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anything happening on this since 3 years?

yes it seems like. most of it seems however directed toward understanding this effect, and not toward applications. But i'm still convinced that we could find many very interesting applications !!! a few references from ADS: 1 2011PhRvA..83f3807B 1.000 06/2011 A E X R C U Brida, G.; Chekhova, M. V.; Fornaro, G. A.; Genovese, M.; Lopaeva, E. D.; Berchera, I. Ruo Systematic analysis of signal-to-noise ratio in bipartite ghost imaging with classical and quantum light 2 2011PhRvA..83e3808L 1.000 05/2011 A E R U Liu, Ying-Chuan; Kuang, Le-Man Theoretical scheme of thermal-light many-ghost imaging by Nth-order intensity correlation 3 2011PhRvA..83e1803D 1.000 05/2011 A E R C U Dixon, P. Ben; Howland, Gregory A.; Chan, Kam Wai Clifford; O'Sullivan-Hale, Colin; Rodenburg, Brandon; Hardy, Nicholas D.; Shapiro, Jeffrey H.; Simon, D. S.; Sergienko, A. V.; Boyd, R. W.; Howell, John C. Quantum ghost imaging through turbulence 4 2011SPIE.7961E.160O 1.000 03/2011 A E T Ohuchi, H.; Kondo, Y. Complete erasing of ghost images caused by deeply trapped electrons on computed radiography plates 5 2011ApPhL..98k1115M 1.000 03/2011 A E R U Meyers, Ronald E.; Deacon, Keith S.; Shih, Yanhua Turbulence-free ghost imaging 6 2011ApPhL..98k1102G 1.000 03/2011 A E R C U Gan, Shu; Zhang, Su-Heng; Zhao, Ting; Xiong, Jun; Zhang, Xiangdong; Wang, Kaige Cloaking of a phase object in ghost imaging 7 2011RScI...82b3110Y 1.000 02/2011 A E R U Yang, Hao; Zhao, Baosheng; Qiu

Imagine a material that only admits thermal conduction for certain temperatures. Martin Maldovan from Georgia Tech holds a tiny thermoelectric device that turns cold on one side when current is applied. Recent research has focused on the possibility of using interference effects in phonon waves to control heat transport in materials. These are exciting news (see Nature Materials paper here http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/v14/n7/full/nmat4308.html). Heterostructure research lead to outstanding new possibilities when applied to electronic transport (e.g. in quantum well and quantum dots) and to photonics (e.g. Quantum Cascade Laser tunnable lasers). Apparently the time has come to see selective thermal control in this way! Truly exciting!!

We find that the high thermal conductivity of carbon nanotubes remains intact under severe structural deformations while the corresponding electrical resistance and thermoelectric power show compromised responses. Similar robust thermal transport against

This is really cool. I know one of the authors and he is a good guy... the only thing that leaves me unsatisfied is that if the whole issue is related to thermal effects one should have seen the Pioneer effect all the time and not only at about 10 AU... ...or is there some thermal process that kicked in only at this distance?

Here's an update on this theory: NASA Releases New Pioneer Anomaly Analysis "The mysterious force acting on the Pioneer spacecraft seems to be falling exponentially. That's a strong clue that on-board heat is to blame, says NASA." Heat emission 'most likely cause' of pioneer anomaly "What's more interesting is that, contrary to the original analysis conducted all those years ago, the deceleration does seem to be decelerating at an exponential rate -- just as one might expect from the radioactive decay of plutonium-238, which powers the two spacecraft. Turyshev concludes, "The most likely cause of the Pioneer anomaly is the anisotropic emission of on-board heat.""

I know, it is not a new concept, but apparently the guys from BMW put some money into it to make is series-proof. Could we - in principle - put something like that onto a spacecraft to solve thermal and energy problems at the same time?

Abstract: The "Magnificent Seven" (M7) are a group of radio-quiet Isolated Neutron Stars (INSs) discovered in the soft X-rays through their purely thermal surface emission. Owing to the large inferred magnetic fields ($B\approx 10^{13}$ G), radiation from these sources is expected to be substantially polarised, independently on the mechanism actually responsible for the thermal emission.

so what about a space sensor for measuring thermal efficiency of buildings? Can you have a look ?

Areva, yes, the nuclear world leader is building one of the largest solar thermal plant .... in India

"Physicists have built a graphene battery that harvests energy from the thermal movement of ions in solution." Can it actually work?

