New understanding of how shape and form develop in nature

Morphogenesis Credit: University of Cambridge

(December 10, 2015)  Researchers have identified a new mechanism that drives the development of form and structure, through the observation of artificial materials that shape-shift through a wide variety of forms which are as complex as those seen in nature.

Researchers have developed a new method for generating complex shapes, and have found that the development of form in nature can be driven by the physical properties of materials themselves, in contrast with earlier findings. The results, reported in the journal Nature, could enable the construction of complex structures from simple components, with potential applications in pharmaceuticals, paints, cosmetics and household products such as shampoo.

Using a simple set-up – essentially droplets of oil in a soapy water solution which were slowly frozen – the researchers found that recently-discovered ‘plastic crystal’ phases formed on the inside surfaces of the droplets causes them to shape-shift into a wide variety of forms, from octahedrons and hexagons to triangles and fibres.

Previous efforts to create such complex shapes and structures have used top-down processing methods, which allow a high degree of control, but are not efficient in terms of the amount of material used or the expensive equipment necessary to make the shapes. The new method, developed by researchers from the University of Cambridge and Sofia University in Bulgaria, uses a highly efficient, extremely simple bottom-up approach to create complex shapes.

“There are many ways that non-biological things take shape,” said Dr Stoyan Smoukov from Cambridge’s Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy, who led the research. “But the question is what drives the process and how to control it – and what are the links between the process in the biological and the non-biological world?”

Smoukov’s research proposes a possible answer to the question of what drives this process, called morphogenesis. In animals, morphogenesis controls the distribution of cells during embryonic development, and can also be seen in mature animals, such as in a growing tumour.

In the 1950s, the codebreaker and mathematician Alan Turing proposed that morphogenesis is driven by reaction-diffusion, in which local chemical reactions cause a substance to spread through a space. More recent research, from Smoukov’s group and others, has proposed that it is physical properties of materials that control the process. This possibility had been anticipated by Turing, but it was impossible to determine using the computers of the time.

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‘Al dente’ fibers could make bulletproof vests stronger and ‘greener’

That’s not spaghetti — polyethylene fibers made with olive oil

could help make super-durable materials even stronger.

Credit: American Chemical Society

(December 10, 2015)  Bulletproof vests and other super-strong materials could soon become even tougher and more environmentally friendly at the same time with the help of extra firm, or “al dente,” fibers. Researchers report in ACS’ journal Macromolecules an innovative way to spin high-performance polyethylene fibers from natural fats, such as oils from olives and peanuts.

These materials, which are powerful enough to stop speeding bullets, can also be used for many other tasks that require strength. They recently played a key role in lifting a sunken ferry from a delicate ecosystem off the coast of Italy. The fibers also can serve as sails to catch wind, ropes for climbing and tying, and thin, sturdy surgical sutures that ensure wound healing. But making fibers for these applications with today’s commercial processes has drawbacks. For example, one of the methods requires large amounts of solvents that are flammable and toxic. The research group led by Theo Tervoort and Paul Smith from ETH Zurich wanted to find a more environmentally friendly route to produce these ultra-strong fibers.

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Could metal particles be the clean fuel of the future?

McGill-led research points to metal powders as potential replacement for fossil fuels

(December 10, 2015)  Can you imagine a future where your car is fueled by iron powder instead of gasoline?

Metal powders, produced using clean primary energy sources, could provide a more viable long-term replacement for fossil fuels than other widely discussed alternatives, such as hydrogen, biofuels or batteries, according to a study in the Dec. 15 issue of the journal Applied Energy.

“Technologies to generate clean electricity – primarily solar and wind power – are being developed rapidly; but we can’t use that electricity for many of the things that oil and gas are used for today, such as transportation and global energy trade,” notes McGill University professor Jeffrey Bergthorson, lead author of the new study.

“Biofuels can be part of the solution, but won’t be able to satisfy all the demand; hydrogen requires big, heavy fuel tanks and is explosive, and batteries are too bulky and don’t store enough energy for many applications,” says Bergthorson, a mechanical engineering professor and Associate Director of the Trottier Institute for Sustainability in Engineering and Design at McGill.  “Using metal powders as recyclable fuels that store clean primary energy for later use is a very promising alternative solution.”

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Nanostructured metal coatings let the light through for electrical devices

An array of nanopillars etched by thin layer of grate-patterned metal creates a

nonreflective yet conductive surface that could improve electronic device performance.

