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Boffins show less platinum may be needed for long-lived power sourceAdding caffeine can enhance the efficiency of fuel cells, reducing the need for platinum in electrodes and significantly reducing the cost of making them, according to researchers in Japan. Fuel cells are attracting interest as an alternative energy storage technology in a variety of applications, from electric vehicles to powering datacenters, yet they can be costly as they use expensive material. Researchers at the Graduate School of Engineering at Chiba University, Japan, claim to have discovered that adding caffeine can boost their efficiency, reducing the amount of platinum required and...

Boffins discover tightest black hole binary system – and it's supermassive Sitting less than one light year apart in spiral galaxy NGC 7674 By Katyanna Quach 20 Sep 2017 at 05:02 23 SHARE ▼ Scientists have discovered the closest-ever supermassive black hole binary system. It's in the spiral galaxy NGC 7674, and the pair of voids are separated by a distance of less than one light year.Supermassive black hole binaries are rare. Until now, astronomers have only spotted one so far, about 24 light years apart. Finding two systems is important, as it provides more evidence that supermassive black holes collide in galaxies, and are the...

Leggy ROBOT INSECT WALKS on WATER before flawlessly LEAPING OFF Artificial system replicates biological movement 1 Aug 2015 at 14:20, Kelly Fiveash Vid Scientists have created a leggy microrobot that mimics the actions of a water strider. They wanted to replicate the movement of the semi-aquatic insects to try to have a better understanding of how they are able to jump from watery surfaces with the same amount of force and height as a leap from rigid ground. Boffins from Seoul National University, Korea (SNU), Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and the Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and...

It will definitely be possible within the foreseeable future to bring back the long-extinct woolly mammoth, a top geneticist has said. However, in his regretful opinion such a resurrection should not be carried out. The assertion comes in the wake of a new study of mammoth genetics as compared to their cousins the Asian and African elephants, which live in warm habitats very different from the icy northern realms of the woolly giant. The new study offers boffins many revelations as to the differences which let the elephants and mammoths survive in such different conditions. “This is by far the...

'Negative feedback' at work off AntarcticaBoffins from the British Antarctic Survey say that melting of ice shelves and glaciers in Antarctica over recent decades has allowed green plants to grow, creating a massive new carbon sink which is removing the equivalent of 12.8 megatonnes of CO2 from the seas and skies each year. The BAS scientists say that during the last 50 years, melting ice has exposed an area of seawater the size of Wales (24,000 km2) which has now - as it now receives sunlight - got phytoplankton in it. According to the boffins' estimates, this new population of...

NEWS    It's a 26ft Jaws and it sucks... Big sucker ... the shark   By VIRGINIA WHEELER Published: Today   A MASSIVE Arctic shark that sucks up seals whole and may live for 200 years is being studied by boffins for the first time. The mysterious Greenland shark’s mouth with hundreds of teeth is UNDER its body — so it cruises along the ocean bed scooping up prey. Baffled boffins say whole reindeer and polar bear heads have also been found in stomachs of the deep-sea monsters, which can be 26ft long. They are cannibalistic but their flesh...

It can turn anything from job interviews to the most routine of family gatherings into a sweat-inducing ordeal. But a 'love drug' produced naturally by the body during sex and childbirth could offer hope to the millions of people blighted by shyness, scientists have said.Investigators believe oxytocin - a natural hormone that assists childbirth and helps mothers bond with newborn babies - could become a wonder drug for overcoming shyness.  Trials have found that oxytocin can reduce anxiety and ease phobias. Researchers say the hormone offers a possible, safe, alternative to alcohol as a means of overcoming the problem....

This newspaper is printed on paper made from cellulose fibers obtained from wood pulp. The fibers are fairly large, on the order of tens of micrometers wide, and the resulting paper is fairly weak — pulls on it and it tears easily. Researchers in Sweden and Japan have developed a much stronger paper, made from much smaller fibrils of cellulose. This "nanopaper" has a tensile strength greater than that of cast iron. Marielle Henriksson of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and colleagues used enzymes and a gentle beating technique to produce fibrils on the order of tens of...

Boffin boosts solar cell size 100-fold Nano technology makes things bigger Ian Williams, vnunet.com 08 Jan 2008 A researcher at Israel's Bar-Ilan University has created a solar cell 100 times bigger than previous designs using nano-based methods. Professor Arie Zaban, head of the university's Nanotechnology Institute, had already developed a method of using metallic wires mounted on conductive glass to form the basis of solar cells. This method produces electricity with an efficiency similar to that of conventional silicon-based cells, but which are much cheaper to produce. Professor Zaban has now expanded this concept by developing a solar cell measuring...

Lie detectors might work in the movies, but a US congressional report says that when it comes to screening nuclear scientists, you might as well reinstitute the ducking stool. The US Congressional Research Service last month updated a report looking into the use of polygraphs or "lie detectors" in the US government. The report specifically focuses on use of polygraph screening in the Department of Energy (DOE), which runs some of America's most sensitive nuclear labs and research programmes. Large numbers of DOE personnel have been made to take routine polygraph tests since some embarrassing security breaches in the late...

The six-legged shoes protect the wearer by lifting up a leg if it is over a mine so that the device is not triggered Device promises to save thousands of lives every year Scientists have developed a robotic shoe that will allow people to walk through minefields unharmed. Landmine clearance agencies are showing interest in the device, the inventors say. Landmines kill or wound tens of thousands every year, the majority of them non-combatants, according to mine research organisations. "We presented and exhibited a fully functional prototype at the Asian Defence Technology 2006 Exhibition in February with good responses,"...

Boffins to crack al-Qaeda Code breakers ... Bletchley Park     By GEORGE PASCOE-WATSON GORDON Brown will use the brains that won World War Two to break al-Qaeda’s secret computer codes. The Chancellor will spend millions assembling a star chamber of eggheads — a new Bletchley Park — to defeat Muslim extremists. Mr Brown will reveal in a keynote speech in London on Monday: “I have found myself immersed in measures designed to cut off sources of terrorist finance. “This requires an operation using modern methods of forensic accounting as imaginative and pathbreaking as the Enigma codebreakers at Bletchley Park.”...

APPLE'S iPod is set to bring even more pleasure to music lovers this Christmas - after boffins invented a vibrator that moves in time with the songs. The £25 iBuzz connects up to the gizmo and pulses while each tune is played. When the volume is pumped up, the vibrations get faster as the music gets louder. Ali Carnegie, of adult-store http://www.LoveHoney.co.uk, said the firm is already on the verge of selling out of the bullet-sized device before Christmas. She said its inconspicuous design has been a big winner with women and claims the sex toy, totally unrelated to Apple,...

Boffins highlight dangers of your aquarium November 04 2003 at 02:45PM Paris - France's health watchdog said on Tuesday it had recorded a surge in cases of a rare type of skin infection among aquarium lovers after they had changed tank water or handled fish with their bare hands. The condition, sometimes called "fish tuberculosis", is caused by a bug called Mycobacterium marinum that is often found in aquarium water as well as in ponds and seawater or in under-chlorinated swimming pools, they said. Sixty-three cases of the infection were recorded in France between 1996 and 1998, the Institute of...