Metamaterials step into the light

Scientists in England and Valencia, Spain, have constructed what may be the first practicalmetamaterial that manipulates visible light.

The researchers predict it could be used for subpicosecond (less than a trillionth of a second) optical switches and finely controlled laser pulses. The layered structure, in contrast to the makeup of earlier… [ IEEE Spectrum ]

Topics: Electronics | Nanotech/Materials Science | Physics/Cosmology

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Transparent graphene-based material could revolutionize wearable electronics, solar panels

April 28, 2012

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GraphExeter, the most transparent, lightweight and flexible material ever for conducting electricity, has been invented by a team from the University of Exeter.

It could revolutionize the creation of wearable electronic devices, such as clothing containing computers, phones, and MP3 players, and smart mirrors or windows, adding computerized interactive features. Since this material is also…

Topics: Electronics | Energy | Nanotech/Materials Science

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Liquid solar cells that can be printed onto surfaces

April 27, 2012

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USC scientists have developed a potential pathway to cheap, stable solar cells made from nanocrystals so small they can exist as a liquid ink and can be painted or printed onto clear surfaces.

The solar nanocrystals are about four nanometers in size and float them in a liquid solution, so “like…

Topics: Electronics | Energy | Nanotech/Materials Science

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New harvesting approach boosts energy output from bacteria

April 27, 2012

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A novel energy system that increases the amount of energy harvested from microbial fuel cells (MFCs) by more than 70 times has been developed by University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver) scientists.

The new approach also greatly improves energy efficiency. MFCs are emerging as a way to use bacteria to directly harvest electricity from biodegradable…

Topics: Biotech | Energy | Environment/Climate

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How to create multiple frequencies of light simultaneously

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An artist's rendition of electron-hole recollision. Near-infrared (amber rods) and terahertz (yellow cones) radiation interact with a semiconductor quantum well (tiles). The near-IR radiation creates excitons (green tiles) consisting of a negative electron and a positive hole (dark blue tile at center of green tiles) bound in an atom-like state. Intense terahertz fields pull the electrons (white tiles) first away from the hole and then back towards it (electron paths represented by blue ellipses). Electrons periodically recollide with holes, creating periodic flashes of light (white disks between amber rods) that are emitted and detected as sidebands. (Credit: Peter Allen, UCSB)

By aiming high- and low-frequency laser beams at a semiconductor, physicists at UC Santa Barbara have produced multiple frequencies of light simultaneously, with the potential to significantly increase the speed of data communication.

They did that by causing electrons to be ripped from their cores, accelerated, and then smashed back into the cores they left behind.

When the high-frequency optical laser beam hits the semiconductor material — in this case, gallium arsenide nanostructures — it creates an electron-hole pair called an exciton. The electron is negatively charged, and the hole is positively charged, and the two are bound together by their mutual attraction.

“The very strong, low-frequency free electron laser beam rips the electron away from the hole and accelerates it,” explained Mark Sherwin, whose research group made the groundbreaking discovery. Sherwin is a professor of physics at UCSB and a co-author of the paper. He is also director of the campus’s Institute for Terahertz Science and Technology.

“As the low-frequency field oscillates, it causes the electron to come careening back to the hole.” The electron has excess energy because it has been accelerated, and when it slams back into the hole, the recombined electron-hole pair emits photons at new frequencies — up to 11 in their experiment.

The electron-hole recollision phenomenon has the potential to significantly increase the speed of data transfer and communication processes. One possible application involves multiplexing — the ability to send data down multiple channels. Another is high-speed modulation.

The researchers utilize a free electron laser to produce the electron-hole recollisions, which they note is not practical for real-world applications.

Theoretically, however, a transistor could be used in place of the free electron laser to produce the strong terahertz fields.

The Future of Manufacturing

Manufacturing has a key role to play in economic growth, particularly in driving exports and productivity, and in rebalancing the UK economy. It also brings a number of other benefits to the UK in terms of societal value and contribution to national resilience.

The nature of manufacturing and its role in the UK and global economies is going through a period of change.

As with a number of developed economies, the manufacturing share of the UK economy has declined, from 22% of GDP in 1990 to around 10% today. New industries and technologies are emerging. There is increased competition and changing demand for products and services.

The Future of Manufacturing project will provide a timely and fresh look at the long-term picture for the manufacturing sector out to 2050, investigating global trends and drivers of change.

Leading experts

The project calls on industry and academic expertise from the UK and abroad to explore how the UK can maximise key opportunities and mitigate risks. In doing so, it will provide a robust evidence base to help ensure that policy decisions taken today are resilient in an uncertain future.