Image courtesy of Daniel Wasserman

(December 10, 2015)  Light and electricity dance a complicated tango in devices like LEDs, solar cells and sensors. A new anti-reflection coating developed by engineers at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, lets light through without hampering the flow of electricity, a step that could increase efficiency in such devices.

The coating is a specially engraved, nanostructured thin film that allows more light through than a flat surface, yet also provides electrical access to the underlying material – a crucial combination for optoelectronics, devices that convert electricity to light or vice versa. The researchers, led by U. of I. electrical and computer engineering professor Daniel Wasserman, published their findings in the journal Advanced Materials.

“The ability to improve both electrical and optical access to a material is an important step towards higher-efficiency optoelectronic devices,” said Wasserman, a member of the Micro and Nano Technology Laboratory at Illinois.

At the interface between two materials, such as a semiconductor and air, some light is always reflected, Wasserman said. This limits the efficiency of optoelectronic devices. If light is emitted in a semiconductor, some fraction of this light will never escape the semiconductor material. Alternatively, for a sensor or solar cell, some fraction of light will never make it to the detector to be collected and turned into an electrical signal. Researchers use a model called Fresnel’s equations to describe the reflection and transmission at the interface between two materials.

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Superhydrophobic coating protects without the price

 

An environmentally friendly superhydrophobic coating repels water as effectively as

commercial coatings that employ hazardous materials, according to scientists at Rice University and

the University of Swansea. (Credit: Shirin Alexander/University of Swansea)

(December 10, 2015)  ‘Green’ project led by Rice, Swansea scientists matches best water repellant. 

A new class of superhydrophobic nanomaterials might simplify the process of protecting surfaces from water.

A material made by scientists at Rice University, the University of Swansea, the University of Bristol and the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis is inexpensive, nontoxic and can be applied to a variety of surfaces via spray- or spin-coating.

The researchers led by Rice chemist Andrew Barron reported their find in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.

The hydrocarbon-based material may be a “green” replacement for costly, hazardous fluorocarbons commonly used for superhydrophobic applications, Barron said.

“Nature knows how to make these materials and stay environmentally friendly,” Barron said. “Our job has been to figure out how and why, and to emulate that.”

The lotus leaf was very much on their minds as the researchers tried to mimic one of the most hydrophobic — water-repelling — surfaces on the planet. Barron said the leaf’s abilities spring from its hierarchy of microscopic and nanoscale double structures.

“In the lotus leaf, these are due to papillae within the epidermis and epicuticular waxes on top,” he said. “In our material, there is a microstructure created by the agglomeration of alumina nanoparticles mimicking the papillae and the hyperbranched organic moieties simulating the effect of the epicuticular waxes.”

 

A scanning electron microscope image of a new superhydrophobic material shows

the rough surface of functionalized alumina nanoparticles. Scientists at Rice University

and the University of Swansea led the creation of the environmentally friendly material.

(Credit: University of Swansea)

Fabrication and testing of what the researchers call a branched hydrocarbon low-surface energy material (LSEM) were carried out by lead author Shirin Alexander, a research officer at the Energy Safety Research Institute at the Swansea University Bay Campus.

There, Alexander coated easily synthesized aluminum oxide nanoparticles with modified carboxylic acids that feature highly branched hydrocarbon chains. These spiky chains are the first line of defense against water, making the surface rough. This roughness, a characteristic of hydrophobic materials, traps a layer of air and minimizes contact between the surface and water droplets, which allows them to slide off.

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How mother-of-pearl forms

Die Muschel Pinna nobilis.

(Bild: Biodiversity Heritage Library, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons*)

(December 9, 2015)  FAU researchers show how mother-of-pearl is formed from nanoparticles

Materials scientists at FAU have shown for the first time that the mother-of-pearl in clam shells does not form in a crystallisation process but is a result of the aggregation of nanoparticles within an organic matrix. This could lead to a better understanding of the structure of biomaterials which may be useful in the development of new high-performance ceramics. The findings of the research group led by Prof. Dr. Stephan E. Wolf have been published in the latest issue of the renowned journal Nature Communications (doi: 10.1038/ncomms10097).

Prof. Wolf and his team used a special technique to investigate the structure of mother-of-pearl. Using a diamond wire saw, they cut a 60-centimetre wedge out of the shell of a large Pinna nobilis – a type of clam found in the Mediterranean – which they then polished using a novel method before examining it under a scanning transmission electron microscope. ‘We borrowed the wedge-polishing technique from the semiconductor industry,’ Stephan Wolf explains. ‘This method makes it possible to look at extremely large areas, something that was very difficult to do before.’

