Category: Futuretech Tonics

10 Unanswered Puzzles about Science: Will They Ever Reach Consensus?

Pooja Kashyap

Even though we have made tremendous progress in science, yet there remains a mystery when it comes to give reasons to some everyday activities. These mundane stuffs generate the same kind of awestruck curiosity to scientists as it does to a toddler. Some of these bewildering questions are: 1)  Slipperiness of Ice The unusual & unique properties of water have given numerous explanations about ice being slippery. Experts have dispensed most of the theories propagated so far and there could be more variations in the future discoveries envision majority of…

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Lamborghini Huracán: The New Italian Exotic Supercar Replaces Gallardo

Pooja Kashyap

21st century heralds the supercars that not only give preference to speed but also give equal importance to safety, reliability and spaciousness where minimum fuel consumption and less carbon emissions comes in as default features of course. The new Lamborghini Huracán LP 610-4 rolls in at the same time and earns full marks in all the set parameters. Huracán made its presence felt in the 2014 Geneva Auto Show, where it replaced Gallardo, the most sought after sports car from the same company. The exotic is expected to release somewhere…

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Magnetic Fields in Electric and Hybrid Cars Involve No Threat: Cars under Safety Margin

Pooja Kashyap

Majority welcomed the vehicular era when electric and hybrid automobiles took to the center stage. While there were still others who were doubtful regarding the dangers that might affect the passengers including drivers imposed by the possibly generated electromagnetic fields. However, the increasing number of electric car ownership has thwarted this idea. Seven various electric cars, including hydrogen, gasoline and diesel powered cars, were put under survey by SINTEF, Norway and they discovered that exposure of the electromagnetic radiation was less than 20%. A limit, which was suggested by ICNIRP,…

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Human Brain Simulated on Circuit Board: Mimicking Neurons and Synapses

Pooja Kashyap

Inspired by human brain, bioengineers at Stanford University have fabricated microchips that are relatively faster and energy-efficient where power consumption of PC is about 40k times more. Researchers envision that this would lead a novel way of understanding human brain as well as might take robotics especially prosthetics to the next level. Matching the Brain For an efficient mimicking of neurons and synapses, the team designed 16 Neurocore chips. Jointly these 16 chips were able to simulate about 1m neurons and billions of synaptic connections.

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Propagating Light Revealed New Fundamental Physical Features: Evanescent Electromagnetism

Pooja Kashyap

Dynamical properties of light have been consistent and very well accepted ‘fact’ amongst the academia of physics since more than a century. The same conviction has also helped in the understanding of electromagnetic radiation, which suggests that a quantum of light carries momentum in the direction of propagation and secondly a spinning or gyrating effect around the propagation axis. These two characteristics have become the basic tenets of daily occurrences and experimental interactions between light and matter. However, a new form of light called the evanescent waves has emerged having…

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Fabrication of Bi-Layer Molecular Electronic Devices: Nanoscale Circuitry

Pooja Kashyap

Until now, it was difficult to charge particles at molecular scale and hence developing circuits at microscopic level has always presented a huge challenge. However, Alexander Shestopalov from University of Rochester has crossed the huddle making a step closer to the fabrication of microscopically small circuit. He powered an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) with a nanoscale circuitry in where he coupled the positive and negative electrodes with one-molecule thin sheet of organic material. Experimental trials and errors have proved that it’s impossible to control current passing through such a single…

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Magneto-Optical Storage: The Next Generation of Plastic Computers

Pooja Kashyap

In an effort to replace silicon chips with flexible plastic within gadgets like computers, cellular devices and related systems, researchers from University of Iowa and New York University have come up with an alternative to the high capacity storage technology. During the fiber optic transmission, it is easier and convenient to encode data in light while magnetism helps in storing information with an unlimited expiry date. With the proposed technology, converting information from one form to another is a critical issue. Since, the energy cost for this process is insignificant…

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Sliding Saltwater Over Graphene Generates Electricity

Pooja Kashyap

Call it serendipity or chance, a group of researchers at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in China while conducting an experiment of creating voltage by plunging carbon nanotubes in a flowing liquid hit upon a discovery of generating electricity by dragging saltwater over a piece of graphene. Traditional Techniques Conventionally, producing electricity via graphene has always been an expensive task plus its unique electrical properties have required for immense work from the end of researchers.

