveling DNA for easier study under a microscope. Researchers at Belgium's KU Leuven inject genetic material into a droplet of water and use a pipette tip to drag it over a glass plate covered with a sticky polymer. The droplet rolls like a ball over the plate, sticking the DNA to the plate surface for microscopic analysis.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Seeing the Forest and the Trees
The National Institute of Standards and Technology has developed a technique to simultaneously image nanoscale features and microscale (nano x 1,000) chemical interactions. This approach combines Raman spectroscopy with environmental scanning transmission electron microscopy. Such a global view could be useful in such fields like nanotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology. For more on lab innovation, read about this new technique for observing chemical reactions on a trillionth of a second timescale.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Genetics Tackles Cancer and Obesity
Ongoing research is shedding new light on the role of genetics in cancer and obesity. In-depth analysis by UK and Australian scientists of 100 pancreatic cancer genomes has highlighted four subtypes that may help guide future patient treatment. And a massive study involving data from more than 340 research centers around the world not only underscores the genetic basis of obesity but also gives new insights into weight-loss therapies and the prevention of metabolic-associated diseases.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Tokyo, nuovo record di velocità per un treno a levitazione magnetica: 603 km/h
Record di velocità per un prototipo di treno a levitazione magnetica in Giappone che ha raggiunto i 603 chilometri orari in un tragitto test nei pressi del Monte Fuji, nell'area di Tokyo. Lo stesso treno aveva raggiunto i 590 km/h in un altro test la settimana scorsa, ha reso noto la compagnia Central Japan Railways, precisando che la prova è stata svolta con il personale a bordo.
"L'andatura di 603 km/h è stata mantenuta per 10,8 secondi, durante il passaggio in un tunnel", ha indicato il portavoce della compagnia, sulla tratta speciale di 42,8 chilometri a Yamanashi, nel centro del Giappone, dove è stato sviluppato questo prototipo di treno "maglev".
Il servizio dovrebbe poi entrare in funzione tra Tokyo e la città di Nagoya entro il 2027: 280 chilometri di distanza che saranno percorsi in 40 minuti, la metà del tempo attualmente necessario, con una velocità massima di 505 km/h. Il costo stimato per la realizzazione del progetto, che prevede anche la perforazione di costosissimi tunnel, si aggira sui 70 miliardi di euro.
Se si avvicinano due calamite, queste si attraggono e si attaccano saldamente. Ci vuole sforzo per staccarle. Ma se invertiamo i poli, le calamite producono l’effetto inverso e si respingono altrettanto fortemente. Ci vuole uno sforzo ancora maggiore per farle avvicinare. Questo principio della repulsione, apparentemente così banale, è oggi alla base di un’invenzione molto moderna: quella dei treni a levitazione magnetica. Infatti se si immagina di mantenere tante calamite in fila tutte unite in modo da formare un binario, si realizza che un treno, viaggiandoci sopra, potrebbe rimanere sospeso. Naturalmente tutto è molto più complesso: occorrono materiali superconduttori bassissime temperature, alimentazione elettrica, ecc. Ma questo semplice esempio spiega come può prodursi un fenomeno che sembra incredibile: cioè che un oggetto possa rimanere sospeso in aria di qualche centimetro, senza toccare i binari.
Alla fine degli anni ’80, la scoperta dei materiali superconduttori ad alta temperatura critica e dei supermagneti ha fornito gli strumenti necessari ad applicare, nel campo dei trasporti, le tecniche di levitazione sulle quali si lavorava da tempo. A seguire il tutto, il Professor Lanzara, uno studioso che per oltre 40 anni ha compiuto ricerche su sistemi di trasporto non convenzionali sia all’Università del Kentuky che alla facoltà di Ingegneria di Palermo, dove fu costruito e testato il primo treno sospeso con cuscini d’aria e spinto da un motore lineare.
L’enorme vantaggio di questo sistema "a levitazione magnetica" è che non c’è attrito meccanico, e quindi un treno può viaggiare molto più velocemente. In un certo senso come un aereo, perché l’unico vero attrito è quello dell’aria. Di questi treni ne esistono già, sia pure su tratte brevi e sperimentali, in Germania e in Giappone.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Solar panels on a roll with tool to identify nanoscopic defects
A ‘one-shot’ interferometer that rapidly spots nanoscale flaws in solar panels during manufacture could soon move from the lab to a production line after winning a government grant.
The device, which can compensate for conditions including excessive vibrations, will allow materials such as flexible solar panels to be manufactured more efficiently and economically by monitoring their quality.
Under the High Value Manufacturing Catapult scheme, Dr Feng Gao, a senior research fellow at Huddersfield University has been handed the three-year task of installing the technology at the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI).
Based in County Durham, CPI specialises in technologies such as printable electronics, including these rolls of flexible solar panels embedded with photovoltaic cells.
Researchers at Huddersfield’s EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Advanced Metrology have been working to improve the quality control and reliability of these flexible solar panels, developing new technologies for the detection, cleaning and repair of micro and nanoscale defects in the thin films that are vital in printed electronic products.
They have been using an award-winning Wavelength Scanning Interferometer, which can detect defects in the coatings of roll-to-roll flexible photovoltaic cells.
Dr Gao will now investigate how to employ the EPSRC Centre’s prototype instruments in the roll-to-roll production line at the Centre for Process Innovation.
‘This interferometer only needs one shot to acquire all the information for the measurement,’ he explained. ‘Generally an interferometer needs to take a few consecutive shots in order to achieve a measurement. Therefore it is sensitive to the environmental vibration.’
To achieve success, he must transfer the device from an optical lab, where it is stabilised and protected, and adapt it to embed it into a round-the-clock factory production line where the roll-to-roll films are produced at great speed, adding to the difficulty of monitoring for defects.
If successful, Dr Gao believes the technology could have an impact in other areas of manufacturing.
‘This device can be used for other on-line surface inspection,’ added Dr Gao. ‘We have other parties expressing their interest in this instrument, including micro-lens array manufacturers, and for use in additive manufacturing.’
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Nanofibre thread spun into surgical sutures
A nanofibre thread designed for use in medical sutures could enter clinical trials later this year in surgery to repair injured shoulders.
The thread, known as Bioyarn, has been developed by researchers at Oxford University. They hope to begin testing it in surgery to repair torn tendons in the rotator cuff. Around 40 per cent of surgeries on this painful condition fail, and the researchers hope the thread will improve the success rate.
Nanoscale fibres are extremely porous and have a very high surface area by volume, making them excellent candidates for use in surgical sutures, tissue scaffolds and wound dressings, according to Nikolaos Chalkias, senior technology transfer manager at Isis Innovation, Oxford University’s technology commercialisation company.
But despite their potential, until now there has been no way to reliably produce very long filaments of the material, which would allow it to be woven into different types of fabric or medical device.
So the researchers have developed a technique to spin the fibres onto a moving wire, allowing them to stretch out very long strands. “We can effectively make a ball of electrospun yarn,” said Chalkias.
The technology is based on conventional electrospinning, in which a solution is drawn through an electrically-charged hollow needle onto a grounded target, in this case the wire. As the solution is drawn towards the wire, it stretches out into a very fine fibre. Then, as the wire moves past the needle, the material attaches to it and is drawn along with it.
“Since the fibre does not stick fast to the wire, it can simply be peeled off using an automated machine,” said Chalkias. “We can then weave that thread into fabrics, or into medical device materials like patches.”
Thanks to their nanoscale dimensions, these patches can mimic the extracellular environment within human tissue, meaning they should help support cell growth, said Chalkias.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Gravity-powered lamp scoops £150k award
GravityLight, a gravity-powered lamp with potential applications in the developing world, has triumphed over 150 other low carbon innovations to win Shell’s coveted £150,000 Shell Springboard award.
Conceived by UK industrial designer Martin Riddiford and developed by London start-up Deciwatt, the technology uses the force of gravity to generate electricity that can be used off-grid.
The device consists of a weighted 12kg bag threaded through a patented electricity-generating device. The bag is attached to the device and then slowly descends to the ground. As it does so, a series of gears convert this kinetic energy into electricity which is used power an LED lamp.
According to the Deciwatt website, the duration of the drop is 28 minutes on a low light setting, 20 minutes on medium and 12 minutes on high. It can be used over and over with no running costs.
Caroline Angus, commercial director of Deciwatt, said that the technology has chiefly been designed as a low-cost and safe alternative to the kerosene lamps used by an estimated 1.3 billion people around the world who have no access to electricity. She added that the funding will be used to refine the technology and pursue key applications in the developing and developed worlds. The device has already been subjected to field trials across Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East.
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Google Granted Patent for Smart Contact Lens
May allow people with diabetes to easily measure glucose levels
Google has been granted a patent for a contact lens with an embedded chip,
The patent, which was discovered by WebProNews, features a sensor in the lens. Google has previously said that it is partnering with the pharmaceutical company Novartis to create a smart contact lens that could monitor blood sugar for people with diabetes.
As TIME has previously reported, Google has been testing various prototypes of smart contact lens and is currently in talks with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about a lens that measures glucose levels in users’ tears. The company says the chip and sensor are embedded between two layers of contact lens material and a tiny pinhole lets tear fluid from the eye reach the glucose sensor, and the sensor can measure levels every second.
Diabetics must currently prick their fingers throughout the day to measure blood sugar levels, but Google believes the contact lenses would be less invasive and allow people with diabetes to check glucose more often and more easily.
When asked if the patent is indeed for the smart contact lens for diabetes patients, Google told TIME the company does not comment on patent filings. “We hold patents on a variety of ideas—some of those ideas later mature into real products or services, some don’t. Prospective product announcements should not necessarily be inferred from our patents,” a Google spokesperson said in an email.
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Pavegen to provide Canary Wharf with sustainable energy boost
A pilot project that aims to create electricity from the footfall of commuters is to be installed at London’s Canary Wharf this summer, helping the district to be more sustainable while gathering vital data on visitors’ habits.
Pavegen’s flooring technology consists of slabs made from recycled rubber and polymer concrete that convert the weight of a footstep into renewable electricity. When a slab is stepped on it deflects the top sheet by 5mm, and the movement is converted to electricity, which is delivered in to a regulated 12V feed.
Unlike other energy harvesting systems, Pavegen’s technology does not rely on piezoelectricity, where energy spikes make it very hard to give a constant flow of energy. Each step on a Pavegen slab contains enough energy to power an LED streetlamp for 30 seconds. The energy conserved can also be stored in lithium polymer batteries underneath the floor to be used at a later date.
The technology was a finalist in the Cognicity Challenge award, a scheme run by the Canary Wharf Group to help small and medium businesses set up pilot projects and grow. With 100 thousand commuters passing through Canary Wharf each day, the public spaces are an ideal place to place the tiles in order to gather footfall data as well as generating renewable energy.
‘As well as generating energy, we can look at real-time analytics of footfall and where people go,’ said Laurence Kemball-Cook, an industrial design engineer and graduate of Loughborough University, who developed Pavegen whilst researching kinetic-off grid energy solutions in environments where low-carbon technologies like solar and wind are not practical. ‘We can then do things such as targeting advertising. We can see how the high street is performing in real time.’
A recent collaboration with Samsung saw shoppers in Sandton City shopping mall, Johannesburg, using a 68-tile walkway, situated within the entrance of the mall to power an interactive data screen, displaying real-time footfall data and providing an immediate visual payback of the energy harvested from its monthly footfall rate of over two million footsteps. This power was then channelled to deprived communities in South Africa for lighting, heating and basic everyday amenities.
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Graphene set to bring 3D colour holograms to life
New research reveals the potential for graphene help in bringing 3D colour holograms closer to fruition.
Led by Melbourne’s Swinburne University of Technology and including Dr Qin Li, from the Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre within Griffith University’s School of Engineering, scientists have capitalised on the properties of graphene and are confident of applications in fields such as optical data storage, information processing and imaging.
“While there is still work to be done, the prospect is of 3D images seemingly leaping out of the screens, thus promising a total immersion of real and virtual worlds without the need for cumbersome accessories such as 3D glasses,” Dr Li said in a statement.
Graphene is pure carbon and one of the thinnest, lightest and strongest materials known to humankind. A supreme conductor of electricity and heat, much has been written about its mechanical, electronic, thermal and optical properties.
“Graphene offers unprecedented prospects for developing flat displaying systems based on the intensity imitation within screens,” said Dr Li, who conducted carbon structure analysis for the research.
“Our consortium, which also includes China’s Beijing Institute of Technology and Tsinghua University, has shown that patterns of photo-reduced graphene oxide (rGO) that are directly written by laser beam can produce wide-angle and full-colour 3D images.
“This was achieved through the discovery that a single femtosecond (fs) laser pulse can reduce graphene oxide to rGO with a sub-wavelength-scale feature size and significantly differed refractive index.
“Furthermore, the spectrally flat optical index modulation in rGOs enables wavelength-multiplexed holograms for full colour images.”
The researchers said the sub-wavelength allows for static holographic 3D images with a wide viewing angle up to 52 degrees.
Such laser-direct writing of sub-wavelength rGO featured in dots and lines could change capabilities across a range of optical and electronic devices, formats and industry sectors.
“The generation of multi-level modulations in the refractive index of GOs, and which do not require any solvents or post-processing, holds the potential for in-situ fabrication of rGO-based electro-optic devices,” said Dr Li.
“The use of graphene also relieves pressure on the world’s dwindling supplies of indium, the metallic element that has been commonly used for electronic devices.
“Other technologies are being developed in this area, but rGO looks by far the most promising and most practical, particularly for wearable devices. The prospects are quite thrilling.”
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World’s most powerful digital camera begins construction
Hoped to gain more information about the expansion of the universe, the Large Synoptic Survey telescope will have a 3.2billion pixel camera
Set to be the most powerful digital camera on Earth, the facility that will house the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) has begun construction in the Chilean Andes. Scheduled to begin operations — or ‘receive first light’, as astronomers put it — in 2019, LSST is part of a huge series of experiments and observations at international facilities that’s hoped to gain more information about dark energy, an enigmatic phenomenon that is believed to be involved in the accelerating expansion of the universe.
A rendering of how the LSST facillity will look in operation
At 8.4m wide, the LSST is quite modestly-sized among the new generation of telescopes (the largest planned facilities have primary mirrors some 30m across). It will scan the entire visible sky from its site, 2.7km above sea level at Cerro Pachon, for ten years from 2022, using a 3.2billion pixel digital camera to systematically build up a 3D image of the observable universe. While not the biggest digital camera ever built — that accolade goes to the space telescope Gaia, observing the universe from a libration point over a million km from Earth with a 1Gigapixel focal plane array — LSST will be the largest terrestrial camera.
LSST is a collaboration between Chile, the US National Science Foundation, and the French research organisation CNRS. It will have a three-mirror design, which will allow it to track moving and changing celestial objects such as asteroids and novae, and will be able to track the physical quantities associated with dark energy: the position of galaxies, and their relative movement. Gathering some 30TB of data every night, the telescope will help to expand the catalogue of celestial objects to around 10billion galaxies – four orders of magnitude larger than today.
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Brain-inspired computer memory consumes less energy
A quantum phenomenon is key to a low-energy technology for electronic memory
A new technology for fast, non-volatile computer memory uses a similar mechanism to the human brain, according to its developers at Paris-Sud University. This technology works with no power attached, but is faster than USB keys or CD memory retrieval.
Both current types of computer memory — volatile, which only retains data when it has power running through it, and non-volatile, which does not need power — store information in the form of an electrical charge. Volatile memory systems work fast, whereas non-volatile are slow. A newer version, called magnetic memory (STT-MRAM), is as fast as volatile memory but does not need applied energy. Unfortunately it’s also very expensive.
Rather than using charge, STT-MRAM stores data as magnetic orientation of electron spin, a quantum-mechanical phenomenon. Its basic units, called magnetic transfer junctions, are programmed by applying a voltage across their junctions. But if the voltage pulse is not long enough, the programming can be incorrect. AS this is a quantum phenomenon, there’s a degree of randomness proportional to the length of the pulse. Conventional electronic memory can’t tolerate randomness.
However, the Paris team has found a way to turn this to their advantage. Using MTJs like synapses (gaps between nerve junctions) in the human brain, they found that the more an individual MTJs is called upon to store a piece of data, the more likely it is that the piece of data will be recorded. To put this another way, after a number of repetitions, the system learns a function: like the way the brain learns a new task. Simulation studies suggest that systems of MTJs can perform cognitive tasks like video or image analysis more efficiently, with less energy, than conventional memory.
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Synchrotron sheds light on exploding batteries
Research illustrating exactly what happens when Lithium-ion batteries explode could help engineers improve their design and make them safer for transport and use a UK-led team has claimed.
The study, published in Nature Communications today, was carried out by UCL, ESRF The European Synchrotron, Imperial College London and the National Physical Laboratory, and shows for the first time how internal structural damage to batteries evolves in real-time, and how this can spread to neighbouring batteries.
The group used a combination of high-energy synchrotron X-rays and thermal imaging to map changes to the internal structure and external temperature of two types of Li-ion batteries as they were exposed them to extreme levels of heat.
Source: UCL
Understanding how lithium batteries fail could help improve their design
The high-speed imaging made possible by the European Synchrotron, which can capture 3D images in fractions of a second, and enabled the team to capture ‘thermal runaway’: the point at which the battery overheats and can ignite.
The team looked at the effects of gas pockets forming, venting and increasing temperatures on the layers inside two distinct commercial Li-ion batteries as they exposed the battery shells to temperatures in excess of 250 degrees C.
The battery with an internal support remained largely intact up until the initiation of thermal runaway, at which point the copper material inside the cell melted indicating temperatures up to ~1000 degrees C. This heat spread from the inside to the outside of the battery causing thermal runaway.
In contrast, the battery without an internal support exploded causing the entire cap of the battery to detach and its contents to eject. Prior to thermal runaway, the tightly packed core collapsed, increasing the risk of severe internal short circuits and damage to neighbouring objects.
Corresponding author, Dr Paul Shearing (UCL Chemical Engineering), said: “Although we only studied two commercial batteries,
The destruction we saw is very unlikely to happen under normal conditions as we pushed the batteries a long way to make them fail by exposing them to conditions well outside the recommended safe operating window. This was crucial for us to better understand how battery failure initiates and spreads.
“Our results show how useful our method is in tracking battery damage in 3D and in real-time,” said UCL’s Dr Paul Shearing, one of the study’s authors. “Hopefully from using our method, the design of safety features of batteries can be evaluated and improved.”
