Most recent 10 articles: PHYS.ORG - Technology
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Car giants vie for EV crown at Beijing's Auto China show - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · Chinese car giants locked in a cut-throat price war descended on the capital for the start of the Auto China show Thursday, vying to draw consumers and headlines in the world's biggest electric vehicle market and abroad.
China's EV sector has exploded in recent years, and firms are now engaged in a no-holds-barred battle to offer customers the coolest accessories at the lowest prices.
EV makers from China have made inroads into markets from Europe to Southeast Asia and Tesla's Elon Musk described them in January as "the most competitive car companies in the world".
Beijing's Auto China show, which lasts until May 4, sees dozens of firms square off in a bid to draw ... Read more ...
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Tesla driver in Seattle-area crash that killed motorcyclist told police he was using Autopilot - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · A Tesla that may have been operating on the company's Autopilot driving system hit and killed a motorcyclist near Seattle, raising questions about whether a recent recall went far enough to ensure Tesla drivers using Autopilot pay attention to the road.
After the crash Friday in a suburban area about 15 miles (24 kilometers) northeast of the city, the driver of a 2022 Tesla Model S told a Washington State Patrol trooper that he was using Autopilot and looked at his cellphone while the Tesla was moving.
"The next thing he knew there was a bang and the vehicle lurched forward as it accelerated and collided with the motorcycle in front of him," the trooper wrote in a ... Read more ...
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New insights lead to better next-gen solar cells - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Saliba and Malekshahi reached out to researchers at the Molecular Foundry, a Department of Energy Office of Science user facility located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).
Fast forward several months, and the Berkeley Lab team has applied a set of techniques to reveal changes in the crystalline structures of perovskite solar cell materials in real-time as they were being fabricated with Saliba's process. The results, published in a recent Advanced Materials paper, provide researchers with a deeper understanding of how to make better perovskite solar cells.
"Material fabrication is often a black box," said Carolin Sutter-Fella, a Molecular Foundry ... Read more ...
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Italy fines Amazon over 'recurring' purchase option - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Italy's competition authority said Wednesday it had fined two Amazon companies 10 million euros ($10.6 million) for unfair commercial practices, for pushing customers into agreeing to "recurring" rather than "one-time" purchases online.
In a statement, the AGCM said the option to set up regular purchases was "pre-selected by default" on a wide selection of products listed on Amazon's Italian website.
"The graphic layout of the pre-selected recurring purchase option may lead consumers to buy products periodically - even when there is no actual need - thereby limiting their ability to choose freely," the AGCM said in a statement.
"Moreover, the conduct implemented by ... Read more ...
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Microsoft and Amazon face scrutiny from UK competition watchdog over recent AI deals - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · British competition regulators said Wednesday they'll scrutinize recent artificial intelligence deals by Microsoft and Amazon over concerns that the moves could thwart competition in the AI industry.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it's looking into Microsoft's partnership with France's Mistral AI and the company's hiring of key staff from another startup, Inflection AI. The watchdog also separately announced that it's investigating Amazon's $4 billion investment in San Francisco-based Anthropic.
Big Tech companies have been pouring money into generative AI startups amid growing public and business interest in the technology, but the investments have also ... Read more ...
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New survey finds positive perceptions of solar projects - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Among these respondents, 42% support additional development in their community, compared to 18% who would oppose further projects. At the same time, more than 80% of the respondents were unaware of the project prior to construction and a third did not know until completing the survey.
Doug Bessette, associate professor for energy systems in the Department of Community Sustainability at Michigan State University's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, was one of the leads on the project.
"The responses from residents were generally positive, which is good to see considering the amount of solar that is likely to be developed in the coming years," Bessette said. "At ... Read more ...
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Rubber-like stretchable energy storage device fabricated with laser precision - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · The advent of wearable technology has brought with it a pressing need for energy storage solutions that can keep pace with the flexibility and stretchability of soft electronic devices. Micro supercapacitors (MSCs) have emerged as a promising candidate for deformable energy storage, due to high-power density, rapid charging, and long cycle life.
However, the fabrication of interdigitated electrode patterns capable of maintaining the energy storage performance under repeated stretching and twisting has remained a great challenge, because brittle materials like gold (Au) have been commonly used as an electrode. Meanwhile, though eutectic gallium-indium liquid metal (EGaIn) has ... Read more ...
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Salt battery harvests osmotic energy where the river meets the sea - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Estuaries - where freshwater rivers meet the salty sea - are great locations for birdwatching and kayaking. In these areas, waters containing different salt concentrations mix and may be sources of sustainable, "blue" osmotic energy.
Osmotic energy can be generated anywhere salt gradients are found, but the available technologies to capture this renewable energy have room for improvement. One method uses an array of reverse electrodialysis (RED) membranes that act as a sort of "salt battery," generating electricity from pressure differences caused by the salt gradient.
To even out that gradient, positively charged ions from seawater, such as sodium, flow through the ... Read more ...
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Securing competitiveness of energy-intensive industries through relocation: The pulling power of renewables - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · This 'renewables pull' would create strong incentives for businesses to invest in low-emission production facilities in these renewable-rich countries. Renewable-scarce countries could put all focus on down-stream production and refinement as the smart way to secure industrial competitiveness.
"Our new study shows that renewable-scarce countries like parts of the EU, Japan and South Korea could save between 18 to 38 percent in production costs," explains Philipp Verpoort, scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and lead author of the study published in Nature Energy.
"They could do so by relocating their production of industrial basic ... Read more ...
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Single-walled carbon nanotubes doped with 'nitrogen' enhance the performance of secondary battery anode - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Silicon, despite offering significantly higher energy density compared to graphite (a common anode material), suffers from a major drawback: it expands 3-4 times during charging and discharging, leading to performance degradation. To address this issue, researchers are blending silicon with graphite to balance their strengths and weaknesses.
To maximize silicon content and overcome its limitations, the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) has utilized nitrogen-doped single-walled carbon nanotubes and graphene. Single-walled carbon nanotubes, being thinner and more conductive than multi-walled ones, present challenges in dispersion due to their small diameter. ... Read more ...
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