An Ingestible Sensor for Diagnosing GI Motility Disorders

Engineers have demonstrated an ingestible sensor whose location can be monitored as it moves through the digestive tract, an advance that could help doctors more easily diagnose gastrointestinal motility disorders such as constipation, gastroesophageal reflux disease, and gastroparesis.

Ocean Platform Motion Control

NASA engineers have developed a new approach to mitigating unwanted motion in floating structures. Ideally suited to applications including offshore wind energy platforms and barges, the innovation uses water ballast as a motion damping fluid.

Tension Element Vibration Damping

The innovation can provide a wide range of damping forces, a linear damping function and/or an extended dynamic range of attenuation, providing broad flexibility in configuration size and functional applicability.

Manufacturing Rotational Mechanisms with Integrated Sensors

Integrating sensors into rotational mechanisms could make it possible for engineers to build smart hinges that know when a door has been opened, or gears inside a motor that tell a mechanic how fast they are rotating. Engineers have now developed a way to easily integrate sensors into these types of mechanisms.

Photonic Crystals Bend Light as Though It Were Under the Influence of Gravity

A collaborative group of researchers has manipulated the behavior of light as if it were under the influence of gravity. The findings, which were published in the...

NASA’s First Two-Way End-to-End Laser Communications Relay System

NASA is demonstrating laser communications on multiple missions – showcasing the benefits infrared light can have for science and exploration missions transmitting terabytes...

A Nanophotonic Electron Accelerator Breakthrough

Using lasers to accelerate electrons within a photonic nanostructure constitutes a microscopic alternative with the potential of generating significantly lower costs and making devices...

India Opens New Silicon Photonics Research Center

India's new Center for Programmable Photonics Integrated Circuits and Systems (CPPICS) opened with an inaugural ceremony hosted by the nation's secretary of electronics and information...

Can Photonic Chips Help Drones Avoid GPS-Jamming?

Researchers at University of Rochester are developing photonic chips that could replace the gyroscopes currently used in unmanned aerial vehicles or drones, enabling them to fly where GPS...

Plant-Based Soft Robots Take on the Medical Industry

Researchers have created smart, advanced materials that will be the building blocks for a future generation of soft medical microrobots.

Robotic Prosthetic Ankles Improve ‘Natural’ Movement, Stability

Robotic prosthetic ankles that are controlled by nerve impulses allow amputees to move more “naturally,” improving their stability, according to a new study from North...

AI Copilot Enhances Human Precision for Safer Aviation

Imagine you're in an airplane with two pilots, one human and one computer. Both have their “hands” on the controllers, but they're always looking out for different things. If...

DNA Nano-Engine

An international team of scientists has recently developed a novel type of nano-engine made of DNA. It is driven by a clever mechanism that can perform pulsing movements. The researchers are now planning to fit it with a...

The Next Frontier in Neurology

A new technology offers a minimally invasive option for neurology while improving patient outcomes.

What Are Bio-Inspired Robots?

Bio-inspired robots have many applications ranging from inspections and rescue operations to surgery and space exploration. Test your knowledge about bio-inspired robots in this quiz.

My Opinion: Engineers Can Help Solve Social Problems

This past year’s Technology and Society articles in Tech Briefs magazine describe different ways engineers are making significant contributions to improving our lives.

Using AI to Track Animal Behavior

A Salk team has created GlowTrack, a non-invasive movement tracking method that uses fluorescent dye markers to train AI.

Shape-Changing Smart Speaker Lets Users Mute Areas of a Room

Researchers have developed a shape-changing smart speaker, which uses self-deploying microphones to divide rooms into speech zones.

How Much Do You Know About Radar?

Radar is used in a wide variety of applications from locating nearby aircraft, to navigating unmanned vehicles, to trapping speeding motorists. How much do you really know about this common technology? Take this quiz to find out.

Combustion-Powered, Bug-Sized Robots can Leap, Lift, and Race

Researchers combined soft microactuators with high-energy-density chemical fuel to create an insect-scale quadrupedal robot that is powered by combustion.

New Wearable Sensor Makes Continuous Analysis of Sweat Possible

Continuous monitoring of sweat can reveal valuable information about human health, such as the body’s glucose levels. However, wearable sensors previously developed for this...

Researchers Wire Up Individual Graphene Nanoribbons

Researchers have developed a method of “wiring up” graphene nanoribbons (GNRs), a class of one-dimensional materials that are of interest in the scaling of microelectronic devices....

Analog and Digital: Best of Both Worlds in One Energy-Efficient System

We live in an analog world of continuous information flow that is both processed and stored by our brains at the same time, but our electronic devices process...

3D-Printed Living Material for Cleaning Contaminated Water

A new type of material developed at the University of California San Diego could offer a sustainable and eco-friendly solution to clean pollutants from water.

New Lightweight Energy-Dissipating Material for Industry

Professor Pablo Zavattieri and his team from Purdue University have developed an architected material that can dissipate energy caused by bending, compression, torque, and tensile stresses, avoiding permanent plastic deformation or damage.

How Much Do You Know About Sustainability?

With the increasing threat of climate change, efforts must be stepped up to ensure development today does not negatively affect future generations. How much do you know about sustainability? Find out with this quiz.

Dr. Brendan Mulvaney Talks China’s Space and SATCOM Strategy

Dr. Brendan Mulvaney, Director of the China Aerospace Studies Institute, is the guest on this episode of the Here’s an Idea Podcast.

NASA’s Oxygen-Generating Experiment MOXIE Completes Mars Mission

As part of the NASA’s Perseverance rover, MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment), has generated oxygen for the 16th and final time, successfully completing its mission goal.