http://www.patexia.com Patexia Rss Feed Sat, 25 May 2013 11:57:10 -0700 http://www.patexia.com/feed/csail-study-illuminates-shady-smartphone-app-tracking-20120917-2 Researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory evaluated 36 commonly used smartphone applications. Principle investigator Hal Abelson and his grad students found that "most" applications gather pretty extensive information about their users -- even when the application is not active. The MIT Decentralized Information Group hopes to improve transparency in our increasingly digitized world, as monitoring by third parties becomes more and more... CSAIL study illuminates shady smartphone app tracking() at patexia.com Mon, 17 Sep 2012 22:00:47 +0000 http://www.patexia.com/feed/sensing-and-preventing-rust-20120906 The dominant method for evaluating rust characteristics of a metal in a certain environment is dead simple. Museums keen on the condition of their metal artworks, for example, will keep small metal "coupons" in the environment close to the artwork to keep corrosion in check. The problem is that checking these coupons can be a long and laborious process. Now, scientists working under the EU-funded MUSECORR have developed a similar sensor, but one that is much more sensitive and... Sensing and preventing rust() at patexia.com Thu, 06 Sep 2012 20:30:30 +0000 http://www.patexia.com/feed/how-does-your-graphene-grow-20120905 "Owing to the talents and efforts of materials chemists, graphene now grows like mold on almost anything, and from almost any feedstock," Boris Yakobson, professor at Rice University, said. "But how it looks and the shape it takes is hard to understand or predict." Yakobson is referring in particular to a method of producing graphene known as "chemical vapor deposition," which involves dispersing carbon atoms in the air above a metal substrate onto which carbon... How does your graphene grow?() at patexia.com Wed, 05 Sep 2012 15:55:55 +0000 http://www.patexia.com/feed/recycling-silicon-for-batteries-20120904 Electronic waste is slowly becoming a large-scale problem for our technologically advanced society. Rice University researchers have developed a new way of recycling silicon into flexible components for lithium-ion batteries. Silicon, despite its ubiquitous usage in modern electronics, is notoriously difficult to recycle. Silicon also happens to be a more effective cathode that the currently prevalent carbon, but is not commonly used because it is inflexible and breaks down quickly. Rice... Recycling silicon for batteries() at patexia.com Tue, 04 Sep 2012 22:00:28 +0000 http://www.patexia.com/feed/shortest-laser-pulse-20120904 To study matter on increasingly smaller scales, scientists need faster light. The speed of light is constant, of course, but "faster" here refers to the duration of a laser pulse. In other words, what's the fastest you can "switch on and off" a laser. The previous record was held by a team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute in Germany -- 80 attoseconds (80e-18 seconds), or 80 billionths of a billionth of a second. University of Central Florida researcher... Shortest laser pulse() at patexia.com Tue, 04 Sep 2012 21:07:07 +0000 http://www.patexia.com/feed/surface-excitations-of-gold-for-low-cost-displays-20120829 The flat-panel display market is increasingly cut-throat, from smartphones to big screen TVs. These applications demand thin, efficient, and low-cost display technologies. Recently, an A*STAR research team in Signapore demonstrated a new type of light emitting device that could be promising for these display applications. The technology relies on surface excitations on patterned gold film. These excitations are the collective motion of electrons on the surface of the gold, which impact the... Surface excitations of gold for low-cost displays() at patexia.com Wed, 29 Aug 2012 18:00:44 +0000 http://www.patexia.com/feed/light-tuned-superconductors-20120828 A major focus of superconductor research is manipulating the critical temperature of various superconducting materials. The properties of such materials could be very beneficial, but most materials only become superconducting below a certain (very cold) temperature. Prof. Yoram Dagan of Tel Aviv University has recently demonstrated a way to control this critical temperature by simply changing the light shone on a particular material. Their process coats a thin layer of superconductor with a... Light-tuned superconductors() at patexia.com Tue, 28 Aug 2012 15:32:32 +0000 http://www.patexia.com/feed/nanomaterials-harm-crops-20120828 A new study found nanomaterials in soil hurt crop growth and may contaminate produce. UC Santa Barbara researchers showed nanoscale pollutants in crop soil stunt plant growth and can be taken up by a plant. The study also found that exposures weaken plants by increasing their ability to absorb pollutants and increase fertilizer needs.  Such exposures are rising due to increased use by manufacturers. When pollutants were tested on soy plants, zinc oxide made it all the way into soy... Nanomaterials harm crops() at patexia.com Tue, 28 Aug 2012 14:57:57 +0000 http://www.patexia.com/feed/sticking-the-non-sticky-20120824 The question seems almost philosophical: how do they get non-stick Teflon coating to stick to metal pans? At Kiel University in Germany, researchers are tackling a harder problem: how do you stick Teflon to silicone, a similarly non-sticky material. Both materials are "low-surface-energy" polymers, meaning that both exhibit very low adhesion -- it's hard to make stuff stick to them. To overcome this difficulty, the researchers have resorted to micro- and nanoscale... Sticking the non-sticky() at patexia.com Fri, 24 Aug 2012 18:00:00 +0000 http://www.patexia.com/feed/prick-free-diabetes-testing-20120823 Nearly 300 million people worldwide live with diabetes, and regular testing is a crucial part of many of their lives. Purdue university researcher Jonathan Claussen and his team have created a device that can detect bodily glucose levels from other serums as well. "It's an inherently non-invasive way to estimate glucose content in the body," he says. "Because it can detect glucose in the saliva and tears, it's a platform that might eventually help to eliminate or... Prick-free diabetes testing() at patexia.com Thu, 23 Aug 2012 16:30:17 +0000 