A 200-year-old observation that electricity can affect the shape of flames is being revisited with an experimental device that uses an electric field projected from a probe to rapidly suppress flames. The scientists behind the development, who presented their findings at the 241st National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, say that the discovery could […]
Electronic gadgets that don’t require charging are a step closer after the successful demonstration of a nanoscale generator that produces enough electricity from mechanical movement to power a LCD display. Device inventor Zhong Lin Wang, from Georgia Tech, explained that the mechanical energy needed to drive the generator could come from a heartbeat, the pounding […]
Stanford University scientists have “wired up” algae to harness a tiny electric current directly from the plant during photosynthesis; an achievement which could lead to the highly efficient generation of bioelectricity with no carbon byproducts, the researchers say. “We believe we are the first to extract electrons out of living plant cells,” said WonHyoung Ryu, […]
For researchers pioneering new diagnostic methods, the race is on to design ever smaller biochips that can test for a variety of diseases at once, give instant results, and most importantly, be mass produced cheaply. One of the stumbling blocks up until now has been finding an electrical power source as small and cheap to […]
Princeton electrical engineers have invented a technique for making solar cells that, when combined with other recent advances, could yield a highly economical source of energy. The results, reported in Nature, move scientists closer to making a new class of solar cells that are not as efficient as conventional ones, but could be vastly less […]
