Rechargeable all-solid-state lithium batteries are expected to be one of the next-generation energy storage devices because of their high energy density, safety, and excellent cycle stability. The materials used for the solid electrolyte must not only have a high lithium-ion conductivity above 1 mS/cm at room temperature, but also possess chemical stability.
Tech
Disney Research has developed a new method to improve the rendering of high-quality images from 3-D models by drastically reducing the noise, or discolored pixels, contained in the animated images, while preserving fine detail.
The researchers found that they could improve the performance of Monte Carlo ray tracing - a popular technique for producing photo-realistic animations - by varying the polynomial functions used to control image reconstruction based on the complexity of each region of the image.
Four percent of all pregnant women in Germany develop gestational diabetes before the birth of their child. Although their blood sugar levels initially return to normal after delivery, one in two of the mothers affected develops type 2 diabetes within the next ten years. While it has been shown that lactation can lower this risk by 40 percent, the reasons for this are not yet understood.
Scientists from MIPT and their colleagues have developed a novel compact and powerful ceramic-based laser - it will be used as a minimally traumatic and inexpensive laser scalpel for surgical operations, and also for cutting and engraving composite materials. The results of the study have been published in Optics Letters.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A rapid heating and cooling of milk significantly reduces the amount of harmful bacteria present, extending by several weeks the shelf life of one of the most common refrigerator staples in the world, according to a Purdue University study.
Software developed by Disney Research enables users to readily program industrial knitting machines, giving them the same flexibility to control the complex machine's output that already is commonplace for computer-controlled machine tools and for 3-D printers.
The compiler software allows users to specify designs based on simple shapes such as sheets and tubes and then translates those specifications into the needle-level instructions necessary to operate the machines.
Designing acoustic filters that can block out a certain sound or produce a certain pitch can be hit or miss, but researchers have discovered a way to predict acoustic qualities 70,000 times faster than current algorithms, paving the way for new, computationally driven designs.
The researchers from Disney Research, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia University opted to use a simple shape - a hollow cube with holes on some of its six faces - that could be produced with a 3-D printer as their base module.
It looks like a small piece of transparent film with tiny engravings on it, and is flexible enough to be bent into a tube. Yet, this piece of "smart" plastic demonstrates excellent performance in terms of data storage and processing capabilities. This novel invention, developed by researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS), hails a breakthrough in the flexible electronics revolution, and brings researchers a step closer towards making flexible, wearable electronics a reality in the near future.
Oleic acid plus a constellation of minor constituents as a natural antihypertensive.
Consumption of virgin olive oil is good for you, but why? Scientific evidence on this issue has been accumulating for a quarter century. Epidemiological, clinical, and animal studies support that the consumption of virgin olive oil, instead of other sources of dietary fats, has antihypertensive effects.
Many households in impoverished regions around the world are starting to shift away from inefficient and polluting fuel-based lighting--such as candles, firewood, and kerosene lanterns--to solar-LED systems. While this trend has tremendous environmental benefits, a new study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has found that it spurs economic development as well, to the tune of 2 million potential new jobs.
Tom Lehrer sang about poisoning them, but those pigeons in the park might be a good way to detect lead and other toxic compounds in cities. A new study of pigeons in New York City shows that levels of lead in the birds track with neighborhoods where children show high levels of lead exposure.
Bending of an elbow or a knee is common in most computer animations of human or animal figures, but current techniques often result in unwanted pinching or bulging near the joints. Disney Research has found a way to eliminate those artifacts even when the animation algorithm is running in real-time.
Widely known as one of the cleanest and most renewable energy sources, solar energy is a fast growing alternative to fossil fuels. Among the various types of solar materials, organometal halide perovskite in particular has attracted researchers' attention thanks to its superior optical and electronic properties.
Researchers at Case Western Reserve University have combined tissues from a sea slug with flexible 3-D printed components to build "biohybrid" robots that crawl like sea turtles on the beach.
A muscle from the slug's mouth provides the movement, which is currently controlled by an external electrical field. However, future iterations of the device will include ganglia, bundles of neurons and nerves that normally conduct signals to the muscle as the slug feeds, as an organic controller.
PITTSBURGH--A new computational design tool can turn a flat sheet of plastic or metal into a complex 3-D shape, such as a mask, a sculpture or even a lady's high-heel shoe.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland (EPFL), say the tool enables designers to fully and creatively exploit an unusual quality of certain materials -- the ability to expand uniformly in two dimensions. A rubber band, by contrast, contracts in one dimension while being stretched in another.