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By Susanne Filzwieser TU Graz, the University of Leoben, the Austrian Fire Brigade Association and ILF Consulting Engineers have investigated the effects of e-vehicle fires in tunnel systems. The results are reassuring for passenger cars, but not for commercial vehicles. For the latter, as well as for fires in multistorey car parks, further investigations are urgently needed.

Boasting an intricate, doubly curved concrete roof, lightweight funicular floors, and self-learning building technology, the latest addition to Empa and Eawag's NEST research building in Duebendorf, Switzerland officially opened today. The innovative unit illustrates nearly a decade of formative ETH Zurich research in architecture and sustainable technologies.

A new generation of cheap, sustainable and efficient solar cells is a step closer, thanks to scientists at The University of Queensland. Researchers at UQ's Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) modified a nanomaterial to make solar cells as efficient as silicon-based cells, but without their high cost and complex manufacturing.

Advanced manufacturing experts from Manchester have revealed what human life in space could look like - with a graphene-enhanced space habitat developed to meet anticipated demand for human settlements beyond Earth. A community of specialists at The University of Manchester have teamed up with global architect firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) to research the design and manufacturing of space habitats for the space industry.

Asst. Prof. Chong Liu seeks to design electrodes to collect lithium for batteries from seawater It's estimated that by the end of the decade, electric vehicle sales will drive lithium demand to five times its current level. That sudden increase has companies looking for new sources of the valuable metal, but one scientist at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago believes we have all the lithium we need, and it's waiting just off shore.

, Featured Stories Flash Joule heating by Rice lab recovers precious metals from electronic waste in seconds In what should be a win-win-win for the environment, a process developed at Rice University to extract valuable metals from electronic waste would also use up to 500 times less energy than current lab methods and produce a byproduct clean enough for agricultural land.

Grant to Rice enables expansion of discovery that produced graphene from food, plastic Where others see a pile of trash, Rice chemist James Tour sees a figurative gold mine. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agrees, and it will work with Tour and his collaborators through a $5.2 million, four-year grant to reclaim valuable materials from waste through flash Joule heating.

Since LIGO's groundbreaking detection , in 2015, of gravitational waves produced by a pair of colliding black holes, the observatory, together with its European partner facility Virgo, has detected dozens of similar cosmic rumblings that send ripples through space and time. In the future, as more and more upgrades are made to the National Science Foundation-funded LIGO observatories -one in Hanford, Washington, and the other in Livingston, Louisiana-the facilities are expected to detect increasingly large numbers of these extreme cosmic events.

Unusual material could improve the reliability of electronics and other devices Moving heat around where you want it to go-adding it to houses and hairdryers, removing it from car engines and refrigerators-is one of the great challenges of engineering. All activity generates heat, because energy escapes from everything we do.

By Susanne Filzwieser The new Christian Doppler Laboratory for Measurement Systems for Harsh Operating Conditions at TU Graz is conducting research into suitable measurement techniques that can deliver precise results in tough operating and environmental conditions. Although measurement technology has come a long way, established approaches often come up against their limits in difficult operating and environmental conditions, ultimately delivering inaccurate results or even none at all.

Scientists from McGill University develop stronger and tougher glass, inspired by the inner layer of mollusk shells. Instead of shattering upon impact, the new material has the resiliency of plastic and could be used to improve cell phone screens in the future, among other applications. While techniques like tempering and laminating can help reinforce glass, they are costly and no longer work once the surface is damaged.

The new Christian Doppler Laboratory for Measurement Systems for Harsh Operating Conditions at TU Graz is conducting research into suitable measurement techniques that can deliver precise results in tough operating and environmental conditions. Although measurement technology has come a long way, established approaches often come up against their limits in difficult operating and environmental conditions, ultimately delivering inaccurate results or even none at all.

High-efficiency but fragile molecules for converting light to electricity thrive with a little protection. A new transparency-friendly solar cell design could marry high efficiencies with 30-year estimated lifetimes, research led by the University of Michigan has shown. It may pave the way for windows that also provide solar power.

A simple and cheap device for detecting neutrons has been developed by a team of researchers and their collaborators. The device, based on a special class of crystalline compounds called perovskites, could be used to quickly detect neutrons coming from radioactive materials, e.g. a nuclear reactor that has been damaged or that is being transported nefariously, the researchers say.

Physicists and engineers have found a way to identify and address imperfections in materials for one of the most promising technologies in commercial quantum computing. The University of Queensland team was able to develop treatments and optimise fabrication protocols in common techniques for building superconducting circuits on silicon chips.

Rice theories, Northwestern experiments combine to produce exotic material If one layer of borophene is good, will two be better? Scientists at Rice University and Northwestern University hope so, because they've now made the elusive material. Borophene is a one-atom-thick material made of boron atoms, which mostly fall together in neat triangles when grown in a furnace on a proper substrate.

New findings could lead to carbon-neutral chemical fuels for vehicles Porous carbon is a well-established class of materials with significant potential in wide-ranging applications - from water purification and gas separation to energy storage devices and thermal insulation. A class of first-year graduate students is also full of potential - especially if those among them have already been part of an international research team whose work could impact technology needed for reduced-carbon or carbon-free chemical fuels for vehicles.

Berkeley Lab researchers devise a simple tactic to increase the efficiency of LED devices Smartphones, laptops, and lighting applications rely on light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to shine bright. But the brighter these LED technologies shine, the more inefficient they become, releasing more energy as heat instead of light.

Pulling heat-trapping carbon dioxide out of the air and turning it into useful products, a concept called carbon capture and utilization, has the potential to offer both environmental and economic benefits. By some optimistic estimates, CCU could generate annual revenues of more than $800 billion by 2030 while reducing climate-altering carbon dioxide emissions by up to 15%.

Researchers have developed a new phosphorescent material from lignin, a major component of wood. Last updated on Wednesday 25 August 2021 Scientists have harnessed the natural ability of wood to faintly glow to develop a new sustainable phosphorescent material that could potentially be used in a wide number of applications, from medical imaging and optical sensing to 'glow in the dark' dyes and paints.