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News
Navy Completes First Carrier-Based Catapult Launch of a Combat UAV

The X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System demonstrator (UCAS-D) completed its first ever carrier-based catapult launch from USS George H.W. Bush off the coast of Virginia. The unmanned aircraft launched from the deck, executed several planned low approaches to the carrier, and safely...

News
Naval Research Lab Shatters Electric UAV Endurance Record

Researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory flew their fuel-cell-powered Ion Tiger unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for 48 hours and 1 minute using liquid hydrogen fuel in a new, NRL-developed, cryogenic fuel storage tank and delivery system. This flight shatters their previous record...

News
DOE Technique is New Advance in Biofuel Production

Advanced biofuels – liquid fuels synthesized from the sugars in cellulosic biomass – offer a clean, green and renewable alternative to gasoline, diesel and jet fuels. Bringing the costs of producing these advanced biofuels down to competitive levels with petrofuels, however, is a major...

News: Aerospace
Preventing Insect Remains from Adhering to Aircraft Wings

Researchers at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia are studying ways to prevent the remains of insect impacts from adhering to the wing of an aircraft in flight. The research is serious, and positive results could help NASA's aeronautical innovators achieve their goals for...

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Nanosystem 'Forest' Achieves Artificial Photosynthesis

Scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have reported the first fully integrated nanosystem for artificial photosynthesis. While “artificial leaf” is the popular term for such a system, the key to this success was an...

News
3D Design Tool Interprets Hand Gestures

A new design tool interprets gestures, enabling designers and artists to create and modify three-dimensional shapes using only their hands as a "natural user interface," instead of keyboard and mouse.

Question of the Week
Is Warp Speed Possible?

NASA scientists are currently working on the first practical field test toward proving the possibility of warp drives and faster-than-light travel. Thanks to a loophole in the theory of relativity, a ship could theoretically travel in such a way that the universe moves around it, allowing it to reach faraway planets...

News: Medical
“Transient Electronics” Disappear When No Longer Needed

Scientists recently unveiled a new genre of tiny, biocompatible electronic devices that could be implanted into the body to relieve pain or battle infection for a specific period of time, and then dissolve harmlessly. These “transient electronics,” described at a meeting of the...

Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Explore & Discover with NASA

NASA is one of the top research entities in the world, producing technologies that range from electronics and new materials, to state-of-the-art robotics and sensors. Readers of NASA Tech Briefs get a firsthand look at these new technologies every month. But how many of you have had the chance to go behind the scenes...

INSIDER Product: Electronics & Computers

StarTech.com (Lockbourne, OH) has released two new PCI Express RAID Controller Cards (SKUs: PEXSAT34RH, PEXSAT34SFF). The new PCIe RAID cards feature Marvell™ HyperDuo SSD Auto-Tiering Technology, an embedded...

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INSIDER Product: Electronics & Computers

LAPIS Semiconductor (San Jose, CA), a ROHM Group Company, recently introduced the ML610Q100 series of low-cost, low-power microcontrollers. The Mini LP Micros’ peripherals around the processing core and non-volatile memory...

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INSIDER Product: Electronics & Computers

LDRA (Merseyside, UK) has released the LDRA Compliance Management System (LCMS) to help companies develop the infrastructure to become DO-178B/C, DO- 278A, and DO-254 compliant. LDRA Certification...

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INSIDER Product: Electronics & Computers

Microchip Technology Inc. (Chandler, AZ) announced a major expansion of its embedded-wireless portfolio with Bluetooth® additions that include the PIC32 Bluetooth Audio Development Kit, featuring modules, stacks and...

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News
Reducing Noise in Qubit Arrays Keeps Quantum Logic Gates Coherent

If quantum computers are ever to be built, qubits will have to be made more robust and more numerous. Qubits, the quantum equivalent of the bits used in conventional computers, can easily lose their orientation in a process called decoherence when confronted with a noisy...

News: Imaging
NASA Collaboration Reconstructs Image of Earth

Engineers at NASA's Ames Research Center and amateur radio operators around the world collaborated to reconstruct an image of Earth sent to them from three smartphones in orbit. The joint effort was part of NASA's nanosatellite mission, called PhoneSat.

