news from the lab

Physics/Material Science - Microtechnics/Electroengineering - 12.06
Nano-thermometer enables first atomic-scale heat dissipation measurements
ANN ARBOR-In findings that could help overcome a major technological hurdle in the road toward smaller and more powerful electronics, an international research team involving University of Michigan engineering researchers, has shown the unique ways in which heat dissipates at the tiniest scales.

Microtechnics/Electroengineering - Chemistry - 4.06
Scientists create novel silicon electrodes that improve lithium-ion battery performance
Stanford scientists have developed inexpensive silicon-based electrodes that dramatically improve the charge storage capacity of lithium-ion batteries. - Stanford University scientists have dramatically improved the performance of lithium-ion batteries by creating novel electrodes made of silicon and conducting polymer hydrogel, a spongy substance similar to the material used in soft lenses and other household products.

Life Sciences - Microtechnics/Electroengineering - 15.05
Evolution shapes new rules for ant behavior, Stanford research finds
Biologist Deborah M. Gordon's decades-long study of the collective behavior of harvester ant colonies has provided a rare real-time look at natural selection at work. - In ancient Greece, the city-states that waited until their own harvest was in before attacking and destroying a rival community's crops often experienced better long-term success.

Earth Sciences - Microtechnics/Electroengineering - 27.03
Scripps Scientists Image Deep Magma beneath Pacific Seafloor Volcano
Vast mantle melting region below world's largest volcanic system advances theory of plate tectonics - Since the plate tectonics revolution of the 1960s, scientists have known that new seafloor is created throughout the major ocean basins at linear chains of volcanoes known as mid-ocean ridges.

Physics/Material Science - Microtechnics/Electroengineering - 21.03
Researchers Use Metamaterials to Observe Giant Photonic Spin Hall Effect
Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have once again demonstrated the incredible capabilities of metamaterials - artificial nanoconstructs whose optical properties arise from their physical structure rather than their chemical composition.

Physics/Material Science - Microtechnics/Electroengineering - 7.03
New technique makes solar cells more efficient
A new technique developed by University of Toronto Engineering Professor Ted Sargent and his research group could lead to significantly more efficient solar cells. - In a paper published in the journal Nano Letters , the group describes a new technique to improve efficiency in what are called colloidal quantum dot photovoltaics.

Mechanical Engineering/Mechanics - Microtechnics/Electroengineering - 22.02
Researchers develop new method of powering tiny devices
FINDINGS: - Electromagnetic devices, from power drills to smart-phones, require an electric current to create the magnetic fields that allow them to function. But with smaller devices, efficiently delivering a current to create magnetic fields becomes more difficult.

Medicine/Pharmacology - Microtechnics/Electroengineering - 29.01
Engineering Prof. Samuel Sia Develops Mobile Device for Faster HIV Testing
Using innovative lab-on-a-chip technology, Samuel K. Sia, PhD , associate professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia Engineering, has developed a way to not only check a patient's HIV status anywhere in the world with just a finger prick, but also synchronize the results automatically and instantaneously with central healthcare records-10 times faster, the researchers say, than the benchtop ELISA, a broadly used diagnostic technique.

Mechanical Engineering/Mechanics - Microtechnics/Electroengineering - 3.01
Researchers seek longer battery life for electric locomotive
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Norfolk Southern Railway No. 999 is the first all-electric, battery-powered locomotive in the United States. But when one of the thousand lead-acid batteries that power it dies, the locomotive shuts down.

Microtechnics/Electroengineering - Chemistry - 26.11.2012
Researchers Make Flexible, Low-voltage Circuits Using Nanocrystals
Electronic circuits are typically integrated in rigid silicon wafers, but flexibility opens up a wide range of applications. In a world where electronics are becoming more pervasive, flexibility is a highly desirable trait, but finding materials with the right mix of performance and manufacturing cost remains a challenge.

Life Sciences - Microtechnics/Electroengineering - 20.09.2012
The original Twitter? Tiny electronic tags monitor birds’ social networks
Posted under: Engineering , Environment , News Releases , Research , Science , Technology - If two birds meet deep in the forest, does anybody hear? Until now, nobody did, unless an intrepid biologist was hiding underneath a bush and watching their behavior, or the birds happened to meet near a research monitoring station.

Physics/Material Science - Microtechnics/Electroengineering - 5.09.2012
First stars, galaxies formed more rapidly than expected
Analysis of data from the National Science Foundation's South Pole Telescope , for the first time, more precisely defines the period of cosmological evolution when the first stars and galaxies formed and gradually illuminated the universe.

Physics/Material Science - Microtechnics/Electroengineering - 30.05.2012
High-temperature superconductivity starts with nanoscale electronic oases
High-temperature superconductivity doesn't happen all it once. It starts in isolated nanoscale patches that gradually expand until they take over. - That discovery, from atomic-level observations at Cornell and the University of Tokyo, offers a new insight into the puzzling "pseudogap" state observed in high-temperature superconductors; it may be another step toward creating new materials that superconduct at temperatures high enough to revolutionize electrical engineering.

Physics/Material Science - Microtechnics/Electroengineering - 24.05.2012
Research team's work may lead to breakthrough in microchip technology
Graphene is the wonder material that could solve the problem of making ever faster computers and smaller mobile devices when current silicon microchip technology hits an inevitable wall. Graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms in a tight hexagonal arrangement, has been highly researched because of its incredible electronic properties, with theoretical speeds 100 times greater than silicon.

Medicine/Pharmacology - Microtechnics/Electroengineering - 16.04.2012
How common is off-label drug prescription?
McGill team examines the practice of prescribing medications for indications that have not received regulatory approval from Health Canada - A new McGill University study evaluating off-label prescribing of medications by primary care physicians in Quebec suggests the practice is common, although it varies by medication, patient and physician characteristics.