Traditional model disproved

The high-resolution images from the scanning transmission electron microscope showed that the structure of the shell is very heterogeneous – from irregular calcite prisms on the outside to the smooth mother-of-pearl on the inside of the shell, with an organic layer in the middle. ‘The transition from the organic to the mother-of-pearl layer is particularly interesting,’ Stephan Wolf says. ‘Here we find the first nanoparticles of between 50 and 80 nanometres in size that aggregate more and more as they get closer to the inside of the shell and merge to form mother-of-pearl platelets, finally forming the highly structured mother-of-pearl that we all know.’

Prefabrication in nature

With their findings the Erlangen-based researchers have shown for the first time that mother-of-pearl does not form through a crystallisation process in which atoms or ions in a saturated solution are deposited successively – as previously thought – but instead forms through the aggregation of prefabricated nanocrystals. ‘If we compare the growth process of mother-of-pearl to building a house, the clam uses a kind of prefabricated construction method, while crystallisation is like building a wall out of individual bricks,’ Stephan Wolf explains.

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It’s all about ‘me’: Narcissism and mass-customized products

(December 9, 2015)  Researchers say a rising trend in narcissism is cause for retailing and manufacturing firms offering customizable products to rethink their marketing strategies.

Writing in the Journal of Retailing, marketing and psychology researchers from the University St. Gallen, Washington State University and Ruhr University Bochum offer insights into how firms can increase the uniqueness of self-designed products by examining consumers’ narcissistic behavior.

“An increasing number of retailers and manufacturers provide their customers with the opportunity to create individualized, unique products,” said David Sprott, WSU marketing professor and co-author of the study. “Our research suggests that firms should consider customers’ narcissistic tendencies as well as the ability to influence their current states of mind to exploit the largely untapped potential of mass customization systems.”

Driving consumers toward self-design options

The researchers focused on the automobile industry to demonstrate how narcissism can be used to enhance marketing strategies. In this industry, firms offer a wide range of options that allow customers to self-design truly unique products.

Yet field evidence indicates that few shoppers fully use these systems. For example, most consumers select standard colors (black or white) rather than customize a car with a unique paint treatment (like volcano red).

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A new sensor to detect physiological levels of nitrate and nitrite

(December 9, 2015)  A team led by Professor Takafumi Uchida has created a new technique for visualizing the dynamics of nitrate (NO3-) and nitrite (NO2−), both markers of nitric oxide in a cell. Nitric oxide is a critical second messenger in the body, playing roles in vascular homeostasis, neurotransmission and host defense.

The new technology is called sNOOOpy which stands for "sensor for NO3-/NO2− in physiology." sNOOOpy is a genetically encoded intermolecular fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based indicator that senses levels of nitrate and nitrite. sNOOOpy utilizes the NO3-/NO2--responsive two-component system of NasS and NasT system in the root nodule bacterium Bradyhizobium japonicum.

sNOOOpy in a human cancer line, HeLa cell. NO3− concentration increasing at intervals.

The researchers demonstrated with in vitro and cell culture studies that sNOOOpy can monitor intracellular levels in the micromolar range of nitrate and nitrite in real time. The authors say, "sNOOOpy is simple and potentially applicable to a wide variety of living cells. It is expected to provide insights into NO3−/NO2− dynamics in various organisms, including plants and animals." They also believe sNOOOpy will be useful for discovering new drugs and agricultural research.

This research was originally published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry © the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

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Windows with nanostructured coatings can cure ‘sick’ buildings

Harmful organic molecules in the indoor air can cause adverse health effects—a problem

known as the ‘sick building syndrome’. Current air-cleaning technologies require both energy

and upkeep, but a promising new solution is being developed at Uppsala University

—window glass with nanostructured coating based on titanium dioxide which uses sunlight

to remove organic pollutants from indoor air by passing it between the inner panes of the window.

(December 9, 2015)  The preparation of such coatings, tailor-made for indoor air cleaning, was studied by Bozhidar Stefanov and his dissertation shows how they can be made more effective.

Titanium dioxide is a white pigment often used in paints, toothpastes and sunscreens. In the form of nanoparticles, it obtains special properties which make it chemically very reactive. It efficiently absorbs ultraviolet light and uses this energy to destroy organic molecules at its surface in a process called photocatalysis. This has made titanium dioxide the ‘white knight’ of nanotechnology and the photocatalyst of choice for water and air cleaning. Recently, pavement blocks of titanium-dioxide-impregnated cement have been used to mitigate air pollution from outdoor pollution in cities. A field trial has been conducted in Malmö, Sweden.

