Cooling

You may have heard of electrochromic windows that can be electronically switched between clear and tinted states. Well, the same technology has been applied to a new material that could both heat and cool buildings, if mounted on their outside walls.

There are many parts of the world that lack infrastructure, but that get a lot of sunlight ... which makes buildings hot. A new system could help, as it uses a combination of sunlight and salt water – but no electricity – to produce a cooling effect.

The freezers found homes and restaurants play an invaluable role in preserving foods until they're ready to be eaten, but an alternative technology promises to not only use far less energy, but improve food quality at the same time.

One way scientists hope to prevent hypersonic aircraft from overheating is by having the propellant do double duty as a coolant, and newly developed 3D-printed catalysts could be the missing piece to this puzzle.

Ordinarily, a backpack is something that you take off if you're getting too hot. The NASA-inspired Honu, however, is claimed to actually make its user feel up to a total of 20º F (11º C) cooler than if they weren't wearing a pack at all.

Heating and cooling systems are some of the biggest energy guzzlers, but passive temperature control could reduce emissions. Phase-change materials show promise for this, and now engineers have developed a new PCM composite that can be 3D printed.

It can be frustrating, when the jacket that you initially put on to keep you warm starts making you too hot. Jackets made from an experimental new reversible fabric, however, could both heat and cool their wearer.

Both cars and electronic appliances require heat removal systems, typically made of steel or aluminum. That may soon change, though, as scientists have created two magnesium alloys which they claim can reduce the weight of such systems by a third.

Engineers at Purdue University have been at the cutting edge of reflective paint research for some time, and have just produced the whitest paint ever created, which they say reflects 98.1 percent of sunlight and could be used to keep buildings cool.

Liquid cooling is one of the most effective ways to keep computers from overheating. Microsoft has now put a unique spin on the technique, demonstrating a system to cool its cloud servers by dunking the computers into a tank full of boiling liquid.

Scientists at CERN have used lasers to cool down antimatter for the first time. The milestone could help unlock some of the secrets of this weird substance, including why it didn’t annihilate the universe soon after the Big Bang.

Air conditioners and other cooling systems are among our biggest consumers of electricity. Now researchers have developed a hybrid device that can not only cool buildings drastically without using electricity, it captures solar energy to heat water.