Applied Physics

A new breakthrough in hydrogen storage technology could remove a key barrier to widespread uptake of non-polluting cars that produce no carbon dioxide emissions. PN 35-07 atoms. CLICK IMAGE FOR FULL SIZE. Credit: EPSRC UK scientists have developed a compound of the element lithium which may make it practical to store enough hydrogen on-board fuel-cell-powered cars to enable them to drive over 300 miles before refuelling. Achieving this driving range is considered essential if a mass market for fuel cell cars is to develop in future years, but has not been possible using current hydrogen…

Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine offer future patients greater options for treatment and cure of a wide array of urologic conditions, and controversies surrounding the sources of stem cells as well as their use have fueled increased research. Here are highlights from the latest research: ISOLATION OF HUMAN SPERMATOGONIAL STEM CELLS FROM TESTICULAR PARENCHYMA AND DIFFERENTIATION TOWARDS DIFFERENT TISSUES OF THE THREE HUMAN GERM LAYERS Researchers in Tuebingen, Germany, investigated the possibility of isolating stem cells from human testicular parenchyma and whether those cells…

As many homeowners know, when stacking firewood, pieces should be placed close enough to permit passage of a mouse, but not of a cat chasing the mouse. Now, imagine a woodpile where all those mouse passageways are packed with ice, the wood carefully removed, and you have an idea of what the latest photonic structure built by researchers at the University of Illinois looks like. It’s called an inverse woodpile structure, and the U. of I. device is built of germanium, a material with a higher refractive index than silicon. "Until now, all woodpile structures have been composed of solid or…

Electrical engineers from the University of Delaware and Cambridge NanoTech have demonstrated for the first time how the spin properties of electrons in silicon--the world's most dominant semiconductor, used in electronics ranging from computers to cell phones--can be measured and controlled. The discovery could dramatically advance the nascent field of spintronics, which focuses on harnessing the magnet-like "spin" property of electrons instead of solely their charge to create exponentially faster, more powerful electronics such as quantum computers. The world's first silicon spin-transport…

The research reactor at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory is back in action and better than ever. After $70 million in renovations and more than a year of meticulous system checks, ORNL’s High Flux Isotope Reactor was restarted this week, taken to 10 percent power, and reached its peak power of 85 megawatts Wednesday. ORNL's High Flux Isotope Reactor has been used for neutron-scattering studies since 196g. Credit: ORNL "The restart has gone well," said Kelly Beierschmitt, HFIR executive director. "This reactor’s design is rigorous and robust. Its performance has been…

Combining statistics and chemistry, researchers are challenging the evidence for the lone-gunman theory in the 1963 assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy. Texas A&M University professor of statistics Cliff Spiegelman recently teamed with former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent and forensic scientist William A. Tobin of Forensic Engineering International in Virginia and William D. James, a research chemist with the Texas A&M Center for Chemical Characterization and Analysis (CCCA)and conducted a chemical and forensic analysis of bullets reportedly…

A team of University of Georgia researchers has developed a new biofuel derived from wood chips. Unlike previous fuels derived from wood, the new and still unnamed fuel can be blended with biodiesel and petroleum diesel to power conventional engines. "The exciting thing about our method is that it is very easy to do," said Tom Adams, director of the UGA Faculty of Engineering outreach service. "We expect to reduce the price of producing fuels from biomass dramatically with this technique." UGA researchers have developed a way to turn wood pellets such as these into fuel. Credit: Peter Frey/…

Most people don’t think much about the inner workings of LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, which illuminate today’s plasma TV screens and cell phones, but making these LEDs more efficient, cheaper and higher quality is the obsession that occupies the daily thoughts of materials science and engineering professor Yang Yang and his graduate researcher Jinsong Huang. Yang and Huang have recently achieved the highest lumens per watt ever recorded for a red phosphorescent LED using a new combination of plastic, or polymer, infused liquid — and they did it at half the current cost. Yang and Huang’s…

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new method to bond materials that don’t normally stick together. The team’s adhesive, which is based on self-assembling nanoscale chains, could impact everything from next-generation computer chip manufacturing to energy production. Less than a nanometer – or one billionth of a meter – thick, the nanoglue is inexpensive to make and can withstand temperatures far higher than what was previously envisioned. In fact, the adhesive’s molecular bonds strengthen when exposed to heat. A new method allows a self-assembled molecular…

Researchers have created the first computational model to track engine performance from one combustion cycle to the next for a new type of engine that could dramatically reduce oil consumption and the emission of global-warming pollutants. "We're talking about a major leap in engine technology that could be used in hybrid cars to make vehicles much more environmentally friendly and fuel stingy," said Gregory M. Shaver, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University. Gregory M. Shaver, from left, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue, and graduate…