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Blog – Page 1444

It is a common hack to stretch a balloon out to make it easier to inflate. When the balloon stretches, the width crosswise shrinks to the size of a string. Noah Stocek, a PhD student collaborating with Western University physicist Giovanni Fanchini, has developed a new nanomaterial that demonstrates the opposite of this phenomenon.

Working at Interface Science Western, home of the Tandetron Accelerator Facility, Stocek, and Fanchini formulated two-dimensional nanosheets of tungsten semi-carbide (or W2C, a chemical compound containing equal parts of tungsten and carbon atoms) which when stretched in one direction, expand perpendicular to the applied force. This structural design is known as auxetics.

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Dielectric capacitors are ubiquitous components that play a vital role in electronic devices and energy storage systems. Their ability to rapidly discharge significant amounts of energy makes them indispensable for high-power applications.

“High-energy and high-power capacitors are the backbone of reliable power supplies, especially as we transition towards renewable energy sources,” explains Alamgir Karim, Dow Chair and Welch Foundation Professor of Chemical Engineering at UH and a faculty mentor on the project. “However, current dielectric capacitors fall short in terms of energy storage capacity compared to other options like batteries. The advantage of capacitors lies in their superior power density, making them a more suitable choice for various applications.”

The key factor influencing a capacitor’s energy storage is a combination of its permittivity (ε) and dielectric breakdown strength (EBD). Professor Karim emphasizes, “To enhance a capacitor’s energy storage, advancements in both these aspects are crucial.”

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ETH Zurich researchers have developed a locomotor control that can enable wheeled-legged robots to autonomously navigate various urban environments.

The robot was equipped with sophisticated navigational abilities thanks to a combination of machine learning algorithms. It was tested in the cities of Seville, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland.

With little assistance from humans, the team’s ANYmal wheeled-legged robot accomplished autonomous operations in urban settings at the kilometer scale.

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Instead of creating materials that are made to last, Freeman says their materials are made to task — perform a specific function and then modify themselves to serve a new function.

This achievement holds significant promise for advancements in regenerative medicine, drug delivery methods, and diagnostic technologies.

“With this discovery, we can think of engineering fabrics or tissues that can be sensitive to changes in their environment and behave in dynamic ways,” states Freeman.

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Kurt Gödel was born #OTD 1906.

Today marks Kurt Gödel’s one hundred and eleventh birthday. Along with Aristotle, Gödel is often considered the greatest logician in history. But I believe his influence goes much farther. In an age when both science and politics seem to be riddled with an incessant search for “truth” — often truth that aligns with one’s preconceived social or political opinions — Gödel’s work is a useful antidote and a powerful reminder against the illusion of certainty.

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Some Google Chrome users report having issues connecting to websites, servers, and firewalls after Chrome 124 was released last week with the new quantum-resistant X25519Kyber768 encapsulation mechanism enabled by default.

Google started testing the post-quantum secure TLS key encapsulation mechanism in August and has now enabled it in the latest Chrome version for all users.

The new version utilizes the Kyber768 quantum-resistant key agreement algorithm for TLS 1.3 and QUIC connections to protect Chrome TLS traffic against quantum cryptanalysis.

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Engineers at Georgia Tech have designed a process that converts carbon dioxide removed from the air into useful raw material that could be used for new plastics, chemicals, or fuels.

Their approach dramatically reduces the cost and energy required for these (DAC) systems, helping improve the economics of a process the researchers said will be critical to addressing .

The key is a new kind of catalyst and electrochemical reactor design that can be easily integrated into existing DAC systems to produce useful carbon monoxide (CO) gas. It’s one of the most efficient such design ever described in , according to lead researcher Marta Hatzell and her team. They have published the details in Energy & Environmental Science.

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