Tech
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Humans
A Proposed NSF for Innovation
Researchers with the Brookings Institution have just published a blueprint for tackling what they perceive as a brewing innovation crisis. They propose that Uncle Sam create a federal agency to focus squarely on helping home-grown companies increase their innovation, productivity and profitability.
- Tech
Power from heat
A more efficient material that converts heat into electricity could make a new kind of solar panel possible.
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- Tech
Finding mass graves from on high
Aerial surveys that scan the ground at many wavelengths, some visible and some not, may offer a way to quickly and easily detect mass grave sites.
- Tech
Diamond detectors
The quantum states of single diamond impurities work as magnetic sensors that could enable nuclear magnetic resonance to detect single atoms.
- Earth
Water-Hogging Electric Vehicles
Electric cars may save on gasoline, but some can place an indirect drain on other resources.
- Tech
Nanocrystal
Researchers have used DNA as Velcro to create the first materials that spontaneously assemble into regular 3-D patterns.
- Tech
Smells like DNA
By reshuffling the chemical letters of the genetic code, scientists have made short strands of DNA that can distinguish several different smells, such as explosives and food preservatives.
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- Tech
Energy forest
Silicon nanowires can at least double the storage capacity of lithium-ion batteries.
- Tech
Tractor beam
Magnetic nanoparticles selectively bind to specific bacteria and can drag them out of a liquid.
