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Using heat-resistant ceramics, researchers have made a significant advance in thermophotovoltaics, creating electricity from heat. Scientists have created a heat-resistant thermal emitter, an element used in specialized solar cells, that could significantly improve the efficiency of the cells. The novel component is designed to convert heat from the sun into infrared light, which can than be absorbed by solar cells to make electricity - a technology known as thermophotovoltaics.

The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics to François Englert and Peter Higgs cites not only their theoretical discovery but its confirmation "through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider.

Why do cell phones drop calls? Like a radio dial tuned to different frequencies (stations), cell phone antennas have tuning circuits that quickly switch frequencies when controlled by a voltage applied to a tunable capacitor. Cell phone companies want to improve these circuits to pack more discrete signals into a finite allocation of spectrum and minimize those pesky dropped calls.

Silicon germanium nanowire images taken with a Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). The dark color progressing along the nanowire (L-R) represents layer-by-layer lithiation of the nanowire's germanium core. New research led by an electrical engineer at the University of California, San Diego is aimed at improving lithium-ion batteries through possible new electrode architectures with precise nano-scale designs.

Condensation on a metal plate leads to formation of droplets that carry electric charge, could improve power-plant efficiency. In a completely unexpected finding, MIT researchers have discovered that tiny water droplets that form on a superhydrophobic surface, and then "jump" away from that surface, carry an electric charge.

Common mineral gets first detailed examination of its surface electronic properties, thanks to team of MIT researchers. Pyrite - perhaps better known as "fool's gold" for its yellowish metallic appearance - is a common, naturally occurring mineral. It holds promise as a high-tech material, with potential uses in solar cells, spintronic devices and catalysts, but is also a byproduct of corrosion of steel in deep-sea oil and gas wells.

At the Vienna University of Technology, a new class of thermoelectric materials has been discovered. Due to a surprising physical effect they can be used to create electricity more efficiently. A lot of energy is wasted when machines turn hot, unnecessarily heating up their environment. Some of this thermal energy could be harvested using thermoelectric materials; they create electric current when they are used to bridge hot and cold objects.

Steam condensation is key to the worldwide production of electricity and clean water: It is part of the power cycle that drives 85 percent of all electricity-generating plants and about half of all desalination plants globally, according to the United Nations and International Energy Agency. So anything that improves the efficiency of this process could have enormous impact on global energy use.

Is your cable television on the fritz? One explanation, scientists suspect, may be the weather - the weather in space, that is. MIT researchers are investigating the effects of space weather - such as solar flares, geomagnetic storms and other forms of electromagnetic radiation - on geostationary satellites, which provide much of the world's access to cable television, Internet services and global communications.

A rapid way of diagnosing anaemia using microwave technology has been developed by scientists. There are different types of anaemia, which causes lethargy, jaundice, tiredness and shortness of breath. It is generally the result of an iron deficiency in people. According to the World Health Organisation, it affects up to a quarter of the world's population at any given time.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have demonstrated a new mechanism for extracting energy from light, a finding that could improve technologies for generating electricity from solar energy and lead to more efficient optoelectronic devices used in. Dawn Bonnell , Penn's vice provost for research and Trustee Professor of Materials Science and Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science , led the work, along with David Conklin, a doctoral student.

A surprising low-tech tool—Scotch Magic tape—was one of the keys to the discovery MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (09/03/2013) —An international group of researchers from the University of Minnesota, Argonne National Laboratory and Seoul National University have discovered a groundbreaking technique in manufacturing nanostructures that has the potential to make electrical and optical devices smaller and better than ever before.

UAlberta research paves way for nanoparticle-based 'ink' to make printable or spray-on solar cells. University of Alberta researchers have found that abundant materials in the Earth's crust can be used to make inexpensive and easily manufactured nanoparticle-based solar cells.

Yale researchers have discovered a new technique that allows them to measure electrical activity of genetically-targeted sets of neurons in a living organism, a prerequisite for understanding the complex language of the brain. The technique, described in the Aug. 8 issue of the journal Cell, involves inserting fluorescent proteins in neurons of a fruitfly that responds to changes in electrical signals and are recorded by optical sensors.

Layer of microscopic spheres offers new approach to controlling acoustic waves. In some ways, granular material - such as a pile of sand - can behave much like a crystal, with its close-packed grains mimicking the precise, orderly arrangement of crystalline atoms. Now researchers at MIT have pushed that similarity to a new limit, creating two-dimensional arrays of micrograins that can funnel acoustic waves, much as specially designed crystals can control the passage of light or other waves.

University of Minnesota engineers discover novel technology for producing "electronic ink" MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (07/30/2013) —Electronic touch pads that cost just a few dollars and solar cells that cost the same as roof shingles are one step closer to reality today. Researchers in the University of Minnesota's College of Science and Engineering and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., have overcome technical hurdles in the quest for inexpensive, durable electronics and solar cells made with non-toxic chemicals.

Understanding the properties that control surface dissipation of heat could lead to improved power plants and electronics with high heat-transfer rates. A team of MIT researchers has succeeded in carrying out the first systematic investigation of the factors that control boiling heat transfer from a surface to a liquid.

ANN ARBOR-Use of electronic health records can reduce the costs of outpatient care by roughly 3 percent, compared to relying on traditional paper records. That's according to a new study from the University of Michigan that examined more than four years of healthcare cost data in nine communities. The "outpatient care" category in the study included the costs of doctor's visits as well as services typically ordered during those visits in laboratory, pharmacy and radiology.

CeCoIn 5 is an oxymoron. It's a "heavy fermion" material, in which electrons act like their mass is 1,000 times what it should be, because moving electrons interact magnetically with its atoms and slow down. But it also can be a superconductor, in which an electric current flows without resistance, when its super heavy electrons join in "Cooper pairs" that are magnetically neutral and avoid magnetic interference.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa - If you tickle a robot, it may not laugh, but you may still consider it humanlike - depending on its role in your life, reports an international group of researchers. Designers and engineers assign robots specific roles, such as servant, caregiver, assistant or playmate. Researchers found that people expressed more positive feelings toward a robot that would take care of them than toward a robot that needed care.