Several installations require batteries, such as server farms and systems with large starter motors. Currently they rely on nickel cadmium batteries which are not always that cheap and the compounds used are not safe for the environment. An alternative is zinc anode batteries which are considerably safer to use, but have one fatal flaw. It is possible for crystalline structures called dendrites to form within the zinc anode batteries, and cause a short. The researchers developed an advanced battery management system (BMS) to work with flow-assisted batteries. This should prevent the dendrites from forming, thereby allowing the batteries to last for an expected 10 years.

To prove these batteries are capable, a 36 KWh array was set up in the basement of one of the college's buildings. While that is not enough energy to completely power the facility, it balances the load throughout the day. The batteries charge during off-peak hours and discharge during peak hours, so less power needs to be drawn from the electrical grid. By the end of the year the system will be upgrade to 300 KWh, at which point it should save the college roughly $6000 a month, or more.

Crysis 3 will release next spring for the PC, PS3, and 360.

These WPT systems work by creating a magnetic field with a specific frequency. When the field interacts with the receiver an electric current is created. If the receiver is in tune with the transmitter though the resonance is amplified greatly, and actually makes the system viable, compared to the current created without resonance. Keeping in tune is very difficult though because of how much can affect the system, but researchers at North Carolina State University have found a way to correct this.

The researchers added circuitry to the receiver to keep it in tune by adding some power to it. This will keep the receiver at its original frequency and allow it to adapt to changes in the transmitter's frequency. By keeping the power output at their maximum, this may allow wireless charging for electric vehicles, as well as other devices.

THQ wants to make sure fans are well and ready for the game, as a new Darksiders II trailer was also released to coincide with the release date announcement. The folks over at GameSpot were lucky enough to receive the new CG trailer, and in it you can see Death doing what he does best. Try to contain yourself while watching it, but I know many people will be marking off the days until August 14th.

Viruses are very often just simple strands of what most would recognize as DNA. When a virus infects a cell, it will insert itself into the cell's system, causing it to replicate the virus until the cell ultimately dies. Fortunately the virus in question, M13, is a bacteriophage, which means it only attack bacteria, not human cells.

Though the virus is naturally piezoelectric, the researchers used some genetic engineering to enhance this characteristic by adding some negatively charged amino acid. Thanks to the shape of the M13 virus, straight rods, it naturally forms thin films, which the researchers used to make generators to power a simple LCD screen. Though the generators only put out about six nanoamps and 400 mV, they were still able to make the 1 on the screen appear and disappear.

This is the first time a virus has been used as a piezoelectric material but will likely not be the last. While the power output was somewhat low, this was a proof-of-concept experiment and should lead to additional research. Maybe we will see virus power being used to charge phones and other electronics with the wasted energy from walking.

Instead of the traditional precious metals, the researchers used aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) and zinc oxide to construct the new metamaterial. With 16 alternating layers of AZO and zinc oxide, the metamaterial creates an extreme anisotropy for the light that passes through. This causes the light to dispersion to be in a hyperbolic pattern, which greatly changes the light's behavior.

Along with being cheaper than silver or gold, this new design offers something current metamaterials cannot; control after creation. The properties of the metamaterial can be altered by either varying the aluminum in the AZO while the material is being made, or by applying an electric field to the finished device. With an external electric field, the optical properties of the metamaterial can be tuned or even switched. Being able to shift the frequencies of light the metamaterial interacts with could greatly impact how it can be used and open up new realms of possibilities.

There is also word of a new DLC arriving in March 2013, which would mean around a year and a half of new content after the initial launch of Battlefield 3. Keep it tuned for more information on the DLC and Battlefield Premium.

Spin, or angular momentum, is a property of many particles, including electrons. Because it is a property of the particle and not of a signal, it can be stored without constant energy input, like with modern electronic signals. However transmitting electrons without disrupting their spin is very difficult. As the particles interact others it is possible for the spin states to be altered. Not so with topological insulators. In fact, the recent work at Berkeley Labs found that even coupling with phonons, the quanta of mechanical vibration, will not always scatter electrons, as previous theory predicted was possible.

Bismuth selenide brings more to the table than just a way to preserve the spin of electrons. The researchers carefully examined the material's electronic structure and found something also present in graphene. Like its carbon cousin, Dirac cones define Bi₂Se₃'s electronic properties. This means electrons can flow with incredible ease and speed as the lower energy valence band touches the higher energy conduction band. Unlike graphene though, the direction the electrons flows is determined by their spin. This could potentially be used for some very interesting devices.

Considering topological insulators were only discovered a little over five years ago (at Berkeley Lab, where they were also theorized) this discovery gives us a glimpse of the potential for these materials as we continue to learn about them.

The IT staff at the lab worked with second grade teachers to create a lesson plan which introduced the children to the components of a computer, along with helpful analogies (the CPU is the brain and the PSU is the heart, for example), some coding and networking. In fact, the students learned about networking by racing data packets.

While educating the students is definitely important to the Berkeley staff, this program has also helped educate some parents in the community. Not all of the children's parents are tech savvy, but when the kids go home, they are eager to share what they learned. Also, some of the parents did not even know Berkeley Lab existed, despite living in Berkeley.

While they are called topological insulators, they are actually very good at conducting. In some cases they actually conduct more efficiently than modern wires. Unlike modern wires though, topological insulators only conduct on their surface. In the actual volume of the material, currents are blocked, like in a regular insulator. Potentially these materials can be used in quantum electronic devices.

What the Duke researchers did was take a database of some 2000 topological insulator formulas and ran a 'genetic' profile. Like polymers (though not necessarily to the same degree) we have the ability to predict the properties of a topological insulator based on its makeup and can design a compound around specific, desired properties. Where before the database only stored known information, it is now possible to have it generate instructions on how to create an entirely new kind of topological insulator. Even though these materials are still being discovered and understood, this work could propel them forward as researchers create a much wider variety of them to experiment with.