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NASA News
The "Research Opportunities in Aeronautics" announcement from NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate seeks research in several new topic areas for the Next Generation Air Transportation System Air Traffic Management Airspace Project and the Subsonic Fixed Wing Project.
Blog: Energy
Sugar Battery
Researchers at Saint Louis University (St. Louis, MO) have developed a biodegradable fuel cell battery that runs on virtually any sugar source, from soft drinks to tree sap, and has the potential to operate three to four times longer on a single charge than conventional lithium ion batteries. If the battery continues to show...
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Technologies of the Week
A low-cost fingerprint detector, using off-the-shelf components integrated into a compact, portable unit, is available. The fingertip is moved relative to a skin-resistance-sensing array to produce a 'reference trajectory signal' that is stored in memory. The fingertip is moved again to produce a 'sample trajectory...
Blog
Air Car
Engineers at Moteur Developpment International (MDI, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg) have designed a prototype car that is powered by compressed air. The vehicle has a tubular chassis that is glued together, a fiberglass body, and uses wireless communication between its components. The engine weighs less than half that of a standard car....
Blog
Saturn Movies
Astronomers have woven NASA Hubble Space Telescope images of Saturn, its rings, and several of its moons into three movies. Each movie highlights unique times in the planet's 30-year waltz around the Sun. Hubble snapped only about a dozen images during each of these three events, so astronomers created software to extend the photos...
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Nano 50â„¢ Awards
Nanotech Briefs® magazine is accepting nominations for its third annual Nano 50 awards competition. The Nano 50 recognizes the top 50 technologies, innovators, and products with the greatest potential to advance the commercialization of nanotechnology.
Blog: Photonics/Optics
Chemical Weapons Sensor
Using lasers and tuning forks, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed a chemical weapon agent sensing technique called Quartz Laser Photo-Acoustic Sensing (QPAS) that promises to meet or exceed current and emerging defense and homeland security chemical detection requirements.
The...
Blog: Materials
Tech Needs of the Week
A coating that is hard and has a high modulus of elasticity is needed for application to polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) optical films. Excellent coating adhesion and optical transparency are mandatory. The coating must withstand a force greater than 13,000 MpA, and offer a pencil hardness of B or over.To respond to this Tech Need...
Blog: Software
Supply Chain Software
By 2020, NASA plans to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon. To make this possible, a reliable stream of consumables such as fuel, food and oxygen, spare parts, and exploration equipment would have to make its way from the Earth to the Moon as predictably as any Earth-based delivery system. To figure out how to...
Blog: Electronics & Computers
New on the Market
BI Technologies Electronic Components Division (Fullerton, CA) introduced the EN line of rotary mechanical encoders. The two-bit gray code incremental encoders are housed in 11, 12, and 16 mm packages, and feature detents and push-on switch options. For more information, visit:...
Blog: Electronics & Computers
Current Attractions
Developed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (Huntsville, AL), a micro-commanding rotational-position-control system offers the advantage of less mechanical complexity, susceptibility to mechanical resonances, power demand, bulk, weight, and lower cost, relative to prior rotational-position-control systems based on...
Blog: Unmanned Systems
Fish Sensor
A research team led by Chang Liu at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, Champaign, IL) has built a sensor for underwater vehicles equivalent to a sensory organ found on fish called the lateral line. In fish, the lateral line provides guidance for synchronized swimming, obstacle avoidance, and prey/predator detection...
Blog: Medical
Pneumatic Step Motor
Medical scientists at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD) have constructed the "PneuStep," a prototype pneumatic step motor that is the first of its kind. The motor was developed as part of a project for a robot that could operate precisely within the closed bore of high-intensity MRI equipment. The pneumatic nature of...
Blog: Physical Sciences
Diagnostic Hydrogel
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have created customizable hydrogel microparticles capable of identifying different biomolecules, disease monitoring, drug discovery, or genetic profiling. Each particle is equipped with a bar-coded ID and one or more probe regions that turn fluorescent when they...
Blog: Robotics, Automation & Control
Robot Chair
Engineers at the Humanoid Robot Research Center (Taejon, S. Korea) have constructed the prototype HUBO-FX1, a human-riding "robotic chair" capable of carrying a person or a load of 100 kg. The user sits in a chair structure mounted on two robot legs, and controls ambulatory motion by way of a joystick. The HUBO-FX1 can walk...
Blog: Energy
Technologies of the Week
A self-biased solar cell is available that provides improved conversion efficiency. Loss of carriers at the back surface of the battery is decreased, and open circuit voltage and quantum efficiency near a long wavelength are increased.
View this technology here.
