University of California, Santa Cruz

Solar Paneled Canals Getting a Test Run

Covering the 4,000 miles of California's water canals could reduce evaporation by as much as 82 percent, saving about 63 billion gallons of water a year. That's comparable to the same amount needed to irrigate 50,000 acres of farmland or meet the residential water needs of more than 2 million people. Covering all state water canals with solar installations would also generate 13 gigawatts of renewable power, equaling roughly 1/6th of the state's current installed capacity — about half the projected new capacity needed by 2030 to meet the state's decarbonization goals.

Astronomers Create the First 3D Printed Stellar Nurseries

Astronomers can't touch the stars they study, but astrophysicists are using 3-dimensional models that fit in the palm of the hand to unravel the structural complexities of stellar nurseries, the vast clouds of gas and dust where star formation occurs.

3D Printed Porous Carbon Aerogels for Space Exploration

Exploration of extremely cold environments, from Earth's polar regions to the moon and Mars, requires technology that can rapidly store and deliver electricity at ultralow temperatures. NASA's Perseverance rover, for example, needs heaters to keep the rover's battery system from freezing in Martian temperatures averaging about -81 F (-62 C).

Bioelectronic Device Achieves Unprecedented Control of Cell Membrane

In an impressive proof-of-concept demonstration, an interdisciplinary team of scientists has developed a bioelectronic system driven by a machine learning algorithm that can shift the membrane voltage in living cells and maintain it at a set point for 10 hours.

New laws of attraction: Scientists print magnetic liquid droplets

Scientists have made a new material that is both liquid and magnetic, opening the door to a new area of science in magnetic soft matter. Their findings could lead to a revolutionary class of printable liquid devices for a variety of applications from artificial cells that deliver targeted cancer therapies to flexible liquid robots that can change their shape to adapt to their surroundings.

3D-printed supercapacitor electrode breaks records

Advances in supercapacitor technology could lead to wider use of fast-charging energy storage devices and novel designs for electronic gadgets.

Soft multifunctional robots get really small

Robots could be safely deployed in difficult-to-access environments, such as in delicate surgical procedures in the human body.

3D printing method embeds sensing capabilities in robotic actuators

Soft robots that can sense touch, pressure, movement and temperature.

Solar greenhouses generate electricity and grow crops

The first crops of tomatoes and cucumbers grown inside electricity-generating solar greenhouses were as healthy as those raised in conventional greenhouses, signaling that "smart" greenhouses hold great promise for dual-use farming and renewable electricity production.

Way to harvest energy from the backs of marine species

While solar panel systems continue to pop up on rooftops throughout the solar panels installed underwater, in the ocean, on the backs of marine species.

Improved 3-D-printed graphene aerogel supercapacitors

Researchers have devised a method for doubling the performance of 3-D-printed graphene-based supercapacitors.

Novel capping strategy improves stability of perovskite nanocrystals

Perovskite materials have shown great promise for use in next-generation solar cells, light-emitting devices, sensors, and other applications, but their instability remains a critical limitation.

Researchers 3D print ultralight supercapacitors

For the first time ever, scientists have successfully 3D-printed supercapacitors using an ultra-lightweight graphene aerogel, opening the door to novel, unconstrained designs of highly efficient energy storage systems for smartphones, wearables, implantable devices, electric cars and wireless sensors.

Powering marine science sensors with ambient energy

Researchers are assisting marine scientists with wildlife monitoring research and will explore energy harvesting from the environment, using elephant seals for the initial experiments.