news 2021

AI-enabled sensors for parts machining set to improve quality and help manufacturers cut costs. A new generation of high-precision, low-cost sensors for future smart cutting tools are in development at the University of Bath. The SENSYCUT project aims to create low-cost, nano-scale resolution sensors and cutting tools for machining operations of high value aerospace products, to increase precision, lower costs and prevent manufacturing errors.

Soldiers, athletes, and motorists could lead safer lives thanks to a new process that could lead to more efficient and re-useable protection from shock and impact, explosion, and vibration, according to a new study. Pressurised insertion of aqueous solutions into water-repellent nanoporous materials, such as zeolites and metal-organic frameworks, could help to create high-performance energy absorbing systems.

New mechanism found for generating giant vortices in quantum fluids of light. Anyone who has drained a bathtub or stirred cream into coffee has seen a vortex, a ubiquitous formation that appears when fluid circulates. But unlike water, fluids governed by the strange rules of quantum mechanics have a special restriction: as was first predicted in 1945 by future Nobel winner Lars Onsager, a vortex in a quantum fluid can only twist by whole-number units.

Fatal attraction: Research finds common pipistrelle bats are attracted to wind turbines One of the most abundant bats in Europe may be attracted to wind turbines, according to a new study from the University of Sussex and the University of Exeter. The activity of common pipistrelle bats was monitored at 23 British wind farms and similar "control" locations close by without turbines.