Researchers at the Division of Solid State Physics at the Ångström Laboratory of Uppsala University are now taking the idea up a notch and harness photocatalysis for indoors air cleaning. Using an industrial process called ‘magnetron sputtering’, they have deposited nanostructured surface coatings of titanium dioxide onto window glass. These coatings are transparent, have a thickness a hundred times less than that of a human hair, and have been shown to be very effective for removing acetaldehyde, which is a common indoor air pollutant.

Windows comprising of such titanium-dioxide-coated glass can be used to clean air indoors, but there is one problem. Normally pollutant decomposition products bind strongly to the photocatalyst surface and block active sites, thereby leading to loss of photocatalytic activity. In his thesis Bozhidar Stefanov shows that the sputter-deposited coatings have a great advantage connected with the exposed crystalline facets of the nanoparticles comprising the coating. Just like the dices used in gambling, not all sides of the titanium dioxide nanoparticles are equal in their reactivity, and some of their crystalline facets are much more active in photocatalysis than others. Unfortunately, these active facets correspond to only about 10 percent of the nanoparticle surface, and in coatings made of randomly oriented nanoparticles it is very difficult to strike a ‘lucky six’ and have the reactive facets exposed at the film surface. During his project, Bozhidar Stefanov found a way to tweak the deposition of sputter deposited titanium dioxide films in order to ‘cheat the dice’ and have a high probability of the very reactive titanium dioxide facets at the surface.

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NUS researchers develop highly efficient nature-inspired membrane that can potentially lower cost of water purification by 30 per cent

(December 9, 2015)  Inspired by the mangrove plant and human kidney, this novel biomimetic membrane is mechanically stronger and allows only water molecules to pass through

The growing demand for potable water calls for low energy and cost effective methods for water purification. Inspired by the natural water purification systems of the roots of the mangrove plant and the human kidney, a team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) Environmental Research Institute (NERI) has engineered a novel biomimetic membrane that can purify water at low pressure, thus reducing energy costs. This new technology can potentially reduce water purification costs by up to 30 per cent.

The water purification industry today faces a major challenge of high energy costs incurred by current membrane systems to recover water from saline sources. These industrial water purification processes are costly because they require high hydraulic or osmotic pressures to push water molecules to filter through the membrane systems.

Led by Associate Professor Tong Yen Wah who is also from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the NUS Faculty of Engineering, the team of researchers have designed and fabricated a new aquaporin-incorporated biomimetic membrane water purification and treatment system that is highly efficient. Aquaporins are membrane proteins that selectively conduct water molecules in and out of cells, preventing the passage of ions and other solutes.

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New Method Allows Scientists to Screen Natural Products for Antibiotics

Antibiotic-resistant strains of Enterobacteria, shown here, are increasing

at an alarming rate. Credit: istock photo ©Scharvik

(December 9, 2015)  Biologists at UC San Diego have found that a method they developed to identify and characterize new antibiotics can be employed to screen natural products quickly for compounds capable of controlling antibiotic resistant bacteria.

The researchers, who published their findings in this week’s edition of the Journal of Antibiotics, say their latest discovery could permit chemists and others to understand how mixtures of potential antibiotics from microorganisms work without first purifying them. It builds on their development two years ago of a new way to rapidly identify new compounds capable of killing bacteria.

“Our initial discovery allowed us to perform the equivalent of an autopsy on bacterial cells and is changing the way industry searches for new antibiotics from collections of pure chemicals,” said Kit Pogliano, a professor of biology at UC San Diego who headed the research team. “But we didn’t know if it would work for identifying antibiotics found in natural product extracts, which are very complex mixtures frequently filled with multiple types of antibiotics.”

“We’ve now shown that our method is a powerful way to identify antibiotics from natural products and understand how they work before they are ever purified,” she added, “potentially shaving years off of screening efforts by identifying which organisms and growth conditions produce interesting bioactive molecules.”

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Lumu Power - a Light Meter for the Future

(December 9, 2015)  Lumu Power is the light, exposure, flash and color temperature meter for the iPhone. One device with power of many. Express yourself!

You are the ultimate and the only judge of the product. So we listened closely. We take every suggestion seriously, fix every mistake we make, to improve, to make your life better.

