Videos

Diamond is a skin’s best friend? Maybe – when it coats a carbide blade!

By / August 20, 2010

There are steel blades that hold their edge for a short time. There are tungsten carbide blades that will last for many days (think razor blades). There’s zirconia ceramic blades…

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AES Energy Storage scores $17.1M loan guarantee for grid-scale A123 batteries

By / August 2, 2010

The DOE announced today that it would provide AES Energy Storage a $17.1 million loan guarantee for a 20 megawatt energy storage–energy conditioning system built around an a A123 lithium-ion…

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Solar sail uses smart glass to steer through cosmos

By / July 27, 2010

Artist’s conception of solar sail. (Credit: JAXA.) Japan has successfully deployed a solar sail on a spacecraft, demonstrating for the first time that such technology can be used to convert…

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50 R&D 100 Awards given to national labs

By / July 22, 2010

Ultrasensitive Nanomechanical Transducers Based on Nonlinear Resonance, one of ORNL’s 2010 R&D 100 award winners. (Credit: ORNL.) R&D Magazine awarded DOE and other federal labs with 50 of its R&D…

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Sintering nuclear fuel pellets contract to Harper Intl.

By / July 20, 2010

Harper International has been awarded a contract to supply an advanced thermal processing system for the sintering of nuclear fuel pellets. Sintering is the crucial final step in the refinement…

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Because lithium has worked so very well for Bolivia’s economy

By / July 20, 2010

I hope a PIO is to blame for this too-clever headline: “Lithium could be gold mine for Afghanistan.” But, the premise of this story is false and is emerging as…

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Video of the week: Utilization of CO2 – Some alternatives to sequestration

By / July 8, 2010

University of Toledo professor Abdul-Majeed Azad believes a new paradigm is needed as the science community considers how to deal with the growing amount and threat of CO2 in the…

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Video of the week: Luminescent and electroceramic research at Fujihara Lab

By / June 30, 2010

Shinobu Fujihara, professor of engineering at Keio University (Japan), oversees a lab that has been investigating ceramic-based optical energy materials science. For example, some of the work involves the use…

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Videos of the Week: Manufacturing of mirrors, marbles

By / June 23, 2010

“Mirrors” is my all time favorite How It’s Made video, with a close second being “Marbles,” shown below. The manufacturing of these glass objects entail complicated processes, documented in these…

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Universities worldwide gearing up for North American Solar Challenge

By / June 10, 2010

Teams from 16 universities are about to embark on an 1,200-mile solar car race through the Midwest. The North American Solar Challenge starts June 20 in Broken Arrow, Okla., and…

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