Photon Engineering (Tucson, AZ) has released version 7.50.0 of its optical engineering software FRED 7.x series. FRED is an advanced 3D CAD optical engineering software program capable of simulating the propagation of light through most optical/illumination systems. The new version features enhancements to FRED’s...

University of Arkansas scientists have developed a neural probe that demonstrates significantly greater electrical charge storage capacity than all other neural prosthetic devices, making it possible to stimulate nerves and tissues with less damage and sense neural signals with better sensitivity. The probe, made of gold...

Engineers at the University of California at Berkeley, are reporting a new way of creating computer chips that could revitalize optical lithography, the dominant patterning technique in integrated circuits manufacturing. The researchers were able to create line patterns only 80 nanometers wide at speeds up to 12 meters...

Researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) have developed a low- cost, high-resolution imaging system that can be attached to a helicopter to create a complete and detailed picture of an area devastated by a hurricane or other natural disaster. The resulting visual information can be used to estimate the number of...

Astronomers at the California Institute of Technology and their colleagues have been able to observe a young star-forming galaxy as it appeared only two billion years after the Big Bang and determine how the galaxy may eventually evolve to become a system like our own Milky Way. The team made their observations by coupling two...

For the first time, seismic signals that precede a volcanic eruption have been simulated and visualized in 3D under controlled pressure conditions in a laboratory. The ability to conduct such simulations will better equip municipal authorities in volcanic hot spots around the world in knowing when to alert people. Nearly 500...

Biochemists Lila Gierasch and Beena Krishnan at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have found a way to slip a fluorescent marker into one of a cell's molecular machines so it lights up when it has formed the proper shape to carry out the cell's "work orders." The new technique should allow labeling of correctly folded...

Register today for NASA Tech Briefs' National Nano Engineering Conference (NNEC), the premier event focused on current and future developments in engineering innovations at the nanoscale. The event returns to Boston this year on November 12-13 at the Boston Colonnade Hotel, featuring the fourth annual Nano 50 Awards,...

Duke University chemists say they have developed a new way to measure temperature changes inside the body with unprecedented precision, by correcting a subtle error in the original theory underlying Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The technique could improve clinical applications of hyperthermia against cancer, and could...

Each month, NTB highlights tech briefs related to a particular area of technology in a special section called Technology Focus. Here are some of the technologies featured in the October issue focus on Sensors.

A terahertz version of the single-pixel camera developed by Rice University researchers could lead to breakthrough technologies in security, telecom, signal processing, and medicine. The researchers replaced expensive, multi-pixel sensor arrays used in current terahertz imaging systems with a single sensor. Two keys to the system are...

Yale University researchers have created a blueprint for artificial cells that are more powerful and efficient than the natural cells they mimic. The energy-generating artificial cells could one day power medical implants and provide a big advantage over battery-operated devices. The scientists began with the question of whether an...