"An elegant combination of electronics and elastic materials has been used to construct a small visual sensor that closely resembles an insect's eye. The device paves the way for autonomous navigation of tiny aerial vehicles."

Related to our Airport security discussion

To browse all the elements by usage in everyday products

Using random nanostructuring highly absorptive materials were made which are of interest for photovoltaic or thermovoltaic applications

"When a control laser is fired at the crystal, a complex quantum-level reaction turns it the opaque crystal transparent. A second light source is beamed into the crystal before the control laser is shut off, returning the crystal to its opaque state. This leaves the light trapped inside the crystal, and the opacity of the crystal keeps the light trapped inside from bouncing around, effectively bringing light to a full stop." is the simple explanation, but I am not sure how this is actually possible with the current laws of physics

So it is not real storage then in a sense, as you are stimulating an excitation population which retains the phase information of your original pulse? Still it is amazing that they could store this up to 100s and retrieve it with a probe pulse, but light has never been halted.

The goal is to better understand how memory works to help for example against dementia, depression, stress.. but as we all know it would be great to learn how to fly a helicopter in 5 seconds as well.

Bacterial networks communicating via thread-like membranes. Especially the video is pretty cool

A 7x7x3m large unfolding structure from the car trunk. "Before the design is ready to roll, the team still needs to tune up the solar components, a challenge made more difficult by the pavilion's inherent mobility, making it impossible to gauge how sunlight will fall on it."

The battery is based on a liquid electrolyte that uses oxygen from the surrounding air to produce a high battery capacity (up to 27kWh per liter). Needless to say, this type requires an atmosphere to operate and who knows what environmental impacts may be

Not very new, but interesting stuff, maybe related to space suits or unfolding techniques of solar panels (which unfold as they are irradiated?)

Artificial and natural knowledge researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have IQ-tested one of the best available artificial intelligence systems to see how intelligent it really is. Turns out it's about as smart as the average 4-year-old, they will report July 17 at the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Conference in Bellevue, Wash.

With extreme precision, the possibility of getting information from the perturbations gives nice side effects

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

Short range chemical analysis methods exist already, but using new high power lasers one could extend the operation length to e.g aircraft.

TU/e is participating in the new Cruiser class of the World Solar Challenge. This competition entails building an eco friendly family car (instead of a racer) to prove that solar powered transportation is possible. Actually this car produces more solar power than it needs and has a range of 300+ km.

Rogue tea leaves have led physicists to the discovery of a counter-intuitive phenomenon: Particles can float upstream in moving water.

Small scale laser induced electron accelerator followed by induced beta decay to produce positrons. Relatively simple, yet requires a high power fs laser and some precision engineering

"Australia's Royal Air Force has been left red-faced after a job ad asked applicants to solve a complex math problem was revealed to be unsolvable. Bosses posted the puzzle in a bid to attract the country's best minds to its ranks"

Tic-tac-toe for scientists... Plus a questions for the mathematicians, how many possible outcomes does this version have?