Artificial bees from a pressure cooker?
What if we could create artificial bees that helped us with food production? Ola Gjønnes Grendal cooks up the materials needed to do just this.
Materials
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Turning waste heat into hydrogen fuel
Hydrogen as an energy carrier can help us move away from fossil fuels, but only if it is created efficiently. One way to improve efficiency is to use waste heat that’s left over from other industrial processes.
Super-strong magnetic supercrystals can assemble themselves
Materials scientists who work with nano-sized components have developed ways of working with their vanishingly small materials. But what if you could get your components to assemble themselves into different structures without actually handling them at all?
What doesn’t crack them makes them stronger
It sounds a bit strange, but some materials become stronger when subjected to stress. Why is that, and why do they eventually fail anyway?
Building computers the way our brains work
We are approaching the limit for how much more microprocessors can be developed. Gunnar Tufte proposes building computers in a completely new way, inspired by the human brain and nanotechnology.
Recently-developed material makes hydrogen production more efficient
Norwegian scientists have developed a material which can make hydrogen from water vapor, instead of liquid water. It pays off, because heat is cheaper than electricity.
Sun and wind in a box
Renewable energy is fine, but often it’s needed at times other than when the wind is blowing or the sun makes an appearance. The energy needs to be stored – and a new method is on the horizon.
Bringing industry back home
Some Norwegian companies have moved industrial production home from low-cost countries. Could reshoring become a trend?
New nanomaterial to replace mercury
Ultraviolet light is used to kill bacteria and viruses, but UV lamps contain toxic mercury. A newly developed nanomaterial is changing that.
This solar panel is the first in the world to store both electricity and heat
Moreover, researchers have succeeded in increasing its output dramatically by providing the panel with its own cooling system.
Could Trondheim be Norway’s new seabed mining capital?
Stavanger is Norway’s oil capital. Trondheim could become the country’s capital for seabed mining. It will be an important contribution to the UN’s climate goals.
World’s tiniest circuit takes shape
Components are falling into place for the technology of the future. They can provide smaller, faster and cheaper electronics with minimal energy consumption.
Minerals and Materials for a Sustainable Future
For the first time this week, the Nature Research Group, publishers of Nature, will host an international conference in Trondheim in cooperation with NTNU, SINTEF and the Geological Survey of Norway. The theme for the conference, which runs from 11-13 September, is the sustainable use of minerals and materials.
New super laboratory coming to Trondheim
Research on minerals and materials is important in helping society make the transition to a greener economy. NTNU, the Geological Survey of Norway and SINTEF have joined forces to establish a national laboratory to that end.
Nine things to know about microplastics
Picking up a plastic bag from the beach makes a bigger difference than you might imagine.
Salmon delivered by hyperloop and mail by drone?
Research scientists have been gazing into their crystal balls. These are the technological trends that will affect the transport systems of the future.
On the topology of helimagnets and difficult-to-understand things
There are in fact good reasons to care about vortex structures in helimagnets. Our fearless Gemini reporter explains.
Not easy finding dust masks suitable for women
The smelting industry needs to promote the availability of dust masks of more than one size, according to the research scientists behind a recent working environment study at Norwegian smelting plants.
The enigma of early Norwegian iron production
Ancient Norwegians made top-quality iron. But where did the knowledge to make this iron come from? An NTNU professor emeritus may have solved this riddle.
A floating tunnel under Sognefjord could withstand an explosion
Concrete can tolerate much more force that previously believed, which could open the door to a new kind of road structure: a floating tunnel.
Air could be the world’s next battery
Storing compressed air in sealed tunnels and mines could be a way of storing energy in the future – if an EU project in which Norway is a partner is successful.
Guardrails with inbuilt noise-barriers are on the way
A combined solution offers better protection against traffic noise – and can also benefit two-wheeled road-users.
Uncovering secrets of ice that burns
Methane hydrates can be seen as a potential energy source or as a dangerous source of methane – a greenhouse gas that is 20 times more potent than CO2. With the help of a supercomputer and an interdisciplinary team, scientists have uncovered important details about their stability if they are disturbed by human-induced or natural forces.
Recycling aluminium, one can at a time
Producing pure aluminium from ore accounts for as much as 1 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Recycling is the best way to reduce that carbon footprint – but manufacturers and recycling companies will have to plan carefully to avoid problems with impurities that accumulate in recycled aluminium over time.