[Iftah] has been exploring the sounds beyond what we can hear, recording ultrasound and pitching it down. He made a short video on the practice, and it’s like a whole new world of sounds exists just outside of our hearing. For instance, a dropped toothpick sounds like you’ve just dropped a piece of lumber, a […]
Graphene always sounds exciting, although we aren’t sure what we want to do with it. One of the most promising features of the monolayer carbon structure is that under the right conditions, it can superconduct, and some research into how that works could have big impacts on practical superconductor technology. Past experiments have shown that […]
As great as silicon is for semiconductor applications, it has one weakness in that using it for lasers isn’t very practical. Never say never though, as it turns out that you can now grow lasers directly on the silicon material. The most optimal material for solid-state lasers in photonics is gallium-arsenide (GaAs), but due to […]
Like the lead paint and asbestos of decades past, microplastics are the new awful contaminant that we really ought to do something about. They’re particularly abundant in the aquatic environment, and that’s not a good thing. While we’ve all seen heartbreaking photos of beaches strewn with water bottles and fishing nets, it’s the invisible threat […]
What has puzzled researchers and philosophers for many centuries is the ‘why’ of sleep, along with the ‘how’. We human animals know from experience that we need to sleep, and that the longer we go without it, the worse we feel. Chronic sleep-deprivation is known to be even fatal. Yet exactly why do we need […]
There are no two ways about it—space will kill you if you give it half a chance. More than land, sea, or air, the space environment is entirely hostile to human existence. Precision-engineered craft are the bare minimum just to ensure human survival. Even still, between the vacuum, radiation, micrometeorites, and equipment failures, there are […]
Is fire conductive? As ridiculous that may sound at first glance, from a physics perspective the rapid oxidation process we call ‘fire’ produces a lot of substances that can reduce the electrical insulating (dielectric) properties of air. Is this change enough to allow for significant current to pass? To test this, [The Action Lab] on […]
As the most important muscle in our body, any issues with our heart are considered critical and reason for replacement with a donor heart. Unfortunately donor hearts are rather rare, making alternatives absolutely necessary, or at the very least a way to coax the old heart along for longer. A new method here seems to […]
Transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are the subject of an emerging field in semiconductor research, with these materials offering a range of useful properties that include not only semiconductor applications, but also in superconducting material research and in supercapacitors. A recent number of papers have been published on these latter two applications, with [Rui] et al. demonstrating […]
I was fascinated by the idea of jet packs when I was a kid. They were sci-fi magic, and the idea that you could strap into an oversized backpack wrapped in tinfoil and fly around was very enticing. Better still was when I learned that these things weren’t powered by complicated rockets but by plain […]