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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.

A major therapeutic challenge, the retinal prostheses that have been under development during the past ten years can enable some blind subjects to perceive light signals, but the image thus restored is still far from being clear. By comparing in rodents the activity of the visual cortex generated artificially by implants against that produced by “natural sight”, scientists from CNRS, CEA, Inserm, AP-HM and Aix-Marseille Université identified two factors that limit the resolution of prostheses.

Making an assistive robot partner expressive and communicative is likely to make it more satisfying to work with and lead to users trusting it more, even if it makes mistakes, a new UCL-led study suggests. But the research also shows that giving robots human-like traits could have a flip side - users may even lie to the robot in order to avoid hurting its feelings.

Making an assistive robot partner expressive and communicative is likely to make it more satisfying to work with and lead to users trusting it more, even if it makes mistakes, a new study suggests. But the research also shows that giving robots human-like traits could have a flip side - users may even lie to the robot in order to avoid hurting its feelings.

Electrochemists at TU Graz have managed to use monocrystalline semiconductor silicon as an active storage electrode in lithium batteries. This enables an integrated power supply to be made for microchips with a rechargeable battery. Photographic material available for download at the end of the text Small electrical gadgets, such as mobile phones, tablets or notebooks, are indispensable accompaniments of everyday life.

Follow Berkeley scientists on a 10-day research voyage off the California coast as they test robotic floats in studies of the ocean's biological carbon pump. Robotic measurements at sea are promising sources of data that could be used to better understand climate change. Follow along as a Lab science writer blogs daily about the trip.

New research suggests that it is possible to create a new form of light by binding light to a single electron, combining the properties of both. According to the scientists behind the study, from Imperial College London, the coupled light and electron would have properties that could lead to circuits that work with packages of light - photons - instead of electrons.

Engineers from the University of Bristol have developed a new shape-changing metamaterial using Kirigami, which is the ancient Japanese art of cutting and folding paper to obtain 3D shapes. Metamaterials are a class of material engineered to produce properties that don't occur naturally. Currently metamaterials are used to make artificial electromagnetic and vibration absorbers and high-performance sensors.

A world-first study has questioned the relative benefits of robotic keyhole surgery for prostate cancer. The University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research 's Professor Robert 'Frank' Gardiner said the research found robotic surgery was no more effective than open surgery for urinary control, erectile function and cancer outcomes.

"Exceptional points" give rise to counter-intuitive physical effects. Researchers from TU Wien (Vienna) make use of these phenomena to create a novel kind of wave guide, which is now being presented in the journal "Nature". No matter whether it is acoustic waves, quantum matter waves or optical waves of a laser - all kinds of waves can be in different states of oscillation, corresponding to different frequencies.

Munich physicists have developed a novel electron microscope that can visualize electromagnetic fields oscillating at frequencies of billions of cycles per second. Temporally varying electromagnetic fields are the driving force behind the whole of electronics. Their polarities can change at mind-bogglingly fast rates, and it is difficult to capture them in action.