Innovation is saying no to good things and settling only for the best ones. It’s not how many features we make. It’s how many features you can’t live without. It's not appearance. It's the way it makes you feel, the way it interacts with you, the way it inspires you.

Color Temperature, White Balance, Flash and Ambient Exposure or Illuminance. You can measure all of them with one simple device and one simple app.

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The luxury USB wall charger

(December 9, 2015)  Just Mobile AluPlug™ is the high-performance wall charger for your smartphone, tablet and other USB-powered devices. With two full-power USB ports, AluPlug™ will slot into any standard wall socket to deliver fast, reliable charging.

Clad in high-grade aluminum with exquisite knurled finishing, the striking AluPlug™ brings Just Mobile’s unmistakable design heritage to a wall socket near you. Plug in to luxury.

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UMD Researchers Use a Simple Stretch to Create Powerful Pseudomagnetic Fields in Graphene

Illustration shows how applying a simple stretch to

a specifically shaped sheet of graphene creates a stable and

controllable pseudomagnetic field.

(December 8, 2015)  University of Maryland (UMD) researchers make breakthrough discovery in graphene research that could provide a testbed for understanding how electrons move in extremely high magnetic fields. Since its discovery in 2004, graphene has become a celebrity in the materials science and physics world due to its remarkable physical properties.

One of the thinnest and strongest materials ever made on earth with incredible powers of conductivity, graphene has quickly become one of the most versatile materials discovered. Graphene-related research is currently fueling potentially revolutionary new applications in everything from faster electronics, wearable technology and smart clothing to better energy storage, sensors and medical devices. And now, mechanical engineers at the UMD may have found a way to make it even more powerful.

Graduate student Shuze Zhu and Associate Professor Teng Li, along with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) collaborator Joseph Stroscio, have developed a theoretical model that demonstrates how to shape and stretch graphene to create a powerful, adjustable and sustainable magnetic force.

When stretched, or strained, graphene's electrons behave as if they are in a strong magnetic field. This so-called pseudomagnetic effect could open up new possibilities in graphene electronics, but so far, researchers have only been able to induce such pseudofields that have been highly localized and need peculiar loading conditions that are prohibitive to realize in practice. However, Maryland researchers may have explained how to shape a graphene ribbon so that simply pulling its two ends produces a uniform pseudomagnetic field. And with current nanofabrication technologies, the team is confident that they will soon be able to transition their theoretical model to a design reality.

“Our findings reveal a facile yet effective solution to achieve extremely high pseudomagnetic field in a planar graphene by a simple stretch," said research leader Associate Professor Teng Li.

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Researchers resolve structure of a key component of bacterial decision-making

Bacterial chemotaxis, the process by which a bacterium changes direction in response

to environmental cues, involves a complex array of chemical receptors

(red, elongated molecules) and other sensory proteins (blue and green molecules),

which work together to process sensory information. A new study offers

high-resolution details of the structure and function of the chemosensory array,

researchers report. Image and video courtesy C. Keith Cassidy

(December 8, 2015)  For bacteria that swim, determining whether to stay the course or head in a new direction is vital to survival. A new study offers atomic-level details of the molecular machinery that allows swimming bacteria to sense their environment and change direction when needed.

The study, reported in the journal eLife, represents a major step in understanding the “bacterial brain,” said University of Illinois physics professor Klaus Schulten, who led the new research.

“On its surface, a bacterium has thousands of receptors that scan the environment and then tell it what to do,” he said. This is very much like the sensory input that all animals must process. Of course, bacteria are single-celled organisms and don’t have brains, he said. But they nonetheless manage to organize and “remember” sensory signals long enough to respond to them in a way that aids their own survival.

University of Illinois physics professor Klaus Schulten, right; physics graduate student

Keith Cassidy, center; postdoctoral researcher Juan Perilla and their colleagues used

experimental data and computer simulations to determine the structure of key regions

of the “bacterial brain.” Photo by L. Brian Stauffer

The receptors on the surface of a bacterial cell detect light, chemicals, edible things and poisonous things, and transmit that information to a deeper layer of proteins, called kinases, which interpret this data and translate it into a simple choice: “Keep going” or “Change direction!”

