Scientists reported progress in using a common virus to develop improved materials for high-performance, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that could be woven into clothing to power portable electronic devices. They discussed development of the new materials for the battery’s cathode, or positive electrode, at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), being held [...]
“The world of espionage is not divorced from the rest of the world,” says Thomas Boghardt, the International Spy Museum’s historian says.
That became even evident this week when the FBI announced the arrest of 10 alleged Russian spies living and working in the United States and a couple of years ago, when the CIA released [...]
Are ingredients such as fitness, skill, teamwork, a loyal fan base, and luck enough for Spain or the Netherlands to hoist the 2010 FIFA World Cup trophy? Every year sporting goods companies release new models of sports equipment and technology that they claim enhance every aspect of a soccer player’s performance. The World Cup has [...]
Skinput gadget turns your own ARM into a touchscreen display. Developers at Microsoft Research and Carnegie Mellon University are working together to create an armband that projects an interface directly on to your skin. They have combined a mini projector which creates a changing display with a sophisticated sensor that can tell which part of [...]
The researchers say that the variation of radio signals in a wireless network can reveal the movements of people behind closed doors or even a wall. Joey Wilson and Neal Patwari, from the University of Utah, have used the principle of variance-based radio tomographic imaging. The system works by measuring interference between the nodes of [...]
Bend it, twist it, roll it or stretch it, a new light emitting diode, or LED, created by scientists will still light up. The new flexible and stretchable LEDs could be used in everything from bumper mounted brake lights to computer and television screens that roll up into a pen. “These new inorganic LEDs are [...]
When some readers of Entertainment Weekly open their magazines next month, they will discover characters from US television programmes speaking to them from a wafer-thin video screen built into the page. The marketing experiment – which is being conducted by CBS, the US broadcaster, and Pepsi, the soft drinks maker – recalls the fantasy newspapers [...]
A cloak of illusion, or a material that disguises one object as another, is being developed by scientists in Hong Kong. “The metamaterial can turn the appearance of one object into that of another,” said CT Chan, a scientist at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and coauthor of a paper that recently [...]
It’s the year 2030. As a soldier enters a crowded marketplace, sensors mounted on his helmet automatically scan faces in the crowd, identifying a known insurgent; a cursor in the heads-up display highlights the target and cues the weapon, which can be set to stun or kill; a simple voice command unlocks the trigger.
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Scientists at the University of Illinois have developed polymers that change color when the material becomes overstressed. The materials science invention could be used in things like parachute cords, climbing ropes, or added to smart coatings for bridges. The polymers contain mechanophores–molecules that create a chemical reaction that makes the synthetic material change color when [...]
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