Applied Sciences
Roadrunner, the first supercomputer to break the once-elusive petaflop barrier—one million billion calculations per second—was decommissioned on Sunday, March 31.
| 3 min read
After developing one of the most advanced research communications infrastructures on any university campus over the past decade, the University of California, San Diego is taking another leap forward in the name of enabling data-intensive science.
| 5+ min read
The University of Utah is launching a project to teach prisoners about science and give them job training in recycling, organic gardening, composting and other skills. It is part of a trend toward environmental sustainability in prisons – the subject of a workshop at the university Wednesday, March 20 through Friday, March 22.
| 2 min read
Scientists working at the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences (SIMES) have improved an innovative solar-energy device to be about 100 times more efficient than its previous design in converting the sun's light and heat into electricity.
| 3 min read
Robot butlers that tidy your house or cook you a meal have long been the dream of science-fiction writers and artificial intelligence researchers alike.
| 3 min read
Engineers at the University of California, San Diego are developing nanofoams that could be used to make better body armor; prevent traumatic brain injury and blast-related lung injuries in soldiers; and protect buildings from impacts and blasts.
| 2 min read
Solar cells are just like leaves, capturing the sunlight and turning it into energy. It’s fitting that they can now be made partially from trees.
| 3 min read
Maobing Tu, an assistant professor in the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, has received a $401,155 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award for his research in biofuels and bioenergy.
| 2 min read
The Department of Energy today announced that approximately $40 million from its Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) will be made available for two new programs that will engage our country’s brightest scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs to develop technologies that shift our cars and trucks off oil.
| 2 min read
A new National Research Council report finds that by the year 2050, the U.S. may be able to reduce petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent for light-duty vehicles -- cars and small trucks -- via a combination of more efficient vehicles; the use of alternative fuels like biofuels, electricity, and hydrogen; and strong government policies.
| 5 min read
A new set of publications from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) could make it easier, faster, and most importantly, more reliable, for forensic examiners to match a set of fingerprints with those on file in any database, whether local, state or national.
| 3 min read
An alloy that may improve high-temperature electronics in oil and geothermal wells was really a solution in search of a problem.
| 4 min read
