Welcome to our latest bi-weekly science and technology news roundup. We've picked our favourite stories from the news to share with you.
This week, a new future for vehicle charging is on the horizon and it could be as easy as charging your electric toothbrush, the future of exploration could come in the form of a soft polymer robot worm, bizarre properties of strange metals discovered through quantum experiments, the highly debated revolutionary room temperature superconductor (which side will you wind up on?) and could a transistor breakthrough lead to the next generation of electronics and computing systems? You be the judge. Register free for next week's Engineering Solutions Live event, and join us for Goodfellow's own Dr Aphrodite Tomou talk on Miniaturisation - Challenge or Opportunity? And as a bonus for this week we've slipped in music from space to help you relax for the weekend.
Electric ferries and trucks could be charged like toothbrushes with this tech breakthrough
We can contactlessly charge small devices so why not larger ones? A major barrier to large device contactless charging has been the inability to deliver the high power required, until now. A Chalmers University of Technology breakthrough brings the future of contactless charging for electric vehicles and ferries a vital step closer and could even speed up our transition to a greener world.
A new transport future is on the horizon.
Crawling earthworm robot gets a soft polymer boost
In the world of robotics, a common problem has been identified around exploration and locomotion, with navigation across different terrains a challenge for wheel propelled and inflexible robots. A solution, inspired from nature, has been developed in the form of a soft polymer worm. Is this wriggling worm the innovation we need to continue the future of exploration or plain creepy? You decide.
Bizarre properties of strange metals unlocked by physics experiment
Operating outside the normal rules of electricity, strange metals exhibit bizarre behaviours. In an effort to learn more about these unusual traits, University of Cincinnati researchers fired radioactive gamma rays at Ytterbium.
Find out more about the mysterious results from the quantum mechanics experiment.
'Revolutionary' blue crystal resurrects hope of room temperature superconductivity
Superconductors require chilling systems to perform frictionlessly. So, a spectacular claim of a new material being able to superconduct at room temperature has created an uproar in the world of physics. What side of the argument will you end up on?
Find out more about this revolutionary material.
Transistor breakthrough to shrink smartphone technology
A new spiked material developed as the first nitride-based ferroelectric semiconductor last month has sparked the realization of a new reconfigurable transistor, with the potential to reduce power consumption, cost and circuit size and more.
Could this be the transistor for next-generation electronics and computing systems? Read all about it.
BONUS: Relax at the end of the week with music created from NASA's space data
