SciGlow | All Science News In One Place
SciGlow is a newsletter of science stories from the major research labs. Headlines link to in-depth articles and editorials. SciGlow keeps scientists and others up-to-date on current research.
Solar cells that use mixtures of organic molecules to absorb sunlight and convert it to electricity, that can be applied to curved surfaces such as the body of a car, could be a step closer thanks to a discovery that challenges conventional thinking about one of the key components of these devices. A basic organic … Read more
Australia continues to install renewables at record rates and will surpass the scrapped target of 41,000 Gigawatt-hours (GWh) of renewable energy generation around the end of 2020, new analysis from The Australian National University (ANU) shows. The renewable energy generated by 2020 is equivalent to 90 per cent of Victoria’s energy consumption and could power … Read more
A team of Italian mathematicians, including one who is also a neuroscientist from the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown (CCU), in Lisbon, Portugal, has shown that artificial vision machines can learn to recognize complex images spectacularly faster by using a mathematical theory that was developed 25 years ago by one of this new study’s co-authors. … Read more
Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) have broken new ground in solar cell energy efficiency and in the process provided a glimpse of the technology’s future. The researchers have a set a new record of 21.6 per cent efficiency, the highest ever achieved for perovskite cells above a certain size. This means 21.6 per cent … Read more
Artificial intelligence has been used to analyse high-resolution digital x-ray images of the world famous Ghent Altarpiece, as part of an investigative project led by UCL. The finding is expected to improve our understanding of art masterpieces and provide new opportunities for art investigation, conservation and presentation. Researchers from the National Gallery, Duke University and … Read more
Even the most powerful computers are still no match for the human brain when it comes to pattern recognition, risk management, and other similarly complex tasks. Recent advances in optical neural networks, however, are closing that gap by simulating the way neurons respond in the human brain. In a key step toward making large-scale optical … Read more
There is a growing dam removal movement in the United States, driven in part by environmental, safety and cost considerations. These include electricity-producing hydro-dams, many of which are ageing and will be increasingly vulnerable to climate-stoked storms, after which will require substantial maintenance or removal over the coming decades. However, hydropower has been and remains … Read more
Smartphones that don’t scratch or shatter. Metal-free pacemakers. Electronics for space and other harsh environments. These could all be made possible thanks to a new ceramic welding technology developed by a team of engineers at the University of California San Diego and the University of California Riverside. The process, published in the Aug. 23 issue … Read more
A research team led by the University of California San Diego has discovered the root cause of why lithium metal batteries fail–bits of lithium metal deposits break off from the surface of the anode during discharging and are trapped as “dead” or inactive lithium that the battery can no longer access. The discovery, published Aug. … Read more
Monitoring and tracking biological threats or epidemics require the ability to carry out medical and laboratory tests in the field during a disaster or other austere situations. Expensive laboratory equipment is often unavailable in these settings, so inexpensive point-of-care technology is needed. Ordinary paper is often used in these situations, since it’s cheap, portable and … Read more