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PLANT-INSPIRED POWER PLANTS

Hybrid porous catalysts can be “grown” to capture and convert carbon dioxide to useful fuels,

in analogy to a plant’s ability to turn carbon dioxide into biomass. Computer modeling showed

how to tune catalytic functional groups embedded within a nano-porous solid to facilitate fast

reaction rates for converting carbon dioxide and hydrogen to valuable products. (Design: Jingyun Ye)

(December 8, 2015)  Pitt study outlines framework for developing catalysts that turn excess atmospheric CO2 into new source of liquid fuel.

A team of chemical engineers at the University of Pittsburgh recently identified the two main factors for determining the optimal catalyst for turning atmospheric CO2 into liquid fuel. The results of the study, which appeared in the journal ACS Catalysis, will streamline the search for an inexpensive yet highly effective new catalyst.

Imagine a power plant that takes the excess carbon dioxide (CO2) put in the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels and converts it back into fuel. Now imagine that power plant uses only a little water and the energy in sunlight to operate. The power plant wouldn’t burn fossil fuels and would actually reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere during the manufacturing process. For millions of years, actual plants have been using water, sunlight, and CO2 to create sugars that allow them to grow. Scientists around the globe are now adopting their energy-producing behavior.

“We’re trying to speed up the natural carbon cycle and make it more efficient,” said Karl Johnson, the William Kepler Whiteford Professor in the Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh and principal investigator of the study. “You don’t have to waste energy on all the extra baggage it takes to grow plants, and the result is a man-made carbon cycle that produces liquid fuel.”

There’s one catch. CO2 is a very stable molecule, and enormous amounts of energy are required to get it to react. One common way to make use of excess CO2 involves removing an oxygen atom and combining the remaining CO with H2 to create methanol. However, during this process parts of the conversion reactor need to heat as high as 1000 degrees Celsius, which can be difficult to sustain, especially when the only energy source is the sun.

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Kids School Backpacks Redesigned For Adults

(December8, 2015)  Randoseru are Japanese leather backpacks typically reserved for school children. Parents buying black or red randoseru for their newly minted 1st graders is practically an annual tradition in Japan.

Tsuchiya Kaban, a leather workshop located in Nagano Prefecture, has dedicated the Otona Randsel line towards elevating the idea of the school bag to new heights, using only the finest quality materials.

These leather knapsacks are created using the Italian Baketta method, producing exceptionally functional and stylish bags. They reference an entire tradition of European backpack wear, but Otona Randsel adds a neat Japanese twist with linear contours and neat pockets. Glowing with natural luster, these lightweight bags are high-performance: not only do they function in day-to-day use but will impress coworkers and bosses alike in a professional setting.

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NMSU engineer’s research getting closer to space

This payload developed by NMSU engineers was recently launched on the

UP Aerospace SpaceLoft rocket from Spaceport America. (NASA photo)

(December 8, 2015)  A research project led by New Mexico State University Professor Ou Ma that began in 2008 holds scientific, military and commercial promise for the growing use of satellites. The innovative technology aims to enable spacecraft to dock with satellites for rescue or servicing, thereby increasing the lifespan of these pricey crafts that can spin off and become space junk.

“The inertia properties, such as mass, location of mass center and moments of inertia, of a spacecraft can change in orbit due to fuel consumption, hardware re-configuration, payload deployments or payload capture. When this happens, the spacecraft’s control system needs to know the changes of inertial properties to maintain proper control of the spacecraft,” said Ma, who is the first recipient of the John Kaichiro Nakayama and Tome Miyaguchi Nakayama Professorship for Research Excellence.

Ma’s Inertial Property Algorithm Verification (IPAV) Project algorithm to identify the inertia properties of a spacecraft incorporates the novel use of an onboard robotic arm. A large advantage of using a robotic arm to identify inertia, over existing methods, is that it solar powered, requiring no fuel, and measures velocities only (as opposed to measuring forces and accelerations by the existing methods).

NMSU Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Professor Ou Ma

has been leading a team of students since 2009 to develop an algorithm

to determine changes in inertia for in-orbit spacecraft.

But testing and validation requires the system to float freely and rotate arbitrarily in a 3D-space without gravity and therefore, prohibitively difficult to do on the ground. Several other different methods for spacecraft inertia identification have also been proposed, but none has as of yet been tested in a real microgravity environment.

“Our approach is to reach this goal incrementally,” said Ma. The group has twice tested the system in an aircraft parabolic flight that provided 10-20 seconds of continuous microgravity time.

The algorithm has also been tested twice in suborbital flight, providing 150-200 seconds of microgravity time, most recently as a payload on the launch of the UP Aerospace SpaceLoft rocket from Spaceport America in November 6, 2015.

