USGS finds cranes isolated from wind farms
Washington (UPI) Apr 21, 2016 -
Some bird species migrating through the Great Plains states aren't impacted much by the presence of wind energy towers, the U.S. Geological Survey found.
Wind turbines may pose a potential threat to birds migrating through areas with high concentrations of renewable energy activity. The USGS said it examined historic data on migration patterns of sandhill cranes through mid-continent st ...
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'Odd couple' monolayer semiconductors align to advance optoelectronics
Oak Ridge TN (SPX) Apr 22, 2016 -
Epitaxy, or growing crystalline film layers that are templated by a crystalline substrate, is a mainstay of manufacturing transistors and semiconductors. If the material in one deposited layer is the same as the material in the next layer, it can be energetically favorable for strong bonds to form between the highly ordered, perfectly matched layers. In contrast, trying to layer dissimilar mater ...
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WiFi capacity doubled at less than half the size
New York NY (SPX) Apr 22, 2016 -
Last year, Columbia Engineering researchers were the first to invent a technology - full-duplex radio integrated circuits (ICs) - that can be implemented in nanoscale CMOS to enable simultaneous transmission and reception at the same frequency in a wireless radio.
That system required two antennas, one for the transmitter and one for the receiver. And now the team, led by Electrical Engine ...
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Ultra-long, one-dimensional carbon chains are synthesised for the first time
Barrio Sarriena, Spain (SPX) Apr 22, 2016 -
Elemental carbon appears in many different forms, some of which are very well-known and have been thoroughly studied: diamond, graphite, graphene, fullerenes, nanotubes and carbyne. Within this "carbon family", carbyne (a truly one-dimensional carbon structure) is the only one that has not been synthesised until now, despite having been studied for more than 50 years. Organic chemists across the ...
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Innovative Exeter research pioneers nanotechnology for gas sensing
Exeter, UK (SPX) Apr 22, 2016 -
A team of scientists from the University of Exeter have created a new type of device that could be used to develop cost-effective gas sensors. The pioneering team, which includes two second year Exeter undergraduates, have created a new type of device that emits light in the infrared part of the spectrum. Many important gases strongly absorb infrared light and this characteristic absorption can ...
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Generation of tailored magnetic materials
Geneva, Switzerland (SPX) Apr 22, 2016 -
Every day, new technologies require more precision in the intrinsic properties of the materials used. To meet increasingly specific requirements, physicists are interested in a generation of artificial materials, the properties of which can be controlled.
Researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, in collaboration with French and English teams, have succeed in manipulati ...
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Global leaders agree to set price on carbon pollution
Washington (AFP) April 21, 2016 -
Six world leaders and the heads of powerful multilateral organizations agreed Thursday to push for broader implementation of carbon pricing schemes to accelerate the fight against global warming.
The leaders of Canada, Germany, France, Mexico, Ethiopia and Chile, along with the IMF, World Bank, and OECD, pressed for the use of carbon pricing to cover 25 percent of global emissions within fou ...
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Using methane rather than flaring it
Zurich, Switzerland (SPX) Apr 22, 2016 -
Methane is an abundant and inexpensive gas. Although it would be a suitable energy source and base material for the chemical industry, huge quantities of it are simply burnt off around the world - above all at oil fields and refineries. "On satellite images of Earth at night, the Middle East is brightly illuminated.
This is not because the region has an especially high number of large, bri ...
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Fossil fuels could be phased out worldwide in a decade
Sussex, UK (SPX) Apr 22, 2016 -
The worldwide reliance on burning fossil fuels to create energy could be phased out in a decade, according to an article published by a major energy think tank in the UK. Professor Benjamin Sovacool, Director of the Sussex Energy Group at the University of Sussex, believes that the next great energy revolution could take place in a fraction of the time of major changes in the past.
But it ...
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A laser for your eyes
Moscow, Russia (SPX) Apr 22, 2016 -
A team of the Lomonosov Moscow State University scientists and the Belarusian National Technical University has created a unique laser, which is a compact light source with wavelengths harmless to the human eye. The development can be used in medicine, communications systems and also in research.
'In collaboration with our colleagues of the Center for Optical Materials and Technologies, Be ...
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Nanoscrolls created from graphene's imperfect cousin
Boston MA (SPX) Apr 22, 2016 -
Water filters of the future may be made from billions of tiny, graphene-based nanoscrolls. Each scroll, made by rolling up a single, atom-thick layer of graphene, could be tailored to trap specific molecules and pollutants in its tightly wound folds. Billions of these scrolls, stacked layer by layer, may produce a lightweight, durable, and highly selective water purification membrane.
But ...
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Physicists build engine consisting of one atom
Mainz, Germany (SPX) Apr 22, 2016 -
An article in the latest edition of the journal Science describes an innovative form of heat engine that operates using only one single atom. The engine is the result of experiments undertaken by the QUANTUM work group at the Institute of Physics of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in collaboration with theoretical physicists of Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg (FAU). ...
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UA team revs up connected-vehicle technology
Tucson AZ (SPX) Apr 22, 2016 -
For all their anti-theft, fuel efficiency and satellite radio features, even the priciest new cars still travel on roads using decades-old traffic management technology. Their fate relies in large part on what drivers can see through windows or in rearview mirrors.
"Drivers communicate wirelessly on smartphones with people around the globe, but their cars can't communicate with cars around ...
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Princeton grad student writes program to help stabilize fusion plasma
Princeton NJ (SPX) Apr 22, 2016 -
Imene Goumiri, a Princeton University graduate student, has worked with physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) to simulate a method for limiting instabilities that reduce the performance of fusion plasmas.
The more instabilities there are, the less efficiently doughnut-shaped fusion facilities called tokamaks operate. The journal Nucl ...
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Tesla and other tech giants scramble for lithium as prices double
London, UK (SPX) Apr 22, 2016 -
Demand for lithium-the hottest commodity on the planet and the only commodity to show positive price movement in 2015-is poised to continue on its upward trajectory, becoming the world's new gasoline and earning the moniker of "White Petroleum". And the battle for market share in and around this commodity has everyone from major tech players to trend-setting investor gurus vying for a foothold. ...
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VW to offer buyback, payout to owners of polluting cars
San Francisco (AFP) April 21, 2016 -
Volkswagen reached an agreement Thursday with US regulators to offer US owners of some 480,000 illegally polluting diesel cars options of "substantial compensation" and to fix the cars, or to buy them back.
With the German automaker facing a court deadline for solutions to the emissions scandal, San Francisco district court judge Charles Breyer said the agreement in principle would give owne ...
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