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Seurat Technologies raises $21 million to decarbonize manufacturing

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Seurat Technologies, the 3D metal printing leader that is making manufacturing better for people and the planet, today announced it has closed a $21 million Series B extension with investments from new investors Xerox Ventures and SIP Global Partners.

Seurat’s latest funding has participation from previous investors including Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund, True Ventures, Porsche Automobil Holding SE, and Maniv Mobility, bringing total funding for Seurat to $79 million.

Manufacturing is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to 22 percent of emissions in the US, which excludes the impact of shipping parts around the world. [Read more…] about Seurat Technologies raises $21 million to decarbonize manufacturing

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Bio-based coating for wood outperforms traditional synthetic options

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Due to the global efforts to meet sustainability standards, many countries are currently looking to replace concrete with wood in buildings. France, for example, will require that all new public buildings will be made from at least 50 percent wood or other sustainable materials starting in 2022.

Because wood is prone to degradation when exposed to sunlight and moisture, protective coatings can help bring wood into wider use. Researchers at Aalto University have used lignin, a natural polymer abundant in wood and other plant sources, to create a safe, low-cost and high-performing coating for use in construction.

“Our new coating has great potential to protect wood. It’s more water repellent than a lot of commercial coatings because it retains the natural structure of wood and its micro-scaled roughness. Since it’s hydrophobic, the coating is also quite resistant to stains, while lignin’s inherent structure resists colour changes from sunlight. It also does an excellent job of retaining wood’s breathability,” explains Alexander Henn, doctoral candidate at Aalto University, The School of Chemical Engineering. [Read more…] about Bio-based coating for wood outperforms traditional synthetic options

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  • Tau invents wire that doubles the power of electric motors and raises €10.25 million
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    Science & Technology News aims to be one of the top and most trusted information providers in the sector. We publish stories ranging from technological advancements here on Earth and up to what is beyond in the realms of the unknown galaxies – and everything in between. This news website is…
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  • Seurat Technologies raises $21 million to decarbonize manufacturing
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    Seurat Technologies raises $21 million to decarbonize manufacturingSeurat Technologies, the 3D metal printing leader that is making manufacturing better for people and the planet, today announced it has closed a $21 million Series B extension with investments from new investors Xerox Ventures and SIP Global Partners. Seurat’s latest funding has participation from previous investors including Capricorn’s Technology…
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Study reveals how smell receptors work

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All senses must reckon with the richness of the world, but nothing matches the challenge faced by the olfactory system that underlies our sense of smell.

We need only three receptors in our eyes to sense all the colors of the rainbow – that’s because different hues emerge as light-waves that vary across just one dimension, their frequency.

The vibrant colorful world, however, pales in comparison to the complexity of the chemical world, with its many millions of odors, each composed of hundreds of molecules, all varying greatly in shape, size and properties. [Read more…] about Study reveals how smell receptors work

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A long day for microbes, and the rise of oxygen on Earth

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Virtually all oxygen on Earth was and is produced by photosynthesis, which was invented by tiny organisms, the cyanobacteria, when our planet was still a rather uninhabitable place.

Cyanobacteria evolved more than 2.4 billion years ago, but Earth only slowly transformed to the oxygen-rich planet we know today.

“We do not fully understand why it took so long and what factors controlled Earth’s oxygenation,“ said geomicrobiologist Judith Klatt. “But when studying mats of cyanobacteria in the Middle Island Sinkhole in Lake Huron in Michigan, which live under conditions resembling early Earth, I had an idea.” [Read more…] about A long day for microbes, and the rise of oxygen on Earth

New electronic paper displays brilliant colours

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Imagine sitting out in the sun, reading a digital screen as thin as paper, but seeing the same image quality as if you were indoors. Thanks to research from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, it could soon be a reality.

A new type of reflective screen – sometimes described as ‘electronic paper’ – offers optimal colour display, while using ambient light to keep energy consumption to a minimum.

Traditional digital screens use a backlight to illuminate the text or images displayed upon them. This is fine indoors, but we’ve all experienced the difficulties of viewing such screens in bright sunshine. Reflective screens, however, attempt to use the ambient light, mimicking the way our eyes respond to natural paper. [Read more…] about New electronic paper displays brilliant colours

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Setting gold and platinum standards where few have gone before

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Like two superheroes finally joining forces, Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine – generator of the world’s most powerful electrical pulses – and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility – the planet’s most energetic laser source – in a series of 10 experiments have detailed the responses of gold and platinum at pressures so extreme that their atomic structures momentarily distorted like images in a fun-house mirror. 

Similar high-pressure changes induced in other settings have produced oddities like hydrogen appearing as a metallic fluid, helium in the form of rain and sodium a transparent metal. But until now there has been no way to accurately calibrate these pressures and responses, the first step to controlling them.

Said Sandia manager Chris Seagle, an author of a technical paper recently published by the journal Science, “Our experiments are designed to measure these distortions in gold and platinum as a function of time. Compression gives us a measurement of pressure versus density.” [Read more…] about Setting gold and platinum standards where few have gone before

Researchers create switchable mirrors from liquid metal

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Researchers have developed a way to dynamically switch the surface of liquid metal between reflective and scattering states. This technology could one day be used to create electrically controllable mirrors or illumination devices.

Liquid metals combine the electrical, thermal and optical properties of metals with the fluidity of a liquid. The new approach uses an electrically driven chemical reaction to create switchable reflective surfaces on a liquid metal.

No optical coatings nor polishing steps, which are typically required to make reflective optical components, are necessary to make the liquid metal highly reflective. [Read more…] about Researchers create switchable mirrors from liquid metal

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Visualizing cement hydration on a molecular level

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The concrete world that surrounds us owes its shape and durability to chemical reactions that start when ordinary Portland cement is mixed with water.

Now, MIT scientists have demonstrated a way to watch these reactions under real-world conditions, an advance that may help researchers find ways to make concrete more sustainable.

The study is a “Brothers Lumière moment for concrete science,” says co-author Franz-Josef Ulm, professor of civil and environmental engineering and faculty director of the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub, referring to the two brothers who ushered in the era of projected films. [Read more…] about Visualizing cement hydration on a molecular level

Printing a better microgrid

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The future of electronic displays will be thin, flexible and durable. One barrier to this, however, is that one of the most widely used transparent conductors for electronic displays – indium tin oxide (ITO) – doesn’t perform as well on larger areas and can crack and break down with wear.

Indium is also a rare earth mineral, which is relatively scarce, and the process to create ITO requires high energy consumption and expensive equipment.

One emerging alternative is metal “microgrid” conductors. These microgrids can be customized to their application by varying the microgrid width, pitch and thickness, and they can be made with a variety of metals. [Read more…] about Printing a better microgrid

Bringing order to hydrogen energy devices

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Researchers at Kyoto University’s Institute for Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) have developed a new approach to speed up hydrogen atoms moving through a crystal lattice structure at lower temperatures. They reported their findings in the journal Science Advances.

“Improving hydrogen transport in solids could lead to more sustainable sources of energy,” says Hiroshi Kageyama of iCeMS who led the study.

Negatively charged hydrogen “anions” can move very quickly through a solid ‘hydride’ material, which consists of hydrogen atoms attached to other chemical elements. [Read more…] about Bringing order to hydrogen energy devices