The Burrowing Mole Crab Robot

The unassuming Pacific mole crab, Emerita analoga, is about to make some waves. UC Berkeley researchers have debuted a unique robot inspired by this burrowing crustacean that may someday help evaluate the soil...

Test Your Knowledge About 3D Printing in Space

Take this quiz to find out how much you know about the rise of 3D printing in space and its future outlook.

Heat-Proof Carbides May Revolutionize Aerospace Technology

The new materials are hard enough to stir molten steel and can withstand temperatures above 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit — about the same temperatures found just a few hundred miles above the surface of the sun.

Bringing Touch to Virtual Reality

The system aims to add the sense of touch to the metaverse for use in virtual-reality shopping and gaming, and potentially facilitate the work of astronauts and other professions that require the use of thick gloves.

Reliable Power for Long-Term Lunar Surface Operations

To open the Moon to continuous multi-year human and robotic operation, Astrobotic is developing LunaGrid™ — a commercial power system for the surface of the Moon.

World's Smallest Photon Achieved in Dielectric Nanocavity

Until recently, it was widely believed among physicists that it was impossible to compress light below the so-called diffraction limit, except when using metal nanoparticles, which...

UV-to-Red-Light Converting Films Accelerate Plant Growth

An interdisciplinary team from Hokkaido University’s Engineering and Agriculture departments and the Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery (WPI-ICReDD) has developed...

Miniaturized Infrared Detectors

Extreme miniaturization of infrared (IR) detectors is critical for their integration into next-generation consumer electronics, wearables and ultra-small satellites. Thus far, however, IR detectors have...

New Products: November 2022 Photonics & Imaging Insider

See the new products, including a green laser, a ToF camera, an AI-capable microprocessors, and more.

Vote for Tech Briefs’ 28th Annual Readers’ Choice Awards

These 12 products are the nominees for the 2022 Tech Briefs Readers’ Choice Product of the Year.

The Evolution of COVID-19 Testing

One silver lining that the pandemic brought is an expansion of infectious-disease-testing technology.

Easing Industrial-Grade Ethernet Implementation

Equipment and test system designers need Ethernet devices that outperform consumer-grade components, while remaining easy to use.

Space Radiation Research Fights Cancer on Earth

Inspired by NASA’s research of certain segments of DNA to estimate radiation damage, Promega Corp. used the technique to create its own diagnostic test which is used to customize cancer treatment.

5 Ws of 3D-Printed MEMS

A team at KTH Royal Institute of Technology has developed a new 3D printing technique that could be used to produce customized chip-based microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).

Producing Oil from Duckweed

Scientists say that such oil-rich duckweed could easily be harvested to produce biofuels or other bioproducts.

Space-Based Hyperspectral Imaging

As space-based digital camera imagery is evolving, more and more advanced imaging technologies are being deployed in space to see more of the “unseen.”

Measuring Blood Glucose Levels with Lasers

DiaMonTech used the Ophir Pyrocam to measure and characterize all their laser developments.

Hybrid Microscope Streamlines Imaging for Research and Medicine

The new microscope is called a hybrid open-top light-sheet (OTLS) microscope.

New Products

The new products for November 2022, including an AI inspection system, a non-contact machine vision measuring system, and more.

A High-Speed Look at Additive Manufacturing

Despite additive manufacturing's popularity, there are still several technological barriers that must be addressed to understand the process.

Optical Modules

The Teledyne e2v Optimom 2M combines the latest innovations in imaging and optics into one turnkey imaging solution by mounting a proprietary image sensor onto a board with a fixed lens and optional Multi Focus lens technology.

A Systems Engineering Approach to Sustainable Power Systems

Research and development work continue to deliver cleaner, more efficient, and more diverse ways of generating the energy we need to power modern society.

2022 Create the Future Design Contest Grand Prize Winner

The platform was developed to democratize programmable matter; to make prototyping, innovation, and research with soft robotics incredibly quick and easy; and to enable researchers, designers, and makers of all backgrounds to unleash their creativity and bring their ideas to life.

2022 Create the Future Design Contest: Aerospace & Defense Category Winner — The Well-Dressed Spacecraft

The sustainability crisis extends to low-Earth Orbit (LEO), where human-made debris poses a ubiquitous threat.

2022 Create the Future Design Contest: Automotive/Transportation Category Winner — Betterfrost Ultra-Low Energy Defrost & Defog System

Betterfrost’s solution defrosts and defogs electric vehicles’ windshields with 20 times less power than current technology and extends the range of an EV by 38 km on an average commute in winter.

2022 Create the Future Design Contest: Consumer Product Design Category Winner — Green Screen

The core of the Green Screen consists of noise-absorbing mineral wool, which also serves as a vertical surface for evaporating rain coming from the roofs of the adjacent buildings.