Hundreds of millions of these rechargeable batteries are manufactured and transported each year and although battery failure is rare, earlier this year, three airlines announced they will no longer carry bulk shipments of lithium-ion batteries in cargo aircraft after US Federal Aviation Administration tests found overheating batteries could cause major fires
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US to trial pioneering deep-hole nuclear waste disposal technique
A method to safely bury the world’s most highly radioactive nuclear waste in holes five kilometres deep will be tested in the US next year.
The technique, developed in the UK by researchers at the University of Sheffield, involves drilling a borehole around 0.6 metres wide and five kilometres deep, and lowering the waste into it.
Known as deep borehole disposal (DBD), the technique is much cheaper than the mined repository proposed by the UK government for burying the country’s nuclear waste, according to its pioneer Fergus Gibb, emeritus professor of petrology and geochemistry at the University of Sheffield.
Each borehole would cost a few tens of millions of dollars to drill, compared to hundreds of millions to tens of billions for a mined repository. Around six boreholes would be enough to store all of the UK’s existing high level waste, said Gibb, with each taking less than five years to drill, fill and seal.
Deep borehole disposal should also be safer than a mined repository, which at 500 metres deep would still be within the zone of circulating ground water, meaning any leakage caused by an earthquake, for example, could potentially return to the surface, he said.
“By going down several kilometres, it means the disposal zone at the bottom of the borehole is in a geology which is below, and isolated from, the normal ground water,” he said. “So even if the waste eventually leaks out of the containers into the surrounding rock and water, it will never come back to the surface, instead it will leak into waters in the deep rocks that have been isolated from the surface waters for millions of years.”
This should make it easier to gain public acceptance for a burial site, he said.
Although not a new idea, DBD has only been made possible by recent advances in drilling by the oil and gas and geothermal energy industries, he said.
To ensure the waste is protected from leakage, corrosion, or theft after it has been buried, the researchers have been developing two distinct sealing techniques, which they recently presented at a conference held by the American Nuclear Society in Charleston in the US.
Firstly, the waste would be slowly lowered down the hole in metal containers, and then a specially-developed sealing and support matrix would be poured in with it.
For “hot” radioactive waste - that which gives off heat of over 190 degrees Celsius as it decays - metal alloy shots that melt into a solder to seal the waste in the casing would be used, said Gibb.
But for waste that does not give off as much heat, Gibb’s colleague, Dr Nick Collier, is developing a special type of cement that can be poured down the hole, which will not set until it reaches the bottom, up to five hours later.
Once the waste has been sealed in position, the hole is then filled above the disposal zone with crushed granite, said Gibb. An electric heater is used to melt the granite, which is then cooled slowly to allow it to re-crystalise, in a process known as rock welding. “So we create a weld that is both continuous with, and identical to, the host rock around the borehole,” he said. “This completely seals the hole, just as if you’ve never drilled through it.”
The US trial, which is being run by Sandia National Laboratories for the Department of Energy (DoE), will take place at a yet to be determined site in late 2016.
If it proves successful, the DoE plans to build a much smaller, 22 centimetre-wide hole to dispose of small capsules of highly radioactive cesium and strontium being held at the Hanford nuclear facility in Washington State.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
ESA selects Skeleton Technologies' ultracapacitor for space mission
The European Space Agency has chosen a new ultracapacitor energy storage technology that increases safety while reducing weight and costs for a possible mission in 2018.
Originally developed by Estonian start-up Skeleton Technologies for use in the motor industry, the market-leading technology is 60 times lighter and 30 times more efficient than the lithium ion batteries it will replace, considerably reducing the amount of weight and room required for energy storage on a space vehicle. Although batteries can store more energy than ultracapacitors, they are slow to charge and discharge, and lose 30 per cent of their energy through heat alone. They also require frequent replacement.
Such an energy storage system is required by spacecraft and satellites to provide surges of power when required. Energy from the sun is harvested using solar cells and is stored for when the vehicle moves to the dark side of a planetary object, away from the sun, where the power is used for tasks such as adjusting antennae and moving solar arrays.
Skeleton Technologies’ system uses patented nanoporous carbide-derived carbon (CDC), also known as curved graphene. They have also developed a proprietary method for preparing the ultra capacitors.
“We took a technology that was widely used in the motorsport and Tier 1 automotive market and deconstructed and reconstructed this for use in space in, for instance, a high radiation environment,” said Oliver Ahlberg, Skeleton Technologies’ general manager.
“Normally, our products have twice the energy and four times the power of our competitors’ systems, but the performance of this is even better. However, in space, safety is a major concern. We are currently undertaking further testing of the devices in space-like conditions, with high radiation and in a vacuum. The advantage of our ultra capacitor is that no chemical reaction takes place when charging it, unlike with a lithium ion battery, which can combust if it is faulty. With the Skeleton system the ions are changing places in the electrodes, making it a physical, not chemical reaction. This means we have no issues at all with possible explosions.”
As the ultracapacitors store energy in an electric field rather than in a chemical reaction they are highly efficient at delivering sudden surges of energy and can charge and discharge over a million times, delivering significantly more power for weight than batteries. With every pound of payload put into space currently costing around €9,000, adopting this technology is expected to achieve significant efficiency savings.
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L’ENEA brevetta nuovo sistema a raggi X per migliorare il riciclo della plastica
I ricercatori dell’ENEA hanno brevettato un metodo a raggi X che consente di selezionare gli scarti di plastica, soprattutto quelli scuri presenti in massima parte nei cosiddetti RAEE, i rifiuti di apparecchiature elettriche ed elettroniche (PC, telefoni cellulari, piccoli elettrodomestici). Infatti nelle operazioni di raccolta e riciclo della plastica è necessario separare i diversi tipi di materiale in quanto i trattamenti sono diversi; oggi però le tecniche di separazione differenziano efficacemente plastiche di colore chiaro, ma non riconoscono le plastiche scure.
"Il dispositivo è un sistema compatto e trasportabile, che utilizza un tubo a raggi X di piccole dimensioni e di bassa potenza - spiega il ricercatore ENEA Danilo Pacella. Il metodo consiste nell’irraggiare il campione di plastica con raggi X a bassa intensità per selezionare le plastiche, in particolare quelle scure, come per esempio PP, PC, PC-ABS e PS, con l’obiettivo di riciclare il materiale."
Oltre ad una maggiore accuratezza nelle operazioni di riciclo, questo nuovo sistema presenta il vantaggio di tempi di analisi rapidi, nell’ordine del secondo o della frazione. Inoltre, le sue caratteristiche di economicità, modularità, facilità di utilizzo e automazione lo rendono proponibile per l’installazione in un ambiente industriale.
Le attività di raccolta e riciclo in questo settore desteranno sempre più l’interesse dell’industria, soprattutto a seguito della direttiva europea che alza al 65% nel 2019 l’obiettivo minimo di raccolta delle apparecchiature elettriche ed elettroniche immesse sul mercato.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Quelle "zone morte" nell'Oceano Atlantico
Scoperte per la prima volta in mare aperto delle 'zone morte', nell'oceano Atlantico, al largo delle coste dell'Africa occidentale. Si tratta di aree in cui i livelli di ossigeno sono talmente bassi che la vita è quasi impossibile e in cui riescono a vivere solo alcune specie di microorganismi. A osservarle i ricercatori guidati da Johannes Karstensen, dell'Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research di Kiel in Germania, il cui lavoro è pubblicato sulla rivista Biogeosciences. Le zone morte sono aree inospitali per la maggior parte delle specie marine, create dalla circolazione delle correnti e grandi vortici d'acqua che si muovono lentamente verso ovest. Arrivando in prossimità di un'isola, potrebbero provocare l'uccisione di massa di molti pesci. "Prima del nostro studio - spiega Karstensen - si pensava che il mare aperto del Nord Atlantico avesse delle concentrazioni minime di ossigeno di un millimetro di ossigeno dissolto per litro. Una concentrazione molto bassa, ma sufficiente a far sopravvivere i pesci". Ora si è invece scoperto che hanno un livello minimo di ossigeno 20 volte inferiore a quello stimato prima, cioè inadatte per la vita della maggior parte degli animali marini. Le zone morte sono molto comuni vicino i litorali dove i fiumi sversano fertilizzanti e altre sostanza chimiche nell'oceano, scatenando la crescita di alghe. Quando queste muoiono, cadono sui fondali morali e vengono decomposte dai batteri, che consumano tutto l'ossigeno in questo processo. Le correnti oceaniche possono muovere queste acque con poco ossigeno dalla costa, ma una zona morta che si forma in oceano aperto ancora non era stata scoperta. "I vortici che abbiamo osservato con maggiore dettaglio - continua Karstensen - sono come dei cilindri rotanti di 100-150 km di diametro e un'altezza di diverse centinaia di metri, con la zona morta che occupa i 100 metri più in alto. L'area intorno a questi vortici di zone morte rimane ricca di ossigeno. Abbiamo stimato che il consumo di ossigeno nei vortici - conclude - è 5 volte maggiore che nelle condizioni oceaniche normali".
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Wearing Energy Well
Scientists have created energy-generating cloth that could eventually be used to charge personal electronics through everyday motion. The fabric consists of triboelectric nanogenerators — layers of silicon-based organic material stacked on top of each other — which generate electricity via triboelectric and electrostatic effects. This means that when two materials with different triboelectric polarities rub together, they transfer a charge. When the materials separate, the movement develops a dipole moment that drives electrons through external loads. Wearable triboelectric generation offers high output voltage and efficiency, but the scientists must find a way to efficiently store the energy in the textile.
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Playing to Graphene's Strength
The use of graphene in the production of supercapacitors has languished because of the material's limited efficient surface area. But continuing research has found a way to use graphene's strength to its advantage. IEEE Spectrum explains how the 2D characteristics of graphene offer a way to make small supercapacitors ideal for wearable and implantable devices — something that would be impossible with activated carbon.
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Low-cost device aims to prevent deaths from postpartum haemorrhage
Thousands of women die in the developing world every year from severe bleeding following childbirth.
Now a low-cost device designed to prevent deaths from the condition, known as postpartum haemorrhage, has been developed in the UK.
The device, called a Uterine Balloon Tamponade (UBT), was developed by engineers at product consultancy Cambridge Design Partnership. It is designed to be simple to use, even by staff without specialist training.
A low-cost device designed to prevent deaths from Postpartum Haemorrhage has been developed in the UK
Postpartum Haemorrhage is believed to be responsible for 57,000 deaths each year worldwide, the overwhelming majority of which are in developing countries. In 2012, the World Health Organisation recommended that UBT, in which a balloon is inflated inside the uterus to stem the bleeding, could be used to treat the condition when drugs prove ineffective or are unavailable.
However, commercial UBTs can cost a few hundred dollars each, and must be carefully inserted using specialist equipment in an operating theatre by trained obstetricians, putting them out of reach of many hospitals in developing countries.
Instead, doctors in the developing world have been trialing the use of so-called “condom catheters”, in which a condom is tied to a urinary catheter at a cost of around $5. But even this cheaper alternative requires some specialist equipment and significant training to assemble and use successfully, according to Lucy Sheldon, human centred design specialist at CDP.
In contrast, the CDP device is designed to be easily inserted by staff with minimal training, with markings to ensure it is placed at the right depth without the risk of damage to the uterus. To inflate the balloon to the required level, the user then simply lifts a liquid-filled bag to different heights, which are again indicated by markings, said Sheldon. “Gravity works to inflate the balloon,” she said.
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Joining the dots to boost integrated photonics
Defects on atomically thin semiconductors produce light-emitting quantum dots that could be useful in integrated photonics – the integration of quantum photonics with solid-state electronics.
The quantum dots serve as a source of single photons, according to researchers at the University of Rochester, New York, US.
Scientists are interested in integrated solid-state devices for quantum information processing uses. Quantum dots in atomically thin semiconductors could not only provide a framework to explore the fundamental physics of how they interact, but also enable nanophotonics applications.
Quantum dots are often referred to as artificial atoms. They are artificially engineered or naturally occurring defects in solids that are being studied for a wide range of applications.
Atomically thin 2D materials such as graphene have also generated interest among scientists who want to explore their potential for optoelectronics, said University of Rochester assistant professor of optics Nick Vamivakas. However, until now, optically active quantum dots have not been observed in 2D materials.
In a paper published in Nature Nanotechnology, the Rochester researchers show how tungsten diselenide (WSe2) can be fashioned into an atomically thin semiconductor that serves as a platform for solid-state quantum dots. The defects that create the dots do not inhibit the electrical or optical performance of the semiconductor and can be controlled by applying electric and magnetic fields.
The brightness of the quantum dot emission could be controlled by applying the voltage, Vamivakas said in a statement, adding that the next step would be to use voltage to “tune the color” of the emitted photons, making it possible to integrate the quantum dots with nanophotonic devices.
A key advantage is how much easier it is to create quantum dots in atomically thin tungsten diselenide, compared with producing quantum dots in more traditional materials such as indium arsenide.
“We start with a black crystal and then we peel layers of it off until we have an extremely thin later left, an atomically thin sheet of tungsten diselenide,” said Vamivakas, the senior author on the paper.
The researchers take two of the atomically thin sheets and lay one over the other. At the point where they overlap, a quantum dot is created. The overlap creates a defect in the otherwise smooth 2D sheet of semiconductor material. The extremely thin semiconductors are much easier to integrate with other electronics.
The quantum dots in tungsten diselenide also possess an intrinsic quantum degree of freedom – the electron spin. This can act as a store of quantum information and provide a probe of the local quantum dot environment.
“What makes tungsten diselenide extremely versatile is that the colour of the single photons emitted by the quantum dots is correlated with the quantum dot spin,” said the paper’s first author, Chitraleema Chakraborty.
The ease with which the spins and photons interacted should make these systems ideal for quantum information applications, as well as nanoscale metrology, Chakraborty said.
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Portable device diagnoses sepsis within 15 minutes
A portable device designed to diagnose the deadly condition sepsis has successfully completed preliminary trials.
The device, being developed by Leicester-based engineering company Magna Parva with funding from Innovate UK, uses antibodies to detect biomarkers for sepsis within blood samples.
Sepsis is a common yet deadly condition in which an infection triggers an extreme immune response, resulting in widespread inflammation, blood clotting and swelling. If left untreated, it can lead to organ failure and death.
Around six million people worldwide are killed by the condition each year. In the UK alone, sepsis is thought to kill 37,000 people every year, more than three times the number killed by breast or prostate cancer. Between a third and a half of hospital deaths are attributed to the condition, which costs the UK and US around £20bn each year.
Despite this, there is currently no effective tool for diagnosing the disease.
The RAPPID diagnostic tool is designed to detect markers for the disease from a sample within 15 minutes. A sample preparation tool first removes the plasma from the cellular material within the blood. It then concentrates the remaining plasma by vacuum boiling, ready for it to be fed into the biosensor.
The plasma is then washed over a chip containing the antibodies. If there are any sepsis antigens within the sample, they will bind to the antibodies, causing the system to resonate at a particular frequency under certain wavelengths of light, said company director Andrew Bowyer.
“There are a phenomenal number of biosensors out there but they all need sample preparation, meaning the sample has to be cleaned up or concentrated first, and that has to be done within a laboratory environment,” said Bowyer. “With the RAPPID device we are doing it all in one system.”
The device not only identifies the existence of the pathogen within blood samples, but also measures the levels of several key markers, to identify at what stage in the disease the patient is, and ensure the right treatment is given. “What clinicians want to know is how far along you are in the sepsis curve, and whether you would respond to antibiotics or steroids,” said Bowyer. “So this is a diagnostic tool to aid that clinical decision-making process.”
Following the completion of the preliminary trials, the device will now need to be tested in further large-scale clinical trials, to ensure it can be reliably used as an effective diagnostic tool. The company also plans to integrate the sample preparation system into the biosensor itself, as the two are currently separate devices.
In the meantime, the sample preparation tool is also being separately developed as the front end of a tumour profiling device, which will generate results directly from human tissue samples within 30 minutes.
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Boosting the benefits of MRI for people with medical implants
New technology could boost the number of patients with implanted medical devices that can safely have MRI scans.
A redesign of the wire at the core of the leads that carry signals between implanted medical devices and target structures significantly reduces the heat generated when standard wires are exposed to radio frequency (RF) energy used in MRI.
The system developed at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston, Massachusetts, US is described in a paper published in Scientific Reports.
“Clinical electrical stimulation systems such as pacemakers and deep-brain stimulators are increasingly common therapies for patients with a large range of medical conditions, but a significant limitation of these devices is restricted compatibility with MRI,” said Dr Giorgio Bonmassar of the Martinos Center.
“The tests performed on our prototype deep-brain stimulation lead indicate a threefold reduction in heat generation, compared with a commercially available lead. The use of such leads could significantly expand how many patients may safely access the benefits of MRI.”
For many years the main limitation to using MRI in patients with implanted devices was that those containing ferromagnetic metals might be dislodged. Devices are now available that avoid using such metals.
However, the RF energy used in MRI can increase the electrical current induced in the non-magnetic metallic wires at the centre of device leads, producing heat that can damage tissues at the site where a stimulating signal is delivered.
Even though the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorised a group of “MR conditional” devices that can be used, these are limited to low-power scanners.
It is estimated about 300,000 patients worldwide a year cannot have MRI exams because of implanted devices.
The wires designed by the team use resistive tapered stripline (RTS) technology that breaks up the RF-induced current increase through an abrupt change in the electrical conductivity of wires made from conductive polymers, a similar “cloaking” technique to that used in some stealth aircraft.
After calculating the features required to produce a lead that would minimise heat generation, the investigators designed and tested a deep-brain stimulation device with such a lead in a standard system used for MRI testing of medical implants, namely a gel model the size of an adult human head and torso.
Compared with a commercially available lead, the RTS lead generated less than half the heat produced by exposure to a powerful MRI-RF field, a result said to be within FDA limits.
The ability to conduct MR examinations on patients with deep-brain stimulation implants would significantly improve the critical process of ensuring the signal is being delivered to the right area, something not possible with CT imaging.
“For epilepsy patients and their providers, brain MRIs could provide much more accurate information about the sites where seizures originate and their relation to other brain structures, maximising the effectiveness and improving the safety of implants that reduce or eliminate seizures,” study co-author Emad Eskandar said in a statement.
The team is now pursuing an FDA Investigational Device Exemption to allow clinical trials of devices with RTS leads.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Processing Information at the Molecular Level
Scientists believe that molecular electronics will open the door for novel and increasingly smaller, more energy-efficient components or sensors. Towards that goal, researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and the University of Konstanz are jointly working on storing and processing information at the molecular level. Based on a recent report in the academic journal Advanced Science, the scientists have shown that a single molecule can function as an electrical switch.