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Using Atoms to Turn Optical Nanofiber Guided Light On and Off

Experimental set-up The rubidium atoms are trapped around the optical nanofiber and

absorb light of wavelength 780 nm and 776 nm that has leaked out of the nanofiber.

This effect can be used to create on/off switches.

(December 8, 2015)  Researchers in the Light-Matter Interactions Unit led by Professor Síle Nic Chormaic at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have developed an on-off switch with ultrathin optical fibers, which could be used for data transfer in the future. This research was published in the New Journal of Physics.

0101000001101000011110010111001101101001011000110111001100100000011010010111001100100000011001100111010101101110 means “Physics is fun” in binary code. Computers translate every letter, number, sign, space, image and sound to a set of 8 ones and zeros. For example, 01010000 corresponds to the letter P. While you type, your computer transfers your words to another distant computer by sending a series of ones and zeros encoded in light through standard optical fibers. Switching the light beam on and off very quickly generates the ones and zeros. These bits of information are converted to electronic signals at a node, usually a router or server, and finally appear as text on the screen of your recipient. While this is the classical way of transferring information online, OIST researchers are exploring more efficient ways of transferring data, using the quantum properties of light and matter. They have managed to create an on/off switch based on the quantum characteristics of rubidium atoms in the presence of light of different wavelengths. This proof-of-concept system could be used as a building block in a quantum network, the future of our internet.

The OIST team’s experimental setup consists of two lasers that produce light at different wavelengths, an optical nanofiber used to guide light, and rubidium atoms trapped around it. The peculiarity of optical nanofibers is their super-thin diameter. For this study the diameter was 350 nanometers, about 300 times thinner than the thickness of a sheet of paper. The diameter is even smaller than the wavelength of the light guided by the fiber. Some of the light, therefore, leaks outside the nanofiber and interacts with the rubidium atoms that are trapped around it. These atoms can function as a quantum node, a redistribution point of a network, the equivalent of today’s servers.

Ravi Kumar, one of the authors of this study, in front of

the machine used for the experiment

The off switch condition is obtained when only the laser producing 780 nm is on. In this case, at the point where light leaks outside of the optical nanofiber, the rubidium atoms absorb the maximum amount of light and almost no light can continue to pass along the fiber. In contrast, the switch is turned on when both 776 nm and 780 nm lights are present. In this situation, most of the light is transmitted through the optical nanofiber and the rubidium atoms absorb it only minimally.

Since the optical nanofiber is directly connected to a standard optical fiber, the light can, in principle, be transferred to another quantum system or node some distance away, in the same way you can send a message from your computer to that of your friend’s in another location. 

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MINUSCULE PILLARS DOUBLE THE EFFICIENCY OF SOLAR CELLS

(December 8, 2015)  Solar cells are generally flat. However, by adding minuscule silicon pillars to the surface, it is possible to more than double the amount of energy produced for each surface. This has been demonstrated by research by academics at the University of Twente research institute MESA+. In an article published last week in the scientific journal Advanced Energy Materials, they show what the optimum height and doping depth of the pillars is.

Last year, the University of Twente researchers succeeded in creating a semi-conductor fitted with one million minuscule pillars per square centimetre. These pillars are able to convert sunlight into electricity. The semi-conductor consists of two types of silicon: one is ‘contaminated’ with the element boron and the other with phosphorus. The transition between both types of silicon, known as the PN junction, is essential for the efficiency of the solar cell, as it is at this location in the structure that the positive and negative charges are separated. The challenge in creating the pillars was to make sure that the PN junction followed the structure of the surface as accurately as possible.

DOUBLING EFFICIENCY

In a new study, the same researchers looked at what pillar height and what PN junction depth the semi-conductor works most efficiently. The answer was 40 micrometres high and 790 nanometres deep, producing an efficiency rate of 13 per cent. This represents more than double the efficiency compared to a flat structure, where no more than six per cent of the sunlight can be converted into electricity.

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HUMBLE TABLES

(December 8, 2015)  These simple tables, used for all manner of service & seating, are the very earliest of domestic design. Generally undateable, they are humble yet undeniably beautiful - always functional, if rough and ready.

A rustic burr-elm table, probably England early 19th century.

Of curious multi-leg construction in Pine (Pinus Sylvestris) and Burr Walnut (Juglans Regia). The slab top supported by a central thick branch with hammered decoration, this with four radiating pine legs pinned to the central column.

