Transparency

Materials Audio available

Transparent wood now also stores and releases heat

Ben Coxworth April 3, 2019

Three years ago, we heard how scientists from Sweden's KTH Royal Institute of Technology had created transparent wood – it could serve as a cheaper alternative to the silica-based glass used in windows and solar cells. Now, the material is additionally able to store heat and later release it.

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Automotive Audio available

Transparent trailer tech the highlight of GMC's camera-happy 2020 Sierra HD

Loz Blain January 23, 2019

GMC has introduced its new Sierra HD, which will offer drivers no less than 15 different camera views to help maneuver the giant truck – and one of them will let you look right back through the trailer you're towing, allowing you to see what's behind you as if the trailer wasn't there at all.

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Materials

Glassy polymer is a clear conductor of electricity

Michael Irving March 27, 2018

Researchers have developed a new polymer film that’s transparent, looks and feels like glass, and conducts electricity. The material is easy to manufacture on a large scale, should be less expensive than the commonly-used, inorganic indium tin oxide, and is more conductive than other polymers.

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Materials

Graphene electrodes add flexibility and transparency to solar cells

Michael Irving July 30, 2017

​Solar panels are great and all, but they can be a bit of an eyesore. Researchers are finding ways to make them transparent, allowing them to hide on windows, walls or other surfaces. Now an MIT team has developed solar cells that are not only invisible but flexible, thanks to graphene electrodes.

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Electronics

LG Display's latest screen is huge, transparent, and flexible

David Nield June 22, 2017

It's an exciting time in display technologies, with flexible and transparent screens popping up regularly, albeit in the lab rather than on our devices. LG just set a new high bar though, with a huge 77-inch OLED screen that you can see through and roll up.

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Science

Our rotten world: New data shows 85% of humans live under a corrupt government

New Atlas Team January 26, 2017

The "Corruption Perceptions Index" scores countries out of 100 for their public sector honesty, and the just-released 2016 report paints a bleak picture. More countries declined than improved and just 54 countries scored better than 50.

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Materials

Wolverine-inspired material could help robots self-heal

Michael Irving December 27, 2016

Self-healing is an increasingly common ability in the world of new materials. Now, researchers have developed a stretchy, transparent material that can not only repair itself, but act as an ionic conductor, opening the possibility for self-healing artificial muscles.

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Science

High-tech light shutter could help turn your windows into LCD displays

Dario Borghino May 1, 2015

Researchers at the Pusan National University in South Korea have developed an advanced light shutter that can rapidly switch between transparency and opaqueness in less than a millisecond, paving the way for displays that become see-through at the flick of a switch.

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Good Thinking

Students look to improve bitcoin transparency

Helen Clark February 9, 2015

In an effort to make bitcoin more attractive to a wider range of legitimate businesses, students at Trinity College Dublin are looking for ways to increase transparency in transactions without ditching the anonymity altogether and believe a "credit-check" database could be one answer.

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Telecommunications

Canary Watch tracks government requests for your information online

Heidi Hoopes February 4, 2015

Electronic Frontier Foundation and other information privacy advocates have created Canary Watch, a database of common online companies' acknowledgments that they have not been ordered by government entities to release private user information.

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