The Government Office for Science Foresight programme leads the project, under the direction of the Government Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Sir John Beddington. Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, is the project sponsor Minister.

A Lead Expert Group (LEG) of eminent academic and private sector experts from a range of disciplines works alongside the Foresight team to help guide the project and secure a strong evidence base. A High Level Stakeholder Group (HLSG), chaired by Vince Cable, will advise on the strategic direction and impact. Find out more about the LEG. Members of the HLSG will be announced in early 2012.

The project’s fresh thinking, innovative evidence base and futures analysis will help inform policy makers in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and a range of other relevant departments throughout the project and beyond.

Technology and Innovation Futures: Growth Opportunities for the 2020s

Technology and Innovation Futures (PDF, 824 Kb) is a forward look at a range of developments which have the potential over the next 20 years to support sustained economic growth in the UK. As the UK comes out of the economic downturn, it seems likely that future economic prosperity will derive in large part from seizing opportunities offered by technologies such as these.

The report concludes that there are strong opportunities for growth in the UK economy through the 2020s if businesses can harness scientific and industrial capabilities to take advantage of technology developments and identifies three potential areas of growth which could be transformative: manufacturing, infrastructure and the internet.

Other areas highlighted by the report are the energy transition which the UK will undergo during the next 10-20 years, the UK’s R&D efforts in new materials which could help realise the move to a low carbon economy, the potential of the market for regenerative medicine and the increasing importance of intellectual property - all of which offer opportunities for UK companies.

The evidence base used in the TIF project was gathered by deskwork, interviews with 25 leading figures from research and business, and five workshops involving 150 academics, industrialists, experts from the private sector and Government. The workshops used a range of futures techniques to provoke and structure discussions and the outputs of the workshops were considered and refined through further desk-work.

Click technology annex.

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programme this summer to evaluate open-rotor jet engines

The refurbished NASA test rig (photo: GE) Following the refurbishment of a special test rig at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, engine manufacturer GE Aviation and NASA will begin wind-tunnel testing of counter-rotating fan-blade systems for open-rotor jet engine designs this summer. The open-rotor engine has been touted by both GE and rival Rolls-Royce as a possible next-generation engine for narrowbody aircraft because of its potential for substantial reductions in fuel consumption and emissions of CO2 and NOx. However, the prime challenge for them both is to arrest the significant increase in engine noise levels posed by the open design. NASA’s test rig was actually used in the 1980s when NASA and GE first tested scale-model, counter-rotating fan systems that led to the development of the open-rotor GE36 engine. GE successfully ground-tested and flew an open-rotor jet engine – then called an unducted fan (UDF) – that demonstrated fuel savings of more than 30% compared to similar-sized, conventional engines. The design was prompted by a surge in the oil price at the time but was shelved once the price fell back. Although a similar scenario has been repeated with the price of crude oil falling from a peak of nearly $150 per barrel to nearer $30 earlier this year, circumstances are different this time round. The price has now risen sharply back to around $70 and could go higher still once the global recession begins to play itself out and, as important, the environmental imperative is so much stronger now than it was over 20 years ago. GE says it has dramatically advanced its computational aero-acoustic analysis tools since then to better understand and improve open-rotor systems. The manufacturer stresses the programme will not involve full engine testing but will be a component rig test to evaluate subscale fan systems. GE and the Fundamental Aeronautics Program of NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate in Washington are jointly funding the testing, with Snecma of France – GE’s partner in CFM International – participating with fan blade designs. For the NASA testing, which will essentially re-enact the 1980s tests, GE will run two rows of counter-rotating fan blades, with 12 blades in the front row and 10 blades in the back row. As new and more exotic fan blade designs are run in the wind tunnel, GE and NASA say they will be able to better understand how these designs will perform in an actual operating environment. “These tests will help to tell us how confident we are in meeting the technical challenges of an open-rotor architecture. It’s a journey driven by a need to sharply reduce fuel consumption in future aircraft,” said David Joyce, President of GE Aviation. Open-rotor jet engine designs are among the longer-term technologies being evaluated for LEAP-X, CFM International’s technology programme focusing on future advances for next-generation CFM56 engines.

Boeing Successfully Flies Fuel Cell-Powered Airplane

Boeing announced that it has, for the first time in aviation history, flown a manned airplane powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

The recent milestone is the work of an engineering team at Boeing Research & Technology Europe (BR&TE) in Madrid, with assistance from industry partners in Austria, France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.

"Boeing is actively working to develop new technologies for environmentally progressive aerospace products," said Francisco Escarti, BR&TE's managing director. "We are proud of our pioneering work during the past five years on the Fuel Cell Demonstrator Airplane project. It is a tangible example of how we are exploring future leaps in environmental performance, as well as a credit to the talents and innovative spirit of our team."

