ScienceDaily: Matter & Energy News

First contracting human muscle grown in laboratory Posted: 13 Jan 2015 12:40 PM PST Researchers have grown human skeletal muscle in the laboratory that, for the first time, contracts and responds just like native tissue to external stimuli such as electrical pulses, biochemical signals and pharmaceuticals. The development should soon allow researchers to test new drugs and study diseases in functioning human muscle outside of the human body.

Zinc oxide materials tapped for tiny energy harvesting devices Posted: 13 Jan 2015 09:09 AM PST Today, we're surrounded by a variety of electronic devices that are moving increasingly closer to us -- we can attach and wear them, or even implant electronics inside our bodies. Many types of smart devices are readily available and convenient to use. The goal now is to make wearable electronics that are flexible, sustainable and powered by ambient renewable energy.

Novel multiferroic materials, devices integrated with silicon chips developed Posted: 13 Jan 2015 08:16 AM PST Two advances in multiferroic materials have been made by scientists, including the ability to integrate them on a silicon chip, which will allow the development of new electronic memory devices. The researchers have already created prototypes of the devices and are in the process of testing them.

Predicting properties of the surface of titanium dioxide crystals Posted: 13 Jan 2015 08:15 AM PST A new article investigates the surface of titanium dioxide crystals.

Decoding the gravitational evolution of dark matter halos Posted: 13 Jan 2015 08:15 AM PST Researchers have revealed that considering environmental effects such as a gravitational tidal force spread over a scale much larger than a galaxy cluster is indispensable to explain the distribution and evolution of dark matter halos around galaxies. A detailed comparison between theory and simulations made this work possible.

Glass for battery electrodes Posted: 13 Jan 2015 08:15 AM PST Today's lithium-ion batteries are good, but not good enough if our future energy system is to rely on electrical power. Chemists and materials scientists have now developed a type of glass that can be used as an electrode material in lithium-ion batteries -- likely making a vast improvement in these batteries' capacity and energy density.

Estimated social cost of climate change not accurate, scientists say Posted: 13 Jan 2015 08:14 AM PST The 'social cost' of carbon dioxide emissions may not be $37 per ton, as estimated by a recent US government study, but $220 per ton, experts report.

Fast sorting of CD4+ T cells from whole blood using glass microbubbles Posted: 13 Jan 2015 08:14 AM PST A new report has demonstrated a new cell sorting technology for isolating CD4 positive T cells which may be used for HIV disease monitoring in resource-limited areas such as the developing countries in Africa.

Photonic crystal nanolaser biosensor simplifies DNA detection Posted: 13 Jan 2015 08:11 AM PST A simple method to sense DNA, as well as potential biomarker proteins of cancer or other diseases such as Alzheimer's, may soon be within reach -- thanks to new work.

Robots learn to use kitchen tools by watching YouTube videos Posted: 13 Jan 2015 06:06 AM PST Robotic systems that are able to teach themselves have been developed by researchers. Specifically, these robots are able to learn the intricate grasping and manipulation movements required for cooking by watching online cooking videos. The key breakthrough is that the robots can 'think' for themselves, determining the best combination of observed motions that will allow them to efficiently accomplish a given task.

Novel inorganic material emitting laser light in solution discovered Posted: 13 Jan 2015 06:05 AM PST Scientists have discovered a new type of laser material based on an inorganic molecule -- a complex of boron and hydrogen and no carbon atoms -- that emits laser light in solution.

Image searches are improved by 3-D presentation Posted: 13 Jan 2015 06:04 AM PST Most image and video search engines list their results two-dimensionally. Researchers have now discovered that the search performance is more satisfying, if the results are displayed using a 3-D interface.

Wonder material silicene still stands just out of reach Posted: 12 Jan 2015 03:10 PM PST Silicene is the thinnest form of silicon. It is metallic, has graphene-like mobile carriers and can behave like a semiconductor. The wonder material could lead to even smaller electronics but challenges remain.

New superconducting hybrid crystals Posted: 12 Jan 2015 10:54 AM PST A new type of 'nanowire' crystals that fuses semiconducting and metallic materials on the atomic scale could lay the foundation for future semiconducting electronics.

Chemists show proof of concept for new method of accelerating drug discovery research Posted: 12 Jan 2015 08:07 AM PST Chemists have made a significant advancement to directly functionalize C-H bonds in natural products by selectively installing new carbon-carbon bonds into highly complex alkaloids and nitrogen-containing drug molecules. C-H functionalization is a much more streamlined process than traditional organic chemistry, holding the potential to greatly reduce the time and number of steps needed to create derivatives of natural products.