Electronic

Graphene may be a versatile material, but it remains tricky to produce in large amounts. Now, an MIT team has found a new way to make large sheets of graphene in a roll-to-roll process, by depositing it onto a substrate that can easily be peeled off.

Graphene is ultrathin, ultra-strong and has some weird electrical properties. MIT researchers previously found a strange pattern emerged in “twisted” graphene structures. Now they’ve studied it more closely and found it works better with more layers.

Graphene is already known for being incredibly strong, so how can it be made even stronger? By turning it into sheets of diamond, of course. Researchers in South Korea have developed a new method to convert graphene into ultrathin diamond films.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University have found a superconducting material naturally stable in two states at once, which is useful for quantum computers.

Researchers have developed a new way to weld ceramics together at room temperature, using ultrafast laser pulses.

Organ development has traditionally been tricky to study, thanks largely to the difficulty in getting sensors in there without damaging the organs. Now, researchers from Harvard have developed a way to create “cyborg organoids” by integrating nanoelectronics into cell cultures.

Since electronics are always shrinking, engineers need to find ways to make smaller components too. Now, scientists from the University of Leeds have managed to make the thinnest gold ever created, measuring just two atoms thick. That makes it functionally two-dimensional, joining graphene.

Electronic devices are made possible thanks to rare-Earth metals, but these are rare and relatively expensive. Now, scientists have found a way to combine common elements into electronically-useful compounds, which could find their way into tunable lighting and solar panels.

Superconductors can conduct electricity with absolutely no loss, so they could be revolutionary if not for one little problem: they only work if kept extremely cold. But now researchers at Max Planck have reported a new record high temperature for superconductivity, at a toasty -23° C (-9.4° F).

The smaller and lighter electronics get, the more ways they can be used. A team of researchers has come up with a compact radar system the size of a matchbox that could be deployed in drones and other gadgets where portability and low cost are important.

While a preference for traditional print books over an enhanced e-book counterpart may often stem from good old-fashioned nostalgia, a new study suggests using e-books to read stories to your child can result in less conversation and lower-quality interactions.

In a new step towards truly wireless charging, engineers have developed an ultra-thin device that captures Wi-Fi signals and converts them into electricity.