article thumbnail

Researchers from MIT and Sun Catalytix develop an artificial leaf for solar water splitting to produce hydrogen and oxygen

Green Car Congress

Researchers led by MIT professor Daniel Nocera have produced an “artificial leaf”—a solar water-splitting cell producing hydrogen and oxygen that operates in near-neutral pH conditions, both with and without connecting wires. The cells were operated in a two-electrode cell configuration. (B) Reece et al. Click to enlarge.

MIT 278
article thumbnail

MIT team devises approaches for practical carbon-nanotube-coated carbon fiber; stronger, more electrically conductive

Green Car Congress

MIT scientists demonstrated two approaches for growing CNTs on carbon fiber without degrading the fiber strength. Researchers at MIT have demonstrated two approaches for producing carbon fibers coated in carbon nanotubes without degrading the underlying fiber’s strength. Credit: ACS, Steiner et al. Click to enlarge.

article thumbnail

Video Friday: Resilient Bugbots

Cars That Think

Inspired by the hardiness of bumblebees, MIT researchers have developed repair techniques that enable a bug-sized aerial robot to sustain severe damage to the actuators, or artificial muscles, that power its wings—but to still fly effectively. [ MIT ] This robot gripper is called DragonClaw, and do you really need to know anything else?

MIT 109
article thumbnail

2021's Top Stories About AI

Cars That Think

Deep Learning's Diminishing Returns : MIT's Neil Thompson and several of his collaborators captured the top spot with a thoughtful feature article about the computational and energy costs of training deep learning systems. Several came from Spectrum 's October 2021 special issue on AI, The Great AI Reckoning. You're welcome.

article thumbnail

The Vacuum Tube’s Forgotten Rival

Cars That Think

V-2 rockets it used to rain destruction on London. In the late 1940s, researchers immediately recognized the ability of the new magnetic materials to store data. A circular magnetic core could be magnetized counterclockwise or clockwise, storing a 0 or a 1. Early prototypes of NASA’s.

Wind 144
article thumbnail

Video Friday: Reflex Grasping

Cars That Think

Looking to give robots a more nimble, human-like touch MIT engineers have now developed a gripper that grasps by reflex. MIT ] Roboticists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have developed a jellyfish-inspired underwater robot with which they hope one day to collect waste from the bottom of the ocean.

article thumbnail

Robert Kahn: The Great Interconnector

Cars That Think

In 1965, Larry Roberts, then at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory , connected one computer in Massachusetts to another in California over a telephone line. Kahn postponed his planned return to MIT and continued to work on expanding this network. Bob Kahn served on the MIT faculty from 1964 to 1966. But Roberts asked Kahn to stay.

New York 135