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WAVE WIRE: A collective excitation of magnetic moments [represented here by blue arrows], known as a spin wave, can pass through an insulator to link electric processes on either side.
Jens Böning via Wikimedia Commons

An electric insulator, in the simplest terms, blocks the flow of electric current. So it would be a bit counterintuitive, to say [...]

Using a cell phone as a remote control, residents can control the energy use of their appliances. (Credit: Copyright Fraunhofer-FIT)

ScienceDaily (Feb. 27, 2010) — In order to save energy, consumers need to be able to obtain up-to-date information at any time about the energy consumption of their appliances, and be able to control them while [...]

The figure shows schematically the application of germanium in a CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) circuit. Note that germanium is only used in the regions of source (S), drain (D) and channel (C). Source and drain contain high concentration of foreign atoms (dopants) which provide the excess of free electrons (n+ regions) or holes (p+ [...]

RTI International has developed a revolutionary lighting technology that is more energy efficient than the common incandescent light bulb and does not contain mercury, making it environmentally safer than the compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb. (Credit: Image courtesy of RTI International)

ScienceDaily (Feb. 15, 2010) — RTI International has developed a revolutionary lighting technology that is [...]

SHEETS of material that produce voltage when flexed could generate power from the motion of the human body.

Tapping into kinetic energy (Image: tempurasLightbulb/iStock)
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Previous materials were either too rigid or too inefficient to be practical as pliable power generators. Now two research teams have solved the problem using different approaches. The materials could allow [...]

Test board of IMEC and Holst Centre’s wake up receiver. (Credit: IMEC)

ScienceDaily (Feb. 10, 2010) — At the International Solid State Circuit Conference, imec and Holst Centre report a 2.4GHz/915MHz wake-up receiver which consumes only 51µW power. This record low power achievement opens the door to battery-less or energy-harvesting based radios for a wide range [...]

Scheme of a silicon wafer with novel vertical transistors made out of silicon nanowires (without the upper p-contact). (Credit: Image courtesy of Forschungszentrum Dresden Rossendorf)

ScienceDaily (Feb. 10, 2010) — A myriad of silicon transistors are responsible to pass on the information on a microchip with today's technology. The transistors are arranged in a planar array, [...]

On the brink of the metal-insulator transition, the electrons in a manganese-doped gallium arsenide semiconductor are distributed across the surface of the material in complex, fractal-like patterns. These shapes are visible in this electron map, where the colors red, orange and yellow indicate areas on the surface of the semiconductor where electrons are most likely [...]

A simulation of the nature of the spin excitations in a superconducting material's structure. Studies performed at DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory support theories that magnetic properties play an important role in high-temperature superconductivity. (Credit: Image courtesy of DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

ScienceDaily (Feb. 3, 2010) — Neutron scattering experiments performed at the Department of Energy's [...]

ScienceDaily (Jan. 31, 2010) — Watch a gecko walk up a wall. It defies gravity as it sticks to the surface no matter how smooth it appears to be.

This pattered array of nanotubes was stamped — by hand — by Rice graduate student Cary Pint. He grew millions of nanotubes in lines on an alumina [...]