Category: Technology

They dissolve in water in 24 hours, and could be used to pack fruit, vegetables, poultry, meat, and seafood.
Researchers created 3 types of food films based on sodium alginate, a natural biopolymer from seaweeds.
Sodium alginate is mixed with a natural acid that makes the films strong, and has antioxidant components that can prolong food’s shelf life.
It’s possible to enrich the films with natural antiviral substances like garlic, turmeric or ginger in order to extend food’s life even more.
Making these films requires no special equipment, it could be made in food or film factories.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on March 26, 2021

New copper-based, reusable metal foam has near 100% air filtration efficiency for particles sized the size of COVID-19.
The foam starts with ultra-thin copper nanowires, and metal is deposited on them through electric currents.
Current filtration materials, such as those used in N95 masks, are easy to destroy, and not easily reusable.
Whereas the copper foam is a sustainable, reusable alternative that can be produced at scale for a very low cost, approximately $2 per filter.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on March 26, 2021

phys.org

Tensegrity is a century old design principle combining a flexible mesh with isolated rigid bars in order to delocalize deformations.
Thanks to this, the material can’t get destroyed in a chain reaction of locally confined damage (like when ceramics break from an initial small crack).
This is the first ever physical demonstration of tensegrity metamaterials.
It shows a 25 times improvement in deformability, and orders-of-magnitude improvement in energy absorption compared to state-of-the-art materials.
The material could have a wide array of potential engineering applications.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on March 12, 2021

nature.com

New concept of an e-textile microgrid could use your activity to generate electricity.
A system like this would have sweat-based biofuel cells, electrostatic generators, and supercapacitors for high-power output.
It could power, for example, different types of displays, like an LCD wristwatch, along with a system of sensors.
The design could be a base for creating efficient, sustainable and autonomous wearable systems.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on March 12, 2021

Man-made diamonds can generate electricity when you put them in a radioactive field, and voila - diamond batteries.
Since they’re powered by beta rays from carbon-14 and/or nickel-63 isotopes, these batteries can live for 100 years.
Diamond batteries have been deployed before, but this study offers a new type.
The new diamond batteries need a better power output, as for now they generate one-millionth of a watt in electricity.
They could be useful for space equipment or underground mining equipment.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on March 5, 2021

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