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Thijs Versloot

Liquid metal brings shape-shifting robot a step closer - 2 views

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    Hasta la vista, baby. A real-life T-1000, the shape-shifting liquid-metal robot from Terminator 2, is a step closer, thanks to a self-powered liquid metal motor. The device is surprisingly simple: just a drop of metal alloy made mostly of gallium - which is liquid at just under 30 °C - with some indium and tin mixed in.
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    Jarvis could make it, add a power supply and aquarium and we are off :)
Thijs Versloot

Bionic liquids from lignin - liberating sugars in advanced biofuels - 0 views

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    While the powerful solvents known as ionic liquids show great promise for liberating fermentable sugars from lignocellulose and improving the economics of advanced biofuels, an even more promising candidate is on the horizon - bionic liquids. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-08-bionic-liquids-lignin-results-pave.html#jCp
Thijs Versloot

Supercooled water transforms into new form of liquid - 0 views

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    A liquid-liquid phase transition at 207K. The research is aimed at understanding what happens when thawing tissues from cyroprotection
Thijs Versloot

Vibrational free cooling systems for sensors - 1 views

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    The system is based on two liquids which are adsorbed. As the sensor generates heat, the liquids desorb and the pressure builds up, it can then move to an expansion vessel which is held at a cooler temperature and the liquid then adsorb together again. This technique requires no mechanical compression and there are less vibration, leading to less wear and tear of components. It is being developed in a joint collaboration between UTwente and Dutch Space.
pacome delva

Toward Liquid-Cooled Computers - 0 views

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    only for the nerds who took the test and answered that they built their computer themselves...
  • ...1 more comment...
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    i should point out i only got 79 on the nerd test but... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUEpFef6caQ
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    i was about to say these guys are 300% nerds but i just saw they use windows...! fake nerds :) Anyway 5.15Ghz's not bad
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    oddly most overclocking products and software seem to be aimed at windows as far as i can tell. I'd guess because people usually only bother to do it for gaming?
pandomilla

Bioinspired self-repairing slippery surfaces with pressure-stable omniphobicity : Natur... - 3 views

  • a strategy to create self-healing, slippery liquid-infused porous surface(s) (SLIPS) with exceptional liquid- and ice-repellency, pressure stability and enhanced optical transparency. Our approach—inspired by Nepenthes pitcher plants13—is conceptually different from the lotus effect, because we use nano/microstructured substrates to lock in place the infused lubricating fluid. We define the requirements for which the lubricant forms a stable, defect-free and inert ‘slippery’ interface.
  • ts capability to repel various simple and complex liquids (water, hydrocarbons, crude oil and blood),
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    ...This slippery surface was bio-inspired by the carnivorous plant I showed you sometimes ago! I was sure it was a good idea! next time I will be quicker!!
  • ...1 more comment...
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    Shit. I am sure that there is more to do on this. Let's have a closer look.
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    And a good lesson that it is important to proceed quickly when you have an idea and don't wait ...
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    Yes, I will see what we could do, but they really did a good job, from the biomimetic of the surface, up to the realization of the material, and the tests...
LeopoldS

Interesting New Products and Inventions: Liquid Solar Array Power Generator - 0 views

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    nice concept - still have to look closer into it ...
ESA ACT

Ionic Liquids for Lunar-Telescope Mirrors? - 0 views

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    Researchers have demonstrated a spinning liquid mirror design that could be used for the main mirror of a huge infrared telescope based on the moon.
LeopoldS

Physicists twist water into knots : Nature News & Comment - 3 views

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    More than a century after the idea was first floated, physicists have finally figured out how to tie water in knots in the laboratory. The gnarly feat, described today in Nature Physics1, paves the way for scientists to experimentally study twists and turns in a range of phenomena - ionized gases like that of the Sun's outer atmosphere, superconductive materials, liquid crystals and quantum fields that describe elementary particles.

    Lord Kelvin proposed that atoms were knotted "vortex rings" - which are essentially like tornado bent into closed loops and knotted around themselves, as Daniel Lathrop and Barbara Brawn-Cinani write in an accompanying commentary. In Kelvin's vision, the fluid was the theoretical 'aether' then thought to pervade all of space. Each type of atom would be represented by a different knot.

    Related stories
    Solar magnetism twists braids of superheated gas
    Electron microscopy gets twisted
    Topological insulators: Star material
    More related stories
    Kelvin's interpretation of the periodic table never went anywhere, but his ideas led to the blossoming of the mathematical theory of knots, part of the field of topology. Meanwhile, scientists also have come to realize that knots have a key role in a host of physical processes.
santecarloni

Liquid metal capsules used to make self-healing electronics | ExtremeTech - 0 views

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    A crack team of engineers at the University of Illinois has developed an electronic circuit that autonomously self-heals when its metal wires are broken.
Thijs Versloot

Liquid metal pump a breakthrough for micro-fluidics (video) - 0 views

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    RMIT University researchers in Melbourne, Australia, have developed the world's first liquid metal enabled pump, a revolutionary new micro-scale device with no mechanical parts. The unique design will enable micro-fluidics and lab-on-a-chip technology to finally realise their potential, with applications ranging from biomedicine to biofuels.
Athanasia Nikolaou

Polymer scientists jam nanoparticles, trapping liquids in useful shapes - 1 views

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    Inserting a droplet of polymer enriched water into oil and manipulating its shape by applying an electric field. The shape remains intact after cease of the forcing. <br /> "Russell (...) points out that the advance holds promise for a wide range of different applications including in drug delivery, biosensing, fluidics, photovoltaics, encapsulation and bicontinuous media for energy applications and separations media."
LeopoldS

Plant sciences: Plants drink mineral water : Nature : Nature Publishing Group - 1 views

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    Here we go: we might not need liquid water after all on mars to get some nice flowering plants there! ... and terraform ? :-) Thirsty plants can extract water from the crystalline structure of gypsum, a rock-forming mineral found in soil on Earth and Mars.

