Stanford engineers have created a four-layer prototype high-rise chip. The bottom and top layers are transistors, which are sandwiched between two layers of memory.
Credit: Max Shulaker, Stanford

Cheaper, smaller, and faster – those are the three words we’re constantly hearing when it comes to innovation and development in electronics. Now, Stanford University engineers are adding a fourth word to that mantra – taller.

The Stanford team is about to reveal how to build a high-rise chip that could vault the performance of the single-story logic and memory chips on today’s circuit cards – thereby preventing the wires connecting logic and memory from jamming.

This from Stanford University:

The Stanford approach would end these jams by building layers of logic atop layers of memory to create a tightly interconnected high-rise chip. Many thousands of nanoscale electronic “elevators” would move data between the layers much faster, using less electricity, than the bottleneck-prone wires connecting single-story logic and memory chips today.

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The skin is embedded with ultrathin, single crystalline silicone nanoribbon, which enables an array of sensors.
Credit: Kim et al./Nature Communications

We’ve talked about the advancements in prosthetic limbs in the past, but now a group of researchers out of Seoul National University are taking innovation in prosthetics one step further with this new “smart skin.”

Researchers from the Republic of Korea have developed a stretchy synthetic skin embedded with sensors, which will be able to help those with prosthetics regain their sense of touch.

This from “Stretchable silicon nanoribbon electronics for skin prosthesis” in the journal Nature Communications:

This collection of stretchable sensors and actuators facilitate highly localized mechanical and thermal skin-like perception in response to external stimuli, thus providing unique opportunities for emerging classes of prostheses and peripheral nervous system interface technologies.

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I am trying to trouble shoot a problem I am having with the ASTM method G5-13. It appears that my polarization plot has shifted about 40mV. As a result I am just outside of specs. Before you say reference electrode, that has been completely checked out.

Answer over on LinkedIn.

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The smart fabric developed is durable, malleable, and can be woven with cotton or wool.
Credit: Université Laval/Stepan Gorgusta

We’ve hear about smartphones and “smart cars,” and even such recent developments as the smart highway – but what about a smart textile?

Researchers from Université Laval’s Faculty of Science and Engineering and Centre for Optics, Photonics and Lasers are well on their way to developing clothes that can monitor and transmit biomedical information on wearers.

By using sensor technology and wireless networks, this smart textile will be able to track and transmit this medical information – which has the potential to be extremely beneficial for people suffering from chronic disease, firemen and police offers, and people who are elderly.

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Shopping for the electrochemist or solid state scientist in your life can be difficult. But don’t panic, we’re here to help. (If you happen to be that scientist, well, that’s the reason for the “share” button.) We’ve searched the Internet to find the perfect gift – from witty novelties for those with a sense of humor, to practical tools that he or she will use every day.

Take a look at the list we’ve complied and let us know if we’ve missed anything in the comments!

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By examining paint segments from Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers,” experts believe preservation techniques could be improved.
Credit: Van Gogh Gallery

Electrochemical and solid state science transcend the limits of academic science to touch many of the things we come into contact with on a day-to-day basis, whether we know it or not. Most recently we’ve gotten a first-hand account of this at our Electrochemical Energy and Water Summit, where some of the brightest minds in electrochemical and solid state science came together to solve critical issues in global sanitation. Now, these sciences are even assisting in the preservation of culture.

Pin-sized painting samples from Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” painting have been extracted from the Van Gogh Museum and are now under the microscope at The University of Queensland’s Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis (CMM).

UQ’s Professor John Drennan is leading the project, which aims to understand the aging characteristics of significant artworks in order to improve conservation techniques.

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There is no doubt that women have made their mark in science. From Marie Curie to Rosalind Franklin – women have made outstanding contributions to innovation, research, and technology. Still, there is a significant gender bias that exists in the field, which affects research outcomes and discovery.

The questions exists: Why are there still so few women in science? How will this affect what we learn from research?

According to an article in National Geographic, women make up half the national workforce and earn more college and graduate degrees than men. Still, the gender gap in science exists – specifically in fields such as engineering.

This from National Geographic:

According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, women in fields commonly referred to as STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) made up 7 percent of that workforce in 1970, a figure that had jumped to 23 percent by 1990. But the rise essentially stopped there. Two decades later, in 2011, women made up 26 percent of the science workforce.

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Thermal management represents about 25-30 percent of total costs in a LED bulb, second only to the LEDs themselves.
Credit: Cree

LED maker Cree has introduced a new consumer bulb that costs less, lasts longer, and consumes less energy than the traditional bulb.

The company’s new bulb does not use the heats sinks that LED bulbs typically use. An LED bulb’s metal collar or other heat sink serves to draw away heat from the bulb to ensure a long life. Accordingly, this makes the bulb more expensive and give it a bulky look.

By eliminating the heat sink, Cree lowered the bulb cost from $9.97 for a “soft white” 40-watt to $7.97.

This from IEE Spectrum:

In its new design, heat is removed from the LEDs through convection, or a flow of air through the bulb. The LEDs are mounted on circuit boards, rather than the metal tower. As the diodes heat up, they draw air from outside the bulb through small vent-like openings at the base and on the top. Because hot air rises, air flows continually through the bulb to cool the LEDs. The airflow circulates whether the bulb is vertical, horizontal or upside down, Watson says.

Read the full article here.

The new generation bulb will last 25,000 hours and consume 85 percent less energy than an incandescent bulb.

Want to know what the future has in store for LEDs? Check out what our scientists have been researching to propel this technology. While you’re over there, sign up for our e-Alerts so you are up-to-date on what is happening in the world  of electrochemical and solid state science and technology.

Innovative device detects prostate cancer and kidney disease on the spot.
Credit: Brigham Young University

Scientists from Brigham Young University have developed a remarkably simple device that has the potential to save lives.

The innovative device, created by chemist Adam Woolley and his students, can detect prostate cancer and kidney disease on the spot, all by simply dropping a urine sample into a tiny tube and seeing how far it goes.

This from Brigham Young University:

The tube is lined with DNA sequences that will latch onto disease markers and nothing else. Urine from someone with a clean bill of health would flow freely through the tube (the farther, the better). But even at ultra-low concentrations, the DNA grabs enough markers to slow the flow and signal the presence of disease.

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Growing microtubule endpoints and tracks are color coded by growth phase lifetime.
Credit: Betzig Lab, HHMI/Janelia Research Campus, Mimori-Kiyosue Lab, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology

A new discovery out of Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus is allowing biologists to see 3-D images of subcellular activity in real time.

They’re calling it lattice light sheet microscopy, and it’s providing yet another leap forward for light microscopy. The imaging platform was developed by Eric Betzig and colleagues in order to collect high-resolution images rapidly and minimize damage to cells.

Continue reading to check out the amazing video that shows the five different stages during the division of a HeLa cell as visualized by the lattice light sheet microscope.

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