Heat pump can last 10,000 years

The tiny heat pumps (above) can be assembled into devices of virtually any shape and size, as the researcher in safe hands. [Image: Elisabeth Tønnessen] 

Heat pumps or heat pumps, which transfer mechanisms are temperature by means of a thermodynamic cycle, being used mainly for heating.
A traditional heat pump, like all equipment, has a lifetime - between five and ten years, possibly a little more.
Now Norwegian researchers have developed a heat pump that they say can last virtually forever "- they calculate a life of 10,000 years.
 
Micropump eternal
 
The secret of "immortality" is in the miniaturization and the elimination of moving parts.
The new heat pump consists of numerous miniature heat pumps, each measuring no more than a cubic millimeter.
To heat a home you will need several thousand of them. But this is no problem because their structure allows them to be manufactured exactly like the thousands.
And more than that, the whole structure can be any shape, adjusting the application.
"The main advantages of the new heat pump is that you can adjust the size and shape, it is more durable than the heat pumps are today and is also more environmentally friendly," said Jan Bording and Vidar Hansen, University Stavanger.

Thermoelectric alloys
 
To eliminate moving parts, and Bording Hansen thermoelectric alloys used, eliminating compressors, pipes, and especially refrigeration gases, usually not very environmentally friendly.
In its place, electricity is converted directly to temperature differential, which can be used, for example, to heat homes.
"We do not want another large wood burning heater in the middle of the house, like old times. It will be much better to use smaller heat sources and clean," says Hansen.
He exemplifies the saying micropumps heat can be mounted on planes and placed under the floor - so the heat will flow from floor to ceiling, warming the whole house and more homogeneous.
"When the heat pump has a larger surface, it produces more heat," said the engineer.
And, apart from some accident that would destroy the material, the heat pump can be found by archaeologists of the future.

Chip atomic generates pairs of atoms twins

The chip emits atomic atoms quantum-mechanically correlated, useful in computing and quantum cryptography and teleportation. [Image: TUWien] 

Entangled particles 

In the classical world, when something explodes, the particles forming this thing spread out in all directions.

Each particle has its own characteristics, sharing with the thousands, or millions, of other particles born from the explosion, little more than the story of a common origin.

In the quantum world, however, things are more subtle: it is possible to generate particles from a common source that will be exact duplicates of one another.

These so-called entangled particles have everything in common, and can not even be understood separately - they are quantum-mechanically linked, and only differ from each other by the direction of their movement.

Interlacement



Not even Einstein liked the idea of two separate particles remain entangled by the laws of quantum mechanics - he called the phenomenon of spooky action at a distance.

Weird or not, the fact is that the phenomenon has been confirmed by numerous experiments, and is one of the most promising tools for quantum computing to quantum cryptography and teleportation.

"This does not mean that by manipulating a particle, we can simultaneously change the other, as if they were connected by an invisible thread, but still have to treat the two particles as a single quantum system," explains Dr. Jörg Schmiedmayer, Technical University of Vienna.

But it means that measuring one of them, the simple process of measurement will also collapse the wave function of the other. This has enormous interest for the data processing and transfer of optical information.

Atomic Chip



So far, the greatest difficulty to experiment with these entangled particles was producing the very phenomenon of entanglement, ie, produce particles linked in a consistent and reliable.

It was this problem that Dr. Schmiedmayer and his colleagues have now solved: they created what they call 'atomic chip', a generator that produces entangled pairs of atoms correlated.

The 'atomic chip' is the main element with a Bose-Einstein condensate, an exotic state of matter in which millions of ultra-cold atoms, all in their energy level as low as possible, behave like a single atom.

To make your function generator entangled atoms, scientists can shoot the smallest unit of vibrational energy into the condensate.

After receiving the vibration of the atoms must return to their state of lowest energy. For this, the condensate must release the extra energy received.

"Due to the sophisticated design of the chip atom, the Bose-Einstein gets only one way to release their energy: sending pairs of atoms. All other possibilities are forbidden by quantum mechanics," explains Robert Bucker, co-author of the work .

Schematic of the excitation and emission of atoms intertwined. The central part of the system shows the spatial structure of radially excited state. Are emitted clouds containing two atoms twins. [Image: Bucker et al. / Nature]

Entangled atoms



According to the law of conservation of momentum, the two atoms move in exactly opposite directions. This process is very similar to what occurs in certain optical crystals, in which one can create pairs of photons.

Now, however, the atomic chip, scientists can have massive particles intertwined, rather than light.

The two entangled atoms form a single quantum object. One can not be described mathematically describe it without the other also.

"We are preparing to use these atoms for new experiments incredible," enthuses Schmiedmayer. "They are opening a new field of research, which will evolve new insights and possibly new applications. "

According to the researcher, it is difficult to predict the impact of the generator of entangled atoms. Conceptually, however, it is possible to devise new techniques for quantum measurements with a precision far superior to that obtained by classical physics.

Fleet of space robots for planetary exploration

Scientist defends the construction of a fleet of robot scientists, which may increase in number and quality as required. [Image: Caltech / ESA / NASA / JPL]

Planetary Exploration

In 2009, Professor Wolfgang Fink proposed that an integrated fleet of autonomous robots space would be a more effective approach to explore other worlds in space that robots today.

"We are changing the traditional approach of a single robotic spacecraft, with no redundancy and commanded from Earth, another approach, which will have multiple robots low cost, disposable, able to lead themselves and communicate with several other robots in other places, "Fink said then, to start a development program with the NASA.

Two years later, now at the University of Arizona, the engineer is showing the first results of its new approach.

The structure of the fleet of robots in three layers -surface, air and space - provides a virtually instantaneousintercommunication between the robots. [Image:Wolfgang Fink / Mark A. Tarbell]


Robots scientists and workers

The work consists of building a fleet of robots that scientists can increase in number and quality, adding new capabilities, with robots capable of exploring the climate, geology and biology, among others.

The concept also includes worker-robots to do specific jobs, such as shelter construction, mining and to repair the spacecraft.

The team has already developed the system of global recognition, including a satellite into orbit, a robotic airship, autonomous robots and robotic sea surface.

Robots marine and surface, with intelligence and autonomy, would have the ability to select the best exploration areas to collect samples and data acquisition in each subject area of their work.

Robots spatial Professor Fink platform runs on a Mac Mini. [Image: Wolfgang Fink / Mark A. Tarbell]

Robots on the Mac platform

The structure of the fleet of robots in three layers - surface, air and space - provides a virtually instantaneous intercommunication between the robots.

Today, it takes hours for a satellite in orbit to transmit orders received from Earth to the robot on the surface and vice versa.

Another novelty of space robots of Professor Fink is that all run on a Mac Mini platform and are controlled by devices like the iPod and iPhone.