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Solution-grown Nanowires Offer Shortcut to Lasers
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, under the guidance of chemistry professor Song Jin, have developed a process for growing a new class of organic-inorganic hybrid pervokskites as nanowires or elongated crystals. These crystals can be easily converted into high-efficiency, ultra-small lasers suitable for a variety of optoelectronic applications. According to Jin, it is a low-cost process that requires no heat, no vacuum, and no special equipment.
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Laser process promises improved treatment for vein disease
A laser-based manufacturing process developed by researchers in Germany could lead to improvements in technology used by clinicians to treat unhealthy veins.
The technique, which has been demonstrated by a team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration (IZM), could, it is claimed, be used to automate the production and improve the quality of the optical fibres that are used to treat various types of venous disease such as varicose veins or thrombosis.
During the procedure, laser light is conducted through the middle of the fibre to the fibre tip, and at a temperature of several hundred degrees, the emitted light cauterizes the tissue and causes the veins to collapse.
To ensure that the light strikes the sidewalls of the vein directly, the fibre tip is tapered with a cone-shaped indentation that forms a reflective surface for the laser light. The process developed by the Fraunhofer team uses a laser specially developed for glass processing to precisely shape the tip.
“The method enables the first automated series production,” explained Dr. Henning Schröder from Fraunhofer IZM. Until now, producing the fibres required complicated mechanical and manual processes that not only took significantly longer, but cost more too. “What’s more, replicating a suitable product is extremely difficult,” added Schröder. Automation ensures consistent high quality.
The team is now trying to achieve even finer dimensions, which can no longer be produced by hand: the goal is optical fibres with a diameter of only 100-200 micrometers. It is though that these could open up new applications in the area of optical sensors, for instance as micro optics for visible light communication (VLC) – a technology for optical data transmission.
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Mobile microscope will help battle diseases
A new mobile phone microscope uses video to detect and quantify infection by parasitic worms in a drop of blood.
The CellScope Loa device was developed by a research team led by engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, US.
This use of UC Berkeley’s CellScope technology could help revive efforts to eradicate diseases in Africa by providing critical information to health providers.
“We previously showed that mobile phones can be used for microscopy, but this is the first device that combines the imaging technology with hardware and software automation to create a complete diagnostic solution,” associate chair and professor of bioengineering Daniel Fletcher said in a statement.
“The video CellScope provides accurate, fast results that enable health workers to make potentially life-saving treatment decisions in the field.”
CellScope Loa can quantify levels of the Loa loa parasitic worm directly from whole blood in less than 3 minutes
The engineers teamed up with Dr Thomas Nutman from the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and collaborators from Cameroon and France, to develop the device. They conducted a pilot study in Cameroon, which has been battling the filarial, or parasitic worm, diseases onchocerciasis (river blindness) and lymphatic filariasis.
The video CellScope, which uses motion instead of molecular markers or fluorescent stains to detect the movement of worms, was as accurate as conventional screening methods, the researchers found. The results of the pilot study are reported in Science Translational Medicine.
River blindness is transmitted through the bite of blackflies. Lymphatic filariasis is spread by mosquitoes and leads to elephantiasis, which causes painful, disfiguring swelling in parts of the body.
The antiparasitic drug ivermectin, or IVM, can be used to treat these diseases, but mass public health campaigns have been stalled because of potentially fatal side effects for patients co-infected with Loa loa, which causes loiasis, or African eye worm.
When there are high circulating levels of microscopic Loa loa worms, treatment with IVM can lead to brain or other neurologic damage that can be severe or fatal.
Standard screening for levels of Loa loa involves technicians counting the worms in a blood smear using conventional laboratory microscopes.
The side effects of Loa loa and the difficulty of rapidly quantifying levels in patients make it too risky to broadly administer IVM.
The CellScope Loa combines a smartphone with a 3D-printed plastic base in which a sample of blood is positioned. The base includes LED lights, microcontrollers, gears, circuitry and a USB port.
Control of the device is automated through an app. The phone communicates via Bluetooth to controllers at the base to process and analyse the blood. Gears move the sample in front of the camera, and an algorithm analyses the ‘wriggling’ motion of the worms in video captured by the phone. The worm count is then displayed on the screen.
The procedure takes about two minutes or less, starting from the time the sample is inserted to the display of the results. This short processing time allows health workers to quickly determine whether it is safe to administer IVM.
The researchers are now expanding the study of CellScope Loa to about 40,000 people in Cameroon.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Marcatori genetici
Un marcatore genetico è una sequenza di DNA conosciuta che può essere identificata mediante un semplice saggio. Un marcatore genetico può essere costituito da una breve sequenza di DNA, come la sequenza che circonda un polimorfismo a singolo nucleotide (single nucleotide polymorphism), o da una sequenza lunga, come i microsatelliti. Per molti anni, la mappatura genetica fu limitata in molti organismi a marcatori genetici tradizionali che includono geni che codificano caratteristiche osservabili facilmente, come sangue o semi. L'insufficiente numero di questi tipi di caratteristiche, in molti organismi, ha limitato la mappatura possibile.
Alcuni tipi di marcatori genetici comunemente usati sono:
RFLP (Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism)
VNTR (Variable Number of Tandem Repeat)
SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism)
STR (Short Tandem Repeat)
SSLP (Simple sequence length polymorphism)
AFLP (Amplified fragment length polymorphism)
RAPD (Random amplification of polymorphic DNA)
Microsatelliti (polimorfismo), SSR (Simple sequence repeat)
SFP (Single feature polymorphism)
DArT (Diversity Arrays Technology)
RAD (Restriction site associated DNA markers)
Possono essere categorizzati ulteriormente come dominanti o co-dominanti. I dominanti permettono l'analisi di più loci alla volta, come RAPD. Un primer amplifica un marcatore dominante permettendo a molti loci in un solo campione di DNA con una reazione PCR. Co-dominanti analizzano un locus alla volta. Un primer amplifica un marcatore co-dominante su un prodotto bersaglio. Marcatori dominanti, come RAPD e marcatori ad alta efficienza (AFLP, SMPL), permettono l'analisi di più loci per esperimento senza sapere informazioni preventive sulla loro sequenza. Marcatori Co-dominanti (RFLP, microsatelliti, etc.) permettono l'analisi di un solo locus per esperimento, così essi sono più ricchi di informazioni perché le variazioni alleliche del locus possono essere distinte. Di conseguenza, si può identificare gruppi di collegamento tra mappe genetiche differenti ma, per lo sviluppo è necessario sapere la sequenza (molto costosa e punto debole della tecnica).
Usi
I marcatori genetici possono essere usati per studiare la relazione tra una malattia ereditaria e la sua causa genetica (per esempio, una particolare mutazione di un gene che genera una proteina difettosa). Si sa che parti di DNA che giacciono vicine su di un cromosoma tendono a essere ereditate insieme. Questa proprietà favorisce l'uso dei marcatori, che possono poi essere usati per determinare il modo preciso con cui il gene non ancora esattamente localizzato viene ereditato. I marcatori genetici devono essere facilmente identificabili, associati a uno specifico locus e altamente polimorfici. L'identificazione dei marker avviene direttamente attraverso il sequenziamento del DNA o indirettamente mediante l'uso di allozimi.
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Microcombing technique improves electrical conductivity and strength of CNT films
Researchers from North Carolina State University and China’s Suzhou Institute of Nano-Science and Nano-Biotics have developed an inexpensive technique called “microcombing” to align carbon nanotubes (CNTs), which can be used to create large, pure CNT films that are stronger than any previous such films.
The technique is also claimed to improve the electrical conductivity that makes these films attractive for use in electronic and aerospace applications.
“It’s a simple process and can create a lightweight CNT film, or ‘bucky paper,’ that is a meter wide and twice as strong as previous such films – it’s even stronger than CNT fibers,” said Yuntian Zhu, Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at NC State and corresponding author of a paper describing the work.
According to NC State, the researchers begin by growing the CNTs on a conventional substrate in a closely packed array. The CNTs are tangled together, so when researchers pull on one end of the array the CNTs form a continuous ribbon that is nanometers thick. This ribbon is attached to a spool, which begins winding the ribbon up.
As the spool pulls, the CNT ribbon is dragged between two surgical blades, which have micrometer-scale fissures on their cutting edge. These fissures are said to create a kind of “microcomb” that pulls the CNTs into alignment.
When the ribbon of aligned CNTs is being wound onto the spool, the researchers apply an alcohol solution that pulls the CNTs closer together, strengthening the bonds between CNTs.
The CNT ribbon wraps around itself as it winds around the spool, creating a layered film of pure CNTs. Researchers can control the thickness of the film by controlling the number of layers.
The CNT films made using the microcombing technique had more than twice the tensile strength of the uncombed CNT films – greater than three gigapascals for the microcombed material, versus less than 1.5 gigapascals for the uncombed material.
The microcombed CNT film also had 80 per cent higher electrical conductivity than the uncombed film.
“This is a significant advance, but we want to find ways to make CNT alignment even straighter,” Zhu said in a statement. “It’s still not perfect.”
“In addition, the technique would theoretically be easy to scale up for large-scale production. We’d like to find an industry partner to help us scale this up and create a material for the marketplace.”
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Augmented reality concepts could "revolutionise" battlefield claims BAE
Engineers at BAE Systems are working with a Birmingham University research team on the development of augmented-reality technology that they claim could revolutionise the battlefield
Augmented reality displays - which overlay virtual data on a real-world view – have huge potential for military applications, and are already beginning to be used by both ground and air troops.
However, whilst existing systems typically rely on extremely expensive and bulky hardware BAE hope that it’s collaboration with Birmingham could ultimately lead to lower-cost systems no bigger than a contact lens.
The research has so far focused on two concepts: a briefcase sized portable command centre and a ‘wearable cockpit’.
The Portable Command Centre concept uses commercial technology to create a semi-virtual environment that can be transported in a briefcase and set up anywhere from within a tent to an office to tackle emergency scenarios such as an outbreak of fire or an act of terrorism.
Users put on an “oculus rift” style virtual reality headset and interactive gloves and a mixed reality control station appears around them. They can then use to the system monitor situations anywhere in the world, zooming in and manipulating environments, directing troops and pulling in virtual video screens that allow them to monitor news channels and feeds from UAVs.
User can also bring in artificially intelligent avatars that monitor the entire environment, provide real-time voice updates and even offer advice when asked.
Meanwhile, the Virtual Cockpit allows pilots to customise their interface with the aircraft based on their own preferences, mission objectives and the task immediately at hand. The technology is designed to be easily upgraded and customised to meet the demands of a rapidly changing future environment, saving valuable time and significantly reducing costs.
Commenting on the collaboration Birmingham University simulation specialist Prof Bob Stone said: “Our work with BAE Systems shows just how close we are to delivering the next generation of advanced mixed reality interfaces for future applications not only in defence, but also in such important domains as engineering and healthcare.”
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Bio-organic device delivers body's own painkiller to block pain from damaged nerves
Swedish team develop ‘iontronic’ device to deliver natural painkiller with no side effects
A method to treat chronic nerve pain at its source with the body’s own painkillers with no side effects could also be used to deliver other drugs to the brain and to other parts of the body, according to its developers at Linköping University in Sweden. The device, which has so far only been tested on animals in accordance with medical device regulations, works by preventing pain signals from reaching the brain at all.
In a paper in the journal Science Advance — an open-access sister publication to Science — the team, led by Prof Magnus Berggren, explains that chronic pain is suffered by some 30 per cent of the population, with seven per cent suffering from neuropathic pain, where damaged or misfiring nerves leave the sufferer in constant misery which, furthermore, is difficult to treat. Standard therapies using painkillers tends to be systemic — that is, the drug is delivered to the whole body, with only a fraction of the dosage actually affecting the pain, and the rest can cause side-effects elsewhere. Targeting pain precisely is notoriously difficult.
Implanted next to the spinal column, the device prevents pain signals from reaching the brain by treatimng the point where affected nerves join the spinal cord
The Swedish team’s approach to this is to implant a small device in the spinal column that delivers therapy to the precise point where the affected nerves join the spinal cord. The device is an ion pump — that is, it works by translating electrical signals into pulses of charged molecules — and the compound the team used it to release is a neurotransmitter called GABA (g-aminobutyic acid) whose function is to inhibit signals travelling along nerves. This has the effect of stopping the brain from ever receiving the pain impulse — the nerve is still damaged, but the brain does not know it.
The device, called an organic electronic ion pump (OEIP), was developed by another team led by Prof Berggren in 2009. It uses organic polymers that are capable of conducting electricity, based on the polymer polyethtlene terephthalate (PET), most familiar for its use in plastic bottles but which also has a long history of usage in medical implants. A blend of conducting polymers was printed onto a PET substrate to a reservoir that supplied four delivery channels or fingers; this pattern was treated so that it could only conduct positively-charged ions. Furthermore, the channels were designed to vary the rate of delivery to each of the four fingers. Applying a current to the OEIP forces ions to flow, completing the electrical circuit; in this case, the GABA ions spread around the nerve junction where the fingers are attached, forming a thin cloud, but not diffusing out into the rest of the body.
SEGUE SECONDA PARTE
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SECONDA PARTE
Working with rats at the Karolinska Institute, an institution that specialises in highly-regulated animal research, the team tailored the device to treat specific nerve damage, and administered GABA while the rats were awake and free to move. They found that GABA reduced the rats’ pain symptoms significantly, compared with a control test where the OEIP delivered only hydrogen ions. “What’s unique is that we’re using organic electronics to send the body’s own chemical signals,” said Assistant Prof Daniel Simon, who worked on the original development of the OEIP and was in charge of the tests. “The organic materials are easily accepted by the body, and they communicate just as in biology – with charged ions.”
The device compares favourably with existing treatments, the team said, targeting the pain better and with more controllability. For human application, the delivery fingers would have to be longer, thicker and softer than the test device, but can be tailored to be positioned at the specific nerve junctions affected and to deliver GABA or any other ionic pharmaceutical agent at a defined rate; the device is refillable as a routine procedure, they add.
The team sees this development as part of a long-term vision of treating conditions caused by cell signalling, of which there are many, by what they call ‘iontronics’. ‘Effecting therapy by organic electronics in awake, freely-moving animals is an important step towards this goal,’ they say in the paper. Successful animal trials pave the way for future human trials.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
New Things to Do with a Single-Chip Radar
In case you didn’t know, you are living in the age of the single-chip radar. These chips are now widely used in automobiles, so volume is increasing—thereby reducing the price. This makes them ever more practical for other applications, which got me to thinking: What are these other apps? Here are a few thoughts.
The single-chip radars come in a variety of forms. You can get them in the 24, 60, 76-77, and 94 GHz bands. Some research-lab chips operate at 120 GHz. As for modulation, there are CW and pulse types—but most seem to use FM-CW. There are even some impulse UWB units available. Maximum range is about 10 to 60 meters. Most are made with SiGe, but there are some CMOS devices emerging. Prices are still in the high single digits, but coming down. A number of companies offer complete modules, especially for auto use.
What radar traditionally does is measure distance, direction, and speed. And the new single-chip devices are no exception. However, one good way to look at these chips is as sensors. They can still measure distance and speed, but they also indicate presence or motion. For example, one popular use is a liquid level sensor in a tank.
Single-chip radar’s greatest success so far is its use for automotive safety and convenience. Some examples are adaptive cruise control, collision mitigation with automatic braking, lane-departure sensing, and even backup object detection. While most of these accessories are primarily found in high-end cars, they are showing up more and more in mid-range and low-priced cars. They are so effective that I half suspect the government will soon mandate all cars have them—not a bad idea. And, of course, single-chip radar is absolutely essential to the success of the driverless car.
So what else can you do with a single chip radar? One approach is to use the “find a need and fill it” method of product development. But another approach is one engineers love: Here is a cool, new chip, what new product can I make with it? Marketability and need are secondary factors. Here are my thoughts on this.
1. Drone safety. Use the chips as a cheap altimeter to ensure meeting the 400-foot ceiling now imposed by the FAA. Or why not use the chips to prevent drone collisions with one another or other objects? This could be one way that the FAA will eventually bless commercial drones.
2. Automatic door openers. How about a garage door opener that senses when your car gets close and opens automatically? This would also be good for gates. No button to push. But what if a moose walks in front of your garage door and it opens? Uh oh, back to the drawing board.
3. Bug zapper. Maybe it is possible to make a radar that tracks flies, mosquitoes, or other nuisance bugs and vaporizes them with a low-power laser. A great new consumer product for use on picnic tables or in the backyard. But then will everyone need to wear eye protection or other safety devices or risk getting zapped by the laser? Oooops….
4. Security. Security is a major need and app these days. Video cameras are everywhere. But sometimes all you need is a presence sensor or motion detector to set off an alarm. IR is used for this now, but radar would increase the range. A related need is to sense the presence or movement of animals.
5. Bicycle safety. If radar is so effective with automobiles, maybe it should be used on bikes—where personal safety is always an issue. This could cut deaths and accidents significantly if implemented correctly. Maybe the radar would be a wearable on a helmet or on the body like in a vest. The prices are right at last.
Single-chip radars are also perfect for robots, and I suspect someone will invent a toy using radar. But you tell me: What would you do with a single-chip radar?
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Robotic handling system to maintain key components of ITER fusion reactor
A robotic system designed to remotely maintain a key component of the ITER nuclear fusion reactor is being developed in the UK.
The robotic handling system, which will be capable of remotely repairing, maintaining and replacing the huge Neutral Beam injectors at ITER, is being developed by Amec Foster Wheeler in a €70m contract for the European Union organisation Fusion For Energy (F4E). It is the largest nuclear robotics contract ever let to a UK company.
ITER, located at Cadarache in the south of France, is the world’s largest fusion energy project, designed to demonstrate the feasibility of the technology as a future power source.
The Neutral Beam injectors, each the size of a single-decker bus, are used to heat up the plasma inside the reactor until it is hot enough for fusion to take place, according to Jon Montgomerie, chief engineer for the European Remote Handling Alliance, the Amec Foster Wheeler-led group of companies and universities that will build the robotic system.
Neutral Beam injectors will be a vital component of the planned ITER fusion reactor pictured here in cutaway. They heat up plasma inside the reactor until it is hot enough for fusion to take place.
During outages, these injectors, known as Beam Lines, need to be remotely maintained to ensure the efficient and safe running of the system. “Inside the Beam Lines the radiation doses will be quite high, so there is no way they could be maintained by hand,” said Montgomerie.
Instead, the injectors will be maintained by machines called Beam Line Transporters. These consist of a large beam, similar to a monorail, on which a saddle will travel. Projecting out from this will be an articulated beam with six degrees of freedom, on the end of which will be a pair of robotic arms capable of carrying out maintenance work using a range of different tools.
