Do you have trouble learning endocrine system terminology? That shall end today! Join us now on episode 10 of our Anatomical Terminology for Healthcare Professionals course series on Youtube:
Inspired by the material that makes up oyster and abalone shells, engineers at Princeton have created a new cement composite that is 17 times more crack-resistant than standard cement and 19 times more able to stretch and deform without breaking. The findings could eventually help increase the crack resistance of a wide range of brittle ceramic materials, from concrete to porcelain.
While carbon nanotubes are the materials that have received most of the attention so far, they have proved very difficult to manufacture and control, so scientists are eager to find other compounds that could be used to create nanowires and nanotubes with equally interesting properties, but easier to handle.
So, Chiara Cignarella, Davide Campi and Nicola Marzari thought to use computer simulations to parse known three-dimensional crystals, looking for those that—based on their structural and electronic properties —look like they could be easily “exfoliated,” essentially peeling away from them a stable 1-D structure. The same method has been successfully used in the past to study 2D materials, but this is the first application to their 1-D counterparts.
The researchers started from a collection of over 780,000 crystals, taken from various databases found in the literature and held together by van der Waals forces, the sort of weak interactions that happen when atoms are close enough for their electrons to overlap. Then they applied an algorithm that considered the spatial organization of their atoms looking for the ones that incorporated wire-like structures, and calculated how much energy would be necessary to separate that 1-D structure from the rest of the crystal.
Germany’s automakers manufactured around 1.27 million BEVs and PHEVs in 2023, putting it at No. 2 behind China, but 2024 will be bumpy.
The German automotive industry association VDA says that 995,000 purely electric vehicles rolled off German assembly lines in 2023.
China dominates global EV production, but most of its cars are sold domestically. By contrast, 76% of German EVs are sold abroad. The US holds the spot for the world’s third-largest EV maker. And Germany, the home of key automakers such as Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz, leads Europe with more EVs produced than second-placed Spain (256,000) and France (225,000) combined.
Hydrogen (H2) is a promising fuel for reducing greenhouse gases, especially if produced by using renewable energy to split water molecules (H2O). But as simple as it may seem to break water into hydrogen and oxygen, the chemistry is complex.
If users wish to “freeze” the soft robot’s shape, they can apply moderate heat (64°C, or 147°F), and then let the robot cool briefly. This prevents the soft robot from reverting to its original shape, even after the liquid in the microfluidic channels is pumped out. If users want to return the soft robot to its original shape, they simply apply the heat again after pumping out the liquid, and the robot relaxes to its original configuration.
“A key factor here is fine-tuning the thickness of the shape memory layer relative to the layer that contains the microfluidic channels,” says Yinding Chi, co-lead author of the paper and a former Ph.D. student at NC State. “You need the shape memory layer to be thin enough to bend when the actuator’s pressure is applied, but thick enough to get the soft robot to retain its shape even after the pressure is removed.”
To demonstrate the technique, the researchers created a soft robot “gripper,” capable of picking up small objects. The researchers applied hydraulic pressure, causing the gripper to pinch closed on an object. By applying heat, the researchers were able to fix the gripper in its “closed” position, even after releasing pressure from the hydraulic actuator.
When placed at the tip of a turbine blade, the c-shaped “winglet” inspired by the condor reduces drag, potentially increasing the turbine’s efficiency by up to 10% in optimal conditions, according to a study published in the journal Energy.
The wings of soaring birds have also been adapted for use in commercial and military aircraft around the world to increase their lift, says co-author Brian Fleck, a professor of mechanical engineering and expert in fluid dynamics.
“We used to have airplanes with straight wings,” says Fleck. “Now we see them with the tips curled up, and there’s a reason for that.”
Now, iPhone owners will have to decide if Apple Intelligence is enough of a reason to upgrade.
Apple certainly hopes so.
First 30 days are free and 20% off the annual premium subscription when you use our link ➜ https://brilliant.org/sabine. We just saw another open letter abo…
There’s a lot of other ways that AI could really take things in a bad direction.
One of the OpenAI directors who worked to oust CEO Sam Altman is issuing some stark warnings about the future of unchecked artificial intelligence.
In an interview during Axios’ AI+ summit, former OpenAI board member Helen Toner suggested that the risks AI poses to humanity aren’t just worst-case scenarios from science fiction.
“I just think sometimes people hear the phrase ‘existential risk’ and they just think Skynet, and robots shooting humans,” Toner said, referencing the evil AI technology from the “Terminator” films that’s often used as a metaphor for worst-case-scenario AI predictions.