3D printed bridge in Spain. Could this some day be our answer to reducing costs around US state and county infrastructure costs related to bridges and other structural repairs related to infrastructure?
The pedestrian crossing 3D-printed bridge installed in the urban park of Castilla La Mancha in Madrid, Spain, back in December is now ready to be used.
The 39-foot-long bridge was printed in micro-reinforced concrete at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia.
In addition to the 3D printing, the production process was also environmentally friendly allowing the team to optimize the distribution of materials, minimize the amount of water, and recycle the raw material during manufacture.
Luv this.
Researchers at The University of Manchester have developed a method of producing water-based and inkjet printable 2D material inks, which could bring 2D crystal heterostructures from the lab into real-world products.
Examples include efficient light detectors, and devices that are able to store information encoded in binary form which have been demonstrated, in collaboration with the University of Pisa.
Graphene is the world’s first 2D material: 200 times stronger than steel, lightweight, flexible and more conductive of copper. Since graphene’s isolation in 2004 the family of 2D materials has expanded.
Wonder which 3D printer she used?
Together with scientists, fashion designers have used graphene — a Nobel-Prize winning material that’s tougher than diamonds — to give their LBD a high-tech cut.
“We are trying to showcase the amazing properties of graphene,” Francesca Rosella, the co-founder of fashion company CuteCircuit, told CNN.
Graphene is extremely versatile and ideal for biosensor technology, BMI, etc. we really have just began understanding its capabilities.
An international team of researchers under the umbrella of the EU-funded Graphene Flagship have taken a significant step in thermal infrared (IR) photodetctors with the development of the most sensitive uncooled graphene-based thermal detector yet fabricated. These new photodetectors, known as bolometers, are so sensitive that they can register the presence of a scant few nanowatts of radiation. That level of radiation is about a thousandth of what would be given off by a hand waving in front of the detector.
In the research described in the journal Nature Communications, scientists from the University of Cambridge, UK; the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), Spain; the University of Ioannina, Greece; and from Nokia and Emberion found that the combination of graphene and pyroelectric materials—which generate a voltage when they are heated or cooled—yields a unique synergy that boosts the performance of thermal photodetectors.
The actual design of the device is fairly simple. The pyroelectric material acts as the substrate; a conductive channel made from single-layer graphene runs through it, and a floating gate electrode floats above it.
A new technology for cleaning and maintaining your aquarium as well as useful for zoos, public aquariums, etc.
A new technology for fishing industry and hobbyists.1092647.htm
Engineers at MIT have fabricated transparent, gel-based robots that move when water is pumped in and out of them. The bots can perform a number of fast, forceful tasks, including kicking a ball underwater, and grabbing and releasing a live fish.
The robots are made entirely of hydrogel — a tough, rubbery, nearly transparent material that’s composed mostly of water. Each robot is an assemblage of hollow, precisely designed hydrogel structures, connected to rubbery tubes. When the researchers pump water into the hydrogel robots, the structures quickly inflate in orientations that enable the bots to curl up or stretch out.
The team fashioned several hydrogel robots, including a finlike structure that flaps back and forth, an articulated appendage that makes kicking motions, and a soft, hand-shaped robot that can squeeze and relax.
Another write up on last week’s news on the Hydrogen metal discovery. Definitely impacting many industries tech, auto, construction/ building materials, etc.
It’s been over 80 years since the idea of metallic hydrogen was first theorized.
It’s not that changing hydrogen into a different state isn’t possible, because it is – by cooling it to −253 degrees Celsius, it can be turned into liquid. The challenge, however, lies in changing hydrogen into a solid metallic state because of the extreme pressure required to do it.
Hypothetically, metallic hydrogen can revolutionize industries like electronics, magnetics and transportation; help reduce the world’s energy problems; and usher in a brand new age of interstellar exploration. Because it can be used as a superconductor at room temperature, it could make electricity distribution more efficient – no more wasted energy caused by resistance in power lines. And since metallic hydrogen is created under extreme pressure, once it is converted back to its original state, all that pressure will be released, making it the most powerful propellant ever produced, one that can make space travel that much faster.
There are many people who could use a bit of help moving their limbs, but they don’t necessarily need a full-on exoskeleton. Well, imagine if their clothes could provide that help. Such a thing may one day be possible, thanks to the recent creation of “textile muscles.”
In a study conducted at Sweden’s Linköping University and University of Borås, scientists coated mass-producible cellulose yarn with a flexible electroactive polymer known as polypyrrole.
When a low voltage is applied to the polymer, it increases in volume, causing the yarn fibers to increase in length accordingly – when the electrical current is switched off, the fibers retract back to their original length. By varying the manner in which those fibers are woven together, it’s possible to tune the force of the material toward different tasks.
Posted in materials
Nearly a century after it was theorized, Harvard scientists have succeeded in creating metallic hydrogen. In addition to helping scientists answer fundamental questions about the nature of matter, the material is theorized to have a wide range of applications, ranging from room-temperature superconductors to powerful rocket propellant.