“There are three Beam Line Transporters, which can each wriggle around and place the manipulator module in a suitable position to carry out maintenance work,” said Montgomerie.
A fourth, floor-mounted module known as the Beam Source Remote Handling Machine, will be capable of reaching into the open back door of each of the vessels and disconnecting and replacing the Beam Source itself.
Among other tools, the Beam Line Transporters will be equipped with cutting and welding equipment. This will allow them to precisely cut and then reinstate the plethora of water-cooling pipes used to reduce the temperature inside the injectors, whenever one of the components inside needs replacing, said Montgomerie.
The Amec Foster Wheeler-led alliance also includes the UK’s Culham Centre for Fusion and the Hyde Group, alongside a number of European universities and companies.
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Facial recognition cane alerts blind people to friends and family
A smart walking cane equipped with facial recognition technology could allow blind people to identify approaching friends and family members.
The XploR mobility cane, being developed by students at Birmingham City University using smartphone technology, is capable of recognising faces up to 10m away.
When the cane detects a recognisable face from the bank of stored images on its internal SD memory card, it alerts the user by vibrating. It then guides them to the friendly face using audio commands transmitted through a Bluetooth earpiece.
The lightweight cane is also equipped with a GPS receiver, allowing it to help the user navigate around unfamiliar areas.
The cane is being developed by three Information, Communication and Technology students at the university, Steve Adigbo, Waheed Rafiq and Richard Howlett. Adigbo’s grandfather is blind, so the student has first-hand experience of the needs of the visually-impaired.
Before developing the cane, the students visited the Beacon Centre for the Blind in Wolverhampton, to carry out market research and to determine which key features would make the device most helpful to users. As well as a desire for high-spec technology features, people at the centre stressed the need for the cane to be lightweight and easy to use, according to the students.
The team is now planning to return to the centre later this year to give people there an opportunity to test the cane, as well as to explain the device’s training and security features to them.
The students have already presented their XploR cane to medical and healthcare companies in France and Luxembourg, and plan to travel to Germany later this year, to meet with other organisations. The project forms part of LILA, a European initiative designed to encourage entrepreneurship.
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Floating metal composite holds promise for marine applications
A team of US researchers have developed a new metal matrix composite so light that it can float on water.
According to the group, the material - which could potentially be used used to make unsinkable boats - also has potential automotive applciations, where lightweight and heat resistance could be used to help improve fuel economy.
Although syntactic foams have been around for many years, this is the first development of a lightweight metal matrix syntactic foam. It is the work of a team of researchers from US company Deep Springs Technology (DST) and the New York University (NYU) Polytechnic School of Engineering.
Their magnesium alloy matrix composite is reinforced with silicon carbide hollow particles and has a density of only 0.92g/cm3, compared with 1.0g/cc of water. Not only does it have a density lower than that of water, it is strong enough to withstand the rigorous conditions faced in the marine environment.
Significant efforts in recent years have focused on developing lightweight polymer matrix composites to replace heavier metal-based components in automobiles and marine vessels.
The technology for the new composite is very close to maturation and could be put into prototypes for testing within three years.
Amphibious vehicles such as the Ultra Heavy-lift Amphibious Connector being developed by the US Marine Corps could especially benefit from the light weight and high buoyancy offered by the new syntactic foams, the researchers said in a statement.
“This new development of very light metal matrix composites can swing the pendulum back in favour of metallic materials,” said Nikhil Gupta, an NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the study’s co-author.
“The ability of metals to withstand higher temperatures can be a huge advantage for these composites in engine and exhaust components, quite apart from structural parts,” he said.
The syntactic foam made by DST and NYU captures the lightness of foams, but adds substantial strength. The secret of this syntactic foam starts with a matrix made of a magnesium alloy, which is then turned into foam by adding strong, lightweight silicon carbide hollow spheres developed and manufactured by DST.
The shell of a single sphere can withstand pressure of more than 25,000psi before it ruptures – 100 times the maximum pressure in a fire hose.
The hollow particles also offer impact protection to the syntactic foam because each shell acts like an energy absorber during its fracture.
The composite can be customised for density and other properties by adding more or fewer shells into the metal matrix to fit the requirements of the application.
This concept can also be used with other magnesium alloys that are non-flammable.
The new composite has potential applications in boat flooring, automobile parts and buoyancy modules, as well as vehicle armour.
The authors recently published their findings, Dynamic Properties of Silicon Carbide Hollow Particle Filled Magnesium Alloy (AZ91D) Matrix Syntactic Foams, in the International Journal of Impact Engineering.
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US team claims AI breakthrough
In what’s been hailed as a significant step forward in the development of artificial intelligence (AI), researchers at UC Santa Barbara have developed a simple neural circuit able to perform human-like image recognition tasks.
Made up of around 100 artificial synapses, the circuit was able to successfully classify three letters (“z”, “v” and “n”) by their images, each letter stylized in different ways or saturated with “noise”.
Artistic rendering of a neural network
According to the team the circuitry may eventually be expanded and scaled to approach something like the human brain’s, which has 1015 (one quadrillion) synaptic connections.
Key to this technology is the memristor (a combination of “memory” and “resistor”), an electronic component whose resistance changes depending on the direction of the flow of the electrical charge.
Unlike conventional transistors, which rely on the drift and diffusion of electrons and their holes through semiconducting material, memristor operation is based on ionic movement, similar to the way human neural cells generate neural electrical signals.
“The memory state is stored as a specific concentration profile of defects that can be moved back and forth within the memristor,” said Dmitri Strukov, a professor of electrical and computer engineering. The ionic memory mechanism brings several advantages over purely electron-based memories, which makes it very attractive for artificial neural network implementation, he added.
To be able to approach functionality of the human brain, however, many more memristors would be required to build more complex neural networks to do the same kinds of things we can do with barely any effort and energy, such as identify different versions of the same thing or infer the presence or identity of an object not based on the object itself but on other things in a scene.
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The Precision (and Promise) of the James Webb Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is scheduled for launch in October 2018, and when it becomes operational, it is expected to advance human understanding of the universe, just as the Hubble Space Telescope did 25 years ago. Designed to observe the first galaxies that formed after the Big Bang, the JWST will peer farther than any telescope before it, up to 13.5 billion light-years away. The telescope's onboard spectroscopic equipment will analyze the chemical composition, temperature, and other characteristics of the galaxies, stars, and planets it observes. These instruments will be so sensitive that the JWST may be able to detect the signatures of life in a distant planetary atmosphere.
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High Definition, Light Weight, High-speed Camera
When you need to understand what happened too fast for the eye to see, you need a high-speed camera. Photron proudly offers the Fastcam Mini UX family of slow motion cameras — compact for mounting on a microscope, yet tough enough to survive and record a car crash or explosion
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Method Reveals How HIV Mutates
Researchers are using spectroscopic techniques to study how they might eradicate the HIV virus with drugs that induce lethal mutations. To understand how the mutation process works, the scientists used a 2D infrared spectroscope, which, thanks to its fast time resolution and sensitivity to chemical structure, is the perfect device for gathering and analyzing data on biological cells like viruses.
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Finding the Higgs Boson — Again
At the University of Tokyo, researchers are looking for the Higgs boson, again. This time, they used terahertz pump-terahertz probe spectroscopy to observe the analog of the famous particle in conventional superconductors. By better understanding the behavior of coherent light-matter interaction in conventional superconductors, the researchers hope to further study both conventional and unconventional superconductors using optical methods.
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Whole Brain Imaging
The Whole Brain Microscopy Institute at UT Southwestern will use one-of-a-kind microscopes to study the human brain from all sides, revealing both healthy and diseased areas. The TissueCyte microscopes use automated multi-photon laser scanning and tissue sectioning to take high-resolution 3D pictures in just a few hours — a huge shift from slow, laborious conventional fluorescence imaging technologies.
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Learning from Bacterial Nanomachines
Scientists at UCLA created biological nanomachines based on the structures that bacteria use to infect healthy cells with toxins, in hopes of designing new antibiotics to fight disease. But how the structures actually worked was poorly understood. Now, the researchers are using a cryo-electron microscope coupled with a camera called a direct electron detector to study how the structures work at the atomic level.
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Fatigue Resistance for a Formula One Racer
Few endeavors match auto racing's intense pursuit of performance improvement, even by small increments that add up across a vehicle. In a recent example, SKF and Ferrari collaborated to adapt heat treatment processes for producing higher-performing steel bearings. The altered steel optimizes surface hardness, delivering greater fatigue and stress resistance for Ferrari's 2015 Formula One car.
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IBM’s silicon photonics technology ready to speed up Big Data applications
IBM has developed technology that will enable silicon chips to use pulses of light instead of electrical signals over wires to move data rapidly over longer distances.
IBM engineers have designed and tested a fully integrated wavelength multiplexed silicon photonics chip, which will soon allow manufacturing of 100Gb/s optical transceivers.
This will allow datacentres to offer greater data rates and bandwidth for cloud computing and Big Data applications.
IBM engineers have designed and tested a fully integrated wavelength multiplexed silicon photonics chip, which will soon allow manufacturing of 100Gb/s optical transceivers
“Making silicon photonics technology ready for widespread commercial use will help the semiconductor industry keep pace with ever-growing demands in computing power driven by Big Data and cloud services,” senior vice president and director of IBM Research Arvind Krishna said in a statement.
“Just as fibre optics revolutionised the telecommunications industry by speeding up the flow of data, bringing enormous benefits to consumers, we’re excited about the potential of replacing electric signals with pulses of light.
“This technology is designed to make future computing systems faster and more energy efficient, while enabling customers to capture insights from Big Data in real time.”
Silicon photonics uses tiny optical components to send light pulses to transfer large volumes of data at very high speed between computer chips in servers, large datacentres and supercomputers, overcoming the limitations of congested data traffic and high-cost traditional interconnects.
IBM’s technology allows the integration of different optical components side-by-side with electrical circuits on a single silicon chip using sub-100nm semiconductor technology.
Its silicon photonics chips use four distinct colours of light travelling within an optical fibre, rather than traditional copper wiring, to transmit data in and around a computing system.
In just one second, this new transceiver is estimated to be capable of digitally sharing 63 million tweets or six million images, or downloading an entire high-definition digital movie in two seconds.
Silicon photonics reduces data bottlenecks inside systems and between computing components, improving response times and delivering faster insights from Big Data.
Manufacturing makes use of standard fabrication processes at a silicon chip foundry, making the technology ready for commercialisation.
Silicon photonics technology leverages the properties of optical communications, including the transmission of high-speed data over kilometre-scale distances, and the ability to overlay multiple colours of light within a single optical fibre to multiply the data volume carried, while maintaining low power consumption.
Most optical interconnect solutions employed within datacentres today are based on vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) technology, where the optical signals are transported via multimode optical fibre.
Demands for increased distance and data rate between ports are driving the development of single-mode optical interconnect technologies, which can overcome the bandwidth-distance limitations inherent to multimode VCSEL links.
IBM said its CMOS integrated nano-photonics technology provides an economical solution to extend the reach and data rates of optical links.
IBM engineers in New York and Zurich, Switzerland and the IBM Systems Unit have demonstrated a reference design targeting datacentre interconnects with a range up to 2km.
This chip demonstrates transmission and reception of high-speed data using four laser ‘colours’, each operating as an independent 25Gb/s optical channel.
Within a full transceiver design, these four channels can be wavelength multiplexed on-chip to provide 100Gb/s aggregate bandwidth over a duplex single-mode fibre.
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UK technology blazes trail for groundbreaking BepiColombo Mercury mission
UK-built instrument to identify elements in Mercury surface using X-ray fluoresence set for spacecraft integration
A UK-built instrument that will help astronomers discover the composition of the surface of the planet Mercury has been shipped from its developers at the University of Leicester to Airbus Space & Defence in Stevenage for integration into the spacecraft that will carry it into a low orbit around the closest planet to the Sun. The Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (MIXS) will fly on ESA’s Mercury probe, BepiColombo, in 2017.
Artist’s impression of BepiColombo in orbit around Mercury
Only the third craft to visit Mercury, BepiColombo is hoped to add to the knowledge gained by NASA’s probe, Messenger, which ended its ten-year mission (with four years in Mercury orbit) at the end of last month, when it used the last of its fuel to crash into the planet. Mercury unexpectedly discovered ice on the planet’s surface, in craters sheltered from the sun, and found evidence of volcanic activity, as well as producing data that allowed the most detailed maps of Mercury to date to be drawn up.
BepiColombo is a dual mission, which will carry two probes to Mercury. The ESA probe, which is largely being built in Stevenage, is the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO); the other probe, from the Japaese space agency JAXA, is the Mercury Magnetosphere Orbiter (MMO).
MPO will carry 11 instruments from all over Europe, which will study Mercury’s physical make-up, including geology, interior structure, composition and surface features, as well as its unstable and tenuous atmosphere. Operating in intense sunlight and temperatures up to 350°C, MIXS will use new optics to study X-rays from the planet’s surface, which are generated by fluorescence as more intense X-rays from the Sun bombard the planet. These X-ray signals are hoped to reveal characteristic fluorescence from elements in the surface of the planet; this may also yield clues about how the planet formed.
“The team have worked incredibly hard over many years and in particular throughout the last year, to design and build such a complex instrument,’ said principal investigator Emma Bunce, Professor of Planetary Plasma Physics at Leicester. “It has been a very challenging project from a technical point of view, as the instrument needs to survive extreme temperatures at the orbit of Mercury, perilously close to the Sun.”
The MIXS flight instrument will be Mercury-bound in 2017.
“NASA’s MESSENGER mission showed us that Mercury is a misfit planet,” commented MIXS lead co-investigator David Rothery, Professor of Planetary Geosciences at the Open University. “There’s so much about it that we didn’t expect and that we don’t understand. MIXS is one of the instruments for BepiColombo that will help us sort things out. “
BepiColombo is a mission that is trailblazing several new UK technologies. The Mercury Transfer Module that will carry both orbiters to the planet will be propelled by an solar-electric propulsion ‘ion drive’ developed by Qinetiq; this will actually slow the craft down against the pull of the Sun’s enormous gravity as it nears mercury, so that it can enter orbit instead of overshooting and falling into the Sun. This will be ESA’s first use of this technology outside the Earth-moon system. Three other instruments on the MPO also have UK technical input.
“The UK’s considerable skill in new technology development is not only allowing us to explore our solar system but is securing valuable contracts for UK industry whilst often creating products that can also be applied to other industries,” said David Parker, chief executive of the UK Space Agency.
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Nanosponges hold promise for superbug treatments
Gel-filled “nanosponges” able to mop up the toxins produced by bacteria could be used to treat antibiotic-resistant “superbug” infections such as MRSA a team of US researchers has claimed.
MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is type of bacterial infection that is increasingly resistant to a number of widely used antibiotics.
Developed by a team at the University of California in San Diego, and described in the journal Advanced Materials, the new treatment has been proven to minimise the growth of skin lesions on mice infected with MRSA without the use of antibiotics.
Each nanosponge is a nanoparticle coated in a red blood cell membrane. This coating disguises the nanosponges as red blood cells, which are the real targets of the harmful toxins produced by MRSA. By masquerading as red blood cells, the nanosponges attract harmful toxins and remove them from the bloodstream.
It’s believed that by removing these toxins – which act a defence mechanism for the bacteria - the bacteria become significantly weakened and exposed, allowing the body’s immune system to kill them more easily without the use of drugs.
Nanosponges alone are difficult to use on local tissues because they diffuse away to other parts of the body very quickly, however mixing them into a hydrogel enables billions of nanosponges to be held in one place so that they can remove toxins at the infected spot.
In trials on mice, the researchers showed that the treatment kept down the size of skin lesions caused by MRSA infections. The team also showed that the hydrogel was effective at holding the nanosponges in place within the body. Two days after the material was injected underneath the skin of a mouse, nearly 80 percent of the nanosponges were still found at the injection site.
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Advantages of Inverted Microscopy for Industrial Applications
Traditionally, inverted microscopes are used for life science research because samples at the bottom of an aqueous solution are easier to observe if the objectives are positioned under the sample holder. Inverted microscopy is becoming nowadays popular for industrial applications, too.
Inverted microscopes are are becoming increasingly common in industrial applications such as metallography, quality assurance in medical device manufacturing and microelectronics, materials science, and for a wide variety of inspection tasks in the automobile and aviation industries. And not without reason: the design of an inverted microscope offers numerous advantages for industry.
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Liquid crystal based compound lenses work like insect eyes
Researchers in the US have shown how liquid crystals can be used to create compound lenses similar to those found in insects.
The lenses produce sets of images with different focal lengths, a property that could be used for three-dimensional imaging.
Taking advantage of the geometry in which the liquid crystals like to arrange themselves, the engineers and physicists at the University of Pennsylvania were able to grow compound lenses with controllable sizes, as the video below demonstrates.
The compound eyes found in insects and some sea creatures use thousands of lenses to provide information without the need for a sophisticated brain. Human artifice can only begin to approximate these naturally self-assembled structures.
Francesca Serra and Mohamed Amine Gharbi, postdoctoral researchers in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences, led the study, which was published in Advanced Optical Materials.
An array of liquid crystal microlenses self-assemble around a central pillar. These lenses produce sets of images with different focal lengths, a property that could be used for three-dimensional imaging. They are also sensitive to the polarization of light, one of the qualities that are thought to help bees navigate their environments
Previous work had showed how smectic liquid crystal, a transparent, soap-like class of the material, naturally self-assembled into flower-like structures when placed around a central silica bead. Each ‘petal’ is a ‘focal conic domain’, a structure that can be used as a simple lens.
“Our first question was what kind of lens is this? Is it an array of individual microlenses, or does it essentially act as one big lens? Both types exist in nature,” Serra said.
The researchers used photolithography to fashion a sheet of micropillars, then spread the liquid crystal on the sheet. At room temperature, the liquid crystal adheres to the top edges of the posts, transmitting an elastic energy cue that causes the crystal’s focal conic domains to line up in concentric circles around the posts.
Finding a suitable compound lens under a microscope, the researchers put a test image, a glass slide with the letter P drawn on in marker, between it and the microscope’s light source.
Starting with the post in focus, they moved the microscope’s objective up and down until an image formed.
“If the array worked as a single lens, a single virtual image would appear below the sample. But because they work as separate microlenses, I saw multiple Ps, one in each of the lenses,” Serra said.
Because the focal conic domains vary in size, with the largest ones closest to the pillars and descending in size from there, the focal lengths for each ring of the microlenses was different. As the researchers moved the microscope objective up, the images of the Ps came into focus in sequence, from the outside layers inward.
