Converting heat into electricity is a property thought to be reserved only for stiff materials like crystals. However, researchers—inspired by the infrared (IR) vision of snakes—developed a ...

A material that could use natural day/night temperature fluctuations as a source of energy to drive the conversion of carbon dioxide emissions into methanol fuel has been demonstrated. Bismuth ...

The metasurface is an ultra-thin resonant element with special physical properties. A good example of such an innovation is seen in the thermally based photon-detector project at Duke University, ...

Heat sssssensorsss A large-eyed green pit viper. The pit organs are small depressions between the snake's nostrils and eyes. (Courtesy: iStock_TommyIX) Vipers, pythons and boa constrictors all use ...

Practical demonstration on setup and configuration of infrared detectors. In theory, the functioning of a pyroelectric detector is absolutely comprehensible. As the centrepiece in gas analysers, flame ...

Many peptides and proteins have an innate ability to assemble into long, slender fibers called fibrils and other shapes. Now, researchers have found a way to harness this property to create tubular ...

Pyroelectric materials are able to convert any incident radiation into a signal, allowing them to sense wavelengths from UV through to THz. DLaTGS in particular is very sensitive, meaning a higher ...

Vintage computer hardware can fail in a variety of fascinating ways, with [Bits und Bolts] dealing with an interesting failure mode, in the form of degraded MLCC capacitors on Voodoo 2 graphics cards.