http://www.patexia.com/feed/self-charging-power-cells-20120822 Most energy generation systems consist of two components: a generator and a battery. Georgia Tech researcher Zhong Lin Wang thinks this is one too many. Along with his team, Wang has developed pocket-calculator-battery-sized fuel cells that is "self-charging." In other words, the device is both the generator and the battery all at once. At the heart of this tiny devices is a piezoelectric membrane which converts mechanical energy into chemical potential energy. The membrane does... Self-charging power cells() at patexia.com Wed, 22 Aug 2012 20:00:00 +0000 http://www.patexia.com/feed/engineering-bacteria-to-make-fuel-20120821 Ralstonia Eutropha is a soil bacteria that exhibits a peculiar behaviour. Whenever the bacterium is placed into a stressful situation, it devotes all its time and energy into sucking up all the carbon in its environment and putting into storage. "What it does is take whatever carbon is available, and stores it in the form of a polymer, which is similar in its properties to a lot of petroleum-based plastics," Christopher Brigham, a research scientist in MIT's biology department. ... Engineered bacteria make fuel() at patexia.com Wed, 22 Aug 2012 15:00:00 +0000 http://www.patexia.com/feed/ibm-s-cheap-photoelectric-breakthrough-20120821 One of the most important technological challenges of our time is monopolizing on solar energy. Major constraints have always been cost, availability of materials, and efficiency. IBM's material science team is banking on CZTS (a compound of copper, zinc, and tin) because of its inexpensive materials. Recently, the team demonstrated record a photovoltaic efficiency of 11.1% for this type of material. The researchers see the technology as a significant step forward in the long journey to... IBM's cheap photoelectric breakthrough() at patexia.com Tue, 21 Aug 2012 21:30:20 +0000 http://www.patexia.com/feed/blood-recovery-technology-gains-approval-20120821 HemoSep is a device designed to recover blood that is spilled in major trauma surgeries and open heart surgeries. The device helps with the process of autotransfusion -- the transfer of blood back into the patient which gave it -- a solution to a variety of problems associated with using blood from third party donors. Their devices consists of a specially designed blood bag employing a chemical sponge and a mechanical agitator, which serves to concentrate and preserve the blood until it can... Blood-recovery technology gains approval() at patexia.com Tue, 21 Aug 2012 19:57:57 +0000 http://www.patexia.com/feed/quantum-hall-for-all-20120820 University of Tokyo and RIKEN Institute researchers exploit a new type of magnetic phase in materials to eliminate electrical power loss. The team's device uses a type of quantum hall effect, a sort of magnetic synchronization, to produce channels within certain materials that allow for lossless power transmission. The material itself is known as a "magnetic topological insulator," which eliminates the need for the large, cumbersome magnet apparatus required to achieve the... Quantum hall for all() at patexia.com Mon, 20 Aug 2012 18:17:17 +0000 http://www.patexia.com/feed/curiosity-s-laser-ignites-martian-rock-20120820 Though it's no shark, having a robot on another planet with a laser attached to its "head" is still pretty cool. The Rover's "ChemCam," more aptly referred to as the "badass laser cam," is equipped with a megawatt laser designed to burn up its targets to investigate their makeup. Yesterday, the rover tested its laser on a component of the martian surface for the first time. The powerful instrument focuses all its energy to an area roughly one millimeter... Curiosity's laser ignites martian rock() at patexia.com Mon, 20 Aug 2012 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.patexia.com/feed/the-first-measurable-quantum-system-20120816 Quantum computers promise almost unimaginable computational speeds, but creating such futuristic computers has proven to be very difficult. “Normally, every contact with the outer world changes information in a quantum system in a completely uncontrolled manner,” explains Professor Mario Ruben from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany, who has created the world’s first stable interface capable of reading the quantum state of an atom. Ruben explains the... The first measurable quantum system() at patexia.com Fri, 17 Aug 2012 15:00:35 +0000 http://www.patexia.com/feed/replacing-heart-valves-without-open-heart-surgery-20120816 Snaking a catheter through an artery in your groin and up to your heart might not sound like “fun” but when compared to open-heart surgery you have to ask yourself “eh, Why not?” Nearly 40 percent of all patients requiring aortic heart valve replacement are forced to live with a higher likelihood death due to heart failure because they are considered “inoperable”. UCLA’s new transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) solves this problem, and could ... Replacing heart valves without open-heart surgery() at patexia.com Thu, 16 Aug 2012 20:15:15 +0000 http://www.patexia.com/feed/clean-energy-becomes-a-little-cleaner-20120815 Cleanliness may be next to godliness, but it's also relevant for solar panel efficiency. "A dirty solar panel can reduce its power capabilities by up to 30 percent," says Seamus Curran, professor of physics at the University of Houston. Curran's team recently developed a nano coating that will help rectify this problem by keeping solar panels cleaner longer. The coating prevents the adherence and buildup of dust, pollen, and other pollutants that tend to build up on solar... Clean energy becomes a little cleaner() at patexia.com Thu, 16 Aug 2012 17:30:00 +0000 http://www.patexia.com/feed/take-your-tv-shows-to-go-20120815 Nanyang Technological University researchers have developed a video system that integrates the functionality of your TV, smartphone, and tablet computer. Microsoft and other big electronics manufacturers may be developing this functionality as well, so it has garnered plenty of attention. The Nanyang researchers, though, have brought these features to fruition: video and chat sessions can be seamlessly moved from device to device by users at will. The system even allows for chat... Take your TV shows to go() at patexia.com Wed, 15 Aug 2012 22:00:30 +0000