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Some new technique to produce graphne based flexible electronic circuits.

An interesting research centre in California! Focus areas: Business Services Electronic Materials, Devices, & Systems Information & Communication Technologies Biomedical Systems Cleantech

XEROX PARC was definitely heavily involved in computer development: eg. mouse, GUI, ethernet, OO programming, all came out of PARC, and all that without focusing on computers but printers...

aaah its the XEROX centre, didn't know. Yep they made the mouse and then handed it over nicely to Apple after IBM thought it was useless

"Switchable nanomaterials-materials that can change their properties and/or function in response to external stimuli-have potential applications in electronics,..."

new wonder material ?

The new battery, which is described in the journal Nature, is based on an organic molecule-called a quinone-that's found in plants such as rhubarb and can be cheaply synthesized from crude oil.

The problem is that the light cone angle has a limit - all particles with high momentum (mass x velocity) generate light cones with the same angle. Hence, these particles are indistinguishable. Now Chalmers researcher Philippe Tassin and his colleagues at the Free University of Brussels have designed a material that manipulates the Cherenkov cone so that also particles with high momentum get a distinct light cone angle too. The work is on the cover of this week's issue of the journal Physical Review Letters ("Controlling Cherenkov Radiation with Transformation-Optical Metamaterials").

In essence, the idea involves building a skeleton structure, wrapping it with elastic materials and then start filling it with concrete. A technique first tried in the 60's but now evaluated again with renewed interest as low-cost option for housing.

sort of reminds me of this thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb1pdvvoVoQ

Taking images through opaque, light-scattering layers is a vital capability and essential diagnostic tool in many applications. The research group of Prof. Mosk of U. Twente have started doing experiments shooting optical lasers into opaque materials in 2007, and for surprise of everyone, it turn out the light intensity after the opaque material in their experiments was orders of magnitude bigger than expected. Following these results they succeeded in taking non-invasive sharp pictures of objects hidden behind a screen of opaqueness, the so referred Super Vision in this Nature overview article.

very nice!!!

Shape-morphing structures inspired by nastic plant motions...

Nice story telling. (watch the video) The materials are actually cool, but the venus flytrap pitch (hinting at a biomimetic success) or the embodied intelligence speech are "a bit" of a stretch,

quasicrystalline superlattice that self-assembles from a single type of nanoparticle building blocks

The Nature paper this article is reviewing (behind their paywall) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-018-0075-8

Material point method is an efficient and promising method for simulating complex stuff. Not used much in Astro, a lot in gaming, cartoons etc.... Worth having a look in comparison with SPH in simulation (for example those connected to the HERAS mission)

With self-assembly guiding the steps and synchronization providing the rhythm, a new class of materials forms dynamic, moving structures in an intricate dance. Researchers have demonstrated tiny spheres that synchronize their movements as they self-assemble into a spinning microtube.

This is quite similar to the following paper. Here they show how tiny variations of particle parameters can produce clearly distinct structures: Thermal and Athermal Swarms of Self-Propelled Particles --> http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.0180

Sorry, did not see your entry when posting mine ...

Samarium hexaboride seems to be a topological insulator as a bulk material. It conducts electricity only at its surface, i.e., in a 2D layer (like graphene). This might allow all kinds of exotic (quantum) effects...

nice - did not know about it. GTOC on steroids and with loads of cash. concerning this specific challenge and especially the last condition: doesn't this hint towards a flawed design? In addition to maximizing the total power output there are some constraints on the possible movements: Each SARJ and BGA is limited to a maximum angular velocity and to a maximum angular acceleration. Each SAW must produce at least some minimum average power over the orbit (which is different for each SAW). The sequence of positions must be cyclic, so it can be repeated on the next orbit. The maximum amount of BGA rotation is not limited, but exceeding a threshold will result in a score penalty. Some structural members of the SAW mast (called Longerons) have restrictions on how they can be shadowed.

The longerons will expand and contract with exposition to sun (I think whatever the material they are made of). Because you have 4 longerons in a mast, you just need to be carefull that the mast is well balanced, and that the 4 longerons support each other, basically, you need an even number of shadowed longerons, possibly 0 too. I would call this an operational constraint.

Splitting water with TiO2 to generate H2