A wireless charging room has been developed by scientists. It can deliver power through the air to any laptop, tablet or phone without the need for plugs or cables.

The new technology involves generating magnetic fields (磁场) over longer distances without also producing electrical fields that would prove harmful to any people or animals within the room, according to the team from the University of Tokyo.

The system, which has been tested in a single room but is still in its initial stage, can deliver up to 50 watts of power without exceeding (超过) current guidelines for human exposure to magnetic fields, the study authors explained. It could be used to charge any device with a wire coil fitted inside, similar to the system used with wireless charging pads currently in use—but without the pad. As well as removing charging cables from desks, it could allow for more devices to be fully robotized without the need for ports, plugs or cables.

To demonstrate the new system, they installed the unique Wireless charging equipment in a purpose-built aluminum “test room”. They then used it to power lamps, fans and mobile phones that drew current from anywhere in the room, regardless of where furniture or people had been placed.

Researchers didn’t say what the technology might cost because it is still very early in development and “years away” from being made available to the public. “This really ups the power of computing world—you could put a computer anywhere without ever having to worry about charging or plugging in,” said study coauthor Alanson Sample from the University of Michigan.

There are also medical applications, according to Sample, who said heart implants (植入) currently require a wire from the pump to run through the body and into a socket. “This could remove that,” the author said, adding it would act to reduce the risk of infection and improve patients’ quality of life by removing the wire completely.

Fired bricks are a universal building material, produced by thousand-year-old technology, which throughout history has seldom served any other purpose. But researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have found a new use for bricks:as energy storage units. A team of engineers and chemists have found a way to transform an ordinary house brick into a battery (电池) — allowing it to conduct (传导) and store electricity.

The researchers connect an LED light bulb (灯泡) to the bricks. They are powerful enough to illuminate it and cost only about $3 to make.

“I love the idea of adding value to things that are inexpensive, things that are affordable, things that we see every day,” said Julio D'Arcy, an assistant professor of chemistry at Washington University and one of the researchers on this project.

The new invention relies on something known as iron oxide, a form of matter in bricks that gives them their red colour. The scientists pumped the bricks with several gases that react with iron oxide to produce a network of plastic fibres. These fibres coat the empty spaces inside the bricks — and conduct electricity.

“What we’re trying to do is:we're trying to make specialized plastics and then we can actually put those plastics inside construction materials,”D’Arcy says. “In the future, a brick wall could potentially serve two purposes at one time:providing structural support and storing electricity produced from renewable energy sources,such as solar panels.”

The technology is still at least a few years away from being ready for the market. And right now the energy that the bricks can store is still not much. Hut the team is now testing ways to improve brick performance — because it looks like you can find a new purpose for an old brick.

If you’re a pasta (面食) lover, then you know there’re fat noodles, round noodles, shells, and many, many more. Some of these pastas, like ordinary spaghetti, pack easily into small box or package. But others require much larger boxes or bags because of their hard 3D shapes.

Now a team of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Zhejiang University has figured out a way that pasta can be packed flat, like sticks of gum in a package, and still form fancy 3D shapes once cooked.

Lining Yao who leads the “Morphing Matter Lab” says the team admires flat-pack furniture sold by IKEA that comes tightly packed in a box, but then can be built into a large piece of furniture which takes up a much greater amount of space.

To bring the flat-pack idea to the pasta world, the researchers used computers to help them plan their groove (凹槽) patterns and stamped grooves in the pasta. “The groove side expands less than the smooth side, leading the pasta to change into shape,” explains Teng Zhang, one of the researchers. But knowing where to make them is the trick. By doing that, the researchers are able to fix the shape of the pasta in the end.

Professor Yao has also worked to make noodles fold before, by adding something special that could be eaten to the surface of the pasta. This time, though, the pasta is made with just the right amount of flour and water, and the only things affecting the shape are the grooves.

The new pasta tastes just like ordinary pasta once it is cooked. Meanwhile, this method does not affect the pasta production speed and preservation time. The team hopes their new method will help us in two ways. Like flat-pack furniture, it should take up less space when it’s being transported, which is much easier on the environment. The pasta should also require much less packaging, meaning far less plastic waste.