Top 5 Tech Briefs Quizzes of 2022

See Tech Briefs’ top-performing quizzes of 2022.

Top 10 Most-Read Tech Briefs Stories of 2022

See Tech Briefs’ most-read stories of 2022.

A Self-Healing Structural Composite

Jason Patrick, assistant professor of civil, construction, and environmental engineering at North Carolina State University, and his team have developed a new composite material for applications like airplane wings and wind turbine blades in which hidden defects and damage can self-heal.

Electromagnetic-Wave-Absorbing 6G Tech

The epsilon iron oxide nanoparticles could be continuously produced through a micrometer-sized powder manufacturing process.

What Do You Know About Factory Automation?

Factories are becoming more and more automated and integrated. How much do you know about what factory automation actually is? Take this quiz to find out.

A Low-Cost Robot Ready for Any Obstacle

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science and the University of California, Berkeley, have designed a robotic system that enables a low-cost and relatively small legged...

Computational System Streamlines the Design of Fluidic Devices

Combustion engines, propellors, and hydraulic pumps are examples of fluidic devices — instruments that utilize fluids to perform certain functions, such as generating power or...

Hummingbird Flight Could Provide Insights for Biomimicry in Aerial Vehicles

Hummingbirds occupy a unique place in nature: They fly like insects but have the musculoskeletal system of birds. According to Bo Cheng, Associate Professor in...

Small But Mighty: Stratospheric Microballooons

A zero-emission reusable stratospheric balloon developed by Urban Sky for remote sensing could one day be used for real-time wildfire monitoring.

Low-Cost, High-Energy Battery Could Change the Decarbonization Game

The battery was made using sodium-sulphur — a type of molten salt that can be processed from sea water at a low cost.

High-Speed Camera Captures Signals Traveling Through Nerve Cells

Combining high-speed camera and interferometer technology enables the detection of electrical pulses travelling through nerve cells.

Leveraging Metal 3D Printing for Manufacturing in Space

One promising metal-based additive technology for in-space 3D printing is Ultrasonic Additive Manufacturing (UAM). Instead of fusing metal powders, UAM welds foil at (near) room temperature.

How Much Do You Know About the Hyperloop?

Take this quiz to find out how much you know about the hyperloop - a system that moves people and goods safely and sustainably by bringing airplane speeds or even greater to the ground.

10 Holiday Gift Ideas for Engineers

Gift giving always induces anxiety. It’s never easy to pick a present that someone will enjoy, especially if the recipient is an engineer.

Self-Folding Origami Honeycombs Perfect for Protective Packaging

A research team has demonstrated a promising method to easily manufacture self-folding origami honeycomb structures.

Giant Batteries Deliver Renewable Energy When It’s Needed

In developing its flow battery, Oregon-based ESS drew from groundbreaking research and development conducted by NASA more than 40 years ago.

5 Ws of Painless Tattoos

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed low-cost, painless, and bloodless tattoos that can be self-administered and have many applications.

How Well Do You Know E-Skin?

How much do you know about e-skin? Find out with the quiz below.

To-Go Cup Lids May Help Drones Sense Danger

The work showed that when a certain level of force inverts a dome, embedded sensors surrounding the dome can detect the change.

Powering Light Electric Vehicles

Light Electric Vehicles (LEVs) such as golf carts have been traditionally powered by lead-acid batteries.

New Products

See the new products for December 2022, including power diodes, a battery management system, gelled tantalum capacitors, and more.

Silicon Forging Ahead for Higher-Performance Battery Anodes

General Motors’ new joint-research agreement with OneD underscores the promise of silicon-anode development.

Proposed Standards and Methods for Leak Testing Lithium-Ion Battery Packs

Battery packs, whether made of prismatic, cylindrical, or pouch cells, are cooled by common automotive thermal management systems.

Compiler Selection for Functional Safety in Robots

A developer needs confidence that the compiler will not introduce errors into the design.

On the Hunt for Asteroids: Positioning an Occultation Telescope

"Early detection of a NEO headed for Earth would give us sufficient time to deflect the threat."

Controlling a Robot Without Programming

Programming a robot for small series production activities with great diversity involves many trajectories, which is time-consuming.

Tentacle Robot Can Grasp Fragile Objects

Researchers designed a new type of soft robotic gripper that uses a collection of thin tentacles to entangle and ensnare objects.

Solar-Powered Smart Robots Walk Autonomously

A team has installed electronic “brains” on solar-powered robots that are 100 to 250 micrometers in size so that they can walk autonomously.