A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that converts hydrogen directly into electricity and heat with none of the products of combustion such as carbon dioxide. Other than heat, water is its only exhaust.

A two-seat Dimona motor-glider with a 16.3 meter (53.5 foot) wingspan was used as the airframe. Built by Diamond Aircraft Industries of Austria, it was modified by BR&TE to include a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell/lithium-ion battery hybrid system to power an electric motor coupled to a conventional propeller.

Three test flights took place in February and March at the airfield in Ocaña, south of Madrid, operated by the Spanish company SENASA.

During the flights, the pilot of the experimental airplane climbed to an altitude of 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) above sea level using a combination of battery power and power generated by hydrogen fuel cells. Then, after reaching the cruise altitude and disconnecting the batteries, the pilot flew straight and level at a cruising speed of 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour) for approximately 20 minutes on power solely generated by the fuel cells.

According to Boeing researchers, PEM fuel cell technology potentially could power small manned and unmanned air vehicles. Over the longer term, solid oxide fuel cells could be applied to secondary power-generating systems, such as auxiliary power units for large commercial airplanes. Boeing does not envision that fuel cells will ever provide primary power for large passenger airplanes, but the company will continue to investigate their potential, as well as other sustainable alternative fuel and energy sources that improve environmental performance.

BR&TE, part of the Boeing Phantom Works advanced R&D unit, has worked closely with Boeing Commercial Airplanes and a network of partners since 2003 to design, assemble and fly the experimental craft.

The group of companies, universities and institutions participating in this project includes:

• Austria -- Diamond Aircraft Industries
• France -- SAFT France
• Germany -- Gore and MT Propeller
• Spain -- Adventia, Aerlyper, Air Liquide Spain, Indra, Ingeniería de Instrumentación y Control (IIC), Inventia, SENASA, Swagelok, Técnicas Aeronauticas de Madrid (TAM), Tecnobit, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, and the Regional Government of Madrid
• United Kingdom -- Intelligent Energy
• United States -- UQM Technologies.

Hydrogen fuel cell powered jet takes flight!

Hydrogen fuel cell powered jet takes flight!

An unmanned, hydrogen fuel cell powered jet engine made its high-pitched debut earlier this today. Which, according to the group of developers behind it, makes it the world's first environmentally friendly jet engine.

They don't seem to have been content with simply getting the jet off the ground, the pushing itself to a top speed of 700km per hour, and even performed a few aerial acrobatics (click on above title to see video).

Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies Inc see the technology winding up in other unmanned fly machines (military recon, mapping, search and find, etc) which they say would be capable of 30 hour flight times.

General Electric (GE) have not officially made a comment, but when I emailed Mark Dunn, a Senior Aerospace Engineer I know who works for GE, said:

'We have informal plans in the works, but there's no reason - if we start now -why we shouldn't get a full scale commercial airliner HydroJet prototype up and running by 2012.'

My estimate, technically speaking, is that we could replace all conventional gas guzzling, CO2 emitting, commercial jet turbines replaced by 2020.

I foresee a real scramble coming between the commercial jet heavy weights.

RR V GE Hydrogen Jet Engine development will be the biggest aerospace boxing bout of the early 21st century.

And Hay! We can all go on far away holidays again, without denting our conscience - and planet - anymore.

MonoSol Creates Innovative Dissolvable Packaging To Combat Waste

Single-serve drink mixes and individually wrapped foods are a boon for landfill enthusiasts. Dissolvable-packaging maker MonoSol has a fix. Can you stomach it?

I'm eyeing the clear packet of hot chocolate, marked confidential & proprietary, I just dropped into a mug of steaming water. As I stir, bits of the plasticlike wrapper float to the top. The cocoa creeps out in waves. And then, in an instant, the remnants of the casing simply . . . disappear.

‘It's safe,’ assures the man to my side, who's holding a cup of the same. ‘Go ahead, try it.’

‘You first,’ I reply. We both chuckle, and take a sip.

Soon we may all be drinking what CEO P. Scott Bening and his materials-science shop MonoSol are serving. The company's water-soluble wrappers can be found encasing everything from clothing to pesticides to detergent, such as the Tide Pods Procter & Gamble will launch in the U.S. this month with a $150 million marketing push. ‘Our films are already in your laundry room and kitchen,’ says Bening, between drinks. Now he wants to bring them to your mouth.

Branding experts Karin Hibma and Michael Cronan suggest ways to convince it's okay to ‘eat plastic.’

Invoke nature: ‘Fruit has packaging in the form of skin, and we don't think twice about eating it," says Hibma. "MonoSol should emphasize that in its marketing.’

