Plasma

To say things are really heating up at the US Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory isn't just a bad pun, it's one hell (sorry) of an understatement. An Oxford-led team used the Stanford-based facility that houses the world's most powerful X-ray laser to create and probe a 2-million-degree Celsius (or about 3.6 million degrees Fahrenheit) piece of matter. The experiment allowed the scientists the closest look yet at what conditions might be like in the heart of the Sun, other stars and planets. Read More

We've been keeping an eye on efforts to make the dreaded dentist's drill a thing of the past for some time, and now there's more good news on the horizon for the cavity-prone (and pain-phobic). Engineers at the University of Missouri (MU) in conjunction with Nanova, Inc. have successfully lab-tested a plasma "brush" that can painlessly clean and prep cavities so well, there's no need for mechanical abrasion prior to filling. The really good news is that human clinical trials begin soon and, if all goes well, the device could hit dentist's offices as soon as late 2013. Read More

Engineers from Burton Inc. in Japan have rolled out a "True 3D" display, which evolved from work begun five years previously by teams at Keio University and Japan's national institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). While most 3D displays available today involve a form of optical illusion that depends on the parallax or disparity inherent in human binocular vision, this new system, which can function in air or under water, needs no screen of any sort, and the effect is quite impressive. Read More

The humble Petri dish may soon be a thing of the past. A team of researchers in Germany have developed a new technique for treating plastic bags with plasmas to turn them into sealed, sterile containers suitable for microbiology work with much less chance of contamination than traditional containers. This holds the promise of not only decreasing the possibility of contamination in stem cell and live-cell therapy techniques, but also the potential for cultivating whole human organs for transplant surgery. Read More

So, you've downloaded some songs by Abney Park (one of the world's few steampunk bands) onto your Datamancer laptop or your Old Time Computers-accessorized PC ... do you just listen to them through the built-in speakers? Not if you're Polish tinkerer Conscious Flesh. He has created a speaker that not only looks delightfully mad-Victorian-scientist-esque, but it actually produces sound using plasma discharges. Nikola Tesla would definitely approve. Read More

Cold plasma has received a further boost as a potential alternative to antibiotics in the fight against multi-drug resistant bacteria. A study published by a Russian-German research team found that just ten minutes of treatment with a low temperature (35-40°C/95-104°F) plasma torch killed drug-resistant bacteria in wound infections in rats and also increased the rate at which wounds healed. Read More

Protecting aircraft from lightning strikes probably isn't the first use of nanotechnology that springs to mind, but that's exactly what Fraunhofer researchers hope to achieve by combining carbon nanotubes with carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs). Read More

Amongst the plethora of displays out to tempt our eyeballs at IFA 2010 in Berlin were some nice looking new release plasmas from Panasonic. There was the 42-inch TX-P42GT20 that marks the addition of yet another series to the company’s 3D VIERA line-up, along with two new 3D plasmas to join its high-end VT20 series. The new 42-inch and 46-inch models, the TX-P46VT20 and TX-P42VT20, sees the VT20 line-up expand to cover the gamut of 42- to 65-inch screen sizes. The new 42-inch models also mark a world first for 3D plasmas. Read More

Samsung, the manufacturer with its fingers in just about every consumer electronics pie known to man, has announced a flood of new 3D-enabled products. There’s Blu-ray players – both standalone and as part of a home theater, as well as the world’s first portable 3D Blu-ray player. There’s also new 3D TVs, including a 65-inch model the company says is the world’s largest Full HD 3D LED TV, along with three new 3D enabled plasmas. Kind of gives the impression that Samsung thinks this 3D thing will be a little more than a flash in the pan. Read More