News by Subject Technology & Engineering

For the first time, researchers have been able to record, frame-by-frame, how an electron interacts with certain atomic vibrations in a solid. The technique, reported in Science, captures a process that commonly causes electrical resistance in materials while, in others, can cause the absence of resistance, or superconductivity.

Thrips don't rely on lift in order to fly. Instead, the tiny insects rely on a drag-based flight mechanism, staying afloat in airflow velocities with a large ratio of force to wing size. Researchers have performed the first test of drag force on a thrip's wing under constant airflow in a bench-top wind tunnel and, drawing from microfabrication and nanomechanics, they created an experiment in which a thrip's wing was glued to a self-sensing microcantilever.

The way the scale armor works is that when in contact with a force, the scales converge inward upon one another to form a solid barrier. When not under force, they can 'move' on top of one another to provide varying amounts of flexibility dependent upon their shape and placement.

Several countries are building futuristic communication systems using higher frequency electromagnetic waves to transfer more data at faster rates, but they have lacked network components to handle these higher bandwidths. Researcher J. Gary Eden proved his new device can rapidly switch functionality to perform the varied tasks needed to support a network with carrier frequencies of over 100 gigahertz. The miniscule-scale architecture concealed within the sugar cube blocks is described in Applied Physics Reviews.

A new UNSW study has shown that using a drone to film hippos in Africa is an effective, affordable tool for conservationists to monitor the threatened species' population from a safe distance, particularly in remote and aquatic areas.

As the world gathers in Madrid to discuss how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to fight climate change, a newly released study makes the case that trapping emissions underground could go a long way toward solving the problem.

Researchers have created a more feasible way to combine transistors and memory on a chip, potentially bringing faster computing.