By wearing clothes that have been dip-coated in a silver nanowire (AgNW) solution that is highly radiation-insulating, a person may stay so warm in the winter that they can greatly reduce or even eliminate their need for heating their home. With as extra bonus: Besides providing high levels of passive insulation, AgNW-coated clothing can also provide Joule heating if connected to an electricity source, such as a battery. The researchers demonstrated that as little as 0.9 V can safely raise clothing temperature to 38 °C, which is 1 °C higher than the human body temperature of 37 °C. How about that for personal comfort during the cold winter months

sounds almost like the asbestos story re-started :-)

Found an European project that takes care of the environmental, health and safety aspects of nanomaterials http://phys.org/news/2015-04-unleash-full-potential-nanomaterials.html

The authors report the design and implementation of a paperlike, thermally activated display fabricated from thermochromic composite and embedded conductive wiring patterns, shaped from mixture of metallic nanoparticles in polydimethylsioxane using soft l

Yet it does all this with a thermal design power of around 2W - incredibly, less than three per cent that of an everyday Core 2 Duo. Average power consumption is promised to be in the milliwatt range, with idle draw as low as 30mW.

Sandia researcher Rich Diver checks out the solar furnace which will be the initial source of concentrated solar heat for converting carbon dioxide to fuel. Eventually parabolic dishes will provide the thermal energy. Photo: Randy Montoya / Sandia Nati

Theoretized 80 years ago was Breit-Wheeler pair production in which two photons result in an electron-positron pair (via a virtual electron). It is a relatively simple Feynmann diagram, but the problem is/was how to produce in practice a high energy photon-photon collider... The collider experiment that the scientists have proposed involves two key steps. First, the scientists would use an extremely powerful high-intensity laser to speed up electrons to just below the speed of light. They would then fire these electrons into a slab of gold to create a beam of photons a billion times more energetic than visible light. The next stage of the experiment involves a tiny gold can called a hohlraum (German for 'empty room'). Scientists would fire a high-energy laser at the inner surface of this gold can, to create a thermal radiation field, generating light similar to the light emitted by stars. They would then direct the photon beam from the first stage of the experiment through the centre of the can, causing the photons from the two sources to collide and form electrons and positrons. It would then be possible to detect the formation of the electrons and positrons when they exited the can. Now this is a good experiment... :)

True, but isnt it E2=(pc)^2 + (m0c^2)^2 such that for photons E\propto{pc} and for mass E\propto{mc^2}. I agree it will take a lot of energy, but this assumes that that wont be the problem at least. The question therefore is whether the mass flow of the photon rocket (fuel consumed to create photons, eg fission/fusion) is higher/lower than the mass flow for e-p creation. You are probably right that the low e-p cross-section will favour direct use of photons to create low thrust for long periods of time, but with significant power available the ISP might be higher for e-p pair creation.

In essence the equation tells you that for photons with zero rest mass m0 all the energy will be converted to momentum of the particles. If you want to accelerate e-p then you first spend part of the energy on creating them (~511 keV each) and you can only use the remaining energy to accelerate them. In this case the equation gives you a lower particle momentum which leads to lower thrust (even when assuming 100% acceleration efficiency). ISP is a tricky concept in this case because there are different definitions which clash in the relativistic context (due to the concept of mass flow). R. Tinder gets to a I_SP = c (speed of light) for a photon rocket (using the relativistic mass of the photons) which is the maximum possible relativistic I_SP: http://goo.gl/Zz5gyC .

A new class of exotic materials could find its way into next-generation technologies that efficiently convert waste heat into electrical current according to new research. Both the exotic materials and the means by which they generate electricity rely on a hybrid of advanced concepts-including string theory combined with black holes combined with cutting-edge condensed matter physics.

Sounds spooky

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

Thermoelectric paint allows for harvesting of thermal losses.

A good electrical conductor is normally a good heat conductor. Vanadium dioxide however seems to not be so, by being a good electrical conductor and a poor thermal conductor. Paper at http://science.sciencemag.org/content/355/6323/371

"Given that for both craft electricity is supplied by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTGs) powered by the heat given off by the radioactive decay of plutonium - an energy source that decays exponentially with time - Turyshev and others suggested that the extra acceleration could be caused by thermal radiation being emitted from the craft in a preferred direction. "

Test cell reaches 500Wh/kg and about a 1000 cycles. Graphene is excellent to use as it can handle the thermal expansion during charge cycles which normally destroy the cathodes and thereby degrade performance over time.