    Some plants grow on gypsum outcrops and remain active even during dry summer months, despite having shallow roots that cannot reach the water table. Sara Palacio of the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology in Jaca, Spain, and her colleagues compared the isotopic composition of sap from one such plant, called Helianthemum squamatum (pictured), with gypsum crystallization water and water found free in the soil. The team found that up to 90% of the plant's summer water supply came from gypsum.

    The study has implications for the search for life in extreme environments on this planet and others.

    Nature Commun 5, 4660 (2014)
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    Very interesting indeed. Attention is to be put on the form of calcium sulfate that is found on Mars. If it is hydrated (gypsum Ca(SO4)*2(H2O)) it works, but if it is dehydrated there is no water for the roots to take in. The Curiosity Rover tries to find out, but has uncertainty in recognising the hydrogen presence in the mineral: Copying : "(...) 3.2 Hydration state of calcium sulfates Calcium sulfates occur as a non-hydrated phase (anhydrite, CaSO4) or as one of two hydrated phases (bassanite, CaSO4.1/2H2O, which can contain a somewhat variable water content, and gypsum, CaSO4.2H2O). ChemCam identifies the presence of hydrogen at 656 nm, as already found in soils and dust [Meslin et al., 2013] and within fluvial conglomerates [Williams et al., 2013]. However, the quantification of H is strongly affected by matrix effects [Schröder et al., 2013], i.e. effects including major or even minor element chemistry, optical and mechanical properties, that can result in variations of emission lines unrelated to actual quantitative variations of the element in question in the sample. Due to these effects, discriminating between bassanite and gypsum is difficult. (...)"
Joris _

Evidence of Liquid Water on Enceladus Found - Cassini data have been used to reach this... - 0 views

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    cool let's go find life on enceladus! oh no we are going to Jupiter first... no more saturn before... 20...30...years !?
ESA ACT

Almost Art - 0 views

shared by ESA ACT on 24 Apr 09 - Cached
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    Very nice simulation of a heated liquid.
santecarloni

Ergodic theorem passes the test - physicsworld.com - 0 views

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    For more than a century scientists have relied on the "ergodic theorem" to explain diffusive processes such as the movement of molecules in a liquid. However, they had not been able to confirm experimentally a central tenet of the theorem - that the average of repeated measurements of the random motion of an individual molecule is the same as the random motion of the entire ensemble of those molecules. Now, however, researchers in Germany have measured both parameters in the same system - making them the first to confirm experimentally that the ergodic theorem applies to diffusion.
Paul N

Have We Been Interpreting Quantum Mechanics Wrong This Whole Time? - 6 views

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    "The experiments involve an oil droplet that bounces along the surface of a liquid. The droplet gently sloshes the liquid with every bounce. At the same time, ripples from past bounces affect its course. The droplet's interaction with its own ripples, which form what's known as a pilot wave, causes it to exhibit behaviors previously thought to be peculiar to elementary particles - including behaviors seen as evidence that these particles are spread through space like waves, without any specific location, until they are measured." Pilot-wave theory reresurrected. Maybe something for the next "fundamental" :P physics RF?
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    And for the next 'Experimental Physics Stagiaire' position why not try to do "Unpredictable Tunneling of a Classical Wave-Particle Association" http://stilton.tnw.utwente.nl/people/eddi/Papers/PhysRevLett_TUNNEL.pdf, there are some rumors online that the results of Yves Couder Experiments can be reproduced with simple DIY vibrating tables! It is very funny to see the videos of the MIT's replication of this experiment (with lightening legends for those who are uncomfortable with the concepts involved https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF5iHQMjcsM)
hannalakk

Scientists Develop Liquid Fuel That Can Store The Sun's Energy For Up to 18 Years - 4 views

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    After a series of rapid developments, the researchers claim their fluid can now hold 250 watt-hours of energy per kilogram, which is double the the energy capacity of Tesla's Powerwall batteries, according to the NBC.
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    Interesting research. Bit hyped in the article though. The actual paper says the promising stuff is in the 83-160Wh range. So maybe not double Tesla's Powerwall batteries?
LeopoldS

Spider silk self-assembly via modular liquid-liquid phase separation and nanofibrillati... - 0 views

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    beautiful research, and fascinating how fast these polymers seem to self assemble at exit ...
johannessimon81

New Supergel Has Strange Biological Properties - 0 views

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    Linked to the discussion we had last week on elastically non-linear polymers. The inverted liquid->solid phase transition might be interesting and the material might be self-healing just above the transition.
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