Category archives: Technology

MI weekly selection #128

MI weekly selection #128

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Graphene, carbon nanotubes help spiders spin stronger webs Several spiders sprayed with mixtures of water and either graphene particles or carbon nanotubes went on to weave markedly stronger webs, according to researchers at the University of Trento in Italy. The scientists found that webs made by spiders sprayed with the nanotubes produced the strongest silk […]

MI weekly selection #127

MI weekly selection #127

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Cosmic Rays as Thunderstorm Probes Radio waves generated by cosmic rays provide an unprecedented view of the elusive electric fields in thunderstorms. Physics U.S. agencies to develop organs-on-chips The NIH, FDA and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will collaborate on the development of 3D miniature models of organs and tissues on microchips that will be […]

Critical materials: The missing piece of the “green economy” puzzle

Critical materials: The missing piece of the “green economy” puzzle

EconomicsGeosciencesMaterials

By Silvia Román

It is widely accepted that low carbon technologies will contribute to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, mostly those coming from carbon dioxide, and thus slow down the global warming. That’s why most of the largest economies in the world have committed to reduce their gas emissions by supporting an unprecedented transition from the current fossil-fuel based […]

How to measure tiny temperature differences using a Josephson junction

How to measure tiny temperature differences using a Josephson junction

Condensed matterMaterialsPhysicsQuantum physicsTheoretical physics

By DIPC

At low temperatures, the resistivity of a metal (the inverse of its conductivity) is nearly constant. As the temperature of a material is lowered and as we approach absolute zero the resistivity should approach a constant value. Many metals, known as normal metals, behave in this way. The behaviour of another class of metals and […]

Unveiling the origin of the record superconductivity

Unveiling the origin of the record superconductivity

Condensed matterMaterialsPhysicsTheoretical physics

By Ion Errea

Achieving room temperature superconductivity is among the most pursued but elusive goals of scientists. A paper uploaded to the arXiv in December 2014 claims to have observed superconductivity as high as 190 K in hydrogen sulfide at high pressure, breaking all the records thus far. If this observation is confirmed, cuprates will be knocked from […]

MI weekly selection #126

MI weekly selection #126

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Diagram shows newly-found giant magma reservoir underneath Yellowstone A huge reservoir of mostly solid hot rock has been found underneath a magma chamber beneath Yellowstone National Park, part of the vast volcanic plumbing of the area diagrammed in a study published in Science. This system has been there for about 17 million years, and scientists […]