Smart windows switch between transparent and opaque states based on environmental cues. Researchers reveal a prototype that exploits plasmons, converting incident sunlight into local thermal energy to trigger the switch.
Unexpected Ecological Advances Made Possible by Long-Term Data: A Coweeta Example
Ecological shifts and regime changes driven by slow ecological processes can only be revealed by long-term monitoring and analysis.
Landscape Organization and Scale Shape Catchment Hydrology and Biogeochemistry
Resolving these scale-dependent processes is important for predicting, preventing, or mitigating environmental changes that may influence patterns of surface water chemistry within river systems.
Heat-Triggered Release: Opening the Banksia Seed Pod
The Banksia delays the release of its mature seed bank until conditions are right for new plants. Now we know what triggers it to let go.
Evolutionary Leap in Large-Scale Flood Risk Assessment Needed
A call to develop interaction-aware risk models is presented, and the need for adjustments of the flood risk assessment procedures in the implementation of the European Flood Directive is highlighted.
Engineering Digest – Featuring Titanium Alloys, Stretchable Electrodes and More
This month’s Advanced Engineering Materials cover and top papers.
New Optical Sensor For Water: Monitoring Water Phases Under Extreme Conditions
A new type of surface optical sensor for water capable of being embedded in aircraft wings with no influence on the aerodynamic design and capable of record high-performance.
Virtual Battery to Make the Energy Turnaround
With the virtual battery Trimet has made the energy-intensive electrolysis process for the aluminum production more flexible enabling the use of renewable energy.
Nanofiber/Nanonets Membranes for High-Efficiency Air Filters
A facile and scalable strategy to fabricate membrane filters for effective air filtration via a combined electrospinning/netting technique with a receiving substrate design.
Is there enough platinum to run a solar-powered hydrogen economy?
In his latest piece, Professor Ozin considers the possibility of basing a future hydrogen economy on platinum catalysts.