Nature has an innate ability of fabricating organic structures at the nano scale, self-cleaning mechanism or water repellence in lotus effect best describes this tendency. Dexterously the leaves of lotus flower repel water. The complex micro and nanoscopic architecture of the surface is responsible for creating physical atmosphere that assist in disengaging water molecules to the leaves. Scientists today are working towards replicating the mechanism by using nature as a template. However, imitating the natural process is not that easy especially when working on the nanoscale, often it requires toxic…
Read MoreAuthor: Pooja Kashyap
HD106906 System Explodes The Basic Concepts Of Planet Formation
Recent discovery of planet HD 106906 b has exploded the underlying hypotheses of planet formation so far. A team of space scientists led by a University of Arizona graduate student has pioneered the discovery. The exoplanet weighs around 20.9x 1027 kg, which is eleven times more than that of Jupiter. It’s also found revolving around its star at 650 times the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. As per one theory of planet formation, planets that are in proximity with their stars band together with the help of…
Read MoreTraces Of Water Discovered Across Exoplanet Atmospheres
Two teams of space scientists have discovered the presence of atmospheric water across the five distant planets. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope was the tool employed by the teams for the exploration mission. WASP-17b, HD209458b, WASP-12b, WASP-19b and XO-1b were the planets that were under observation. WASP-17b and HD209458b gave the strongest signal of water content present in their atmosphere while the others showed consistency.
Read MoreEpson’s Dual Arm Robot, Amongst Hottest Trends In Industrial Robotics
The dual-arm, adaptable industrial robot by Seiko Epson, Japanese electronic company, reminds me of Sid, the sloth. Unlike the existing industrial bots, this prototype by Seiko Epson can visualize, take decisions, adapt as per the environment, can adjust the force while grabbing objects and above all, its portable. This dual-arm bot is capable of moving independently while performing simple tasks on assembly lines. As per the press release, Epson’s autonomous dual-arm robot is able to accurately recognize the position and orientation of objects in three-dimensional space, much like the human…
Read MoreMFC Powered Bots With Urine Powered Pumping Heart
Urine, an untapped resource, which was going into the drains before, will now be powering the next gen EcoBots. Researchers from the University of the West of England and the University of Bristol have come up with urine-powered artificial heart that’ll fuel these bots. The EcoBots will be generating their own energy with the help of onboard microbial fuel cells (MFCs). MFCs will break down urine in a process generating electricity. It is not only urine that the EcoBots are fed upon but also other organic feedstocks like rotten fruits,…
Read MoreInterview with Tommy Seilheimer Founder and CEO of Defcon13 Media
Lately, we got a chance of interviewing Tommy Seilheimer, the Founder and CEO of Defcon13 Media. An entrepreneur by nature he is curious about everything on the web and enjoys writing / discussing things on SEO, SMM, Web Design, WordPress, Marketing, Digital Media, Graphic Design, Videos, Sports, Food, Health, Videogames, Politics, Music, Apple, SciFi, Documentaries, North Korea and more. Tommy has been a brand strategy, marketing and WordPress design consultant for over 13 years. Skilled at analyzing market trends and customer needs to develop highly effective and targeted marketing campaigns.
Read MoreSentiment Analytics Gives Wisdom Of The Crowd: Social Media
Immensity with which the social networks are growing is unprecedented in its own way. Facebook consists of roughly 1 billion users, twitter has 500 million users, LinkedIn has over 225 million users, Pinterest has more than 10 million users, Instagram uploads 5 millions images everyday and Google+ receives 5 billion +1’s daily. This is not enough, there are Asian networking sites boasting of more than 500 million users. For example, Qzone social networking website, which was created by Tencent in 2005, allows users to write blogs, keep diaries, send photos…
Read MoreStanene Could be The New Building Block For Circuit Structures
Topological insulators by default mean heavy and electron-rich elements however, recent research at sub atomic levels are changing this age-old fact. Researchers have been fascinated with this evolved class of material. According to Wikipedia, A topological insulator is a material with time reversal symmetry and trivial topological order, that behaves as an insulator in its interior but whose surface contains conducting states, meaning that electrons can only move along the surface of the material.
Read MoreComet ISON’s Journey Comes To An End
After travelling for over a million years, Comet ISON or Comet Nevski–Novichonok, a sungrazing comet discovered on 21 September 2012 by Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok will be completing its inward journey through the solar system by the Thanksgiving Day, that is, Nov. 28, 2013. Researchers feel that either it will shatter due to the extreme heat of the sun or speeds back, never to return. Space scientists were intrigued since the time they had discovered the Comet ISON (in Sept 2012) because they believe that the comet consists of…
Read MoreDust Ring Confirmed Near Venus Orbit
Interplanetary dust or the Cosmic dust has occupied space in the solar system. Studies are still being conducted in order to understand the nature, origin and its relationship to larger bodies in space. However, one thing is confirmed that a planet’s gravity is acting on the cosmic dust by pulling it into its orbit forming a ring of dust around itself. Earth too has been travelling in the ring of dust, a discovery that was made twenty years ago. Since then space scientists have been working upon gathering the information…
Read MoreMagneto Electric Conversion In BFO Opens Door To Smart Devices
Among the other multiferroics, bismuth ferrite (BFO) has gained an increased interest from research scholars in science and technology. The credit goes to its enhanced magnetization and suppressed current leakage ability. In May this year, three researchers Dovron Rahmedov, Laurent Bellaiche and Rahmedov postulated the multi-functionality of bismuth ferrite (BFO) in terms of electrical polarization, which means, the compound can be magnetized by running an electric current through it.
Read MoreControlling Robots Via An Intuitive Command System
Eye contact and face engagement are the two most important elements that plays major role in interaction among humans. And this main thing was missing when interacting with robots but now bots too would react according to the given set of instruction(s) that they’d decipher as per the eye and face recognition. Researchers at IROS made it a reality. They showed how an individual robot obeyed – within a group of bots – an instruction. This breakthrough went ahead in controlling bots in a more natural way. The bots were…
Read MoreMars Has Granitic Rocks: A Research
Every time one reads a philosophical novel, one finds a new motif running parallelly across the main theme and the numbers of motifs keep on increasing with the number of times the book is re-read. Expedition on Mars is quite similar to such an experience or a discovery at least I think so. Until now, researchers advocated that Mars is much simpler geologically with respect to Earth and that the planet’s surface consists of only basalt, dark-colored volcanic rocks. However, a recent discovery by the Curiosity rover has surfaced more…
Read MoreMeet Daniel Becker, 2014 Nominee by German Design Council: An Interview
As an entrepreneur / designer heading his own eponymous firm in Berlin, Daniel Becker Design Studio, Daniel provides design and consulting services in the fields of industrial products, lighting and interior design as well as art-direction and strategic conception. Daniel Becker (born 1983) studied industrial design at Braunschweig University of Art. After graduating, he opened his own studio and was invited to show his work in several young design talent selections on major trade fairs. In 2013, he presented new products on the Milan Furniture Fair and is nominated for…
Read MoreTake A Dip Into The World Of Data Visualization With Florian Krautli: An Interview
Florian Krautli is a Swiss designer and developer working in London. He holds a BDes in product design from the Design Academy Eindhoven and a MSc in Cognitive Computing from Goldsmiths, focusing on philosophy of perception and artificial intelligence. He is experienced as a designer, software developer and lecturer and his work has been internationally exhibited and featured in both design and technology centered media. Currently, his research revolves around interactive data visualisations for cultural data, with a focus on representations of time.
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