Four-legged, dog-like robot ‘sniffs’ hazardous gases in inaccessible environments

Portable mass spectrometry for on-site detection of hazardous volatile organic compounds via robotic extractive sampling

12-Jun-2024 - Nightmare material or truly man’s best friend? A team of researchers equipped a dog-like quadruped robot with a mechanized arm that takes air samples from potentially treacherous situations, such as an abandoned building or fire. The robot dog walks samples to a person who screens them for ...

The bat is the godfather of digital transformation

Saving resources with the virtual paint lab

20-Oct-2022 - Digital simulations instead of trial and error: In the PaintVisco project, researchers at the IPA are modeling the development and processing of paints. The data for this is provided by a newly designed rheometer, which for the first time can be used to precisely measure the viscoelastic ...

A quantum wave in two crystals

Breakthrough in neutron physics

21-Jul-2022 - Particles can move as waves along different paths at the same time – this is one of the most important findings of quantum physics. A particularly impressive example is the neutron interferometer: neutrons are fired at a crystal, the neutron wave is split into two portions, which are then ...

New images lead to better prediction of shear thickening

It's relevant to everything from oil & gas to pharma manufacturing to food processing to chemical manufacturing

11-Oct-2021 - For the first time, researchers have been able capture images providing unprecedented details of how particles behave in a liquid suspension when the phenomenon known as shear thickening takes place. The work allows us to directly understand the processes behind shear thickening, which had ...

Aviation safety: Rapid test for harmful microbes in kerosene developed

Faster and more robust than a PCR test

12-Apr-2021 - Fuels such as kerosene or diesel can be contaminated by fungi or bacteria. The microorganisms settle in the liquid itself, on the inner walls of tanks and pipes or in fuel filters and feed on carbon atoms. Since the fungi and bacteria multiply well in this environment, they can form a streaky ...

A thermometer can be stretched and crumpled by water

12-Feb-2020 - Recent outbreaks of the novel coronavirus have emphasized the importance of quarantine and prevention more than ever. When monitoring changes in our body, body temperature is first measured. So, it is very significant to measure the temperature accurately and promptly. With this regard, a ...

2000 atoms in two places at once

A new record of quantum superposition

30-Sep-2019 - The quantum superposition principle has been tested on a scale as never before in a new study by scientists at the University of Vienna in collaboration with the University of Basel. Hot, complex molecules composed of nearly two thousand atoms were brought into a quantum superposition and made to ...

Quantum cascade laser measures ethanol

Precision work for large molecules

01-Apr-2019 - Quantum cascade lasers are able to measure the smallest molecules with high precision. But the technology has failed to measure larger gas molecules - until now! Empa researchers have succeeded in quantifying ethanol, an important organic molecule, with the aid of such a laser. In collaboration ...

Simulating nature’s cosmic laboratory, one helium droplet at a time

27-Mar-2019 - Two astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and from the University of Jena have found an elegant new method to measure the energy of simple chemical reactions, under similar conditions as those encountered by atoms and molecules in the early solar system. Their method promises ...

Upgrading cheap diode laser for use in precise measurements

06-Nov-2018 - Russian physicists have developed a method for drastically narrowing the emission spectrum of an ordinary diode laser, like that in a laser pointer. This makes their device a useful replacement for the more complex and expensive single-frequency lasers, enabling the creation of compact chemical ...