University at Buffalo SUNY

New Transistor Design Could Cut 5% From World Digital Energy Budget

A new spin on one of the 20th century's smallest but grandest inventions, the transistor, could help feed the world's ever-growing appetite for digital memory while slicing up to 5% of the energy from its power-hungry diet.

'Founding Father' of Lithium Ion Batteries Helps Solve 40 Year Problem

In the late 1970s, M. Stanley Whittingham was the first to describe the concept of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, an achievement for which he would share the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Yet even he couldn't have anticipated the complex materials science challenges that would arise as these batteries came to power the world's portable electronics.

Finally, 3D-printed Graphene Aerogels for Water Treatment

Graphene excels at removing contaminants from water, but it's not yet a commercially viable use of the wonder material. That could be changing.

Rapid 3D Printing Method Moves Towards 3D Printed Organs

It looks like science fiction: A machine dips into a shallow vat of translucent yellow goo and pulls out what becomes a life-sized hand. The hand, which would take six hours to create using conventional 3D printing methods, demonstrates what engineers say is progress toward 3D-printed human tissue and organs — biotechnology that could eventually save countless lives lost due to the shortage of donor organs.

Self-Driving Laboratories: A Reality Waiting to Happen

Imagine a situation where, given a request, a lab automatically chooses what experiments to do, robotically carries this out, tracks the reaction with integrated sensors, acquires and analyzes the results, and then decides what experiment to do next. This seems like science-fiction, but certain truths may be closer than you think.

Lux Semiconductors

Lux Semiconductors are an early stage company that have developed a patent pending system-on-foil platform that enables flexible silicon ICs to be directly produced on flexible substrates.

Artificial Chemist uses AI, Robotics for Autonomous R&D

Researchers have developed a technology called "Artificial Chemist," which incorporates artificial intelligence and an automated system for performing chemical reactions to accelerate R&D and manufacturing of commercially desirable materials.

Electrics and Electronics Becomes User-Dedicated Smart Material

An important new trend is buying electrics and electronics you customise to function not just shape. See the new IDTechEx report, "Complete Electronics as Smart Material, User-Customized 2020-2040". Builders, textile manufacturers, those doing home improvement and others are starting to buy electrically-smart materials direct from materials companies, bypassing the electronics industry.

Thin Films with Tantalizing Properties

Scientists have created thin films made from barium zirconium sulfide and confirmed that the materials have alluring electronic and optical properties predicted by theorists.

A robot with a firm yet gentle grasp

Human hands are remarkably skilled at manipulating a range of objects. We can pick up an egg or a strawberry without smashing it. We can hammer a nail. One characteristic that allows us to perform a variety of tasks is the ability to alter the firmness of our grip, and engineers have developed a two-fingered robotic hand that shares this trait.

A robot with a firm yet gentle grasp

Human hands are remarkably skilled at manipulating a range of objects. We can pick up an egg or a strawberry without smashing it. We can hammer a nail. One characteristic that allows us to perform a variety of tasks is the ability to alter the firmness of our grip, and engineers have developed a two-fingered robotic hand that shares this trait.

Tiny sensors to assist in cancer detection

A physicist creates tiny sensors that detect, characterize and analyze protein-protein interactions in blood serum. Information from PPIs could be a boon to the biomedical industry, as researchers seek to nullify proteins that allow cancer cells to grow and spread.

Manganese may finally solve hydrogen fuel cells' catalyst problem

Manganese is known for making stainless steel and aluminum soda cans. Now, researchers say the metal could advance one of the most promising sources of renewable energy: hydrogen fuel cells.

3D printers' fingerprints help trace printed guns, counterfeit goods

Like fingerprints, no 3D printer is exactly the same. That's the takeaway from a new study that describes what's believed to be the first accurate method for tracing a 3D-printed object to the machine it came from.

Speech recognition system helps preserve Seneca language

A new research project will help ensure the endangered language of the Seneca Indian Nation will be preserved. Using deep learning, a form of artificial intelligence, researchers are building an automatic speech recognition application to document and transcribe the traditional language of the Seneca people.

Portable cancer test uses smartphone, new gold biosensor

A research team is creating a new cancer-spotting tool that health care providers could eventually use in areas that lack hospitals, clinics and other treatment centers. The tool is based upon a unique gold biosensor the research team created. When paired with a computer or smartphone and other inexpensive tools, the system is capable of spotting cancer biomarkers from a blood sample.

This bright blue dye is found in fabric could it also power batteries?

A sapphire-colored dye called methylene blue is a common ingredient in wastewater from textile mills. But scientists think it may be possible to give this industrial pollutant a second life. In a new study, they show that the dye, when dissolved in water, is good at storing and releasing energy on cue.