Technology Tuesday: November 29
Welcome to Technology Tuesday! Every week The Job Shop Blog will bring you our 5 top science and technology news stories from around the web.
This week: New nanotech could charge your phone in seconds, IBM devises a way to grow computer chips, diamond batteries made from nuclear waste, classifying aging as a disease, and augmented reality crime scene investigation.
A Phone That Charges In Seconds
A team of UCF scientists has developed a new process for creating flexible supercapacitors that can store more energy and be recharged more than 30,000 times without degrading.
The novel method from the University of Central Florida’s NanoScience Technology Center could eventually revolutionize technology as varied as mobile phones and electric vehicles.
“If they were to replace the batteries with these supercapacitors, you could charge your mobile phone in a few seconds and you wouldn’t need to charge it again for over a week,” said Nitin Choudhary, a postdoctoral associate who conducted much of the research published recently in the academic journal ACS Nano.
“Growing” the Computer Chips of the Future
The reign of silicon may be coming to an end. For years, researchers and entrepreneurs hoped that carbon nanotubes would revolutionize microchip design. These tiny, molecular-level structures could, in theory, be used to make chips that are six to ten times faster than today’s silicon-based variety—and use far less electricity.
In addition to faster, more efficient chips for laptops and smartphones, tiny but powerful processors could enable new types of technology, such as bendable computers and injectable microchips, or nano-machines that could target cancers in the body.
Now a team of IBM researchers say they’ve made a breakthrough that brings the nano-dreams of the past closer to reality.
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Diamond Batteries Made From Nuclear Waste Can Generate Power for Thousands of Years
New technology has been developed that uses nuclear waste to generate electricity in a nuclear-powered battery. A team of physicists and chemists from the University of Bristol have grown a man-made diamond that, when placed in a radioactive field, is able to generate a small electrical current. The development could solve some of the problems of nuclear waste, clean electricity generation and battery life.
Curing the “Disease” of Aging
Many diseases come with old age. But the idea of pathologizing aging in itself and as a whole has been gaining attention the past few years. Some argue that aging is just damage that the body has sustained throughout life—that these natural wear-and-tear effects can be stopped and ultimately undone.
This seems absurd, that is, until you see what this research has led to.
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Dutch Police Using Augmented Reality to Solve Crimes
Augmented reality (AR) systems have long been used in gaming, but advocates have always insisted that they could do so much more, and they were right. In recent years, VR/AR systems have improved everything from neurosurgery to fashion, and now we have one for police work.
The Dutch police force, the Netherlands Forensic Institute, and the Dutch Fire Brigade are experimenting with an AR system developed by the Delft University of Technology. The system allows an officer to harness the knowledge of multiple experts without them needing to actually be present at the scene of an investigation.
Know any interesting stories we missed? Let us know in the comments!#ScienceandTechnologyNews #Nanotech #TechTuesdays #FutureTech #Technology #Science #Tech