A device invented by scientists at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst could be used to generate electricity from moisture in the air, aided by a natural protein. The advance suggests technology may have an important role to play in future renewable energy initiatives.
The “air-gen” device is an air-powered generator in which a film of protein nanowires less than 10 microns thick is hooked up to electrodes to generate electrical current from water vapor that naturally occurs in the atmosphere. A combination of the electrical connectivity and surface chemistry of the protein nanowires, together with the fine pores between the nanowires and film, is what creates the conditions for generating an electrical current between the pair of electrodes.
This electricity generation can be done 24/7 with no requirement of sunlight or wind. According to its creators, it can also be carried out indoors, and even used to generate power in extremely arid areas such as the Sahara Desert.
The performance of the technology has already been demonstrated. In a peer-reviewed study, the device was used to produce a sustained voltage of around 0.5 volts across a 7-micrometre-thick film, with a current density of around 17 microamperes per square centimeter. Now the researchers plan to scale up the demonstration to showcase what a powerful tool this could be.
“We actually see that this technology may be applied to broad scopes of [applications],” Jun Yao, an assistant professor in the electrical and computer engineering department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, told Digital Trends. “The rationale is similar [to an ordinary battery]. If one can make a small battery cell, then one can connect many of them to power up various things, including a Tesla car. We basically have shown that we can make this small device — so in principle, we can connect many of them to power up things. [That] could be small wearable devices, portable electronics, or remote stations.”
Moving forward, the researchers say that they want to discover more information about the “fine details” of the mechanism. This could help to improve its powering capabilities or potentially aid in the creation of future synthetic materials that would drive the production of cheaper energy.
“We, of course, hope to commercialize the technology in the big hope to benefit the society by producing more green energy,” Yao said. “As researchers, we stay focused on understanding the mechanism and developing engineering strategies. [However], we welcome partners to focus on the development part to commercialize it.”
A paper describing the research, titled “Power generation from ambient humidity using protein nanowires,” was recently published in the journal Nature.
AI companies spend enormous amounts of time convincing us their technology is safe and secure. But what happens when those same companies become targets of increasingly sophisticated AI-powered attacks? Anthropic, the company behind Claude, is now facing that question. According to a Washington Post report, cybersecurity startup Cathedral discovered vulnerabilities that let its researchers access sensitive information in Anthropic's internal systems.
The researchers used AI agents to identify potential entry points in less than 12 hours. Interestingly, they didn't need to crack Claude itself. Instead, they exploited weaknesses in third-party business applications that Anthropic uses for everyday operations. Anthropic's security testing program disclosed the findings, which allows outside researchers to identify and report vulnerabilities.
Military working dogs charge into places the rest of us would flee. So, I understand why anyone would want to breed tougher, healthier dogs for the job.
Warhound, a new startup from Colossal Biosciences co-founder Ben Lamm and Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey, has stepped out of stealth with $200 million to clone and gene-edit working dogs for American troops, police departments, and emergency services (via TechCrunch).
AI can describe a picture, identify objects, and answer questions about what a camera sees. But when a blind user needs a quick answer, getting an entire spoken essay about the scene isn't exactly helpful. Researchers at the University of Maryland (UMD) have found that AI-powered visual assistance can leave blind users doing too much work to get the information they actually need.
The study, titled Say It My Way: Exploring Control in Conversational Visual Question Answering with Blind Users, examined how people interact with Be My AI, an AI-powered feature of the Be My Eyes app. The researchers found that users often received lengthy descriptions that didn't adequately address their immediate goals, forcing them to ask follow-up questions or find ways to steer the AI towards a more useful answer.