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Category: computing – Page 206

Scientists Say New Material Can Suck Carbon Out of Atmosphere Faster Than Trees

A team of scientists in the United Kingdom say they’ve discovered a porous material that has the potential to store large quantities of greenhouse gases, making it a possible new tool in the arsenal to fight climate change.

The scientists detailed how they used computational models to develop this material in a newly published paper in the journal Nature Synthesis, arguing that certain features of the structure could make it excellent storage for carbon dioxide and sulphur hexafluoride, another powerful greenhouse gas.

“This is an exciting discovery because we need new porous materials to help solve society’s biggest challenges,” engineering professor Marc Little from Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University said in a statement about the research.

New class of spongy materials can self-assemble into precisely controllable structures

A team of researchers led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst has drawn inspiration from a wide variety of natural geometric motifs—including those of 12-sided dice and potato chips—in order to extend a set of well-known design principles to an entirely new class of spongy materials that can self-assemble into precisely controllable structures.

The science of static shock jolted into the 21st century

Now Princeton researchers have sparked new life into static. Using millions of hours of computational time to run detailed simulations, the researchers found a way to describe static charge atom-by-atom with the mathematics of heat and work. Their paper appeared in Nature Communications on March 23.

The study looked specifically at how charge moves between materials that do not allow the free flow of electrons, called insulating materials, such as vinyl and acrylic. The researchers said there is no established view on what mechanisms drive these jolts, despite the ubiquity of static: the crackle and pop of clothes pulled from a dryer, packing peanuts that cling to a box.

“We know it’s not electrons,” said Mike Webb, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering, who led the study. “What is it?”

Research combines DNA origami and photolithography to move one step closer to molecular computers

Molecular computer components could represent a new IT revolution and help us create cheaper, faster, smaller, and more powerful computers. Yet researchers struggle to find ways to assemble them more reliably and efficiently.

To help achieve this, scientists from the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences investigated the possibilities of molecular machine self-assembly building upon solutions honed by natural evolution and using synergy with current chip manufacturing.

There is a limit to the miniaturization of current silicon-based computer chips. Molecular electronics, using single-molecule-sized switches and memories, could provide a revolution in the size, speed and capabilities of computers while cutting down on their increasing power consumption, but their mass production is a challenge. Large-scale, low-defect, accessible nanofabrication and assembly of the components remains elusive. Inspiration taken from living nature could change this status quo.