Post Scientist

Translating electrochemical performance of large format batteries to microscale power sources has been a long-standing technological challenge, limiting the ability of batteries to power microdevices, microrobots and implantable medical devices. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers have created a high-voltage microbattery (> 9 V), with high-energy and -power density, unparalleled by any existing battery design.  Join our   whatsapp group for latest articles updates. Material Science and Engineering Professor Paul Braun (Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering, Materials Research Laboratory Director), Dr. Sungbong Kim (Postdoc, MatSE, current assistant professor at Korea Military Academy, co-first author), and Arghya Patra (Graduate Student, MatSE, MRL, co-first author) recently published their paper "Serially integrated ...

In the future, the energy needed to run the powerful computers on board a global fleet of autonomous vehicles could generate as many greenhouse gas emissions as all the data centers in the world today.  Join our   whatsapp group for latest articles updates. That is one key finding of a new study from MIT researchers that explored the potential energy consumption and related carbon emissions if autonomous vehicles are widely adopted. The data centers that house the physical computing infrastructure used for running applications are widely known for their large carbon footprint: They currently account for about 0.3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, or about as much carbon as the country of Argentina produces annually, according to the International Energy Agency. Realizing that less attention has been paid to the potential footprint of ...

Japan plans to start releasing more than a million tonnes of treated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean this year, a top government spokesman said Friday. \ Join our   whatsapp group for latest articles updates. The plan has been endorsed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but the government will wait for "a comprehensive report" by the UN watchdog before the release, chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters. Cooling systems at the plant were overwhelmed when a massive undersea earthquake triggered a tsunami in 2011, causing the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. Decommissioning work is under way and expected to take around four decades. The site produced 100 cubic metres (3,500 cubic feet) of contaminated water each day on average ...

To accelerate the global move toward sustainable vehicles, Toyota is suggesting simply replacing the inner workings of vehicles already on the roads with cleaner technology like fuel cells and electric motors.  Join our   whatsapp group for latest articles updates. "I don't want to leave any car lover behind," Chief Executive Akio Toyoda said Friday, appearing on the stage at the Tokyo Auto Salon, an industry event similar to the world's auto shows. The message was clear: Toyota Motor Corp. wants the world to know it hasn't fallen behind in electric vehicles, as some detractors have implied. Japan's top automaker, behind the Lexus luxury brands and the Prius hybrid, is highlighting its clout: It has all the technology, engineering, financial reserves and industry experience needed to remain a powerful competitor in green vehicl...

Aluminum plays a key role in reducing the weight of a car and thus also helps to reduce fuel consumption. A modern car contains large amounts of aluminum and use of the metal is on the increase.  Join our   whatsapp group for latest articles updates. It is thus important to exploit the material as optimally as possible, and a new casting technology developed in Norway has the potential to do just that. The process is called Low-Pressure Casting (LPC) and makes it possible to cast aluminum bolts with high-quality surface properties. This enables the metal to be used directly in the manufacture of parts such as suspension components in cars. Streamlining production and saving on raw materials Casting makes the production of aluminum car components less expensive, more eco-friendly, and more efficient. It also prevents the wastage of large amount...

Assessing the optimal location for parking lots is surprisingly mathematically challenging, and a subset of a classic computational complexity problem with far wider applications. A team of data scientists has combined quantum annealing with a process that attempts to mimic the underlying processes of human intuition in a technique that delivers a solution accuracy that's far superior to conventional approaches.  Join our   whatsapp group for latest articles updates. The technique is described in a paper first appeared online on September 30, 2022 in Intelligent and Converged Networks . The Facility Location Problem, or FLP, is a long-standing challenge within operations research—the application of scientific methods to decision-making and problem-solving by managers in large commercial, public or military organizations. The FLP aims to determi...

The conversion of solar energy into hydrogen energy represents a promising and green technique for addressing the energy shortage and reducing fossil fuel emissions. A research team from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) recently developed a lead-free perovskite photocatalyst that delivers highly efficient solar energy-to-hydrogen conversion.  Join our   whatsapp group for latest articles updates. Most importantly, they unveiled the interfacial dynamics of solid-solid (between halide perovskite molecules) and solid-liquid (between a halide perovskite and an electrolyte) interfaces during photoelectrochemical hydrogen production. The latest findings open up an avenue to develop a more efficient solar-driven method for producing hydrogen fuel in the future. Hydrogen is considered to be a better and more promising renewable energy alternative...