“That they focus on different planes is what allows for 3D image reconstruction,” said Shu Yang, a professor in Penn Engineering’s departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
Replacing the P with two test images, a cross with a square suspended several inches above it, the researchers showed that the cross intersected the square at different points in different lenses. This phenomenon would allow the reconstruction of the square and the cross’s spatial relationship.
A third experiment showed the lenses were sensitive to light polarisation. Bees are thought to use this information to better identify flowers by seeing how light waves align as they bounce off petals.
Discovering how the microlenses work extends this area of research in the direction of practical applications.
New research from Penn engineers and physicists shows how liquid crystals can be employed to create compound lenses similar to those found in nature
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Doping graphene with boron to make wearable supercapacitors
A simple process for making flexible polymer supercapacitors could have implications for wearable electronics, according to researchers at Rice University in Texas
The process, which turns common polymers into graphene, may also have applications in catalysis and the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries and solar cells.
The pattern of interlocking fingers laser-etched onto the polyimide film creates a powerful and stable flexible supercapacitor that can be packaged easily
The Rice team, led by chemist James Tour, makes capacitors by etching patterns of interlocking fingers into flexible films of polymers using commercial lasers. The heat of the laser burns away everything but the carbon skeleton of the polymer to a depth of about 20µm, leaving behind a foamy matrix of interconnected graphene flakes.
They have found that if the polymer is first doped with boron, by dissolving the element into polyamic acid then polymerising this into polyimide, the boron-infused graphene supercapacitor resulting from the laser treatment has four times the charge-storing ability and five to ten times the energy density of the boron-free version. The process can be used in bulk-scale, roll-to-roll manufacture of supercapacitors, which can be charged quickly with large amounts of energy that can then be released in a burst.
The new supercapacitors were stable over 12,000 charge-discharge cycles, retaining 90 per cent of their capacitance, Tour’s team explains in a paper in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano. These properties survived 8000 bending cycles with no loss of performance.
“What we’ve done shows that huge modulations and enhancements can be made by adding other elements and performing other chemistries within the polymer film prior to exposure to the laser,” Tour said. “Once the laser exposes it, those other elements perform new chemistries that really increase the supercapacitor’s performance. This is a step in making these even more amenable for industrial applications.”
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Hydrogen Power Cleans Up Transit in China
China introduces the world's first hydrogen-powered tram. The three-car tram accommodates 380 passengers and attains a speed of 70 km/hour (43 mph) for 100 km (62 miles). Hydrogen refueling requires only three minutes, and the only substance emitted is water. A more 83 km of tram tracks exist nationwide, but a tenfold expansion in the tram network planned over five years should make this hydrogen fuel cell transit option more accessible.
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What's on Your Skin?
In a research first, UC San Diego pharmacologists have produced 3D maps of molecular and microbial variations across the body, an approach that could shed new light on the skin's role in human health. To sample skin nearly in its entirety, the researches swabbed 400 body sites, then used mass spectrometry to determine the molecular and chemical composition of the samples.
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Infrared Brings Vision to the Blind
At the recent IEEE Neural Engineering meeting in Montpellier, France, researchers offered presentations on progress in visual prosthetic devices, including some that are going to be commercially available. In one such talk, scientists from Stanford University described a clever visual prosthetic chip that is based on photovoltaic technology. Goggles record images and beam them into the eye using infrared technology. The technology is being commercialized by the French company Pixium Vision.
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Understanding Electromagnetism Leads to On-chip Antennas
In a new study published in the journal Physical Review Letters, a team of researchers from the University of Cambridge revealed a new understanding of the nature of electromagnetism, which could enable the design of antennas small enough to be integrated into a semiconductor chip. This new observation of radiation provides some link between classical electromagnetism and quantum mechanics.
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Humanoid Robot with 160 Artificial Muscles
Tendon-controlled humanoid robot created by the University of Tokyo with 93 brushless DC maxon motors ensures its humanlike movements. This robot has the greatest number of muscles ever installed in a humanoid robot. Demonstrate a movement and he imitates it by means of open-source intelligent software and a mechanical interface.
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Metamaterial 'hyperlens' has potential for early cancer detection
A microscopic fan-shaped assembly of precious metal and plastic could assist diagnosis, drug development and semiconductor manufacture
Researchers investigating the optical properties of metamaterials claim to have created a lens which can potentially image single molecules and to detect cancerous cells. Made of minute slivers of gold and a transparent polymer, the lens works with visible light and is claimed to avoid the problems of refraction seen with conventional optical lenses.
Conventional optics reach the limit of their usefulness when the objects they are being used to study are of a similar scale to the wavelength of the light being used to illuminate them. Metamaterials — which have optical properties not found in nature — can avoid this problem by converting so-called ‘evanescent’ waves of light, which results from diffraction and is lost in conventional optics, into propagating light that can be collected and transmitted with standard equipment. Known as hyperlenses, early versions of these systems were composed of concentric rings of silver and an insulating material; the lens would be formed by slicing a complete circle of these rings along a diameter, with the light then entering along the curved side. However, these hyperlenses only worked with a narrow range of wavelengths and suffered large losses.
The new research, from at team led by Prof Natalia Litchinitser of the University of Buffalo, takes a different approach. Rather than using strips arranged concentrically, the team used alternating slivers of gold and the transparent acrylic polymer PMMA arranged radially around a semicircle. Silver or titanium nitride can be used in place of gold, while magnesium fluoride can be substituted for the PMMA. Each sliver is around 300nm thick.
In a paper in the journal Nature Communications, the team explains how the fan-shaped hyperlens can be made using electron beam lithography and electroplating, and integrated with a waveguide to perform optical experiments. The assembly worked with visible light and indicated that objects down to 250nm could be imaged, contrasting with around 10,000nm for the best optical endoscopes currently available.
“There is a great need in healthcare, nanotechnology and other areas to improve our ability to see tiny objects that elude even the most powerful optical systems. The hyperlens we are developing is, potentially, a giant step toward solving this problem,” Litchinitser said in a statement. For example, she notes in the paper, it could help visualise individual cancer cells in ovarian cancer biopsies, or adenocarcinoma, which can occur in the throats of people suffering from reflux disease: both are very hard to detect early with current diagnostics. Other applications include imaging single molecules in drug development, and manufacturing very small electronic components in semiconductors by using light to etch through a mask onto polymer film.
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Optical sensor to offer non-invasive monitoring of intracranial pressure
An optical probe could allow doctors to continuously measure intracranial pressure (ICP) in trauma victims using a non-invasive method.
Dr Justin Phillips has been awarded £46,000 through a Royal Academy of Engineering and Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship so he can develop the device.
The money will allow him to undertake research for a year from September, by paying for a lecturer to cover his teaching and admin work at City University London.
Dr Justin Phillips has been awarded £46,000 to develop an optical probe that could allow doctors to continuously and non-invasively measure intracranial pressure (ICP) in trauma victims
“This is an optical sensor so it will work on infrared light,” said Phillips, a senior lecturer in biomedical engineering at the School of Mathematics, Computer Science and Engineering.
“The skull is fairly transparent to infrared, so the light passes through the skin and the bone and penetrates the brain tissue. The arteries in the brain are pulsating just like the arteries everywhere else.
“The probe detects some reflected light, and the light is reflected from the brain tissue and it is modulated by the pulse, so as the arteries pull an entry in time with the heartbeat they absorb a differing amount of light and you can record a pulse signal.
“By analysing the shape of the pulse signal, we can work backwards and calculate the pressure surrounding the arteries, which is the pressure we are trying to measure.”
One problem to overcome in developing the device will be eliminating readings from blood vessels in the scalp, Phillips said.
Raised ICP is a life-threatening condition that can result in the compression of brain tissue and a reduction in the flow of oxygenated blood to the brain.
Standard methods of monitoring are invasive, involving drilling the skull and inserting a sensor in the brain.
Non-invasive methods such as examining the retina or eardrum do not offer continuous monitoring and are tricky to perform.
Phillips previously worked on developing invasive methods of monitoring cerebral oxygen saturation in head injury patients using fibre-optic sensors. He now works on non-invasive monitoring, so his research will combine his past with his present.
“In our centre we build our own sensors and instrumentation,” Phillips said. “We are really a sensors and instrumentation group, and it is also biomedical applications.
“The area that we work in at City in our group is non-invasive monitoring, which means making measurements without puncturing the skin or taking blood, or causing pain or risk to the patient.”
He expects the sensor will be self-adhesive and about 5cm long and 2cm wide. It will be placed on a patient’s forehead and connected to a display to provide a continuous reading of the ICP.
Although Phillips will be conducting the research himself, he will be collaborating with doctors at Barts Health, which includes St Bartholomew’s and the Royal London hospitals.
He expects to develop a prototype within the year covered by the award. He also plans to talk with potential manufacturing partners and to apply for a grant to cover the clinical trial stage.
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Robot Drives Screws Where Operators Can't
The Viper MBC performs lightning fast screw driving in extremely tight locations. This precision robot EOAT package is modular and durable for rapid deployment. Visumatic's lean, flexible design allows placement in a variety of tooling configurations.
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Bio-mimicry Takes Flight
Instead of controlling and stabilizing its flight with an inertial measurement unit (IMU) as all drones do, a newly-developed flying robot mimics the way insects control their flight: using visual cues. The cues involve "optic flow" — a phenomenon you've doubtless observed yourself.
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'Leg bank' automates and simplifies development of prosthetic sockets
A new limb pressure casting technique developed by researchers at Strathclyde University is behind the creation of a “leg bank” – providing life-changing prostheses to low-income people who have lost limbs.
A team led by Dr Arjan Buis, from Strathclyde’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, has developed the innovative system, known as Majicast, to manufacture lower limb prosthetic sockets that fit prostheses securely to patients’ residual limbs.
To cast for a new prosthesis, the residual limbs of the amputee are immersed in a tank of water one at a time, with a membrane material wrapped around them. The person’s body weight is then used to load this - similar to loading a prosthesis during gait. This pressure casting deforms the soft tissue, under a uniform load. When a limb is subject to uniform external pressure, there will be an internal equilibrium pressure at which the soft tissue has maximum load-bearing function, and where internal shear stresses are minimised.
Using this casting method, the soft tissue is ideally positioned in its stiffest form for load transfer. This means vertical movement of the limb in the socket - or pistoning - is limited, reducing deep shear stresses and so shear and friction related problems that can cause soft tissue damage and discomfort.
“The method gives uniform loading to the soft tissue,” said Dr Buis. “Normally, taking moulds is done by hand and its success depends on the skill of the person making them. There are also no current socket fit criteria other than that the resulting socket must be comfortable and functional. For an engineer that isn”t very specific, and as a result, we developed a method of both surface and volume matching.”
“The Majicast is a straightforward, fully automated, easy-to-use device that will produce high quality prosthetic sockets,” he added. “The device has been scientifically tested and clinically validated; this method has also been shown to be more repeatable and consistent than traditional methods.”
As the technique does not require a great deal of skill from technicians, it will be easy to train local people to fit prosthetics - something that is important in low income countries where demand is high and money for this is scarce.
The academics are now working with members of Dutch-based social enterprise organisation ProPortion to help people in Colombia, offering high-quality artificial legs to people who have lost limbs, often through injuries from landmines.
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Bristol team develop intelligent handheld robots
Intelligent handheld robots could help inexperienced users complete tasks more quickly and accurately than with traditional tools.
Handheld tools usually lack understanding about the task they are performing. Dr Walterio Mayol-Cuevas and PhD student Austin Gregg-Smith, from Bristol University’s Department of Computer Science, have been working on robot prototypes and how best to interact with a tool that ‘knows and acts’.
“For now we program the tasks manually as we are currently still exploring the way in which users who are already very capable and intelligent will interact and cooperate with a tool that has motion and also a degree of task knowledge,” Mayol-Cuevas told The Engineer via email.
“This is because users using our robots have essentially never experienced such shared cognition and actuation with a handheld tool before,” added Mayol-Cuevas, a reader in robotics, computer vision and mobile systems.
“Eventually we want to move to automated teaching of the tasks, perhaps by observation on how a skilled user does things.”
Compared with power tools that have a motor and some basic sensors, the handheld robots have been designed to have more degrees of motion to allow greater independence from the motions of the user, and are aware of the steps being carried out.
The team studied user performance on two tasks – picking and dropping objects to form tile patterns and aiming in 3D for simulated painting.
Three levels of autonomy were considered – no autonomy, semi-autonomous when the robot advises but does not act, and fully autonomous when the robot advises and acts by correcting or even refusing to perform incorrect actions.
“Overall, users preferred the increased level of help offered by the robots, and in some of the evaluated tasks a significant improvement on time to completion performance was observed,” Mayol-Cuevas said.
Source: Bristol University
Intelligent handheld robots could help inexperienced users complete tasks more quickly and accurately than with traditional tools
The team has designed and made two principal prototypes so far.
“We decided to use 3D printing technology as much as possible, and the drive mechanism is what is called cable-driven, which is similar to tendons. Servo motors actuate these tendons and make the robot move,” Mayol-Cuevas said.
“We are currently using motion capture, which means external cameras looking at markers on the robot and the objects it interacts with,” he added.
“This gives us the best accuracy and an ideal set-up for evaluating the interaction between the robot, the world and the user. Our ultimate aim is to embed all sensors onboard the tools so that they are self-contained and are used anywhere.”
The team is now considering tasks closer to real applications.
“Consider the task of cleaning in places such as hospitals, where one needs to ensure that all places and surfaces have been cleaned and or treated,” Mayol-Cuevas said.
“A handheld robot will keep track of the task progress and guide the user to ensure the task is done.
“The applications are vast, essentially anywhere where a handheld tool is currently used, such as agriculture, cleaning, construction and maintenance.”
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Spanish firm proposes bladeless 'wind turbine'
Vortex Bladeless is a Spanish start-up that has proposed a new way of harnessing energy from wind.
Wind turbines currently use the rotation of blades to generate electricity from a turbine located in the top of the device.
As the company name suggests, the new solution from Spain dispenses with blades entirely.
Instead, the new system generates electricity by utilising the swaying of masts, which move magnets placed in a joint near the masts base.
The company has two models in development, the Vortex Gran (+1MW) for utilities and the 4kW Vortex Mini for domestic or industrial generation.
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Aluminum Battery Breakthrough Presents Lithium-Ion Alternative
It's one thing to unveil a new battery that could replace other commercial batteries; it's far more significant to announce a breakthrough that could be a safe alternative to explosion-plagued lithium ion cells. A team of Stanford University researchers has just proclaimed such potential for its invention, the first high-performance aluminum battery that's inexpensive to build, charges rapidly, and has longevity. The battery, the researchers say, "won't catch fire, even if you drill through it." It also solves the challenge that's prevented rechargeable aluminum batteries in the past — finding a material that can produce sufficient voltage after repeated recharging cycles.
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Material Reduces CO2 Footprint
With the ever-increasing emissions standards and push for sustainability solutions, Freudenberg-NOK developed an ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rubber compound from a polymer produced from sugarcane-based feedstock. The bio-renewable rubber is made from a polymer which has its beginnings with sugarcane.
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Single-molecule diode is the ultimate in miniaturisation for electronic devices
Researchers in the US have developed a new technique to create a single-molecule diode said to perform 50 times better than previous designs.
The team at the Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science in New York is the first to develop a single-molecule diode that may have real-world technological applications for nanoscale devices.
“Our new approach created a single-molecule diode that has a high rectification and a high ‘on’ current,” said Latha Venkataraman, associate professor of applied physics at Columbia Engineering.
“Constructing a device where the active elements are only a single molecule has long been a tantalising dream in nanoscience,” she added in a statement.
The idea of creating a single-molecule diode was suggested in 1974 by Arieh Aviram and Mark Ratner, who theorised that a molecule could act as a rectifier, a one-way conductor of electric current.
Since then, researchers have been exploring the charge-transport properties of molecules.
They have shown that single-molecules attached to metal electrodes (single-molecule junctions) can be made to act as a variety of circuit elements, including resistors, switches, transistors and diodes.
The diode’s structure needs to be asymmetric so that electricity flowing in one direction experiences a different environment than electricity flowing in the other direction.
In order to develop a single-molecule diode, researchers have designed molecules that have asymmetric structures.
“While such asymmetric molecules do indeed display some diode-like properties, they are not effective,” said Brian Capozzi, a PhD student and lead author of the paper Single-Molecule Diodes with High On-Off Ratios through Environmental Control, published in Nature Nanotechnology.
“A well-designed diode should only allow current to flow in one direction – the ‘on’ direction – and it should allow a lot of current to flow in that direction. Asymmetric molecular designs have typically suffered from very low current flow in both ‘on’ and ‘off’ directions, and the ratio of current flow in the two has typically been low,” Capozzi said. “Ideally, the ratio of ‘on’ current to ‘off’ current, the rectification ratio, should be very high.”
In order to overcome the issues associated with asymmetric molecular design, the team focused on developing an asymmetry in the environment around the molecular junction.
They created environmental asymmetry through a simple method – surrounding the active molecule with an ionic solution and using gold metal electrodes of different sizes to contact the molecule.
Their results achieved rectification ratios as high as 250 – which is 50 times higher than earlier designs.
The ‘on’ current flow in their devices can be more than 0.1 microamps. This was a lot of current to be passing through a single-molecule, Venkataraman said.
Because the new technique is so easily implemented, it can be applied to nanoscale devices of all types, including those that are made with graphene electrodes.
The team is now working on understanding the fundamental physics behind the discovery, and trying to increase the rectification ratios they observed, using new molecular systems.
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Hydrophobic graphene coating improves power plant efficiency
Researchers at MIT have developed a way of coating condenser surfaces in thermal power plants with a layer of graphene and found that this can improve the rate of heat transfer by a factor of four.
In laboratory tests the team also found the one atom thick coating to be highly durable compared to polymer coatings.
The findings are reported in Nano Letters by MIT graduate student Daniel Preston, professors Evelyn Wang and Jing Kong.
Condensers are used in power stations to turn the steam that drives turbines back into water so that the process can be repeated. An improvement in condenser heat transfer could lead to an overall improvement in power plant efficiency of 2 to 3 per cent based on figures from the Palo Alto, California-based Electric Power Research Institute, Preston said in a statement.
When the steam forms a film, Preston said, it impedes heat transfer - and reduces the efficiency - of condensation. The goal, therefore, of much research has been to enhance droplet formation on these surfaces by making them water repelling.