Blog: Green Design & Manufacturing
PCB Bacteria
Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have discovered a tiny anaerobic bacterium that could one day transform how polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are removed from the environment. The organism could be the key to developing methods that help detoxify commercial PCB compounds on site -- without the need for...
Blog: Medical
Holographic Images
The response of tumors to anticancer drugs has been observed in real-time, 3D images using technology developed at Purdue University. The new digital holographic imaging system uses a laser and a charged couple device (CCD) to see inside tumor cells. The instrument also may have applications in drug development and medical...
Blog: Aerospace
Technology Business Briefs
Lightweight, High-Performance Propeller/Rotor/Wind Turbine Blade
The turbine blade features a much lighter, more efficient, less expensive, and entirely new structural design. Other advantages offered by
this technology include increased performance, lower noise, decreased maintenance time and expense, and...
Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition
NASA Spinoff
A technology for monitoring protein growth -- developed in part through NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding from Marshall Space Flight Center -- is noninvasive, nondestructive, rapid, and more cost effective than x-ray analysis. The partner for this SBIR, Photon-X, Inc. (Huntsville, AL), developed spatial-phase...
Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Sea-Creature Sensors
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have created a new class of gas sensors using a chemical process that converts the silica (silicon dioxide) found in the shells of diatoms into the semiconductor material silicon.
Silicon is normally produced from silica at temperatures well above the silicon melting...
Blog: Physical Sciences
Fusion Research
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have come one step closer to making fusion energy possible by showing that their magnetic plasma chamber, called a stellarator, can overcome a major barrier in plasma research by retaining the needed temperature for fusion to be possible. Past stellarators lose too much energy to reach...
Blog: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Technologies of the Week
A disclosed technology allows a factory-installed seatbelt to be tightened from gentle to extreme. The seatbelt works like an aircraft seat belt: when tightened, it stays tight.View this technology here.
A technology has been made available improving how safely children are strapped in their safety seats. View...
Blog: Medical
Anti-Cancer Protein
Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, MA) have found that the p53 protein, known to guard against cancer-causing DNA damage, provides an entirely different level of cancer protection: by prompting the skin to tan in response to ultraviolet light from the sun, p53 deters the development of melanoma skin...
Blog: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Drug Tooth
Medical researches at Information Society Technologies (Brussels, Belgium) are developing the IntelliDrug controlled drug delivery system, where medication is stored and released from an implanted tooth. The fake tooth is a micro-system comprising of a medication reservoir and release mechanism, a built-in intelligence, micro-...
Blog: Medical
Technology Business Briefs
Printable Biosensor for On-Site, Online Measurements -- Bioactive Hybrid Materials for Photonic Microsystems It allows samples to be analyzed on site within a few minutes by integrating biotechnology, information technology, electronics, physics, and chemistry to realize small and cost-effective bio-photonic...
Blog
NASA News
The Subregional Bone Assessment, a NASA study of the long-term effects of microgravity on the bones of International Space Station crewmembers, showed that the astronauts lost roughly 11% of their total hipbone mass over the course of their mission, more than an elderly woman in a year. While bone mass was regained after a year on...
Blog: Test & Measurement
Chemical Analysis Tool
Purdue University researchers have created a handheld sensing system its creators liken to Star Trek's "tricorder" used to analyze the chemical components of alien worlds. The new portable system is an ultrafast chemical analysis tool that could be used for detecting everything from cancer in the liver to explosives...
Blog
Foundation Solidification
Methods are available for the determination of building stability in the event of an earthquake. These methods involve the development of existing shaking table technology to allow more efficient characterization of structural properties.
View this technology here.
An approach accompanied by a...
Top Stories
Videos: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Stratolaunch Approaches Hypersonic Speeds in First Talon-A Flight
Blog: Automotive
A Hack to Trick Automotive Radar
Blog: Medical
3D Ice Printing Artificial Blood Vessels
Blog: Power
Tesla Valve-Inspired Design Could Improve the Performance of Rotating...
Podcasts: RF & Microwave Electronics
Countering Illegally Operated Drones at Airports, Stadiums, and Prisons
Blog: Energy
Fast-Charging Li Battery Could Make ‘Range Anxiety’ a Thing of the Past
Question of the Week
Blog: Artificial Intelligence: Meet Human Intelligence
Webcasts
On-Demand Webinars: Defense
From Data to Decision: How AI Enhances Warfighter Readiness
Upcoming Webinars: Aerospace
April Battery & Electrification Summit
Upcoming Webinars: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Tech Update: 3D Printing for Transportation in 2024
Upcoming Webinars: Materials
Unleashing Epoxy's Potential: Ensuring Hermetic Sealing in Modern...
Upcoming Webinars: Test & Measurement
Building an Automotive EMC Test Plan