Senior Lecturer, Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics
A new type of composite that combine agricultural and industrial waste to create lightweight but strong bricks.
This type of material, known as a mycelium composite, uses the Trametes versicolor fungus to combine agricultural and industrial waste to create lightweight but strong bricks. It’s cheaper than synthetic plastics or engineered wood, and reduces the amount of waste that goes to landfill.
Not exactly a breakthrough since it is still using lithium-ion technologies.
https://www.bnl.gov/newsroom/news.php?a=112885
A collaboration led by scientists at the University of Maryland (UMD), the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the U.S. Army Research Lab have developed and studied a new cathode material that could triple the energy density of lithium-ion battery electrodes. Their research was published on June 13 in Nature Communications.
Imagine explaining to your grandchildren that “back in my day,” people actually had to wait at least half an hour for their phones to be charged.
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-43285885
Imagine being able to charge your electric car in minutes rather than hours, or your smartphone in seconds.
That’s the enticing prospect being touted by researchers who reckon they’ve discovered a new material that could boost the performance of a carbon-based supercapacitor – sometimes called an ultracapacitor – a type of energy storage device that can be charged very quickly and offload its power very quickly, too.
https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/610017/ai-is-continuing-its-assault-on-radiologists/
A new model can detect abnormalities in x-rays better than radiologists—in some parts of the body, anyway.
Groundbreaking news for carbon fibre manufacturing.
https://www.popsci.com/carbon-fiber-from-plants
Beckham and a team of researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory developed a new process for producing acrylonitrile that makes use of plants, namely the parts people can’t eat, such as corn stalks and wheat straw. Scientists broke these materials down into sugars, which were converted into an acid and combined with an inexpensive catalyst to produce acrlyonitrile. The process generated no excess heat and returned no toxic byproducts.
We seriously need to rethink about the overuse of fertilizers in the agriculture industry. If not our planet will die.
http://www.newsweek.com/oxygen-disappearing-worlds-oceans-alarmingly-rapid-pace-771406
The change is connected with warmer ocean temperatures. “Warmer water holds less oxygen,” Levin explained. Also, increased surface temperatures make it more difficult for oxygen to reach relatively deeper parts of the ocean. The majority of oxygen loss is occurring at 300 to 2,200 feet deep. For reference, some parts of the ocean are 7 miles deep. Oxygen is typically replenished when surface water mixes with the deeper water, but when the oceans are hotter, there is less vertical mixing.
A second source of deoxygenation also plagues the coastal waters. Although this problem has nothing to do with warmer waters caused by human-induced climate change, humans aren’t off the hook. Excess nutrients from agriculture and sewage cause excess algae growth. The decay process of algae uses up the oxygen in a process called eutrophication, Levin said.
Needs and wants will be a thing of the past.
James Burke has a vision for the future. He believes that by the middle of this century, perhaps as early as 2042, our world will be defined by a new device: the nanofabricator.
These tiny factories will be large at first, like early computers, but soon enough you’ll be able to buy one that can fit on a desk. You’ll pour in some raw materials—perhaps water, air, dirt, and a few powders of rare elements if required—and the nanofabricator will go to work. Powered by flexible photovoltaic panels that coat your house, it will tear apart the molecules of the raw materials, manipulating them on the atomic level to create…anything you like. Food. A new laptop. A copy of Kate Bush’s debut album, The Kick Inside. Anything, providing you can give it both the raw materials and the blueprint for creation.
How a Machine That Can Make Anything Would Change Everything
But first, you need to install solar panels and battery banks to your home.
Pure electric cars cost less over four years than petrol or diesel cars in the UK, US and Japan, researchers say, but China is set to lead the market
Dr. Mohamed Azlan Suhot
B. Eng. (Materials Eng.) (USM), M. Sc. (Materials Eng.) (USM), Ph.D (Uni. of Southampton)
Research in:
Composite Manufacturing, testing and defect analysis.
Materials Characterisation, Scanning electron microscopy, optical microscopy, image analysis and 3D X-ray microtomography.
Experimental Mechanics, Fatigue crack initiation and growth, SN testing and acoustic emission.
Programme Coordinator:
Executive Diploma in Engineering Business Management 
email me azlans.kl@utm.my
UTM’s Upcoming Events Shamsul Sarip (PhD, P. Eng MIEM, Assoc. Professor)
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