Often this has been accomplished using polymer coatings, but these tend to degrade rapidly in the high heat and humidity of a power plant. And when the coatings are made thicker to reduce that degradation, the coatings themselves impede heat transfer.
“We thought graphene could be useful since we know it is hydrophobic by nature” said Preston.
So he and his colleagues decided to test both graphene’s ability to shed water, and its durability, under typical power plant conditions - an environment of pure water vapour at 100 degrees Celsius.
They found that the single-atom-thick coating of graphene improved heat transfer fourfold compared with surfaces where the condensate forms sheets of water, such as bare metals. Further calculations showed that optimising temperature differences could boost this improvement to 5 to 7 times. The researchers also showed that after two full weeks under such conditions, there was no measurable degradation in the graphene’s performance.
By comparison, similar tests using a common water-repelling coating showed that the coating began to degrade within just three hours, Preston said, and failed completely within 12 hours.
Because the process used to coat the graphene on the copper surface - chemical vapour deposition - has been tested extensively, the new method could be ready for testing under real-world conditions in as little as a year, Preston said. And the process should be easily scalable to power plant-sized condenser coils.
The research team also included MIT postdoc Daniela Mafra and former postdoc Nenad Miljkovic, who is now an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
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Rotor Sail puts new spin on Flettner rotor
A Finnish company is offering a wind propulsion system it says offers significant fuel savings for ships.
Norsepower said savings of 2.6% were made in a six-month trial using one of its 18m rotor sails on a route in the North Sea.
“It is the first-ever modern auxiliary wind propulsion system that has this kind of proof of concept,” Norsepower CEO Tuomas Riski told The Engineer.
The Rotor Sail Solution is a modernised version of the Flettner rotor – a spinning cylinder that uses the Magnus effect to harness wind power.
When wind meets the spinning rotor sail, the airflow is accelerated on one side of the equipment and restricted on the other.
The resulting pressure difference creates a force perpendicular to the wind flow direction – a lift force.
The Rotor Sail Solution is a modernised version of the Flettner rotor – a spinning cylinder that uses the Magnus effect to harness wind power
An electric drive system powered by the auxiliary grid in the vessel is used to rotate the rotor sails.
When wind conditions are favourable, the rotor sails allow the main engines to be throttled back, saving fuel and reducing emissions.
Compared with other methods aimed at improving vessel fuel efficiency, such as air bubble systems, the Norsepower solution was the only one bringing renewable energy to the board, Riski said.
“The typical systems are only decreasing drag and consumption through those methods. Our system is bringing extra kilowatts of auxiliary wind power.”
For the trial the Norsepower system was installed on the 9,700dwt roll on-roll off carrier Estraden owned by Finnish company Bore, which operates between the Netherlands and the UK.
The results were overseen by maritime data analysis, software and services provider NAPA and Finland’s VTT Technical Research Centre.
Weather conditions were mainly calm throughout the study. Windier conditions would increase the amount of power generated.
Bore and Norsepower believe a full system with two rotors on Estraden could deliver 5% efficiency savings.
Norsepower forecasts savings of 20% for vessels with multiple large rotors travelling in favourable wind routes.
A turnkey system with three medium-sized rotors would cost about €2m, Riski said.
“If you have enough favourable wind conditions on the route you can pay that kind of system back in four years,” he added.
Rotor sails can be used with new vessels and retrofitted on existing ships. The required number of rotor sails and the size of each sail are based on the size, speed and operating profile of each vessel. Rotor sails are available in 18m, 24m and 30m sizes.
“The average wind speed of the global oceans is 7m/s. If you have average wind speed, meaning statistically, more than that and if the wind distribution is such that we are likely to have beam wind on your typical route, that’s what I call favourable conditions,” Riski said.
“To understand the business case you need to combine the rotor configuration with the properties of your vessel, with your route and with the wind statistics from that route. It is a question of simulation but we have really good tools to do that nowadays.”
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Capture Live Cell Tomographic Images
Tomographic images of living cells can be generated by combining holographic and rotational laser scanning. Researchers can examine samples layer-by-layer and crop the 3D images to explore interior structures. Images are generated by combining holograms obtained by a rotation scanning laser head that makes a 360-degree rotation every second. The final image is composed of 96 z-stacks in gray scale. A commercial unit, called 3D Cell Explorer, is available.
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Nanotechnology improves molecule-identifying spectroscopy
An international research team led by University at Buffalo engineers has developed nanotechnology that promises to make surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) simpler and more affordable.
SERS is a sensing technique lauded for its ability to identify chemical and biological molecules in a range of fields. It has been commercialised but the materials required to perform the sensing are consumed upon use, making the technique relatively expensive and corresponding systems complicated to fabricate.
“The technology we’re developing - a universal substrate for SERS - is a unique and, potentially, revolutionary feature. It allows us to rapidly identify and measure chemical and biological molecules using a broadband nanostructure that traps wide range of light,” said Qiaoqiang Gan, UB assistant professor of electrical engineering and lead author of a paper on the study that is published in Advanced Materials Interfaces.
Additional authors of the study are: UB PhD candidates in electrical engineering Nan Zhang, Kai Liu, Haomin Song, Xie Zeng, Dengxin Ji and Alec Cheney; and Suhua Jiang, associate professor of materials science, and Zhejun Liu, PhD candidate, both at Fudan University in China.
When a powerful laser interacts chemical and biological molecules, the process can excite vibrational modes of these molecules and produce inelastic scattering - or Raman scattering - of light. As the beam hits these molecules, it can produce photons that have a different frequency from the laser light. While abundant with details, the signal from scattering is weak and difficult to read without a powerful laser.
SERS addresses the problem by utilising a nanopatterned substrate that enhances the light field at the surface and, therefore, the Raman scattering intensity. Drawbacks occur, however, because traditional substrates are typically designed for a very narrow range of wavelengths.
This is problematic because different substrates are needed if scientists want to use a different laser to test the same molecules. In turn, this requires more chemical molecules and substrates, increasing costs and time to perform the test.
The universal substrate is claimed to solve the problem because it can trap a wide range of wavelengths and compress them into very small gaps to create a strongly enhanced light field.
According to UB, the technology consists of a thin film of silver or aluminium that acts as a mirror, and a dielectric layer of silica or alumina. The dielectric separates the mirror with metal nanoparticles randomly spaced at the top of the substrate.
“It acts similar to a skeleton key. Instead of needing all these different substrates to measure Raman signals excited by different wavelengths, you’ll eventually need just one. Just like a skeleton key that opens many doors,” Zhang said in a statement.
“The applications of such a device are far-reaching,” said Kai Liu. “The ability to detect even smaller amounts of chemical and biological molecules could be helpful with biosensors that are used to detect cancer, Malaria, HIV and other illnesses.”
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Graphene coating holds promise for delivery of chemotherapy
Graphene has been proposed as a coating for catheters to improve the delivery of chemotherapy.
The research, published in IOP Publishing’s journal 2D Materials, suggests that placing graphene on the internal surfaces of intravenous catheters will improve the efficacy of treatments, and reduce the chances of catheters breaking.
The study shows that damaging interactions can occur between the most commonly used chemotherapy drug, 5-Fluorouracil (5-Fu), and silver, which is one of the most widely used coating materials in medical applications.
Consequently, the researchers believe the drug may not deliver the desired therapeutic effect in patients, and that chemotherapy treatment may be compromised.
Furthermore, the research indicates that a by-product of the reaction between 5-Fu and silver is hydrogen fluoride (HF), a strong acid. This, said the team, raises concerns that silver and HF may be injected into the patient along with the treatment.
In a statement, co-author of the study Justin Wells, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, said: “As far as we know, nobody has ever looked at the chemical reaction between chemotherapy drugs and the materials they routinely come into contact with, such as catheters and needles and their coatings. It is just assumed that the drugs are delivered into the body intact.
“We have shown that silver is catalytically degrading the chemotherapy drugs, which means they are probably not being correctly delivered into the patient. Our research indicates that one of the decay products of this reaction is HF, which would be a worrying thing to inject into a patient.”
In their study, the international team of researchers used x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) to study the chemical composition of 5-Fu, plus the drug’s reactions with silver and graphene.
XPS is a technique used to measure the surface chemistry of a particular material by firing a beam of x-rays at it and collecting the electrons that are subsequently emitted from the very top layer of the material. The researchers performed these measurements at the MAX IV Laboratory, which is Sweden’s national synchrotron laboratory.
Their results showed that when 5-Fu comes into contact with silver, reactions occur in which there is a massive loss of the element fluoride from the drug, leading to the creation of HF.
When the researchers repeated this experiment with 5-Fu and graphene, they found that these reactions completely disappeared and that graphene caused no damage to the drug.
Graphene is a biocompatible material with low toxicity that has already been suggested as an external coating for biomedical applications. The researchers state that the fabrication of thin graphene coatings is technological feasible and can even be grown on top of silver to maintain compliance with existing fabrication methods.
“Our findings are an important first step in this new field. Together with our collaborators and students, we are increasing our understanding of the critical interactions between drugs and medical coatings, with a view to making the knowledge freely available for all to use,” Wells said.
“This study was a simplified version of real life chemotherapy treatment, so our future studies will look to mimic the processes more closely by examining real drug mixtures that contain other active ingredients as well as a salt solution. We will also look to extend our experiments to include other chemotherapy drugs.”
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Silicon mirrors resist laser heat to guide beams in high-value machining
Fast and durable mirrors capable of allowing lasers to perform challenging cutting and welding tasks have been developed in Germany.
The microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) mirrors are the result of a project involving the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology ISIT in Itzehoe and the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS in Dresden.
“If this technology is accepted there is a lot of potential to use it,” Dresden-based group manager for laser cutting Patrick Herwig told The Engineer.
“It is really easy to integrate,” he added. “It is only a deflection mirror that can also be exchanged for a different frequency or whatever. It is a low-cost tool that allows high-quality processes.”
Potential customers could include laser process head suppliers, Herwig said.
Mass production should make the micromirrors much cheaper than comparable galvanometer scanners, he added.
Materials such as aluminium and high-strength steels are extensively used by the automotive and aircraft manufacturing industries.
Until now laser systems had to be adapted to individual materials, in many cases requiring special optics installed specifically for a particular process.
The micromirrors, which are etched from silicon, offer greater flexibility in processing. They are scanning mirrors that deflect the laser beam and guide it precisely over the workpiece.
It was previously only possible to use them with laser outputs of a few milliwatts, which was not enough for laser cutting and welding. Higher outputs would melt the mirrors.
Thanks to a protective coating developed for the project and a specially designed mounting, the new mirrors can withstand laser powers in the kilowatt range – enough to process aluminum or sheet steel.
The MEMS mirrors can be swivelled back and forth at high speeds, reaching frequencies of up to 100,000Hz. This allows the laser energy to be distributed more effectively than with conventional laser systems, whose mirrors swivel at about 1,000Hz.
The system can be used to weld aluminum and copper, using the heat input to control which metal heats up most, making up more of the melt.
The mirrors also make it easier to weld aluminum alloys. At present, aluminum weld seams are often porous because substances outgas from the alloys and form bubbles during the welding process.
With the micromirror, heat input can be controlled so that the melt remains liquid until the substances have completely outgassed.
The ability of the MEMS micromirrors to work with large laser outputs is not only due to their reflective coating, but also their size.
MEMS mirrors normally have a diameter of 1–2mm. The new mirrors have diameters of up to 2cm, enabling them to handle lasers with larger beam diameters and higher output.
For the developers, the challenge was to achieve high frequencies despite the size.
To solve the problem, the mirrors are operated in air-evacuated vacuum pods to minimise attenuation of the oscillating mirror.
“We hope to find a frequency where we can say it is the general best fit to all applications,” Herwig said. “We would have one fixed product usable for all applications.”
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A Collaborative Robot That Does the Heavy Lifting
One of the keys to safe deployment of collaborative robots is controlling their motion around humans, diverting them, slowing them, or halting them altogether if danger arises. So far, that also has meant designs supporting low payloads and machines deployed in lightweight assembly — not really helping with the heavy lifting. Now, Fanuc stakes its claim as the first to produce a collaborative robot handling bigger payloads, to 35 kg. Its CR-35iA is designed to stop automatically if it even touches a human. Should action appear to be getting unsafe, operators can push it away. For greater safety and productivity, the servo-driven robot is available with vision technology.
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Toast and honey holds the key to spider-silk strength
Montreal team exploits complex behaviour of viscous liquids to copy the sacrificial-coil structure that gives spider-silk its strength
Mimicking the properties of spider-silk has long been a goal of materials scientists. Exceptionally lightweight yet ten times stronger than steel, materials with spider-silk properties would have applications in bullet-proof materials with better characteristic than Kevlar and tyres that could resist highly abrasive and aggressive surfaces.
A team at Polytechnique Montreal is now claiming to have found a way to mimic spider-silk’s strength. “The silk protein coils upon itself like a spring. Each loop of the spring is attached to its neighbours with sacrificial bonds, chemical connections that break before the main molecular structural chain tears,” explained Prof Frederick Gosselin, who is supervising research by Renaud Passieux into the problem. “To break the protein by stretching it, you need to uncoil the spring and break each of the sacrificial bonds one by one, which takes a lot of energy. This is the mechanism we’re seeking to reproduce in laboratory.”
Passieux is working on a method for forming a polymer strand on a moving surface. “The method consists in pouring a filament of viscous polymeric solution toward a sub-layer that moves at a certain speed. So we create an instability,” said Passieux. “The filament forms a series of loops or coils, kind of like when you pour a thread of honey onto a piece of toast. Depending on the instability determined by the way the fluid runs, the fibre presents a particular geometry. It forms regular periodic patterns, which we call instability patterns.”
When the solvent of the solution evaporates, some of the loops bind to themselves, forming a sacrificial bond like the ones in spider-silk. The problem is that the process, though seeming simple, is in fact very complex. “This project aims to understand how the instability used in making the substance influences the loops’ geometry and, as a result, the mechanical properties of the fibres we obtain,” explained Prof Therriault. “Our challenge is that the manufacturing process is multiphysical. It draws on concepts from numerous fields: fluid mechanics, microfabrication, strength of materials, polymer rheology and more.”
The Montreal team explain their research in the journal Advanced Materials. Other applications could include explosion-containing aircraft engine casings and surgical devices, they say.
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Injectable electronics offer hope for degenerative disease treatment
A method for manufacturing electronic devices that can be injected directly into the brain could pave the way for advanced treatments for a range of degenerative conditions according to a team of international researchers.
According to a study described in Nature Nanotechnology the group, led by Harvard chemist Prof Charles Lieber, has demonstrated that biocompatible electronic scaffolds can be injected into the human brain and used to monitor neural activity, stimulate tissues and even promote regeneration of neurons.
Bright-field image showing the mesh electronics being injected through sub-100 micrometer inner diameter glass needle into aqueous solution.
“This opens up a completely new frontier where we can explore the interface between electronic structures and biology,” said Lieber
The breakthrough builds on earlier work at Lieber’s lab, where cells were cultured within scaffolds that were then used to record electrical signals generated by the tissues.
“We were able to demonstrate that we could make this scaffold and culture cells within it, but we didn’t really have an idea how to insert that into pre-existing tissue,” said Lieber.
The team realised that when released from the fabrication substrate, the electronics scaffold became invisible and flexible and could be sucked into a glass needle or pipette and injected into the body.
The scaffolds are produced using a process similar to that used to etch microchips.
To create the scaffold, researchers lay out a mesh of nanowires sandwiched in layers of organic polymer. The first layer is then dissolved, leaving the flexible mesh, which can be drawn into a syringe needle and administered like any other injection.
After injection, the input/output of the mesh can be connected to standard measurement electronics so that the integrated devices can be addressed and used to stimulate or record neural activity.
Lieber said that the scale of the scaffolds gives them considerable advantages over other approaches to implanting electronics into the brain.
“Existing techniques are crude relative to the way the brain is wired,” he explained. “Whether it’s a silicon probe or flexible polymers…they cause inflammation in the tissue that requires periodically changing the position or the stimulation. But with our injectable electronics, it’s as if it’s not there at all. They are one million times more flexible than any state-of-the-art flexible electronics and have subcellular feature sizes.”
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Crystal Ball May Hold the Kilogram's Future
This article describes work directed at replacing the current standard for the kilogram (a platinum-iridium alloy cylinder) with something more permanent and less prone to aging. Though not the only candidate for the new kilogram standard, the approach described uses a high-purity sphere of polycrystalline silicon-28. This strategy requires precisely determining two important constants underpinning science — the Avogadro and Planck constants — and doing so in a complex manufacturing and analysis chain. The article describes the audacious plans to achieve the necessary precision and stability.
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Latest LIGO Technology Improves Search for Gravitational Waves
The instruments that comprise the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatories (LIGO) in Richland, Washington and Livingston, Louisiana, have recently been upgraded, increasing their sensitivity to astronomical signals by a factor of 10. Researchers have observed and accurately measured the effects of gravitational waves in a binary pulsar system, but they have never directly detected the mysterious waves. The newly optimized observatories boast 180-watt highly stabilized lasers, 40 kg fused-silica mirrors, and inertial-sensing seismic isolation systems
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X-ray Specs
Scheduled for launch in 2017, The European Space Agency's BepiColombo spacecraft will study the surface of the planet Mercury using the Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (MIXS) built by engineers at the University of Leicester. MIXS will measure the X-ray fluorescence from the planet's surface to identify its chemical composition.
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The Chromatographic Nose Knows
Using gas chromatography, thermal desorption, and sulfur chemiluminescence detection methods, scientists have increased the number of compounds that can be identified in smelly sewer gases. The three methods combined provide a more sensitive measurement system, detecting stinky sulfur compounds even when their concentrations in the air are low.
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Peering into a Single Atom
Advances in cryo-electron microscopes (cryo-EM) mean scientists may soon be able to image individual atoms, surpassing the detail available using X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Cryo-electron microscopes use a beam of electrons to image biological proteins that are flash frozen into a thin film using liquid nitrogen. Innovations in electron beam generators, detectors, and imaging analysis software are steadily improving cryo-EM resolution.
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The Softer Side of Microscopy
"Cathodoluminescence activated imaging by resonant energy transfer," or the more easily spoken CLAIRE, will enable scientists to image soft materials, including liquids, gels, polymers, and even biological molecules. The non-invasive, nanoscale imaging technique combines both optical and scanning electron microscopy and will allow researchers to study dynamic processes like crystallization.
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Measuring Surface Contours and Textures
ZEISS Industrial Metrology recently launched the NEX series of instruments: the SURFCOM NEX 100 measures surface texture and contours at the same time, while the RONDCOM NEX Rs offers optional surface roughness measurements in the horizontal, vertical, and radial axes. Designed for automotive, tool-making, and medical technology quality assurance applications, both systems are powered by the company's suite of surface and form measuring application software.