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UNIVERSITY OF TWENTE DEVELOPS VERSATILE METHOD FOR DEVELOPING NEW MATERIALS

(December 8, 2015)  Researchers at the University of Twente research instituteMESA+ have devised an elegant method for fitting various functional coatings to silicon microwires. The method makes it possible to create relatively easily a wire that is coated on its lower side with platinum, for example, and with silver on top. The wires can be used potentially for generating renewable energy or for purifying water. The research has been published today in the prestigious scientific journal Advanced Materials.

Microwires made of the semi-conductor silicon are used in numerous fields. It is generally necessary to ‘functionalize’ them, by adding a layer of metal or a layer of a catalyst. In most cases, the wires are given a single layer, but in specific instances it is useful to put a different material on the bottom and on the top of the wires. However, creating these wires proved very difficult and the process of making them involved many steps. Researchers from the University of Twente have now developed a new method that makes creating wires of this kind easy. According to University of Twente Professor Jurriaan Huskens, this has provided chemists with a versatile method for creating new materials.

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High-energy X-rays give industry affordable way to optimize cast iron

Cast iron can be modified through the manufacturing process to optimize its mechanical and physical

properties, such as strength and durability. This property makes it a material of choice for use in the

transportation and machinery industries, which rely on cast iron's resistance to wear, deformation,

and rusting to design high-performance bridges, tools, and engine parts.

(December 8, 2015)  Cast iron can be modified through the manufacturing process to optimize its mechanical and physical properties, such as strength and durability. This property makes it a material of choice for use in the transportation and machinery industries, which rely on cast iron's resistance to wear, deformation, and rusting to design high-performance bridges, tools, and engine parts.

But the manufacturing process is as much art as science, producing good results yet not capturing cast iron's full potential. Controversy still exists over the correlation between manufacturing casting parameters and desirable properties. Limited by typical industrial 2-D imaging techniques or time-consuming 3-D laboratory studies, researchers have been unable to pinpoint the exact processing parameters needed to elicit the ideal properties for each cast iron application.

Finding an easier way to peer deep inside the alloy to get a definitive answer could be a boon for consumers as well as give the U.S. industry a competitive advantage. According to a study released in the journal Scripta Materialia, high-energy synchrotron X-rays can provide that insight.

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Columbia Engineers Build Biologically Powered Chip

 

(a) Illustration depicting biocell attached to CMOS integrated circuit. (b) Illustration

of membrane in pore containing sodium–potassium pumps.

(December 7, 2015)  System combines biological ion channels with solid-state transistors to create a new kind of electronics.

Columbia Engineering researchers have, for the first time, harnessed the molecular machinery of living systems to power an integrated circuit from adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy currency of life. They achieved this by integrating a conventional solid-state complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuit with an artificial lipid bilayer membrane containing ATP-powered ion pumps, opening the door to creating entirely new artificial systems that contain both biological and solid-state components. The study, led by Ken Shepard, Lau Family Professor of Electrical Engineering and professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia Engineering, is published online Dec. 7 in Nature Communications.

“In combining a biological electronic device with CMOS, we will be able to create new systems not possible with either technology alone,” says Shepard. “We are excited at the prospect of expanding the palette of active devices that will have new functions, such as harvesting energy from ATP, as was done here, or recognizing specific molecules, giving chips the potential to taste and smell. This was quite a unique new direction for us and it has great potential to give solid-state systems new capabilities with biological components.”

Shepard, whose lab is a leader in the development of engineered solid-state systems interfaced to biological systems, notes that despite its overwhelming success, CMOS solid-state electronics is incapable of replicating certain functions natural to living systems, such as the senses of taste and smell and the use of biochemical energy sources. Living systems achieve this functionality with their own version of electronics based on lipid membranes and ion channels and pumps, which act as a kind of “biological transistor.” They use charge in the form of ions to carry energy and information—ion channels control the flow of ions across cell membranes. Solid-state systems, such as those in computers and communication devices, use electrons; their electronic signaling and power are controlled by field-effect transistors.

In living systems, energy is stored in potentials across lipid membranes, in this case created through the action of ion pumps. ATP is used to transport energy from where it is generated to where it is consumed in the cell. To build a prototype of their hybrid system, Shepard’s team, led by PhD student Jared Roseman, packaged a CMOS integrated circuit (IC) with an ATP-harvesting “biocell.” In the presence of ATP, the system pumped ions across the membrane, producing an electrical potential harvested by the IC.

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