Spencer Chin

Most of us are familiar with the practice of checking the use-by dates on food packaging labels. It turns out that many customers throw away the food by those dates, even though in many cases the food is still safe to eat. Researchers at Imperial College in London hope to change that practice. They have…

With the weather warming up, outdoor activities beckon for many of us. Many of us use headlamps at night to find our way around. However, existing headlamps have limitations. A Spanish-designed headlight, called Carbi, offers several attributes that suit it for many outdoor uses. For one, the headlamp has a wider floodlight setting due to…

Most people think of roses as something you give someone as a romantic gesture, but they may also have some energy-saving value. Researchers at the University Of Texas (UT) at Austin say a new device for collecting and purifying water was inspired by a rose and significant improves on current water recovery techniques. The flower-like…

When people think of wood in a house, the first thought is logs in a fireplace to provide extra warmth. But researchers at the University of Maryland and the University of California have another idea—harnessing the intricate structure of processed wood to develop a passive cooling method that could save homeowners energy. The method involves…

Traditional lens manufacturing methods have required the use of costly metal molds, thus preventing lens makers from being able to easily tool a variety of lens shapes and sizes. Researchers from Washington State University and Ohio State University are trying to overcome this limitation using a liquid mold that allows greater flexibility and customization. The…

Greenhouse gases are not seen as healthy for the environment, but researchers at Stanford University believe the type of gas released would still be an improvement. According to a study published in Nature Sustainability, a process has been developed to convert methane into carbon dioxide. The latter is considered a considerably less potent agent of global…

Most of us carry smartphones and some of us wear smartwatches. Can smart clothes be close behind? Researchers at UBC Okanagan’s School of Engineering think so. They have developed a low-cost sensor that can be interlaced into textiles and composite materials. The researchers believe such a sensor could lead to the development of smart clothing…

While numerous efforts are underway to develop solar cell materials of the future, the hurdles have been photovoltaic efficiency and cost. But a University of Toledo physicist has made significant progress in material chemistry and processing and may be close to achieving a breakthrough in solar cell performance.  Working in collaboration with the U.S. Department…

Although recycling plastic is common in many cities, the truth is that current plastic materials are typically only 20 to 30 percent recyclable, with the remaining plastic winding up in incinerators and landfills, where the carbon-rich material slowly decomposes. Now, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have designed…

As if hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, castastrophic floods, and other natural disasters weren’t enough to worry us, now there’s the threat from the heavens: asteroids. According to an article by Ivan Couronne appearing on Phys.org, international “planetary defense” experts have been simulate the effects of an asteroid hitting earth. So far, the results have been mixed.…

Not surprisingly, advances in areas like radar technologies and photonics were very much in evidence at the SPIE Defense and Commercial Sensing conference in Baltimore last week. But the wide-ranging technical conference also uncovered some interesting developments in materials, enabling the development of flexible, high-strength electronics for industrial, medical, and other applications. Several speakers discussed…

With 3D printing becoming more popular, users are ready to move beyond entry-level printers to machines capable of low to medium volume production. To meet these needs,  additive manufacturing company Stratasys has unveiled its Stratasys F120™ 3D Printer. The machine costs 40 percent less than industrial-grade 3D printers, according to Gina Scala, director of education…

The idea of using wood to generate energy is usually associated with directly combusting wood to produce heat. But a University of Maryland-led team of researchers has created a heat-to-electricity device that runs on ions and which could someday harness the body’s heat to provide energy. A team comprising Liangbing Hu, Robert Briber and Tian…

Wind energy is considered a vastly untapped source that, if properly harvested, can transform the energy market in the U.S., according to Jerome Hajjar, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northeastern University. But that hasn’t happened yet, according to an article by Molly Callahan from Northeastern Univeristy Part of the problem, the article…

In the crowded urban area I live, worn brakes are one of those items one always needs to factor into my vehicle’s maintenance budget. Even if you drive conservatively, stop-and-go traffic is inevitable and that accelerates wear on the brake pads and rotors. But scientists are trying to devise solutions. One solution being attempted is…

Living in relatively close proximity to two major airports, I’m all too aware of the problem of jet noise. But if you’ve been to air show or live near an air force base, the problem worsens because now you’re dealing with sonic booms from planes flying at speeds exceeding the speed of sound. University of…

Stories abound of artificial intelligence (AI) revolutionizing industrial processes and space exploration. But AI is also assisting scientists down below, in the deep sea environment. Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed an AI program that can automatically identify species or microscopic marine organisms. The scientists hope this is the first step in developing…

All that strength training done at the health may do more than benefit the person pumping iron or working the Nautilus machines. The process that strengthens human skeletal muscles is the basis for Hokkaido University researchers to develop a strategy to fabricate materials that become stronger in response to mechanical stress. The scientists’ findings, published…

One of the keys to developing commercially viable electric and hybrid-electric vehicles is the producing fuel cells that are efficient yet not prohibitively expensive to produce.  Now, researchers from several universities in the U.K. are leveraging a Nobel prize-winning chemistry technique on a mixture of metals, to potentially reduce the cost of fuel cells in…

P-channel transistors are considered desirable for many semiconductor fabrication applications, but their chemical instability and poor electrical properties have limited their use. Now, scientists at Dongguk University have found a way to create printed p-channel thin-film transistors by using the abundantly available and environmentally-friendly copper(I) iodide semiconductor at room temperature. Their energy-efficient and cost-effective fabrication…

Finding a strong adhesive that works in wet environments is no easy task. A research team at the University of Illinois have introduced a cutting-edge reusable adhesive that is based on shaped memory polymers (SMPs). The material activates in seconds, works underwater, and is strong enough to deadlift 11 pounds. The team—associate professor in mechanical…

To most of us, looking at the finish of an antique musical instrument conjures the image of painstaking, fine craftsmanship. Thanks to 3D scanning, scientists at several universities in Italy have been able to delve into the details of the multi-layered coating methods that gave antique violins their handcrafted look. In a study published in…

Piezeolectric materials are used in many consumer products such as mobile phones, watches, and instruments. Now, scientists at Virginia Tech have found a way to 3D print piezoelectric materials so they are not restricted by shape or size. Xiaoyu ‘Rayne’ Zheng, assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering, and a member of the…

For most people, the planet Saturn has always stood out because of its series of rings. But scientific observations from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft suggest that rings formed later than the planet itself. Before Cassini plunged to its death in Saturn’s hydrogen and helium atmosphere, the spacecraft coasted between the planet and its rings to essentially…

The solar flare has always presented scientists an astronomical phenomenon that is visually fascinating but also equally mystifying, in trying to determine how and why they form and occur. Now, a team of scientists, led by National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, have developed a single, cohesive…