A polymer has been shown to offer 10 times the piezoelectric effect of crystals and ceramics, making it potentially suitable for hundreds of everyday uses, according to researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.Until now, scientists did not believe that non-polar polymers were capable of exhibiting...

Engineers at Harvard have created plasmonic nanotweezers that may make it easier to isolate and study tiny particles such as viruses. The device uses light from a laser to trap nanoscale particles, creates strong forces more efficiently than traditional optical tweezers, and eliminates the overheating...

Some of the most historic and interesting sound bites from NASA space missions are now available for download as ringtones on your phone, or on your computer for alarms and notifications. You can hear the roar of a space shuttle launch or Neil Armstrong's "One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind," every...

University of Utah engineers who built wireless networks that see through walls now are aiming the technology at a new goal: noninvasively measuring the breathing of surgery patients, adults with sleep apnea and babies at risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Neal Patwari, senior author of a study of...

Researchers have designed what they believe to be a new type of magnetic cloak, which shields objects from external magnetic fields, while at the same time preventing any magnetic internal fields from leaking outside, making the cloak undetectable.The development of such a device, described as an...

  This week's Question: NASA recently unveiled its new "Space Launch System," which will be designed to carry the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, as well as important cargo, equipment, and science experiments to Earth's orbit and destinations beyond. "Tomorrow's explorers will now dream of one day walking on Mars,"...

To avoid wireless sensor power constraints, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers are harnessing electricity from low-power sources in the environment, such as vibrations from swaying bridges, humming machinery, and rumbling foot traffic. Such natural energy sources could do away with...

Chemists at Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences have built the world's first single molecule electric motor, a development that may potentially create a new class of devices that could be used in applications ranging from medicine to engineering.In research published...

The next generation of robust and reliable temperature sensing equipment may be much more accurate, with the advent of a new form of crystal that can deliver highly accurate temperature readings down to individual milli-kelvins, over a very broad range of temperatures: –120 to +680...

Engineers at Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) in Munchen, Germany developed an electronic sensor chip that can be implanted close to the tumor to determine the oxygen content in a patient’s tissue fluid. The data can be wirelessly transmitted to the patient’s doctor to support the choice of therapy....

Two types of design tests for relays and relay systems that relate to the immunity of this equipment to repetitive electrical transients are specified. Test generator characteristics, test waveforms, selection of equipment terminals on which...

Today, NASA announced the new Space Launch System (SLS), an advanced heavy-lift launch vehicle that will provide an entirely new national capability for human exploration beyond Earth's orbit.

Code created by a start-up company called Narrative Science takes data, including sports statistics, company financial reports, and housing sales, and turns it into readable news articles. Supporters of this type of software note an increasing sophistication in the technology's ability to make...