News by Subject Technology & Engineering

Power consumption of a home refrigerator can be cut by 29% while improving cooling capacity. Researchers replaced environmentally-unfriendly R134a refrigerant with the more energy-efficient R600a. They dosed R600a with multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) nanoparticles. Drop-in refrigerant replacement in the field by trained technicians is possible, says an engineer from the University of Johannesburg. This test of nanoparticle-dosed refrigerants is a first of its kind and can help make home refrigeration more accessible for vulnerable families.

A joint research team from POSTECH and KAIST develops self-powering, color-changing humidity sensors. Applicable to various fields including smart windows, health care and safety management.

New research provides insight into how housing prices and neighborhood values have become polarized in some urban areas, with the rich getting richer and the poor becoming poorer. The results of the study, done in Columbus, Ohio, suggest that some of the factors long thought to impact neighborhood values - such as the distance to downtown, nearby highways, or attractions such as city parks - no longer matter much to changing housing prices in an area.

The device, which takes advantage of heat generated on the outer layer of building facades, could cover the heating required to ventilate a building for up to 75% of the days in a cold season.

The regions of Anatolia, the Northern Levant and the Caucasus played important roles in the development of complex social and cultural models during the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. Through genomic analysis of 110 individuals ranging from 7500 to 3000 years ago, this study sheds light on how human mobility accompanied the spread of ideas and material culture prior to and during the emergence of some of the world's earliest state-level societies.

The nanostructure of the heterogeneous Ziegler-Natta catalyst was clarified on the basis of cutting-edge analytical techniques. Scientists from Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) and University of Torino (UNITO) have cooperatively clarified the nanostructure of the heterogeneous Ziegler-Natta catalyst by means of combined synchrotron X-ray analytical techniques, vibrational spectrocopies, and molecular simulations.

Concrete is one of the most durable building materials used in modern-day infrastructures, but it has a weakness -- ice -- which can cause it to crumble. Now, inspired by organisms that survive in sub-zero environments, researchers in Colorado are introducing polymer molecules with anti-freezing abilities into concrete. The method, which tests if the new concrete can stop the damage caused by freezing and thawing, appears in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science on May 27, 2020.