Applied Physics

New Nickel-Oxide Coating Boosts Solar Cell Performance

While current-generation solar cell technologies are too expensive and inefficient for wide-scale commercial applications, the demands of United States energy needs are spurring new advancements in improving solar cell efficiency. A team of Northwestern Un ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 22 2008 - 2:56pm

Your Friend Bacteria: Nanofilters, Bioremediation And The Future Of Clean Water

Bacteria get bad press, with those found in water often linked to illness and disease. But researchers at The University of Nottingham are using these tiny organisms alongside the very latest membrane filtration techniques to improve and refine water clean ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 24 2008 - 8:30am

Aegis Weapon System Successfully Destroys Errant Satellite

Lockheed Martin's Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) Weapon System successfully destroyed an errant United States satellite, preventing it from an uncontrolled and unpredictable reentry and potential crash to Earth. In the mission, the SPY-1B radar ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 23 2008 - 6:15pm

Bacterial 'Gladiators' Lead To New Antibiotic

MIT biologists have provoked soil-dwelling bacteria into producing a new type of antibiotic by pitting them against another strain of bacteria in a battle for survival. The antibiotic holds promise for treatment of Helicobacter pylori, which causes stomach ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 26 2008 - 12:14pm

Solving Sodium Alanate Mystery Puts Efficient Hydrogen Vehicles Back On The Road Map

Hydrogen gas fueled vehicles could dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lessen the country’s dependence on sources of fossil fuel- but production and storage are obstacles. With current technologies, hydrogen gas storage tanks have to be as lar ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 27 2008 - 8:46am

Ranking The Quality Of Scientific Journals By Field

The number of scientists is increasing along with the number of scientific journals and published papers, the latter two thanks in large part to the rise of electronic publishing. Scientists and other researchers are finding it more difficult than ever to ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 28 2008 - 7:42pm

Engineering The World's Fastest Speedo

A highly specialised computer modelling technique developed at The University of Nottingham has been instrumental in the design of a revolutionary new swimsuit which is now being hailed as the fastest in the world. Dr Herve Morvan, a lecturer in fluid mech ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 28 2008 - 4:07pm

Man, Make-Up And Meat

In The Big Bang and the Birth of Culture, we talked about the beginning of culture long before what anthropologists had previously assumed. ...

Article - Howard Bloom - Feb 29 2008 - 1:17am

Would 'Virtual Peers' Help Autistic Kids Interact With Real-Life Children?

Using “virtual peers”-- animated life-sized children that simulate the behaviors and conversation of typically developing children-- Northwestern University researchers are developing interventions designed to prepare children with autism for interactions ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 29 2008 - 12:47pm

Surface Dislocation Nucleation In Metal Means A Limit To Superstrength At The Nano Level

Penn engineers have developed a model that shows while metals tend to be stronger at nanoscale volumes, their strengths saturate at around 10-50 nanometers diameter, at which point they also become more sensitive to temperature and strain rate. Using this ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 4 2008 - 11:42am