Your unique invention could win you $20,000 or other great prizes. Enter your design idea in the 2007 Create the Future Design Contest, presented by SolidWorks Corp. and NASA Tech Briefs. Entries are being accepted in six categories: Machinery, Equipment, and Component Technology; Consumer Products; Medical; Safety and Security;...

Nanoscale, Robotic Actuators This technology achieves high work output per unit volume in micro-robotic actuators; in particular, TiNi actuators for powering nano-robotic movement and manipulation of structures at near molecular scale.

Researchers from MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have uncovered a molecular mechanism that governs the formation of fears stemming from traumatic events. The work could lead to the first drug to treat the millions of adults who suffer from debilitating fears, including hundreds of soldiers with post-traumatic...

The 2007 Create the Future Design Contest, presented by SolidWorks Corp. and NASA Tech Briefs, is now open for entries in these categories: Machinery, Equipment, and Component Technology; Consumer Products; Medical; Safety and Security; Transportation; and Sustainable Technologies.

Two University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant professors, Erica and Rich Halverson, are studying fantasy sports leagues to understand how expert and novice players approach the game, and what it can teach us about how we learn. Fantasy baseball is the model for a game that Erica calls "competitive fandom," a growing area of...

Technologies for highly effective personal care products are sought. The products should address niche applications, where the efficacy can be clearly demonstrated. Product areas of interest include skin care, foot care, ear care, sleep disorder remedies, and hair care. Products should ideally be topically applied and should...

Bulky, gas-pressurized spacesuits currently give astronauts a lot of protection, but they weigh about 300 pounds, exerting both mass and pressure that limit mobility. Dava Newman, MIT professor of aeronautics and astronautics, has designed a sleek, form-fitting suit that will allow superior mobility. The spandex and nylon...

The 2007 Create the Future Design Contest, presented by SolidWorks Corp. and NASA Tech Briefs, is now open for entries in these categories: Machinery, Equipment, and Component Technology; Consumer Products; Medical; Safety and Security; Transportation; and Sustainable Technologies.

Hewlett-Packard's HP Labs has developed a color-matching technology that could change the way people shop for products that require color coordination, such as clothing and cosmetics. Consumers use their mobile phones to take pictures of themselves or objects, and then send the pictures to HP servers. Within seconds, the consumer...

Powerful atomizers are made using high-output rotary discs with output of 20,000 to 24,000 droplets per second, without altering the droplet size and disc parameters. Assembly of several discs in a row on a rotary shaft produces powerful aviation- and ground-based atomizers. The atomizers can be used in agriculture as an orchard...

Researchers at Temple University's School of Medicine have developed a new biosensor that "sniffs out" explosives and could one day be used to detect landmines and deadly agents such as sarin gas. The sensor is made of a genetically engineered yeast strain with mammalian (rat) olfactory-signaling machinery that was genetically...

The 2007 Create the Future Design Contest, presented by SolidWorks Corp. and NASA Tech Briefs, is open for entries in these categories: Machinery, Equipment, and Component Technology; Consumer Products; Medical; Safety and Security; Transportation; and Sustainable Technologies.

New Method of Agile Reduction of Radar Cross-Section Using Electromagnetic Channelization This technology will become a more versatile and cost-effective supplement to the existing stealth technology currently deployed. It might turn into the most effective radar defensive technology available for all branches of the...

At the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California San Diego, Caltech computational seismologist Jeroen Tromp can give the public movies that tell the story about earthquakes in a language that's easy to understand, revealing waves of ground motion spreading out from the earthquake. He can deliver...

Specialty Lubrication in New Product Design Wednesday, September 19, 2007, 2:00 PM EST Lubricants are often the forgotten components in the design of moving elements. Last-minute redesign and changes can be avoided by considering lubricant performance needs during the design phase. High-performance equipment generates...

The 2007 Create the Future Design Contest, presented by SolidWorks Corp. and NASA Tech Briefs, is now open for entries in these categories: Machinery, Equipment, and Component Technology; Consumer Products; Medical; Safety and Security; Transportation; and Sustainable Technologies.

Blood vessels that have been tissue-engineered from bone marrow adult stem cells may serve as a patient's source of new blood vessels following a coronary bypass or other procedures that require vessel replacement. A team of researchers from the University at Buffalo Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering have...

A small-scale enterprise is in need of mechanized processes and technologies designed for biological pre-processing (pre-conditioning) of basic wastes prior to composting with worms. The methods and equipment should be efficient, environmentally acceptable, ensure high performance, and be previously tested in practice. Click...

Biomedical engineers at Virginia Tech and the University of California Berkeley have developed a new minimally invasive method of treating cancer, and they anticipate clinical trials on individuals with prostate cancer will begin soon. The process is called irreversible electroporation (IRE). Electroporation is a phenomenon...

In the near future, you may get up in the morning, put on a "smart" T-shirt, and automatically have your health monitored. When it's dirty, the shirt gets washed or dry-cleaned. Researchers from the University of South Australia have developed smart garments with tiny embedded electronics that can monitor your heart or respiratory...

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 July issue focus on Sensors. "Smart" Sensor Module Stennis Space Center has developed an assembly that contains a sensor, signal conditioning...

A solid-state oxygen microsensor measures the potential difference (EMF) generated by two electrodes deposited on a solid oxygen-ion-conducting electrolyte and located in a known and preferably constant temperature gradient in the same ambient atmosphere. The microsensor is used for combustion systems to maintain and improve...

The 2007 Create the Future Design Contest, presented by SolidWorks Corp. and NASA Tech Briefs, is now open. Youíre invited to submit your innovative design ideas in the following categories: - Machinery, Equipment, and Component Technology - Consumer Products - Medical - Safety and Security - Transportation - Sustainable...

The N4917A optical receiver stress test set from Agilent Technologies (Santa Clara, CA) has been named PTB's Product of the Month for July. It provides repeatable conformance and characterization test results, and allows users to accurately characterize and verify standard conformance of receiver optical subassemblies and...

Technology for manufacturing diffraction gratings for spectrometry has not changed significantly in the past 40 years. But, according to Dr. Christoph M. Greiner of LightSmyth Technologies, that has changed thanks to deep-ultraviolet (DUV) reduction photolithography. In a feature article in the July issue of Photonics Tech...

High Stress Compatible Fiberglass Fabric for Sewn Applications The Johns Manville Company invites proposals for improved performance concepts in high-stress applications of non-woven fiberglass. Advanced Pattern Recognition Technologies These sensors, algorithms, neural network systems, optics and camera...

University of California, Riverside nanotechnologists have controlled the color of very small particles of iron oxide suspended in water simply by applying an external magnetic field to the solution. The discovery has potential to greatly improve the quality and size of electronic display screens and to enable the manufacture...

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is seeking proposals for LANdroids -- a fleet of miniature, intelligent mobile robots that will aid military communications in urban settings. The goal is to create small, inexpensive robotic radio relay nodes that dismounted warfighters will drop as they deploy. The nodes...

Origin 8 Windows-based data analysis and graphing software from OriginLab Corp., Northampton, MA, has been named NTB's Product of the Month for July. The software operates around a revamped workbook space, which allows results of an analysis to be placed into a worksheet within the raw data's workbook. Parameter values,...