INSIDER: Electronics & Computers

Arkansas Power Electronics International Inc. (APEI), a Genesis Technology Incubator client at the University of Arkansas, has developed a prototype battery charger for...

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INSIDER: Electronics & Computers

Harish Krishnaswamy, assistant professor of electrical engineering at Columbia Engineering, has generated a record amount of power output—by a power of...

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INSIDER: Electronics & Computers

Four solar homes built by students at Missouri University of Science and Technology will soon become home to an experimental microgrid to manage and store renewable energy. The...

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News
Researchers Use TEM Imaging to Observe Battery Performance

Researchers at MIT and Sandia National Laboratories have used transmission electron microscope (TEM) imaging to observe, at a molecular level, what goes on during a reaction called oxygen evolution as lithium-air batteries charge.

The reaction is thought to be a bottleneck limiting...

News
Robot Discovers Objects on its Own

Robots can continually discover and refine their understanding of objects, say researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute. The Lifelong Robotic Object Discovery (LROD) process, developed by the research team, enabled a two-armed, mobile robot to use color video, a Kinect depth camera, and...

Question of the Week
Can the Desktop PC Market Be Reinvigorated?

As consumers increasingly use cheaper, smaller tablets and smartphones, a recent IDC report showed that PC sales are down 14% year over year, and Apple's desktop sales are flat. PCs are still more powerful than competing computing devices, and still have a prominent role in the enterprise,...

News
Fatigue Failure of Teeth Simulated with Finite Element Analysis

Scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt, together with dental technicians, have digitally analyzed modern human teeth using finite element analysis to evaluate the biomechanical behavior of teeth under...

News
Softening Steel Problem Expands Computer Model Applications

Sandia National Laboratories researchers Lisa Deibler and Arthur Brown had a ready-made problem for their computer modeling work when they partnered with the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Kansas City Plant (KCP) to improve stainless steel tubing that was too hard to meet...

News
Petaflop-Level Earthquake Simulations Made on GPU-Powered Supercomputers

A team of researchers at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) and the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, has developed a highly scalable computer code that promises to dramatically cut both research times and...

News
Piezoelectric “Taxels” Convert Motion to Electronic Signals for Tactile Imaging

Using bundles of vertical zinc oxide nanowires, Georgia Tech researchers have fabricated arrays of piezotronic transistors capable of converting mechanical motion directly into electronic controlling signals. The arrays could help give robots a more adaptive...

News
3D Motion Detector Could Prevent Shoulder Injuries in Baseball Pitchers

A new 3D motion detection system could help identify baseball pitchers who are at risk for shoulder injuries, according to a new study conducted at Loyola University. The system can be used on the field and requires only a laptop computer. Other systems that evaluate...

News
Race Car with Electric Motors Demonstrates New Sensor Concepts

Fraunhofer Institute research scientists use an electric racing car to present novel solutions for battery management and electronic sensor systems, together with an industry partner.

EVE, a racing car with a very quiet engine, goes from 0 to 100 in 3.6 seconds. EVE is powered...

News
Seahorse Tail Inspires Robotics Designs

A seahorse tail’s exceptional flexibility is due to its structure, made up of bony, armored plates, which slide past each other. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, are hoping to use a similar structure to create a flexible robotic arm equipped with muscles made out of polymer, which...

News
NASA Begins Acoustic Testing of Space Launch System

Engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama are making progress on the agency's new rocket by listening closely to the roar of four thrusters. The agency is developing the new rocket, called the Space Launch System, or SLS, at Marshall. This vehicle will enable space...

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On-Demand Webinars: Defense

From Data to Decision: How AI Enhances Warfighter Readiness

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April Battery & Electrification Summit

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Tech Update: 3D Printing for Transportation in 2024

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Unleashing Epoxy's Potential: Ensuring Hermetic Sealing in Modern...

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Building an Automotive EMC Test Plan

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The Moon and Beyond from a Thermal Perspective

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