Getting into the Halloween spirit, NASA released a collection of the spookiest sounds ever recorded by the agency's spacecraft instruments. Captured radio emissions reveal whistling helium, howling planets, and other mysterious noises from the depths of space.

Researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have created the first functional robot powered entirely by vacuum. It is made up of soft building blocks that move by having air sucked out of them. The robot can be reconfigured to perform different tasks, like climbing...

A technique known as Selected Ion Flow Tube Mass Spectrometry (SIFT-MS) instantly analyzes air down to part-per-trillion (ppt) concentrations. The SIFT-MS technology can be used to test vehicles for emissions and volatile organic compounds, including irritants, toxins,...

Today’s lead INSIDER story featured a conformal battery that bends to meet specific device shapes. What do you think?

Dr. Zheng and her team of scientists from Berkeley Lab and Nanyang Technical University in Singapore made metal-organic spongy photocatalysts that convert carbon dioxide (CO₂) to carbon monoxide (CO) in the presence of sunlight. They were able to make liquid fuels...

A novel, pencil-sized device now provides surgeons with an alternative to traditional methods of suturing arteries. The Arterial Everter, Medical Category winner of the 2017 “Create the Future” Design Contest, will reduce operation times, according to the technology’s inventor.

To reduce costs and eliminate air pollution, many cities are exploring the benefits of electric buses. Before electrified fleets take the road, however, officials will require a test run. The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) used a modeling approach.

In the future, breathalyzers will not just be used by police checking for alcohol intoxication, but also for testing the condition of athletes, and for people who want to lose weight. When exactly the body begins burning fat can now be determined by analyzing, for example, biomarkers in the blood or urine....

Researchers have designed and tested a series of plasmonic nanoantenna arrays that could lead to the development of a new generation of ultrasensitive and low-cost fluorescence sensors that could be used to monitor water quality.

Petrochemical and liquid gas companies require a regular inspection of a vessel's welds and wall thicknesses — a dangerous task given the hazardous environment. A climbing robot, category winner in the 2017 “Create the Future” Design Contest, is potentially up to the challenge.

Conformal coatings like Parylene protect a variety of components, including LEDs, sensors, and circuit card assemblies. If a board component needs to be replaced, however, how easily can the Parylene be removed?

In this week’s INSIDER story, researcher Panagiotis Artemiadis predicted that we will see an increase in brain-controlled UAVs within the next ten years. The mind-controlled drones, according to the Arizona State University professor, will play critical application roles as...

Who needs a keyboard, a mouse, or a joystick? A researcher from Arizona State University wants to command machines with the human brain.

This week’s INSIDER story featured a gesture-recognition technology that transforms everyday objects into remote controls. What do you think? Would you use MatchPoint?

ANSYS, Canonsburg, PA, introduced ANSYS® Discovery Live™ simulation software that allows engineers to immediately examine the impact of their design changes. Users can pose what-if questions upfront in the design process to rapidly explore thousands of design options and receive immediate feedback. The...

Many structural factors contribute to automotive noise, whether the vehicle is electric or has an internal combustion engine. In a webinar this week titled, “The Art of NVH Attenuation,” an attendee asked Dr. Pranab Saha, a consultant and expert in acoustics, noise, and vibration...

As seen in this week's Tech Briefs TV video, MIT researchers envision many possibilities for devices that self-fold without external stimuli.

Corrosion is a pervasive and expensive problem in applications ranging from construction to microelectronics. Corrosion has been widely studied in theories, and empirical studies exist for common materials, material combinations, and myriad environmental conditions. In order for microelectronic devices to...

The detection and characterization of molecular gases in a sample is a relatively difficult challenge. Usually, this task is relegated to expensive and time-consuming processes like mass spectrometry and gas chromatography. Furthermore, numerous industrial applications require such gas-phase analysis...

Opened in 1947 on the former site of the U.S. military's Camp Upton in New York, Brookhaven National Lab's (BNL) initial mission centered on the peaceful exploration of the atom. Particle accelerators, leading chemistry and biology experiments, and visionary scientists soon joined research reactors, and Brookhaven...