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26 articles from ScienceDaily

Calcium rechargeable battery with long cycle life

With the use of electric vehicles and grid-scale energy storage systems on the rise, the need to explore alternatives to lithium-ion batteries has never been greater. Researchers have recently developed a prototype calcium metal rechargeable battery capable of 500 cycles of repeated charge-discharge -- the benchmark for practical use. The breakthrough was made thanks to the development of a copper...

Flexing crystalline structures provide path to a solid energy future

Researchers have uncovered the atomic mechanisms that make a class of compounds called argyrodites attractive candidates for both solid-state battery electrolytes and thermoelectric energy converters. The discoveries -- and the machine learning approach used to make them -- could help usher in a new era of energy storage for applications such as household battery walls and fast-charging electric...

Electronic noses sniff out volatile organic compounds

Tracing volatile organic compounds is important for public safety and all 'smell' related issues. To this end, researchers introduce a fluid mechanics-based chamber design for an electronic nose that consistently detects VOCs at low concentrations. The strategy, which includes using a shunt-like device to control the behavior of fluid flow, is a step forward in e-nose technology development.

Researchers build bee robot that can twist

A robotic bee that can fly fully in all directions has been developed. With four wings made out of carbon fiber and mylar as well as four light-weight actuators to control each wing, the Bee++ prototype is the first to fly stably in all directions. That includes the tricky twisting motion known as yaw, with the Bee++ fully achieving the six degrees of free movement that a typical flying insect...

Lessons from blockbusters to help teams adapt

Researchers argue that negative emotions -- if leveraged in the right way -- can help teams adapt. They make their case by dissecting scenes from three blockbuster movies, each of which represent a different type of team and threat.

Boost for the quantum internet

A quarter of a century ago, theoretical physicists proposed a way to transmit quantum information via quantum repeaters over long distances which would open the door to the construction of a worldwide quantum information network. Now, a new generation of researchers has built a quantum repeater node for the standard wavelength of telecommunication networks and transmitted quantum information over...

CT scan best at predicting heart disease risk in middle age

CT scans are better at predicting a middle-aged person's risk for a heart disease, such as a heart attack, than genetics, reports a new study. Conventional measures of risk factor levels include blood pressure and cholesterol. Scientists had hoped genetics could better predict risk than conventional measure, but only when considering CT scan, half the study participants moved into the high-risk...