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Lightweight Replacement for Bullet-proof Glass
Transparent like glass, yet tough as armor. Moldable like plastic and won't scratch or crack. Researchers took a decade to develop an inexpensive process that converts spinel ceramic powder into transparent sheets, domes, and other shapes. Now, the Navy might use the material to replace bullet-proof glass.
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Robot Slithers into Hazardous Workspaces
For work in confined and/or hazardous spaces, the snake arm robot, powered by maxon motors, is an innovative tool. Its key characteristics: the ability to fit through small apertures and do precision odd jobs such as fastening, sealing, or inspection.
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US scientists create 'friction-free' material
Scientists at the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have found a way to use diamonds and graphene to create a new material combination that demonstrates so-called superlubricity.
Led by nanoscientist Ani Sumant of Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM) and Argonne Distinguished Fellow Ali Erdemir of Argonne’s Energy Systems Division, the Argonne team combined diamond nanoparticles, small patches of graphene, and a diamond-like carbon material to create superlubricity, a highly-desirable property in which friction drops to near zero.
According to Erdemir, as the graphene patches and diamond particles rub up against a large diamond-like carbon surface, the graphene rolls itself around the diamond particle, creating something that looks like a ball bearing on the nanoscopic level.
“The interaction between the graphene and the diamond-like carbon is essential for creating the ‘superlubricity’ effect,” he said in a statement. “The two materials depend on each other.”
By creating the graphene-encapsulated diamond ball bearings, or scrolls, the team found a way to translate the nanoscale superlubricity into a macroscale phenomenon. Because the scrolls change their orientation during the sliding process, enough diamond particles and graphene patches prevent the two surfaces from becoming locked in state. The team used large-scale atomistic computations on the Mira supercomputer at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility to prove that the effect could be seen not merely at the nanoscale but also at the macroscale.
“A scroll can be manipulated and rotated much more easily than a simple sheet of graphene or graphite,” Berman said.
The team found, however, that superlubricity wasn’t maintained in a humid environment. Because this behaviour was counterintuitive, the team again turned to atomistic calculations. “We observed that the scroll formation was inhibited in the presence of a water layer, therefore causing higher friction,” said Subramanian Sankaranarayanan, a computational nanoscientist at Argonne and co-author of a paper describing the work in Science Express.
While the field of tribology has long been concerned with ways to reduce friction - and therefore the energy demands of different mechanical systems - superlubricity has proved elusive.
“Everyone would dream of being able to achieve superlubricity in a wide range of mechanical systems, but it’s a very difficult goal to achieve,” said Sanket Deshmukh, another CNM postdoctoral researcher on the study.
“The knowledge gained from this study will be crucial in finding ways to reduce friction in everything from engines or turbines to computer hard disks and microelectromechanical systems,” said Sumant.
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Insect vision to inform direction of robot research
The way insects see and track their prey is being applied to a new robot under development at the University of Adelaide.
In a paper published in the Journal of The Royal Society Interface, researchers describe how the learnings from both insects and humans can be applied in a model virtual reality simulation, enabling an artificial intelligence system to ‘pursue’ an object.
“Detecting and tracking small objects against complex backgrounds is a highly challenging task,” said Zahra Bagheri, mechanical engineering PhD student and lead author of the paper.
University of Adelaide Ph.D. student Zahra Bagheri and supervisor Professor Benjamin Cazzolato (School of Mechanical Engineering) with the robot under development. The robot features a vision system using algorithms based on insect vision
“Consider a cricket or baseball player trying to take a match-winning catch in the outfield. They have seconds or less to spot the ball, track it and predict its path as it comes down against the brightly coloured backdrop of excited fans in the crowd - all while running or even diving towards the point where they predict it will fall!
“Robotics engineers still dream of providing robots with the combination of sharp eyes, quick reflexes and flexible muscles that allow a budding champion to master this skill,” she said in a statement.
Research conducted in the lab of University of Adelaide neuroscientist Dr Steven Wiederman has shown that insects, such as dragonflies, show remarkable visually guided behaviour that includes chasing mates or prey, even in the presence of distractions.
“They perform this task despite their low visual acuity and a tiny brain, around the size of a grain of rice. The dragonfly chases prey at speeds up to 60km/h, capturing them with a success rate over 97%,” Bagheri said.
The team of engineers and neuroscientists has developed an algorithm to help emulate this visual tracking.
“Instead of just trying to keep the target perfectly centred on its field of view, our system locks on to the background and lets the target move against it,” Bagheri said. “This reduces distractions from the background and gives time for underlying brain-like motion processing to work. It then makes small movements of its gaze and rotates towards the target to keep the target roughly frontal.”
This bio-inspired active vision system has been tested in virtual reality worlds composed of various natural scenes. The Adelaide team has found that it performs just as robustly as advanced engineering target tracking algorithms, while running up to 20 times faster.
“This type of performance can allow for real-time applications using quite simple processors,” said Dr Wiederman, who is leading the project, and who developed the original motion sensing mechanism after recording the responses of neurons in the dragonfly brain.
“We are currently transferring the algorithm to a hardware platform, a bio-inspired, autonomous robot.”
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Micro-mirrors will help make ultrafast X-ray moving images
A new method for using X-rays to study the structure of materials could give engineers a low-cost technique to produce nanometre-scale resolution, even with moving images.
The technique, developed at the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, uses very small mirrors to steer, filter and pulse precise bursts of X-rays.
The Argonne team has designed a microelectromechanical system (MEMS), etched from a silicon wafer, which incorporates a diffracting mirror that is fabricated with a pair of hinges on either side that allow it to oscillate in a see-saw motion. A set of minute capacitors, designed with ‘finger’-like structures that can mesh together with one side attached to the mirror and the other to the baseplate, act as the motor to power the oscillation (this is known as a combdrive).
While such MEMS have recently found uses in several areas of optics, this is the first time they have been applied to X-rays, the Argonne team claimed. This is despite the fact that polished crystalline silicon is the material of choice for many applications of X-rays in optics; however, silicon crystal X-ray optics are typically two to five orders of magnitude larger and 6-15 orders of magnitude heavier than MEMS devices, which in this case are about 10µm thick and 500µm square.
In a paper in Nature Communications, the team claimed that the device can reflect X-rays from a synchrotron source (like the UK’s Diamond Light Source in Harwell) to generate nanosecond-duration pulses of X-rays at over 100kHz repetition rates. This, they claim, could allow ultrafast medical applications of X-rays to study biological processes, or in materials science where it could allow scientists to study processes associated with electron transfer, spin and structural changes in real time.
According to Argonne nanoscientist Daniel Lopez, one of the lead authors on the paper, the device works because of the relationship between the frequency of the mirror’s oscillation and the timing of the positioning of the perfect angle for the incoming X-ray. “If you sit on a Ferris wheel holding a mirror, you will see flashes of light every time the wheel is at the perfect spot for sunlight to hit it. The speed of the Ferris wheel determines the frequency of the flashes you see,” he said. “The advantage of this new device is that it provides a very cheap way to generate and manipulate X-rays, and it can be adapted to virtually any X-ray facility in the world that already exists.”
Another of the lead authors, Jin Wang, said that the devices could allow the production of 3D ultrafast moving images from the X-ray studies.
Commenting on the research, Prof Paul Evans of the University of Wisconsin-Madison called the Argonne team’s work “incredibly exciting”. “It creates a new class of devices for controlling X-rays,” he said. “They have found a way to significantly shrink the optics, which is great because smaller means faster, cheaper to make, and much more versatile.”
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Squid skin display mimic has promise for camouflage and alert systems
A soft robotics system has shown the ability to mimic patterns used by squid to distract prey
Squid are the psychedelic champions of the animal kingdom, rippling ever-changing patterns of colour across their skin to communicate with each other, dazzle their prey and camouflage themselves against predators. They do this using dedicated pigment-containing cells in their skin called chromophores, which they can expands and constrict at will, changing both the colour and texture of their skin. Researchers at Bristol University’s department of engineering mathematics have now designed synthetic chromophores which, they say, prove that it is possible to create an artificial skin that could blend in with backgrounds or flash display signals to attract search-and-rescue operations.
The skin the team has developed is made from a soft electroactive dielectric elastomer, coated with black carbon grease. Applying a current makes this elastomer expand and contract. Arranging these artificial chromatophores in a linear array, the team devised mathematical algorithms to control how the cells react to changes in state of neighbouring cells, to see if this could mimic any of the patterning seen in squid.
The team succeeded in mimicking a squid display known to marine biologists as ‘passing clouds’, where bands of colour spread in waves across the skin; the animals use this to distract and divert predators. “Our ultimate goal is to create artificial skin that can mimic fast acting active camouflage and be used for smart clothing such as cloaking suits and dynamic illuminated clothing,” said Aaron Fishman, one of the leaders of the project and a visiting professor at the department. “The cloaking suit could be used to blend into a variety of environments, such as in the wild. It could also be used for signalling purposes, for example search and rescue operations when people who are in danger need to stand out.”
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Honeycomb structure offers energy-absorbing applications
Researchers from the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas in Austin have created a new honeycomb-like structure designed to withstand heavy impacts.
Unlike traditional honeycomb structures, the negative stiffness (NS) honeycombs have been engineered to provide protection from repeated impacts, returning to their original structure following compression. According to its inventors, the technology could have multiple applications, including vehicle safety, sport and military helmets, and aviation.
The NS honeycomb structures are able to provide repeated protection from multiple impacts, offering more durability than existing honeycomb technology.
“Whether you’re serving our country in uniform, playing in a big game, or just driving or biking to work, the potential for multiple collisions or impacts over time — however big or small — is a reality,” said mechanical engineering professor Carolyn Conner Seepersad from the University of Texas.
“We believe that this technology, when constructed in future helmets and bumpers, could reduce or even prevent many of the blunt-force injuries we see today.”
The team’s research, published online in Integrated Materials and Manufacturing Innovation, shows a cell geometry capable of elastic buckling, giving NS honeycomb structures the ability to recover their energy-absorbing shape and properties after impact.
Source: The University of Texas at Austin
Cockrell School engineers have developed a groundbreaking new energy-absorbing structure, called negative stiffness (NS) honeycombs, to better withstand blunt and ballistic impact. This video demonstrates the elastic buckling, or bouncing back, of the structure, a breakthrough that is not present in conventional honeycomb structures, which can only withstand one compression
Cells can be formatted in a variety of sizes and materials. The current lab prototype is made up of 3.5-inch honeycomb structures with a force threshold of 200 Newtons, which the researchers claim is enough to absorb the energy of a baseball travelling at 100mph in 0.03 seconds.
Miniature NS honeycomb structures have also been developed from nylon using selective laser sintering for experimentation. Customised compression and drop tests have confirmed the NS honeycomb structures’ predicted energy-absorbing behaviour, according to the team.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Device Takes a Heart Attack's 'Temperature'
Diagnosing heart attacks in the field can be challenging, but Korean researchers have developed a thermometer-like device that detects troponin, a protein that signals if a person has had a heart attack. The device utilizes nanoparticles, ink, vial, and tube. Human serum is mixed with nanoparticles and if troponin is present, ink will climb up a protruding tube and the troponin levels can be read.
Thermometer-like device could help diagnose heart attacks
"Facile Detection of Troponin I Using Dendritic Platinum Nanoparticles and Capillary Tube Indicators"
Diagnosing a heart attack can require multiple tests using expensive equipment. But not everyone has access to such techniques, especially in remote or low-income areas. Now scientists have developed a simple, thermometer-like device that could help doctors diagnose heart attacks with minimal materials and cost. The report on their approach appears in the ACS journal Analytical Chemistry.
Sangmin Jeon and colleagues note that one way to tell whether someone has had a heart attack involves measuring the level of a protein called troponin in the person’s blood. The protein’s concentration rises when blood is cut off from the heart, and the muscle is damaged. Today, detecting troponin requires bulky, expensive instruments and is often not practical for point-of-care use or in low-income areas. Yet three-quarters of the deaths related to cardiovascular disease occur in low- and middle-income countries. Early diagnosis could help curb these numbers, so Jeon’s team set out to make a sensitive, more accessible test.
Inspired by the simplicity of alcohol and mercury thermometers, the researchers created a similarly straightforward way to detect troponin. It involves a few easy steps, a glass vial, specialized nanoparticles, a drop of ink and a skinny tube. When human serum with troponin — even at a minute concentration — is mixed with the nanoparticles and put in the vial, the ink climbs up a protruding tube and can be read with the naked eye, just like a thermometer.
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MEMS Mirror Tunes
X-rays
Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory developed a method to manipulate high-intensity X-rays that will allow researchers to select and control X-ray bursts for their experiments. The microelectromechanical device consists of a diffracting mirror that oscillates at high speeds. The movement creates a filter used to select the X-ray pulse for the experiment. By adjusting the oscillating speed, researchers can control the timing of the X-ray pulses.
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VOCs Signal Cancer's Presence
Two separate research groups have developed methods to detect volatile organic compounds that can alert them to the presence of cancer. In one research program, a portable device utilizing micro-sensors measuring 500 µm was developed that detects VOCs and identifies the presence of cancers of the head and neck. In another effort, researchers used nanoarray analysis and pattern recognition software to compare VOC levels to identify the presence of stomach cancer.
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Stent Gathers and Transmits Data, Then Dissolves
Researchers have developed a "multi-tasking" stent that can sense blood flow and temperature, and then store and transmit the information for analysis. Blood flow slows when an artery starts to narrow. The stent can then be absorbed by the body after it finishes its job. The researchers tested animals in vivo and ex vivo with the drug-releasing electronic stent.
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Computer quantistici ' più vicini' grazie a studio italiano
I computer del futuro, basati sulla fisica quantistica, sono un passo più vicini ad essere realizzati: questo, grazie a uno studio appena pubblicato da ricercatori italiani sugli Scientific Reports di Nature "che ha contraddetto e sfatato un principio ben noto nella teoria dell' informazione quantistica" e che riguarda un fenomeno chiamato ' entanglement'. L' entanglement non ha analoghi nella fisica classica ed é ben lontano dall' esperienza di tutti i giorni. In parole semplici, consiste in una sorta di strettissima correlazione tra due particelle che, anche se fisicamente distanti tra loro, hanno caratteristiche sovrapponibili: misurando un certo valore per una particella, istantaneamente viene influenzato lo stesso valore per l' altra particella, in modo che il risultato globale (la loro sovrapposizione) rimanga identico. Questo fenomeno é alla base di tecnologie del futuro come la crittografia quantistica, ma vuole essere sfruttato anche per fare sempre più calcoli ' in parallelo' nei computer basati sui quanti. Lo studio, che ha coinvolto fisici delle Università di Catania, di Palermo e dell' Insubria, ha in particolare sfatato il principio secondo cui "l' entanglement non può essere generato o ricreato tramite operazioni locali e comunicazione classica". In pratica, per realizzare un computer quantistico serve un hardware formato da parti microscopiche, i ' quantum bit', che però vedono deteriorarsi il loro ' entanglement' a causa del disturbo causato dall' ambiente circostante. Quello che lo studio ha dimostrato, spiegano i ricercatori, "é come, sotto opportune condizioni, appropriate operazioni locali applicate su uno dei quantum bit del sistema permettano di ripristinare completamente, e a richiesta, l' entanglement iniziale. E nonostante questa scoperta sia lontana dall' essere commercializzata, e rimanga incerto quando potremo avere un computer quantistico sulla scrivania del nostro ufficio, essa lascia intravedere nuove e promettenti possibilità di sviluppo per le tecnologie quantistiche".
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Manchester researchers hail yeast mould biofuel breakthrough
Researchers from Manchester University’s Institute of Biotechnology (MIB) have used enzymes from yeast mould to produce small quantities of hydrocarbons.
According to the team, the breakthrough - Published in Nature - could ultimately lead to new bio-fuel production processes that will help reduce our dependency on fossil fuels.
The team identified the mechanism of two key enzymes that enable yeast mould to produce volatile hydrocarbons
Lead investigator on the project, Prof David Leys, explained that the team have identified the mechanism and structure of two key enzymes that enable common yeast mould to produce kerosene-like odours when grown on food containing the preservative sorbic acid.
The group found that these organisms use a previously unknown modified form of vitamin B2 (flavin) to support the production of volatile hydrocarbons that caused the kerosene smell. Their findings also revealed the same process is used to support synthesis of vitamin Q10 (ubiquinone).
Using the Diamond Synchrotron source at Harwell, they were able to provide atomic level insights into this bio catalytic process, and reveal similarities with procedures commonly used in chemical synthesis but previously thought not to occur in nature.
The team focussed on the production of alpha-olefins; a high value, industrially crucial intermediate class of hydrocarbons that are key chemical intermediates in a variety of applications, such as flexible and rigid packaging and pipes, synthetic lubricants used in heavy duty motor and gear oils, surfactants, detergents and lubricant additives.
“This fundamental research builds on the MIB’s expertise in enzyme systems and provides the basis for the development of new applications in biofuel and commodity chemical production,” said Leys. “The insights from this research offer the possibility of circumventing current industrial processes which are reliant on scarce natural resources.”
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Inkjet printing with silk used to create bacteria-sensing gloves
A team of biomedical engineers from Tufts University has been printing with silk inks containing biomolecular elements that could have a wide range of medical applications.
The research, published in the journal Advanced Materials, details how the team used inkjet printing to create materials such as bandages and medical gloves using purified silk protein, or fibroin.
According to the research, this natural polymer’s intrinsic strength makes it suitable for a range of biomedical and optoelectronic applications. Using it as a base material or “cocoon”, the team were able to infuse the fibroin with biomolecules such as enzymes, antibiotics, antibodies, nanoparticles and growth factors.
Combined with traditional inkjet printing technology, the “custom library” of new materials could be transformed into a range of smart medical equipment, such as bacteria-sensing surgical gloves that changed from blue to red when exposed to E. coli.
“We thought that if we were able to develop an inkjet-printable silk solution, we would have a universal building block to generate multiple functional printed formats that could lead to a wide variety of applications in which inks remain active over time,” explained Fiorenzo Omenetto, senior author on the paper and associate dean for research and Frank C. Doble Professor of Engineering at Tufts School of Engineering.
Omenetto, who has previously delivered a Ted Talk on the properties of silk and its use in materials science, believes the research paves the way for a wide range of medical applications. As well as different types of bio-sensing gloves that could detect various pathogens, the technology could also be used to develop ‘smart’ bandages, where antibiotics were embedded in the fabric.
