news 2016

Switzerland's overhead power lines are showing signs of old age and can be damaged by power surges. But how long will they actually last? Empa researchers have developed a tool to keep tabs on the aging process.

New experiments have shown that it is possible for extremely high currents to pass through graphene, a form of carbon. This allows imbalances in electric charge to be rapidly rectified. The strong electric field of the highly charged ions is able to tear dozens of electrons away from the graphene within a matter of femtoseconds.

For the first time, MIT physicists have observed a highly ordered crystal of electrons in a semiconducting material and documented its melting, much like ice thawing into water. The observations confirm a fundamental phase transition in quantum mechanics that was theoretically proposed more than 80 years ago but not experimentally documented until now.

While exploring the atomic-level forces at play in a new type of computer chip, researchers found an energy-saving surprise that could translate into longer battery life for next-generation mobile devices. Scientists often discover interesting things without completely understanding how they work. That has been the case with an experimental memory technology in which temperature and voltage work together to create the conditions for data storage.

Ever since scientists discovered that atomically thin materials could have useful electronic properties, engineers have been seeking ways to mass-produce so-called single-layer chips. A new technique shows how it might be done. For more than 50 years, silicon chipmakers have devised inventive ways to switch electricity on and off, generating the digital ones and zeroes that encode words, pictures, movies and other forms of data.

A new technique developed by MIT researchers reveals the inner details of photonic crystals, synthetic materials whose exotic optical properties are the subject of widespread research. Photonic crystals are generally made by drilling millions of closely spaced, minuscule holes in a slab of transparent material, using variations of microchip-fabrication methods.

Professor Jim McElwaine of the Department of Earth Sciences talks about new research, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface , which has given some of the first detailed measurements of what takes place inside an avalanche. Tell us a bit about the research? The aim of the project was to understand what processes are taking place inside an avalanche as it travels down a mountain.

Imagine an electronic wearable device, like a Fitbit, stuck on a sticker or temporary tattoo that could read a pulse or measure hand gestures. Then imagine printing that device on your home printer. Carnegie Mellon University Mechanical Engineering Professor Carmel Majidi, Ph.D. student Eric Markvicka and former postdoctoral fellow Michael Bartlett have created a method to print skin-mountable electronics in a quick and cost-effective way.

Scientists have developed a type of HIV test on a USB stick. The device, created by scientists at Imperial College London and DNA Electronics , uses a drop of blood to detect HIV, and then creates an electrical signal that can be read by a computer, laptop or handheld device. The disposable test could be used for HIV patients to monitor their own treatment.

Earth's magnetic field has reversed direction hundreds of times in the course of our planet's history.

In a new study, researchers measure the spin properties of electronic states produced in singlet fission - a process which could have a central role in the future development of solar cells. Future research will focus on making devices and examining how these states can be harnessed for use in solar cells Leah Weiss Physicists have successfully employed a powerful technique for studying electrons generated through singlet fission, a process which it is believed will be key to more efficient solar energy production in years to come.

In the coming years, as more transistors are packed into ever smaller areas within computer chips, MIT engineers say cellphones, laptops, and other electronic devices may face a higher risk of overheating, as a result of interactions between electrons and heat-carrying particles called phonons. The researchers have found that these previously underestimated interactions can play a significant role in preventing heat dissipation in microelectronic devices.

Research news When an electron moves in solid matter, it polarizes its environment. Detailed insight into the interactions between electrons and their environment is the key to better performing future electronics components. However, since these processes transpire within only a few attoseconds, in the past they were practically impossible to investigate.

Using recent innovations in 2-D materials, Stanford scientists realize a mechanism of conduction that could someday lead to new forms of energy conversion and higher-resolution scanning machines, such as those used in airports and quality control for manufacturing. Humans have harnessed large portions of the electromagnetic spectrum for diverse technologies, from X-rays to radios, but a chunk of that spectrum has remained largely out of reach.

Optical quantum computers are what people are pinning their hopes on for tomorrow's computer technology - whether for tap-proof data encryption, ultrafast calculations involving enormous quantities of data or so-called quantum simulation, which allows highly complex systems to be reproduced on the computer.

Japanese Studies Scholar Elena Giannoulis Receives ERC Starting Grant for Project on Technological Transformation of Intimacy in Japan ' 311/2016 from Sep 22, 2016 Elena Giannoulis, a junior professor of Japanese studies at Freie Universität Berlin, is receiving a Starting Grant amounting to 1.5 million euros over five years from the European Research Council (ERC) to investigate human-robot interaction.

Japanese Studies Scholar Elena Giannoulis Receives ERC Starting Grant for Project on Technological Transformation of Intimacy in Japan ' 311/2016 from Sep 22, 2016 Elena Giannoulis, a junior professor of Japanese studies at Freie Universität Berlin, is receiving a Starting Grant amounting to 1.5 million euros over five years from the European Research Council (ERC) to investigate human-robot interaction.

An updated Cochrane Review, led by a University of Oxford researcher, provides an independent, rigorous assessment of the best available evidence to date about electronic cigarettes for quitting smoking. The conclusions of this updated Review are unchanged since the last review was published two years ago: electronic cigarettes may help smokers stop their smoking, and the included studies did not find any serious side effects associated with their use for up to two years.

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have found a way of looking inside the iron core of transformers. Transformers are indispensable in regulating electricity both in industry and in domestic households. The better their iron cores are magnetized, the less energy they lose and the more efficiently they work.

Intricate nanostructures can be created on crystal surfaces by hitting them with high energy ions. Scientists from TU Wien (Vienna) can now explain these remarkable phenomena.