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Optimizing the Storage of Solar Energy in Chemical Bonds: Solar Thermal Fuel

Pooja Kashyap

Researchers from MIT and Harvard University have come up with an innovative approach of tapping sun’s heat in form of chemical energy and releasing as per the requirement. The technique is not aimed for replacing the existing solar energy storage problem rather it is an effort of taking the solar power into the new areas which otherwise was not explored before. For instance, the output via this approach is heat, which could be directed towards cooking or industrial avenues where heat is required for powering processes. Molecules Act as Rechargeable…

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Photovoltaic Panels and Agave Cultivation: A New Model for Solar Farms

Neha Shukla

“Agrivoltaics” is relatively a new concept that involves cultivating plants like agave in the spaces between and beneath the photovoltaic panels which allow solar plants to use sunlight for electricity generation and also providing crops for biofuels. It offers optimal solutions for problems that are associated with large solar plants. The solar plants located in the arid regions require constant cleaning of its panels from dust, sand particles or bird droppings. The process of cleaning requires water, which apart from cleaning the panels, dampen the soil to suppress the dust…

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Algorithm Aiding Machines for Determining Navigation: Scene Understanding

Pooja Kashyap

Re-orientation of scenes and multi-target tracking are the fundamental problems for majority of vision applications. Occlusions and slight change in scene alignment make tracking by detection approaches a lot more challenging. Thinking on the same lines, MIT researchers have come up with a new algorithm that would assist the vision applications in combating the re-orientation problems. The algorithm is chiefly written for bots and machines that are employed for navigational purposes. Manhattan Frames The mechanism is based on recognizing the main orientations in the given scene. These alignments act as…

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Silicon Photonics Chip Mimics Human Brain

Pooja Kashyap

Researchers from Ghent University came up with a breakthrough approach by demonstrating processing of information on a chip, mechanism of which was based on the functioning of human brain. Artificial neural networks or the bio inspired technique has been used in the past to bring about complex tasks which otherwise would have been tricky to solve by rule-based programming like computer vision and speech recognition. The researchers applied 16 nodes of neural network directly in hardware with the help of silicon photonics chip. Unlike the traditional computer chips that require…

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Face-on Alignment More Efficient in Generating Power: Organic Solar Cell Technology

Pooja Kashyap

In an attempt to study the viability of organic solar cell technology, researchers from North Carolina State University and UNC-Chapel Hill have discovered that efficiency of energy transference within three-dimensional organic solar cells increases relatively when there is face-to-face alignment between the donor molecules and the acceptor molecules. Exciton or the concentration of energy formed by excited particle upon absorbing by the material is the phenomenon upon which efficiency of organic solar cells is dependent. Within a solar cell, easier the exciton between the donor and acceptor molecules, higher will…

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Anti-Glare Surface based on Moth Eyeballs: Futuristic Solar Panels

Neha Shukla

Researchers observed that the moth eyeball consisted of numerous minute cones arranged in a pattern that diminish glare. This anti reflective property provides the moth with the ability to see during the night and at the same time makes them less visible to the predators around. The team reproduced the pattern on a flexible film and applied a thin layer of gold that could be used to coat various products as solar panels and electronic displays. They also discovered that the material so developed could also repel moisture and dust…

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New Laser Technology Allows for Controlling Lightning Strikes

Pooja Kashyap

Researchers at the University of Arizona and the University of Central Florida have created a technology that has an ability of beaming high-intensity lasers all the way through the layers of atmosphere hence crossing the limitations that it had before. The research is still in its testing phase but the optical scientists envision that it might steer lightning strikes away from human inhabited areas and buildings. Extending the laser beam Lasers undergo diffraction because of which it fades away after beaming some feet only. This phenomenon does not allow it…

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