Fiorenzo Omenetto talks about the many applications of silk.
Other research carried out by the team included gold nanoparticles printed on paper, with possible applications in photonics and biology, as well as proteins that stimulate bone growth printed on a plastic dish to test topographical control of directed tissue growth.
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Biopsy analysis has potential for improving outcomes of cancer surgery
Sample analysis technique holds out hope for determining whether surgery has removed all cancerous tissue with no need for an external laboratory test
A rapid technique for analysing biopsy samples could allow surgical teams to determine whether they have removed all traces of cancerous tissue while their patient is still on the operating table, according to the technique’s developers at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The technique is claimed to be able to return a conclusive result in ten minutes, rather than around 30 minutes as is typical with current tests; moreover, it does not require sample preparation or outside labs.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s new droplet-based surface sampling probe speeds the process of analyzing a liver biopsy sample
Cancer tests typically depend on being able to identify proteins in a sample that are characteristic of the type of tumour under study; this is known as immunohistochemistry (IHC). The ONRL team combined this technique with another which the instiution has previously developed, an automated droplet-based liquid microjunction surface sampling probe, which allows samples collected during surgey to be subjected to high-performance liquid chromatography to separate out the various molecules so that they can be identified by mass spectroscopy. Other technologies are being developed for rapid cancer diagnosis, but the ORNL team claims that these can only detect small molecules, whereas theirs can identify the larger molecules like peptides and proteins that are necessary to provide accurate diagnoses.
Team leader Vilmos Ketsesz said that the technique has been used sucessfully to identify drug residues and other biological molecules in thin tissue samples and even dried blood, and is capable of spatial resolution, ie determining whereabouts within the sample the molecules were found. “On the basis of the results and the relative simplicity, rapidity and specificity of our method, there is great potential for our technology to assist surgeons in the detection of cancer from tissue biopsy samples,’ he said in a paper in the journal Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry. Kertesz hopes to halve the time the test takes in an operating theatre. “Instead of having to cut and mount tissue and wait for a trained pathologist to review the sample under a microscope, a technician might soon perform an equally conclusive test in the operating environment.’ he said.
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Water filter wins Africa innovation award
A Tanzanian chemical engineer’s sand-based water filter that cleans contaminated drinking water using nanotechnology has won the Royal Academy of Engineering’s first Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation.
The specialised water-filtration system, created by Dr Askwar Hilonga is assembled depending on the needs identified in a specific area: for example, if local groundwater contains arsenic then the filter’s nanomaterials are modified to specifically target arsenic, while at the same time removing bacteria and other biological contaminants.
Everything from heavy metals or minerals such as copper and fluoride, to biological contaminants like bacteria and viruses, and pollutants such as pesticides can be removed by using various combinations of tailored nano materials.
‘Our water filter is a complete water purification system designed by integrating nanomaterials into the slow-sand water filters,’ said Dr Hilonga. ‘It contains a slow-sand-filter for removal of water turbidity, and up to 97% removal of micro-organisms such as bacteria, viruses, and protozoa. There is also a nanofilter - a trademarked innovation – for removal of harmful chemicals and complete disinfection without the need of further treatment with chemicals or UV.’
It also contains a 0.1 micron hollow fibre membrane for quality assurance, will provide up to 60 L (3 buckets) of 99.999% clean and safe drinking water daily, and is set for commercialisation within a year. The filter’s working life should be not less than 5 years, though the nanomaterials need to be replaced after every 800 litres of water, depending on the local level of contaminants.
Although it will cost around USD $130, Dr Hilonga plans to develop ‘Water Stations’ run by local entrepreneurs who will sell water five times cheaper than commercial bottled water.
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Owl-inspired coating could lead to more efficient wind turbines
Cambridge University researchers have taken their inspiration from owls in the development of a coating they claim could help make wind turbines, computer fans and even planes much quieter.
The team developed the material by carefully studying how owls hunt and fly in silence and used high-resolution microscopy to examine owl feathers in fine detail.
They observed that the flight feathers on an owl’s wing have a downy covering, which resembles a forest canopy when viewed from above. In addition to this fluffy canopy, owl wings also have a flexible comb of evenly-spaced bristles along their leading edge, and a porous and elastic fringe on the trailing edge.
Professor Nigel Peake of Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, who led the research, said that the unique structure of the wing gives it some very interesting properties. “No other bird has this sort of intricate wing structure,” he said. “Much of the noise caused by a wing – whether it’s attached to a bird, a plane or a fan – originates at the trailing edge where the air passing over the wing surface is turbulent. The structure of an owl’s wing serves to reduce noise by smoothing the passage of air as it passes over the wing – scattering the sound so their prey can’t hear them coming.”
In order to replicate the structure, the researchers looked to design a covering that would ‘scatter’ the sound generated by a turbine blade in the same way. Early experiments included covering a blade with material similar to that used for wedding veils, which despite its open structure, reduced the roughness of the underlying surface, lowering surface noise by as much as 30dB.
While the ‘wedding veil’ worked remarkably well, it is not suitable to apply to a wind turbine or aeroplane. Using a similar design, the researchers then developed a prototype material made of 3D-printed plastic and tested it on a full-sized segment of a wind turbine blade.’
Early wind tunnel tests of the material have demonstrated that it could reduced the noise generated by a wind turbine blade by 10dB, without any appreciable impact on aerodynamics.
While the coating still needs to be optimised, and incorporating it onto an aeroplane would be far more complicated than a wind turbine, it could be used on a range of different types of wings and blades. The next step is to test the coating on a functioning wind turbine. According to the researchers, a significant reduction in the noise generated by a wind turbine could allow them to be spun faster without any additional noise, which for an average-sized wind farm, could mean several additional megawatts worth of electricity.
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'Big Science' projects
The UK pays to be a part of several large science projects, such as the Large Hadron Collider and European Extremely Large Telescope. It’s generally accepted that these help British scientists keep at the forefront of their fields, but it’s also claimed that there are also advantages for industry.
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Can Autonomous Cars Learn to Avoid Human Drivers?
Although they've been rear-ended, side-swiped, and hit from the side, Google's self-driving vehicles have never been the cause of an accident. That's the claim Chris Urmson, director of the Google Self-Driving Car program, makes — even after 11 years and 1.7 million miles of logged travel. If true, that's quite a testament for the company's autonomous vehicle concept. Most of the accidents recorded, moreover, occurred on city streets rather than the highway. Watching out for the other guy, it seems, is the hardest challenge to overcome.
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Widespread backing for UK robotics network
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has announced the launch of a new robotics network that aims to foster academic and industry collaboration.
The UK Robotics and Autonomous Systems Network (UK-RAS Network) will have a strong academic foundation, with a number of universities acting as founding members. According to the EPSRC, the network has already received strong support from major industrial partners, as well as from professional bodies such as Royal Academy of Engineering, IET, and The Institute of Mechanical Engineers.
Globally, the market for service and industrial robots is estimated to reach $59.5 billion by 2020. A primary aim of the network will be to bring the UK’s academic capabilities under national coordination, fuelling innovation in the robotics sector and taking advantage of the growth in the industry.
“Robotics and autonomous systems have huge growth potential for the UK as one of our Eight Great Technologies,” said Jo Johnson, Minister of State for Universities and Science.
“To get it right we need to draw on the expertise of the UK’s research base and the ambition of industry. By working collaboratively, this network will only help to accelerate growth of a high-tech sector and pave the way for new high-value, skilled jobs - a win-win scenario for the UK.”
The network will also coordinate activities at eight EPSRC-funded RAS dedicated facilities and Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) across the UK, as well as organise events such as the UK Robotics conference, alongside a range of workshops and exhibitions.
According to the EPSRC, the network will build relationships with industry by supporting interdisciplinary mobility and secondments, as well as developing proof-of-concept (PoC) projects and running design challenges.
“Robotics and Autonomous Systems are set to play an increasing vital role in the growth of the UK economy across all sectors of industry, from transport and healthcare to manufacturing and unmanned systems,” said Professor Guang-Zhong Yang, director and co-founder of the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery at Imperial College London and chair of the UK-RAS Network.
“This dedicated network provides a focus for the UK’s research and engineering excellence for the first time, ensuring that the UK can maintain its competitive edge in RAS innovation.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Ford launches car that can see around corners
A grille-mounted camera system that provides a 180° view from the front of a car has been launched by car-maker Ford.
The technology, which is debuting on Galaxy and S-MAX, has been developed to help drivers spot approaching vehicles, pedestrians or cyclists when pulling out of a blind junction.
Data recorded by the European Road Safety Observatory SafetyNet project indicates that 19 per cent of drivers involved in accidents at junctions experienced a restricted view
The technology is activated at the push of a button. A 1-megapixel camera in the front grille enables drivers to see a real-time 180-degree view – both left and right – on the vehicle’s eight-inch colour touchscreen.
Drivers can track road users that approach on either side and pass in front of the vehicle. The camera, just 33mm wide, is kept clear by a specially designed retractable jet-washer that operates automatically when the windscreen wipers are activated.
“Pulling out on a blind junction can be a tricky manoeuvre for new and experienced drivers alike. The best approach has traditionally been to simply lean forward to get the best view whilst creeping forwards with the windows wound down to listen for approaching vehicles, but cyclists are a particular risk as they can’t be heard,” said Keith Freeman, AA quality training manager in the UK, who also trains young drivers as part of the Ford Driving Skills For Life programme. “This technology will certainly make emerging from anywhere with a restricted view so much safer and the experience less nerve-wracking for those behind the wheel.”
Ford models including the all-new Galaxy and S-MAX already offer Rear View Camera technology; and Cross Traffic Alert system, which uses rear-mounted sensors to warn drivers reversing out of a parking space of vehicles that may soon be crossing behind them.
Other new driver assistance technologies available on the new Galaxy and S-MAX include an Intelligent Speed Limiter, which when activated scans traffic signs and adjusts the throttle to help drivers stay within legal speed limits; Pre-Collision Assist with Pedestrian Detection, which will reduce the severity of some frontal collisions involving vehicles and pedestrians; and Glare-Free Highbeam technology for the adaptive LED headlamps, which detects vehicles ahead and fades out light that could dazzle oncoming drivers, while retaining maximum illumination for other areas. The technology is expected to help reduce accidents at junctions.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
L’invenzione: Un Cerotto Contro Il Diabete Di Tipo 1
I progressi in campo scientifico sono sempre maggiori, e grazie alle abilità di ricercatori competenti, è possibile sperare in cure sempre più pratiche ed efficaci. Da questo punto di vista, segnaliamo un’importante novità sul fronte medico, che farà senz’altro piacere a chi purtroppo soffre di diabete di tipo 1.
Il diabete melito di tipo 1 è una malattia autoimmune, cioè in grado di alterare il sistema immunitario, e la scoperta in questione potrebbe rappresentare un importante passo avanti verso la cura.
Si tratta infatti di un’invenzione appositamente formulata per combattere la malattia in questione, agendo in maniera “intelligente”. Un cerotto con microaghi inventato dai ricercatori dell’università del North Carolina e da quella del North Carolina State, presentato e descritto sulla rivista specialistica Pnas, promette di curare la malattia tenendo a bada l’insulina.
L’oggetto in questione, ossia lo speciale cerotto, possiede 100 microaghi, i quali sono capaci di comprendere quando si manifesta una mancanza di glucosio all’interno del sangue, così da poter far circolare l’insulina dentro l’organismo, rilasciandola senza necessità di procedere con la puntura, in modo del tutto automatico.
Che cosa ha prodotto, nello specifico questa ricerca? Delle vescicole molto piccole e sintetiche, composte da due elementi cardini, quali l’acido ialuronico e la sostanza denominata nitroimidazolo, i quali sono poi stati riempiti mediante un enzima che si modifica alla presenza del glucosio, e dell’insulina.
Questi cerotti sono stati sperimentati sui topi da laboratorio, affetti dalla malattia per la quale i cerotti sono stati inventati.
I risultati sono stati molto significativi: sui roditori, gli oggetti sperimentati hanno mostrato tutta la loro efficacia. Sono risultati addirittura più incisivi delle semplici iniezioni, che di solito vengono fatte al fine ultimo di tenere a bada i valori del sangue. Sotto questo aspetto, si può dire che l’effetto prodotto sui topi è decisamente significativo, e che la scoperta è stata un successo.
Zhen Gu, il principale autore della significativa invenzione, ha affermato che il cerotto per diabetici in questione è in grado di lavorare molto velocemente, è molto facile nell’utilizzo e inoltre si compone di materiali non tossici, che come importante caratteristica presentano anche la biocompatibilità. Ecologici ed efficaci, quindi. Un passo avanti ulteriore, molto importante per una malattia tanto complessa.
Non solo: oltre ad essere più efficace e pratico delle comuni iniezioni, sulla base di quanto afferma Zhen Gu, il cerotto può adattarsi alle caratteristiche personali del paziente che ne usufruisce. Infatti può essere personalizzato sulla base della sensibilità nei confronti dell’insulina e del peso corporeo.
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Diamond coating in engines has promise for efficiency improvement
Rapid laser arc deposition method for depositing carbon and tantalum-carbon films creates near-diamond hard, high-thickness coatings that are claimed to have the potential to save billions of litres of fuel
Researchers at Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute have developed a laser arc method for coating engine components they claim could save “billions of litres of fuel worldwide every year”.
Scientists already coat components with diamond-like carbon to minimize friction. But now Fraunhofer researchers have developed a laser arc method that allow layers of carbon almost as hard as diamond to be applied on an industrial scale, at high coating rates and high thicknesses.
By applying coatings to engine components such as piston rings and pins, fuel consumption can be reduced, the engineers said. “Systematic application of our new method could save more than 100 billion litres of fuel each year over the next ten years,” said Professor Andreas Leson of the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS, which is based in Dresden. A study suggesting this was published in the journal Tribology International in 2012.
The scientists said that coating engine components with hard carbon reduces friction to almost zero – a development that could save fuel. Carbon-based coatings are already used in volume production. Now the team of IWS researchers, led by Professor Leson, Dr Hans-Joachim Scheibe and Dr Volker Weihnacht, has succeeded in producing hydrogen-free Ta-C coatings on an industrial scale at a consistent level of quality.
Tantalum carbides – Ta-Cs – form a family of binary chemical compounds of tantalum and carbon. They are extremely hard ceramic materials with metallic electrical conductivity. The tetrahedral amorphous carbon coatings are significantly harder and more resistant to wear than conventional diamond-like coatings, the researchers claimed.
“Unfortunately, you can’t just scrape off diamond dust and press it onto the component. So we had to look for a different method,” said Dr Scheibe.
Similar to old-fashioned film projectors, the laser arc method generates an arc between an anode and a cathode – the carbon – in a vacuum. The arc is initiated by a laser pulse on the carbon target. This produces a plasma consisting of carbon ions, which is deposited as a coating on the workpiece in the vacuum.
On an industrial scale, a pulsed laser is vertically scanned across a rotating graphite cylinder as a means of controlling the arc. The cylinder is converted evenly into plasma thanks to the scanning motion and rotation. To ensure a consistently smooth coating, a magnetic field guides the plasma and filters out any particles of dirt.
BMW is said to be working intensively on the industrial-scale implementation of Ta-C engine components in its various vehicle models with the aim of reducing their fuel consumption.
The laser arc method can be used to deposit very thick Ta-C coatings of up to 20 micrometres at high coating rates.
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BBC trials "mind-control" TV remote
It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon. You’re catching up with your favourite shows on the BBC iPlayer, but you’re just too tired to get up and find the remote control. So why not use your brainwaves to switch programmes instead?
That could one day be possible, following experiments carried out by the BBC to investigate the use of technology that allows people to control their televisions with only their brainwaves.
The mind control technology could ultimately give people with severe disabilities, motor neurone disease or locked in syndrome the ability to control digital media by thought alone, according to Cyrus Saihan, head of business development at BBC Digital.
The device, which monitors a user’s brainwaves, could offer a lifeline to people with severe disabilities
“For anybody who can’t use standard remote controls for any reason, this technology has the potential to open up this completely new world of digital content that you and I may take for granted,” he said.
The technology could also allow able-bodied people to access TV programmes much more quickly and easily, he said. “This is building on work we have done using voice control on consoles like the Xbox One, for example, to get to content as quickly and easily as possible.”
Working with London-based company This Place, the BBC developed a prototype mind control TV using a low-cost headset equipped with sensors that measure electrical activity in the brain.
The electroencephalography (EEG) brainwave reading headset has a sensor that rests on the user’s forehead, and another on a clip that attaches to the ear.
The user can choose to operate the device in either “concentration” or “meditation” mode. If they choose meditation, the headset and app monitor their level of relaxation, which is displayed on a volume bar on the side of the screen. “Then, when a certain threshold is reached for that type of electrical activity, it sends a signal to the device on our tablet which in turn sends a signal to the TV,” said Saihan.
During the experiment, 10 users were given a headset to wear, and sat in front of the TV. The users either concentrated hard or relaxed their brain until the volume bar showed the threshold had been reached, at which point a signal was sent to the TV to open the application, an experimental form of iPlayer.
The users were then presented with a screen showing the five most popular programmes on iPlayer at that time. Each programme was highlighted, in turn, for ten seconds. To select a programme the users waited until the show was highlighted, and then relaxed until the volume bar again reached the necessary threshold.
Some users taking part in the experiment found the technology easier to use than others. A few were able to pick up the technique immediately and begin watching programmes, while others found it harder to time their levels of meditation with the ten seconds in which their chosen programme was highlighted, for example.
The technology is still at a very early stage, and currently only allows users to select either “on” or “off”, said Saihan. Whether the idea takes off will ultimately depend on how the technology evolves over the coming years, including both the sensors and neuroscientists’ understanding of brain activity, he said. “It’s very early stages in terms of this type of technology, so (this experiment) was very much a toe in the water for us,” he said.
The system is an internal BBC prototype, designed to give the organisation’s programme makers, technologists and other users an idea of how the technology might be used in the future.
DA DR. COTELLESSA
Using Defects to Improve Batteries
Could small defects in materials present an opportunity to improve lithium-ion batteries? Researchers at the Michigan Technological University say those defects could act as "energy highways," leading to better battery performance — a key need for making more reliable use of renewable power generation on the grid.
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The Changing Face of Graphene
To translate graphene's exceptional electrical, mechanical, and optical properties into game-changing technology for wearable products, developers must overcome several obstacles. Resent developments provide the means to do just that. Here is a look at three recent graphene processing advances that enable developers to weave invisible electrodes into textiles, build robust microsupercapacitors, and fabricate large-scale sheets of nanocomposite laminates.
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