When it comes to efficiency and quality, light-emitting diodes (LED) are the MVP of today's lighting technology. A team of Chinese researchers are using recent LED improvements as a springboard to launch a more interconnected illumination network.  Join our   whatsapp group for latest articles updates. In their study published on September 30, 2022 in Intelligent and Converged Networks , they proposed the concept of an Internet of Light that interfaces with the Internet of Things to improve human health and well-being by providing information services. "As people spend more and more time indoors, it is absolutely necessary to provide an illumination network that offers intelligent lighting along with information services by combining information technologies with communication technologies," said Jian Song, Tsinghua University professor of el...

Could the new and wildly popular chatbot ChatGPT convincingly produce fake abstracts that fool scientists into thinking those studies are the real thing?  Join our   whatsapp group for latest articles updates. That was the question worrying Northwestern Medicine physician-scientist Dr. Catherine Gao when she designed a study—collaborating with University of Chicago scientists—to test that theory. Yes, scientists can be fooled, their new study reports. Blinded human reviewers—when given a mix real and falsely generated abstracts—could only spot ChatGPT generated abstracts 68% of the time. The reviewers also incorrectly identified 14% of real abstracts as being AI generated. "Our reviewers knew that some of the abstracts they were being given were fake, so they were very suspicious," said corresponding author Gao, an instructor in pulmonary an...

Chemists from the University of Groningen have found a simple way to produce previously inaccessible chiral Z-alkenes, molecules that offer a significant synthetic short-cut for the production of bioactive molecules.  Join our   whatsapp group for latest articles updates.    Instead of eight to ten synthetic steps to produce these molecules, the new reaction can be done in three steps, without the need for any purification. The key lies in a phosphine molecule that is normally used to make metal-containing catalysts but that turns out to be the ideal starting point for this chemical reaction. The results were published in Science Advances on January 13. Organic compounds are very versatile. Their carbon atoms can be connected by single, double, or triple bonds. Furthermore, many biologically important molecules contain chiral centers, parts of the molecule that can be in two mirror image positions, comparable to a left and a right hand. Molecules that ha...

Understanding how dust grains form in interstellar gas could offer significant insights to astronomers and help materials scientists develop useful nanoparticles.  Join our   whatsapp group for latest articles updates. Laboratory and rocket-borne studies have revealed new insights into how interstellar dust grains came into being before our solar system formed. The results, published by Hokkaido University researchers and colleagues in Japan and Germany in the journal Science Advances , might also help scientists make nanoparticles with useful applications in more efficient and eco-friendly ways. These "presolar" grains can be found in meteorites that fall to Earth, allowing laboratory studies that reveal possible routes for their formation. "Just as the shapes of snowflakes provide information on the temperature and humidity of the upper atmosphere, the characteristics of presola...

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have successfully demonstrated that autonomous methods can discover new materials. The artificial intelligence (AI)-driven technique led to the discovery of three new nanostructures, including a first-of-its-kind nanoscale "ladder." The research was published today in Science Advances. .  Join our whatsapp group for latest articles updates. The newly discovered structures were formed by a process called self-assembly, in which a material's molecules organize themselves into unique patterns. Scientists at Brookhaven's Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) are experts at directing the self-assembly process, creating templates for materials to form desirable arrangements for applications in microelectronics, catalysis, and more. Their discovery of the nanoscale ladder and other new structu...

When NASA docks two spacecraft in orbit, timing is critical. Their movements must be precisely synchronized with each other to prevent catastrophic failure, which means the computer networks that control their thrusters must not be disrupted for even a split second; instructions on exactly how and when to move must be delivered on time, every time. Linh Thi Xuan Phan, Associate Professor in Penn Engineering's Department of Computer and Information Science, has collaborated with a team of researchers at the University of Michigan and NASA to identify a critical security flaw in the networking approach used in these and other safety-critical systems. Known as Time-Triggered Ethernet, or TTE, this approach has been used for more than a decade in aerospace, aviation and heavy industry applications. In thos...

Have you ever been advised to "walk a mile in someone else's shoes?" Considering another person's perspective can be a challenging endeavor—but recognizing our errors and biases is key to building understanding across communities. By challenging our preconceptions, we confront prejudice, such as racism and xenophobia, and potentially develop a more inclusive perspective about others. To assist with perspective-taking, MIT researchers have developed "On the Plane"—a virtual reality role-playing game (VR RPG) that simulates discrimination. In this case, the game portrays xenophobia directed against a Malaysian America woman, but the approach can be generalized. Situated on an airplane, players can take on the role of characters from different backgrounds, engaging in dialogue with o...