Flexible sensors turn skin into a touch-sensitive interaction space for mobile devices

Scientists have developed stickers with pressure-sensitive sensors that fit snugly to the skin. By operating the touch input stickers, users can use their own body to control mobile devices. If a mobile phone rings during a meeting, its owner often has to dig it out before it can be muted. A more discreet method would be to decline the incoming call by pressing on one of your fingers. Scientists are studying the potential use of the human body as a touch sensitive surface for controlling mobile devices. They have developed flexible silicone rubber stickers with pressure-sensitive sensors that fit snugly to the skin. By operating these touch input stickers, users can use their own body to control mobile devices. Because of the flexible material used, the sensors can be manufactured in a variety of shapes, sizes and personalized designs.

Defects in solar cells made of silicon identified

A researcher has focused recent study on "defects found on silicon and their impact on the efficiency of solar cells made with this material."

"Working on defects found on silicon and their impact on the efficiency of solar cells made with this material.""Dislocation is a defect that occurs at high temperatures, of 500 ° C onwards.

Researchers detect possible signal from dark matter

Scientists have picked up an atypical photon emission in X-rays coming from space, and say it could be evidence for the existence of a particle of dark matter. If confirmed, it could open up new perspectives in cosmology. Could there finally be tangible evidence for the existence of dark matter in the Universe? After sifting through reams of X-ray data, scientists in EPFL's Laboratory of Particle Physics and Cosmology (LPPC) and Leiden University believe they could have identified the signal of a particle of dark matter.

In world first, researchers convert sunlight to electricity with over 40 percent efficiency

Solar researchers have converted over 40 percent of the sunlight hitting a solar system into electricity, the highest efficiency ever reported. A key part of the prototype's design is the use of a custom optical bandpass filter to capture sunlight that is normally wasted by commercial solar cells on towers and convert it to electricity at a higher efficiency than the solar cells themselves ever could. The 40% efficiency milestone is the latest in a long line of achievements by UNSW solar researchers spanning four decades. These include the first photovoltaic system to convert sunlight to electricity with over 20% efficiency in 1989, with the new result doubling this performance.

Scientists measure speedy electrons in silicon

In semiconductors like silicon, electrons attached to atoms in the crystal lattice can be mobilized into the conduction band by light or voltage. scientists have taken snapshots of this very brief band-gap jump and timed it at 450 attoseconds. Attosecond lasers provide the shortest light pulses yet, allowing observation of nature's most short-lived events. Researchers have used these lasers for the first time to take snapshots of electrons jumping from silicon atoms into the conduction band of a semiconductor, the key event behind the transistor. They clocked the jump at 450 attoseconds and saw the rebound of the crystal lattice 60 femtoseconds later: a delay 120 times longer than the jump itself.