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UpFront: Aerospace
NASA's Landslide Reporter, a smarter cement, and a way to track microplastics in the ocean.
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Application Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
After rigorous ground testing, NASA’s Four Bed Carbon Dioxide Scrubber will be installed on the ISS.
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Articles: Motion Control
A new COVID test, a "ChromoUpdate," and NASA's brake rotor.
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Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing
Prototypes show promise as a low-cost, natural filtration option.
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Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing
The high-quality bioplastics can be molded into a film that can be used in plastic bags and packaging.
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Briefs: Energy
An enhanced polymer could be used for more energy-efficient systems with a smaller carbon footprint.
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Products: Manufacturing & Prototyping
An extrudable thermoplastic 3D printing filament allows users to create lightweight, sponge-like foams.
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Blog: Electronics & Computers
While soft robots hold promise in applications ranging from search-and-rescue efforts to wearable exoskeletons, the technologies are often held back by the electronics, says William Grover, a...
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Podcasts: Medical
This episode of our Tech Briefs podcast series Here’s an Idea™ explores a variety of new-and-improved hearing aids, from $5 “do-it-yourself” devices to advanced systems that monitor brain waves.
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INSIDER: Motion Control
A team of scientists has uncovered how heavy, motorized objects climb steep slopes — a newly discovered mechanism that also mimics how rock climbers navigate inclines. The “micro-swimmers” are about 20...
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INSIDER: Motion Control
Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University developed a method that allows non-contact manipulation of small objects using sound waves.
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INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control
Engineers at UC Riverside developed an air-powered computer memory that can be used to control soft robots. Existing systems for controlling pneumatic soft robots still use electronic valves...
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Question of the Week: Electronics & Computers
Will ‘Sweat Power’ Make Wearables Mainstream?
Engineers at the University of California San Diego developed a thin, flexible strip that can be worn on a fingertip and generate small amounts of electricity when a person’s finger sweats or presses on it. (Watch the demo on Tech Briefs TV.)
Blog: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Learn how a low-cost machine known as the 'Coventor' stacks up to a traditional ventilator.
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Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition
A self-driving algorithm guides an autonomous vehicle through a traffic scenario that many of us know well: navigating traffic on a crowded, narrow street.
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Question of the Week: Electronics & Computers
Will Interstate Power Coils Charge Electric Vehicles as They Drive?
Our “Q&A” article in the July issue of Tech Briefs highlighted the work of Dr. Burak Ozpineci from Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Ozpineci and his team are building a wireless power-transmission system that charges an electric vehicle as it drives along the road.
Blog: Electronics & Computers
A reader asks our expert how to contain a "thermal runaway" explosion in a lithium-ion battery.
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Blog: Software
"We could imagine a digital twin of just about any system," says Karen Willcox, director of the Oden Institute.
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INSIDER: Imaging
Sometimes photos cannot truly capture a scene. How much more epic would that vacation photo of Niagara Falls be if the water were moving?
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INSIDER: Photonics/Optics
Labsphere, Inc. announced plans to locate a Field Line of sight Automated Radiance Exposure (FLARE) testing site at Arizona State University's (ASU) Polytechnic campus as part...
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INSIDER: Materials
The demand for detecting infrared (IR) light, invisible to human eyes, is constantly growing, due to a wide variety of applications ranging from food quality control and remote sensing to...
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INSIDER: Imaging
Autofocus, Waterproof Lenses Edmund Optics® (EO) (Barrington, NJ) offers the TECHSPEC® LT Series and TECHSPEC® Cw Series fixed focal length lenses. TECHSPEC® LT Series fixed focal length lenses combine an integrated liquid...
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Question of the Week: Energy
Will ‘Mass-Less’ Energy Storage Finally Catch On?
A July Tech Brief highlights a “structural battery” from the Chalmers University of Technology that uses carbon fiber as a negative electrode and a lithium iron phosphate-coated aluminum foil as the positive electrode. The battery works as both a power source and as part of the main...
Blog: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
UC Berkeley engineers have created a lightweight and durable robot that achieves exquisite control and agility by modulating the electrostatic forces between its feet and surfaces.
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Blog: Imaging
With the help of 12 antennas, Fabio da Silva's m-Widar can spot — and image — objects hidden behind a wall.
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Question of the Week: Materials
Should Cities be More Strategic with Reflective Surfaces?
Cities around the world are adjusting – and in some cases overhauling – their infrastructure in an effort to cool temperatures in their areas. Los Angeles and New York City, for example, have adopted “grey infrastructure” efforts, like applying coatings to roofs and roads so that...
Special Reports: Imaging
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Machine Vision/Camera Advances - July 2021
Advances in cameras and image sensors are transforming the factory floor, while also enabling exciting new applications in space robotics, medicine, and more. Read all about it in this compendium of...

Special Reports: Electronics & Computers
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Vehicle Electrification - July 2021
GM electrifies the new Corvette...a French nanomaterials company aims for a 5-minute EV recharge...Triumph unveils a radical new electric sportbike design. These are just a few of the innovations you'll read...

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