Space mining

"With our own planet’s resources under ever-growing pressure and competition, could the mining of asteroids and even other planets provide a more sustainable path for development?  For our latest readers’ Q&A we’ve lined up a panel of experts that includes some of the leading academics looking at the possibilities of extra-terrestrial mining and two of the companies that hope to develop the technology and expertise to make it happen."
http://www.theengineer.co.uk/aerospace/news/the-engineer-qa-space-mining/1015824.article

An Arctic solution to the data storage

Cold storage - an Arctic solution to the data storage cooling problem | In-depth | The Engineer
"We generate a storm of data throughout the day, whether we want to or not ... And the amount of data we generate personally is dwarfed by the numbers generated by government, industry and commerce. All this data has to be stored and this is giving rise to a new form of building, characteristic to the early 21st century: the data centre. Sharing some of the form and characteristics of ages-old strongrooms and more modern hardened bunkers, these are the locations that keep the numbers vital to our lifestyles, and the fortunes of government and industry, safe. But this has also generated a set of problems for civil engineers. The most vital thing that a data centre has to do is to keep its ranks of computer servers running. For that, they need two things: power and cooling..."

2011: The Year of Materials

Vibrant displays head to market, invisibility cloaks become more practical, and batteries store more energy...
The Year in Materials - Technology Review

Magnetic scan without magnet

Magnetic scans with a tiny magnet, by Michael Schirber, a discussion of the paper entitled Near-Zero-Field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance by M. P. Ledbetter, T. Theis, J. W. Blanchard, H. Ring, P. Ganssle, S. Appelt, B. Blümich, A. Pines, and D. BudkerPhys. Rev. Lett. 107, 107601 (Published September 1, 2011)
"Nuclear magnetic resonance is a powerful technique for analyzing molecular structure in biology, medicine, and materials science. Conventionally, it calls for huge magnets to align nuclear spins and to detect them with high sensitivity, but recent work has demonstrated that similar analysis can be done without a magnetic field. The problem with this zero-field technique is that it can’t unambiguously identify molecules. Now, in a paper in Physical Review Letters, Micah Ledbetter of the University of California, Berkeley, and his collaborators address this limitation, showing that a very small magnetic field can provide extra signatures for chemical discrimination."
http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.107601

Artificial leaves make fuel

"Two teams of researchers in the US have taken important steps towards the creation of commercially viable "artificial leaf" – a hypothetical device that can turn sunlight into electrical energy or fuel by mimicking some aspects of photosynthesis.

Earlier this year, the chemist Daniel Nocera at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced artificial-leaf prototypes at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in California. Now, working with two different teams of researchers, he has published two papers on different devices that represent progress towards effective and commercially viable versions of the artificial leaf."

Artificial leaves make fuel from sunlight - physicsworld.com

Biofuel for flights

"Lufthansa, Europe's second-largest airline, became the first carrier in the world to offer regular scheduled flights running on biofuel, with four daily round trips between Hamburg and Frankfurt.
The airline will use a biofuel blend using 50 per cent so- called hydrotreated renewable jet fuel, Lufthansa said. The fuel is made from feedstocks including inedible plants and wood chips. Lufthansa will fly an Airbus A321 on the services." Read more
http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/lufthansa-begins-worlds-first-regular-biofuel-flights-20110718-1hks1.html

DNA transistor

"Passivated nanopores withstand extreme voltages.
Solid-state nanopores are a core element of next-generation single molecule tools in the field of nanobiotechnology, most prominently in the area of DNA-sequencing technology. Researchers at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center have recently introduced a nanopore-based DNA sequencing platform, which they call a DNA transistor. Thin-film electrodes are integrated into the nanopore device for electrically interacting with translocating DNA. They have now shown that TiN electrodes inside a nanopore can be passivated and completely shielded against electrochemical deterioration even when extreme voltages are applied."

