What do a flea and an eagle have in common? They can store energy in their feet without having to continuously contract their muscles to then jump high or hold on to prey. Now scientists Now scientists at Queen Mary University of London and University of Cambridge have created materials that …
Read More »German scientists are using drones equipped with sensors to locate metals needed for wind turbines and solar panels
The sustainable growth of renewable energies depends on the availability of key materials, for example Lithium is the key limiting resource for most batteries – while rare earth metals, in particular “lanthanides” such as neodymium, are required for the magnets in wind turbine generators. Copper is the conductor of choice …
Read More »DARPA’s TEE program developing skyrmion based high-density and energy-efficient magnetic information storage devices
In magnetic memories, information (for example, a collection of bits) is stored as clusters of spins, which are either an up or a down (or put differently, a one or a zero). These spin clusters, which form the basis of magnetic memories, become less stable when reduced in size. Magnetic …
Read More »New technologies to prevent Biofouling that costs shipping industries billions of dollars a year
Biofouling is one of the main problems faced by every type of ship at the sea. Marine growth such as barnacles and mussels have been the reason for problems such as decreased ship efficiency, corrosion etc. Biofouling not only sticks to the external surface of the ships but also gets into …
Read More »DARPA’s MDP program aims for fast materials development for military platforms in extreme environments
Military platforms—such as ships, aircraft and ground vehicles—rely on advanced materials to make them lighter, stronger and more resistant to stress, heat and other harsh environmental conditions. Currently, the process for developing new materials to field in platforms frequently takes more than a decade. This lengthy process often means that …
Read More »Atomic clusters could lead to new materials from the bottom-up with unique and tailored properties.
Atomic clusters, consisting of a few to a few thousand atoms, have emerged over the past 40 years as the ultimate nanoparticles, whose structure and properties can be controlled one atom at a time. More importantly, the possibility of creating a new class of materials, composed of clusters instead of …
Read More »Russian Physicists’ Research Might Lead to a New Generation of Microprocessors, microminiature nanolaser, and long-range space communication systems
REEs are a series of chemical elements found in the Earth’s crust that are essential components of many technologies, including electronics, computer and communication systems, transportation, health care, and national defense. Rare Earths Elements (REE) are incorporated into many sophisticated technologies with both commercial and defense applications including smartphones and …
Read More »New Shape memory alloys (SMAs) and shape memory materials (SMMs) for robotics and automotive, aerospace and biomedical industries.
SMAs are materials that can be deformed at low temperature and recover their original shape upon heating. Shape memory alloys (SMAs) belong to a class of shape memory materials (SMMs), which have the ability to ‘memorise’ or retain their previous form when subjected to certain stimulus such as thermo mechanical …
Read More »New electronic components and materials for extreme environments like Hypersonic flight , Planetary exploration and Military Systems
“Electronics have dramatically changed the way we live, conduct business, communicate, and educate. Visions of the future foretell of ubiquitous computing and sensing. However, the environments in which electronics can reliably operate are limited. In consumer applications, typical operating temperatures range from -40° to 85°C. The “wider” military temperature range …
Read More »New Materials for Warships include carbon and glass fibre, aluminium, syntactic foam, copper and graphene
To date, different types of carbon and alloy steels have proved to be the main materials of choice for naval ship construction around the world. While composites, titanium and aluminium alloys have been utilized for making hulls of smaller vessels such as patrol boats, these materials do not meet the …
Read More »