Add nutrients. ‘Edible casing that's merely neutral is bad," says Cronan. "Even if MonoSol just adds a few electrolytes, the film will be an easier sell.’

Make it relatable ‘Picture a TV ad showing a food wrapper that blows away from a dump, tumbles across fields, and winds up in your hand," says Cronan. "If this packaging eliminates that waste, it's a powerful message.’

Deep within its two northwest Indiana labs, MonoSol has been developing edible films that are soluble, biodegradable, even flavorable.

‘A blow-up view would kind of look like a brick of Ramen noodles,’ says Jon Gallagher, MonoSol's new product development manager. ‘Once there's water penetration, the molecular bonds loosen up.’ Until that point, the material is strong enough to serve as packaging for food. It's a wrapper until it isn't.'

At Last!

DNA Sequencing Device Meant to Be Portable, Disposable and Cheap

DNA sequencing is becoming both faster and cheaper. Now, it is also becoming tinier.

A British company said on Friday that by the end of the year it would begin selling a disposable gene sequencing device that is the size of a USB memory stick and plugs into a laptop computer to deliver its results.

The device, expected to cost less than £600, could allow small sequencing jobs to be done by researchers who cannot afford the £40,000 to £500,000 needed to buy a sequencing machine.

It might also help doctors to sequence genes at a patient’s bedside, wildlife biologists to study genes in the field, or food inspectors to identify pathogens.

“You don’t need to buy instruments,” Clive G. Brown, the chief technology officer of the company, Oxford Nanopore Technologies, said in an interview. “It’s pay-as-you-go sequencing.”

Oxford presented details of the device, as well as of a new, somewhat larger sequencer that it also plans to begin selling late this year, at the Advances in Genome Biology and Technology conference in Marco Island, Fla., which has become the sequencing industry’s annual boast-fest.

See link: http://www.nanoporetech.com/

Oxford Martin Program on the Impacts of Future Technology | Eric Drexler explores physical law and future of Nanotech

Oxford Future of Humanity Institute | Dr. Eric Drexler speaks at the Inaugural Lecture of the Oxford Martin Program on the Impacts of Future Technology. Introduced by Professor Nick Bostrom: “Exploring a Timeless Landscape: Physical Law and the Future of Nanotechnology”

In the inaugural lecture of the Oxford Martin Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology, Eric Drexler explores the implications of physical law for the future potential of nanotechnology, then describes the prospects for productive technologies that can solve global problems on the scale of climate change.

Abstract | A methodology grounded in physics and engineering can answer a limited yet illuminating range of questions about the potential of physical technology. This line of inquiry leads to a crucial question: What can physics tell us about the potential of advanced nanotechnologies? Well-established physical principles show that this potential embraces productive nanotechnologies that have the potential to transform the material basis of civilization. This prospect calls for re-evaluating both research opportunities and broader choices with consequences for the human future.

Oxford Martin Program on the Impacts of Future Technology | The Oxford Martin Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology, launched in September 2011, is an interdisciplinary horizontal Programme within the Oxford Martin School in collaboration with the Faculty of Philosophy at Oxford University. The Program, which is directed by Professor Nick Bostrom, works closely with the Future of Humanity Institute; the Institute for the Future of Computing, the Oxford University Computing Laboratory (Professor Bill Roscoe) and the Oxford e-Research Centre (Professor Anne Trefethen); the Institute for Science and Ethics (Professor Julian Savulescu); and other Oxford Martin School Institutes. Professor David Deutsch (Department of Atomic and Laser Physics, Centre for Quantum Computation, Clarendon Laboratory) serves as a senior consultant.

The Oxford Martin Program on the Impacts of Future Technology analyzes possibilities related to long-range technological change and the potential social impacts of future transformative technologies. Research foci include issues related to the future of computing, existential risks, and methodology, including the following areas: Changing rates of change; Automation and complexity barriers; Machine intelligence capabilities and safety; Novel applications and unexpected societal impacts: Predictability horizons; and Existential risks and future technologies.

We are developing new research into the impact on societies of transformative technological change and the implications of the development of disruptive technologies, including extreme computing and the longer term implications of advances in the biosciences. Technological advancement has always been a major driver of social change. As our rate of technological innovation accelerates, it is vital to understand the nature of technological change, its directions and possible impacts for humanity.

World’s smallest electric motor made from a single molecule

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Chemists at Tufts University‘s School of Arts and Sciences have developed the world’s first single-molecule electric motor, which may create a new class of devices used in medicine and engineering.

It measures a mere 1 nanometer across (the current world record is a 200 nanometer motor).