http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/lab/46476

electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

"Functionalized electrochemical impedance spectroscopy device targets personalized medicine.
Rapid, sensitive, accurate, miniaturized and inexpensive biosensors are highly desirable for assisting clinical medical diagnosis. Researchers based at National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, have developed such a portable bio-sensing platform to detect intermolecular interactions using nanogold-enhanced electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS)."

http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/lab/46448
http://iopscience.iop.org/0957-4484/22/24/245105/

Drag the light

"By slowing a beam of light down to the speed of sound, UK researchers have dragged photons by an unprecedented 5°, proving a longstanding theory of physics and opening up potential applications in quantum data storage."
Scientists drag light by 5° by slowing to the speed of sound | News | The Engineer

Artificial leaf

"Photosynthesis, nature's way of converting sunlight to fuel, happens all around us, from leaves on a tree to the smallest blade of grass. But finding a way to mimic the ability cheaply and efficiently has confounded engineers for decades.Now researchers have taken a step toward this elusive feat, with a device that is even more efficient than natural photosynthesis and relies on low-cost, abundant materials.
Conventional solar cells produce electricity when a photovoltaic material is exposed to light. The new device goes a step further, using the resulting electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, which can be stored and used to generate electricity via a fuel cell."
More http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/37310/?p1=MstRcnt

Graphite oxides boost supercapacitors

"Researchers in the US have discovered a new form of carbon produced by "activating" expanded graphite oxide. The material is full of tiny nanometre-sized pores and contains highly curved atom-thick walls throughout its 3D structure. The team has also found that the material performs exceptionally well as an electrode material for supercapacitors, allowing such energy-storage devices to be used in a wider range of applications."

http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/45975

Transparent materials for solar energy

"Researchers in the US have developed a new kind of organic solar cell that converts a small but significant fraction of the sunlight that falls onto it into electricity, while still allowing most of the visible part of that light to pass through. Thanks to this transparency, the team says that the cell could be mounted onto windows in buildings or cars in order to tap a currently under-exploited source of energy."

Transparent material opens a new window on solar energy - physicsworld.com

Il sogno di Leonardo

"A research team at Festo has developed SmartBird, a biomechatronic bird that can take off, fly and land autonomously. Festo claims that SmartBird flies, glides and moves through the air like its counterpart in nature — the herring gull — with no additional drive mechanism."

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Festo's biomechatronic bird flies and lands autonomously | News | The Engineer

Undergraduates build power system for moon orbiter

Final-year engineering undergraduates from Warwick University are building the power system for a micro-satellite that will orbit the moon in 2014
Undergraduates build power system for moon orbiter | News | The Engineer

CubeSat mission for plasmasphere investigation

The first experiment to investigate the effects of plasmasphere disturbances on satellite communications will be launched aboard the UK Space Agency’s maiden CubeSat mission.
Team explores effect of space weather on communications | News | The Engineer
From Wiki : a CubeSat is a type of miniaturized satellite for space research that usually has a volume of exactly one liter (10 cm cube). Beginning in 1999, California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) and Stanford University developed the CubeSat specifications to help universities worldwide to perform space science and exploration. The majority of development comes from academia, however several companies have built CubeSats, including large-satellite-maker Boeing.

Laser beam could nudge space junk away - physicsworld.com

"Satellites in orbit around the Earth are at risk of collision with space-based objects, which have either been discarded by space missions or created in satellite collisions. But now a team of researchers at NASA believes it may have found a relatively cheap solution for dealing with this "space junk" – aim a medium-powered laser into space and nudge any objects on a collision course out of harm's way."
Laser beam could nudge space junk away - physicsworld.com

Laser-scan system to have a virtual view of Stonehenge

"Experts at English Heritage are using laser scanning and high-resolution digital imaging to create a virtual rendering of Stonehenge that will show it in detail and hopefully reveal new features.
The survey will map the standing and fallen stones of Stonehenge, as well as the top of the horizontal lintels.
Despite the vast amount of archaeological activity and academic study into Stonehenge and its landscape over the centuries, relatively little is known about the lichen-covered surfaces."
Read more: Laser-scan system has virtual view of Stonehenge details | News | The Engineer