In January 2017 the world’s lightest mechanical chronograph watch was unveiled in Geneva, Switzerland, showcasing innovative composite development by using graphene. Now the research behind the project has been published. The unique precision-engineered watch was a result of collaboration between the University of Manchester, Richard Mille Watches and McLaren Applied Technologies. The RM 50-03 watch…
Student Develops Spinning Heat Shield For Future Spacecraft
A University of Manchester PhD student has developed a prototype flexible heat shield for spacecraft that could reduce the cost of space travel and even aid future space missions to Mars. Heat shields are essentially used as the brakes to stop spacecraft burning up and crashing on entry and re-entry into a planet’s atmosphere. This…
PhD Student Develops Spinning Heat Shield For Future Spacecraft
A University of Manchester Ph.D. student has developed a prototype flexible heat shield for spacecraft that could reduce the cost of space travel and even aid future space missions to Mars. Heat shields are essentially used as the brakes to stop spacecraft burning up and crashing on entry and re-entry into a planet’s atmosphere. This…
Robotic Spiders and Bees: The Rise of Bioinspired Microrobots
Jumping robot spiders and swarms of robotic bees sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but researchers at The University of Manchester are already working on such projects and aiming to lead the world in micro robotics. But what will these kinds of robots be used for and is it something we should be worried?…
Scientists Develop Graphene Sensors That Could Revolutionize the Internet of Things
Scientists Develop Graphene Sensors That Could Revolutionise The Internet Of Things
Researchers at The University of Manchester have devised graphene sensors embedded into RFIDs, which have the potential to revolutionise the Internet of Things (IoT). By layering graphene-oxide (a derivative of graphene) over graphene to create a flexible heterostructure the team have developed humidity sensors for remote sensing with the ability to connect to any wireless network. Graphene was the…
Uranium to Replace Plastic?
Uranium can perform reactions that previously no one thought possible, which could transform the way industry makes bulk chemicals, polymers, and the precursors to new drugs and plastics, according to new findings from The University of Manchester. Writing in the journal Nature Communications, the chemists have discovered that uranium can perform reactions that used to…
Devices Made from 2-D Materials Separate Salts in Seawater
Two-dimensional materials have been successfully assembled into devices with the smallest possible man made holes for water desalination. Researchers at the National Graphene Institute (NGI) at The University of Manchester have succeeded in fabricating tiny slits in a new membrane that are just several angstroms (0.1nm) in size. This has allowed the study of how…
Scientists Create World’s First ‘Molecular Robot’ Capable Of Building Molecules
Scientists at The University of Manchester have created the world’s first ‘molecular robot’ that is capable of performing basic tasks including building other molecules. The tiny robots, which are a millionth of a millimetre in size, can be programmed to move and build molecular cargo, using a tiny robotic arm. Each individual robot is capable of manipulating a…
Major Leap Towards Data Storage At The Molecular Level
From smartphones to supercomputers, the growing need for smaller and more energy efficient devices has made higher density data storage one of the most important technological quests. Now scientists at the University of Manchester have proved that storing data with a class of molecules known as single-molecule magnets is more feasible than previously thought. The…
Graphene Under Pressure
Small balloons made from one-atom-thick material graphene can withstand enormous pressures, much higher than those at the bottom of the deepest ocean, scientists at the University of Manchester report. This is due to graphene’s incredible strength — 200 times stronger than steel. The graphene balloons routinely form when placing graphene on flat substrates and are…
Manchester Astronomers Detect Precious Element in Space
A team of astronomers from The University of Manchester, together with collaborators from the Centro de Astrobiología and the Deep Space Network, Spain and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, have detected a rare gas 4000 light years away from Earth. The discovery, made using the largest antenna of NASA’s Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex…
Graphene Proves a Perfect Fit for Wearable Devices
Cheap, flexible, wireless graphene communication devices such as mobile phones and healthcare monitors can be directly printed into clothing and even skin, University of Manchester academics have demonstrated. In a breakthrough paper in Scientific Reports, the researchers show how graphene could be crucial to wearable electronic applications because it is highly-conductive and ultra-flexible. The research could…
Dozens of New, Stable 2D Materials Revealed
Dozens of new two-dimensional materials similar to graphene are now available, thanks to research from University of Manchester scientists. The problem has been that the vast majority of these atomically thin 2D crystals are unstable in air, so react and decompose before their properties can be determined and their potential applications investigated. Writing in Nano…
New Species of Electrons Can Lead to Better Computing
In a research paper published this week in Science, the collaboration led by MIT’s theory professor Leonid Levitov and Manchester’s Nobel laureate Sir Andre Geim report a material in which electrons move at a controllable angle to applied fields, similar to sailboats driven diagonally to the wind. The material is graphene – one atom-thick chicken…