Dec 09, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Re-using gold from electronic waste prevents it from being lost to landfill, and using this reclaimed gold for drug manufacture reduces the need to mine new materials. Current catalysts are often made of rare metals, which are extracted using expensive, energy-intensive and damaging mining processes....
What do gecko feet and intelligent robotic gripping systems have in common?
Dec 09, 2022 (Nanowerk News) How can artificial intelligence be used to create a robot gripping system that is as versatile and energy-efficient as possible? Moreover, how can this system trigger a leap in development in the use of intelligent, self-regulating and flexibly scalable handling processes for SMEs and large...
Microbial miners could help humans colonize the moon and Mars
Dec 09, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The biochemical process by which cyanobacteria acquire nutrients from rocks in Chile’s Atacama Desert has inspired engineers at the University of California, Irvine to think of new ways microbes might help humans build colonies on the moon and Mars. Researchers in UCI’s Department of Materials...
Scientists produce electricity from wood
Dec 09, 2022 (Nanowerk News) At a time when energy is an issue affecting many millions of people worldwide, scientists at KTH have managed to harvest electricity by passing water through refined wood. Their work has recently been published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials ("Advancing Hydrovoltaic Energy Harvesting from...
Say hello to the toughest material on Earth
Dec 09, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Scientists have measured the highest toughness ever recorded, of any material, while investigating a metallic alloy made of chromium, cobalt, and nickel (CrCoNi). Not only is the metal extremely ductile – which, in materials science, means highly malleable – and impressively strong (meaning it resists...
The messy death of a star
Dec 09, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Around 2500 years ago, a star ejected most of its gas forming the beautiful Southern Ring Nebula, NGC 3132, one of the first five image packages from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). A team of nearly 70 astronomers from 66 organisations across Europe, North,...