Research

Researchers at the University of Florida have found they can use low-power lasers as a cheap and efficient way to light and ignite nanoparticles. The discovery could lead to important advancements in the medical, computing and automotive fields. Read More

Just what, you may ask, is a gribble? It’s a tiny marine isopod, and it eats wood. For centuries, they destroyed wooden ships. Today, they continue to munch away on docks and piers. Unlike creatures such as termites, however, gribbles have no helpful microbes in their digestive system to help them digest wood - they themselves possess the enzymes necessary for converting it to sugar. British researchers are now suggesting that what works for the gribbles could also work for converting wood waste and straw into liquid biofuels. Read More

With the Academy Awards just days away, movie fans online are increasingly discussing the ten nominees for best picture along with the five actors and five actresses nominated in a lead role, according to Nielsen Research. Nielsen spiders, records and monitors most open-to-web blogs, forums, groups and a whole range of social media to see which subjects command share-of-voice and makes this massive database available to companies as part of its suite of research offerings – interestingly, though the betting odds available from bookmakers doesn’t quite mirror the share-of-voice, there’s clearly a high correlation. Read More

If you’re a student at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) who is left gasping for breath when forced to drag yourself away from your studies to get a snack, rejoice! A CMU team has created a robot that is designed to deliver snacks to you. But the appropriately named Snackbot is far more than a vending machine on wheels. It is designed to serve as a research platform for the study of long-term Human-Robot Interaction and packs a healthy helping of technological goodies, including a laser navigation system, sonar sensors and a stereo vision camera for eyes. Read More

Fifty years after the invention of the optical laser, two separate research groups have independently made important steps toward making phonon lasers — a type of laser that emits very high-frequency, coordinated sound rather than light waves — a reality. The studies, published in the journal Physical Review Letters, could lead to a completely new kind of laser that could find interesting applications in medical imaging. Read More

Not satisfied with your Kevlar body armor? Well, you may be in luck. American researchers have used lasers to create the world’s first practical macroscopic yarns from boron nitride fibers. The development could unlock the potential of the material for a wide variety of applications, including radiation-shielding for spacecraft, solar energy collection, and stronger body armor. If the supplied photo is anything to go by, it also does a great job at holding up a quarter. Read More

Turning sunlight into electrical power is all but a new problem, but recent advancements made by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have given a new twist to the subject. While not currently aimed at solar panel technology, their research has uncovered a way to turn optical radiation into electrical current that could lead to self-powering molecular circuits and efficient data storage. Read More

Scientists in the US have been cloud-spotting over shipping lanes and have noticed something more interesting than teddy-bear shapes and faces. They have detected that rising steam from passing ships has caused brightening in the clouds which they theorize alters the reflectivity of the cloud and prevents the energy from reaching the Earth. They propose that if this could be achieved artificially via geoengineering it could be an effective defense against global warming. Read More

Anesthetists cannot take their responsibilities lightly. Too little anesthetic and a patient may feel the whole procedure, too much and a patient might shuffle off this mortal coil. Researchers in the Canary Islands have taken the guesswork out of this thorny dilemma and developed a computer-controlled system that measures a patient's hypnotic state and applies the appropriate dose of anesthetic. Read More