Science

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How to make mobile batteries last longer by controlling energy flows at nano-level

Electronic devices waste a lot of energy by producing useless heat. This is one of the main reasons our mobiles use up battery power so quickly. Researchers at University of Luxembourg have made a leap forward in understanding how this happens and how this waste could be reduced by controlling energy flows at a molecular level. This would make our technology cheaper to run and more durable.

Until now, scientists had just an average view of energy conversion efficiency in nano-devices. For the first time, a more complete picture has been described thanks to University of Luxembourg research. "We discovered universal properties about the way energy efficiency of nano-systems fluctuates," explained Prof. Massimiliano Esposito of Luxembourg University's Physics and Materials research unit. Using this knowledge it will be possible to control energy flows more accurately, so cutting waste.

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Mars Spacecraft Reveal Comet Flyby Effects on Martian Atmosphere

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Artist’s concept of Comet Siding Spring approaching Mars, shown with NASA’s orbiters preparing to make science observations of this unique encounter.

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Outsmarting Thermodynamics in Self-assembly of Nanostructures: Berkeley Lab reports method for symmetry-breaking in feedback-driven self-assembly of optical metamaterials

If you can uniformly break the symmetry of nanorod pairs in a colloidal solution, you're a step ahead of the game toward achieving new and exciting metamaterial properties. But traditional thermodynamic -driven colloidal assembly of these metamaterials, which are materials defined by their non-naturally-occurring properties, often result in structures with high degree of symmetries in the bulk material. In this case, the energy requirement does not allow the structure to break its symmetry.

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imulation of feedback driven self-assembly in mass assembly-line. The tilted network indicates aqueous flow in space (blue reservoir). The plasmon gauged potential (red) phothermally dissociates unwanted assemblies and re-assembles into the desired dimers.

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Researchers Apply Corms Extract for Production of Silver Nanoparticles

Iranian researchers produced silver nanoparticles by using the extract of corms as the reductive solution.

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New tool could help reshape the limits of synthetic biology: The 'telomerator' reshapes synthetic yeast chromosome into more flexible, realistic form, redefining what geneticists can build

NYU Langone yeast geneticists report they have developed a novel tool — dubbed "the telomerator" — that could redefine the limits of synthetic biology and advance how successfully living things can be engineered or constructed in the laboratory based on an organism's genetic, chemical base-pair structure.

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A scientific schematic of the telomerator in action.

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Obtaining Optimum Formulation in Soundproof, Thermal Insulators

Iranian researchers studied the effects of formulation of soundproof and thermal insulators to produce high-quality products.

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Planet-forming Lifeline Discovered in a Binary Star System

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For the first time, researchers using ALMA have detected a streamer of gas flowing from a massive outer disc toward the inner reaches of a binary star system. This never-before-seen feature may be responsible for sustaining a second, smaller disc of planet-forming material that otherwise would have disappeared long ago. Half of Sun-like stars are born in binary systems, meaning that these findings will have major consequences for the hunt for exoplanets.

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Hubble Sees 'Ghost Light' From Dead Galaxies

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Hubble Sees 'Ghost Light' from Dead Galaxies in Galaxy Cluster Abell 2744

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LOFAR discovers largest carbon atoms outside our Milky Way

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A new way to convert light to electrical energy

The conversion of optical power to an electrical potential is of general interest for energy applications, and is typically accomplished by optical excitation of semiconductor materials. A research team has developed a new method for this conversion, using an all-metal structure, based on the plasmon resonance in metal nanostructures.

Plasmoelectric potentials occur when metal nanostructures are excited by light at wavelengths near their resonant wavelengths, and may someday enable development of entirely new types of all-metal optoelectronic devices that can convert light into electrical energy.