A photograph of the process of coating a substrate with AlMgB14 by pulsed laser deposition. The bright plume in the center of the photograph is an AlMgB14 plasma. The solid target is just to the right of the plume.

Friction is the bane of any machine.  When moving parts are subject to friction, it takes more energy to move them, the machine doesn’t operate as efficiently, and the parts have a tendency to wear out over time.

But if you could manufacture parts that had tough, “slippery” surfaces, there’d be less friction, requiring less input energy and the parts would last longer.  Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory are collaborating with other research labs, universities, and industrial partners to develop just such a coating.

“If you consider a pump, like a water pump or a hydraulic pump, it has a turbine that moves the fluid,” said Bruce Cook, an Ames Laboratory scientist and co-principal investigator on the four-year, $3 million project. “When the rotor spins, there’s friction generated at the contacting surface between the vanes and the housing, or stator.

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The Searaser uses the motion of the sea to generate power

A device that uses the power of the sea to push water uphill has been developed to provide cheap renewable electricity.

The Searaser, developed by engineer Alvin Smith, is designed to pump water hundreds of feet above sea level from where it can gush downhill to drive hydroelectric generators.

The wave pump consists of two floats, one above the other, fitted to a double-acting piston. Water is pumped as the floats are forced together and apart by the motion of the waves.

Chains and weights fix the device to the sea floor and the pump is able to operate in water as shallow as 30ft (9m) as well as in extreme weather conditions.

Each of the pumps has a capacity of just 0.25mw, but they are expected to be used together in their dozens, or even hundreds, side by side along the coast or further out at sea.

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An ‘intelligent pill’ containing a microprocessor, battery, wireless radio, pump and a drug reservoir to release medication in a specific area in the body, has been developed by Dutch group Philips.

The prototype ‘iPill’ capsule measures acidity with a sensor to determine its location in the gut, and enabling it to release drugs where needed. According to Philips, delivering drugs to treat digestive tract disorders directly to the location of the disease means doses can be lower, resulting in reduced side effects.

Philips will present the ‘iPill’ at the annual meeting of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) in Atlanta this month.

Tapping into the aerospace industry’s expertise in modelling, stress testing, miniaturisation, and design for severe environments – plus the latest advanced in medicine, biology, and materials science – EADS have developed a ‘full’ artificial heart ready for implementing in humans.

The new design employs two internal pumps to move blood to the lungs and into the body, rather than the single pump typical of earlier designs. Cutting edge biopolymer materials are used to reduce the formation of dangerous blood clots – a persistent problem with early artificial harts – and may even spare patients from needing to use nettlesome anticoagulant drugs.

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A light-weight, battery operated artificial kidney could spell the end of hospital-based dialysis for those suffering from kidney failure.

A typical dialysis machine is the nephrological equivalent of an early computer – bulky, power-sucking machines as big as washing machines. In contrast, the WAK, developed by Victor Gura, an associate clinical professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine, is ergonomically adapted to the body, weighs around 10 pounds in the initial prototype, and is equipped with all the necessary devices needed for dialysis.

At the heart of WAK is a pump that weight 17 times less than its counterpart in a conventional dialysis machine. The pump drives blood from a patient through a hollow fibre filter as well as water containing some minerals. The water is constantly purified by circulating through chemicals that capture the impurities that are not removed from the blood anymore because the patient’s own kidneys are failing. The blood is then pumped back to the patient. The filter needs to be replaced once and week, and the chemicals once a day.

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Evaluation prototypes of a miniaturised insulin delivery pump have been developed as part of a collaboration between Diotech and STMicroelectronics.

The tiny device, which is less than a fourth of the size of existing insulin pump devices, can be mounted on a disposable skin path to provide continuous insulin infusion. Using microfluidic MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical System) technology, the pump is able to better control the administered insulin doses, more closely mimicking the natural secretion of insulin from the pancreas, while detecting potential malfunctions of the pump to further protect patients.