University of Montpellier

Pressure improves the ability of materials to turn heat into electricity and could potentially be used to create clean generators, according to new work from a team that includes Carnegie’s Alexander Goncharov and Viktor Struzhkin published in Nature Materials. Alternative energy sources are key to combating climate change caused by carbon emissions. Compounds with thermoelectric capabilities

Ibuprofen, naproxen, and related non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) — the subjects of years of study — still have some secrets to reveal about how they work. Vanderbilt University investigators have discovered surprising new insights into the actions of NSAIDs. Their findings, reported Sept. 25 in Nature Chemical Biology, raise the possibility of developing a new

Engineers at Oregon State University have developed and successfully demonstrated the value of a simple pulley mechanism to improve hand function after surgery. The device, tested in cadaver hands, is one of the first instruments ever created that could improve the transmission of mechanical forces and movement while implanted inside the body. After continued research,

New circuit design could unlock the power of experimental superconducting computer chips. Computer chips with superconducting circuits — circuits with zero electrical resistance — would be 50 to 100 times as energy-efficient as today’s chips, an attractive trait given the increasing power consumption of the massive data centers that power the Internet’s most popular sites.

EPFL scientists have successfully tested new neuroprosthetic technology that combines robotic control with users’ voluntary control, opening avenues in the new interdisciplinary field of shared control for neuroprosthetic technologies. EPFL scientists are developing new approaches for improved control of robotic hands – in particular for amputees – that combines individual finger control and automation for

Nearly a century ago, German chemist Fritz Haber won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for a process to generate ammonia from hydrogen and nitrogen gases. The process, still in use today, ushered in a revolution in agriculture, but now consumes around one percent of the world’s energy to achieve the high pressures and temperatures that

Gene therapy could ‘turn off’ severe allergies A single treatment giving life-long protection from severe allergies such as asthma could be made possible by immunology research at The University of Queensland. A team led by Associate Professor Ray Steptoe at the UQ Diamantina Institute has been able to ‘turn-off’ the immune response which causes allergic

One team has already made a cat ‘disappear’ with a device that has huge military potential Mainland scientists are increasingly confident of developing the world’s first invisibility cloak, using technology to hide objects from view and make them “disappear”. The central government has funded at least 40 research teams over the past three years to

With its modestly named Shelter, architecture firm Carter Williamson has thrown its hat into the disaster response emergency housing ring. The emphasis appears to be on flexibility, Shelter having been designed for easy transportation and rapid construction in a range of less-than-ideal circumstances. Most interesting is that the prefabricated Shelter is also designed to be

The global industrial sector accounts for more than half of the total energy used every year. Now scientists are inventing a new artificial photosynthetic system that could one day reduce industry’s dependence on fossil fuel-derived energy by powering part of the sector with solar energy and bacteria. In the ACS journal Nano Letters, they describe