Briefs: Test & Measurement
Cryogenic and Non-Cryogenic Liquid Level Instrument
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center has developed a unique prototype for measuring the liquid level in a tank, employing a novel process. The technology can operate in a wide range of environments, including high and low temperatures and pressures, and is simpler and less expensive than other...
Briefs: Materials
Freeze-Dried Boron Nitride Foam Soaks Up Carbon Dioxide
A light foam was created from two-dimensional sheets of hexagonal-boron nitride (h-BN) that absorbs carbon dioxide. Freeze-drying h-BN turned it into a macro-scale foam that...
NASA Spinoff: Materials
Zinc-Silicate Coating Blocks Corrosion
Spinoff is NASA’s annual publication featuring successfully commercialized NASA technology. This commercialization has contributed to the development of products and services in the fields of health...
Briefs: Software
Data Compression and Pattern Recognition Software for Hypersensor Data
Historically, there have been various approaches to problems relating to the detection of small, weak, or hidden objects, substances, or patterns embedded in complex backgrounds. One approach has been to use low-dimensional sensor systems that attempt to detect a clean...
Application Briefs: Energy
Creating an Impedance Matching Method for Wireless Battery Charging
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Implantable medical biosensors are commonly used to treat health problems via the unobtrusive collection of...
Briefs: Medical
Portable Device for Rapid Detection of the Zika Virus
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) listed more than 5,000 cases of the Zika virus in the U.S. from January 2015 to February 2017. The vast majority of those cases were travelers returning from affected areas. Florida has the highest number of cases of the Zika virus at 1,069...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Controlling Soft Robots Using Magnetic Fields
A fundamental advance in controlling soft robots involves using magnetic fields to remotely manipulate microparticle chains embedded in soft robotic devices. Several devices have been developed...
Briefs: Software
Adjoint Error Estimation for Embedded-Boundary Cartesian Meshes for use with Cart3D
This technology provides means of estimating numerical errors in user-specified output functionals, such as lift or drag, for fluid flow simulations. The new method computes an improved estimate of the output (relative to the baseline simulation), an estimate of...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Evolving and Controlling Behaviors in a Computation-Free Robot Swarm
Flocks of birds, schools of fish, and colonies of ants exhibit a remarkable robustness and resilience, despite the limited capabilities of each individual. Recently, research into bio-inspired swarm robotics has been gaining popularity due to the low-cost, robust, redundant,...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Component Leak Test Apparatus
A component leak test apparatus investigates the performance of fittings at low temperature and/or high pressure. Its performance was quantified by measuring the ability to hold cold pressurized gaseous helium...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Semiconductor Blocks Heat Transfer and Preserves Conductivity
A collective rattling effect in a type of crystalline semiconductor was discovered to block most heat transfer while preserving high electrical conductivity — a rare pairing...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
High-Resolution, 3D Cell-Printing of Living Tissues
Printing high-resolution living tissues is difficult, as the cells often move within printed structures, and can collapse on themselves. A method of 3D-printing laboratory-grown cells to form living structures was developed that produces tissues in self-contained cells that support the...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Stress-Induced Nanofabrication
Currently, the synthesis of nanomaterials relies on special inter-particle chemical and physical reactions, which restricts their development. However, stress-induced nanofabrication can effectively render arrays of nanomaterials uniform in length, diameter, and density.
Briefs: Materials
Inorganic-Organic Hybrid Polymers for High-Temperature Applications
A new class of polymeric materials was developed with resistance to heat, dielectric breakdown, and oxidation at high temperatures. For applications that demand high temperature resistance coupled with greater strength, these polymers can be easily transformed into ceramics with...
NASA Tech Needs: Medical
Weightless “Weight”-Lifting Builds Muscle on Earth
NASA astronaut Shannon Lucid spent hundreds of hours exercising during her 188-day stay on the Russian space station Mir in 1996. Although it was her least favorite...
Blog: Automotive
Will Electric Vehicles Surpass Combustion Engine Vehicles?
News: Imaging
A Real Engineering Feat: Two Holograms on One Surface
Blog: Photonics/Optics
The Top Tech Briefs Stories of 2017
With another year of Tech Briefs almost in the books, it's time to look at our most-read news articles of 2017.
Top stories included a look back at the life of Robert Goddard, and a look forward to...
INSIDER: Imaging
Radar Sees Through Walls – By Seeking Symmetry
INSIDER: Materials
Taming Vortices – Polymers Ease Fluid Flow
A vortex in the atmosphere can churn with enough power to create a typhoon. But more subtle vortices form constantly in nature. Many of them are too small to be seen with the naked eye....
INSIDER: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Printing a Better Actuator
One technology uses magnetic fields to generate mechanical work. The other enhances the magnetic properties of 3D-printed materials. Combined, they could lead to efficient, economical production of magnetic...
Question of the Week
Would you use "Printed Wi-Fi?"
This week, Tech Briefs TV featured an additive-manufacturing technology from the University of Washington.
Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition
A Giant Leap: Reconstructing NASA’s Moon-Mission Audio
INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Sound-Off: The Most ‘Startling’ Discovery in IoT? A Lack of Security
The “Internet of Things” links a variety of devices, from computers and industrial machines to heart monitors and robots. The interconnection also leads to some...
News: Materials
Tough, Self-Healing Rubber Developed
Imagine a tire that could heal after being punctured or a rubber band that never snapped.
News: Electronics & Computers
Artificial 'Skin' Gives Robotic Hand A Sense Of Touch
A team of researchers from the University of Houston has reported a breakthrough in stretchable electronics that can serve as an artificial skin, allowing a robotic hand to sense the...
Researchers from the University of Houston and China have reported a new type of electronic device that can be triggered to dissolve through exposure to water molecules in the...
News: Medical
Breakthrough Device Heals Organs With A Single Touch
Researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Ohio State's College of Engineering have developed a new technology: Tissue Nanotransfection or TNT. It can generate any...
Top Stories
Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Experts Weigh In: How Will a Robotic Future Impact Nature?
Podcasts: Materials
INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Orbiting Instrument Hints That Stored Magnetic Energy Heats Solar...
Videos: Aerospace
Test System Could Enable Reduced Helicopter Vibration
Blog: Transportation
CES 2021: How COVID-19 Turned the Car into a Personal 'Second Space'
Videos: Automotive
Question of the Week
Has the Vehicle Become Your “Second Space?”
Webcasts
Upcoming Webinars: Automotive
Reducing the Cost of Quality in Automotive BiW
Upcoming Webinars: Automotive
Electric-Vehicle Transmission Development Priorities
Upcoming Webinars: Medical
The Critical Role of Fiber Optic Temperature Sensors in Medical...
Upcoming Webinars: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Zinc Die Casting Concepts to Achieve Precision, Performance, and...
Upcoming Webinars: Test & Measurement
Radar Measurements: Triggering, Analysis, and Generation
Upcoming Webinars: Materials
Trending Stories
NASA Spinoff: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Nanotechnology Repairs Engine Damage in Cars
Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
Linear Motors and Actuators Meets Automation Needs
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Radiation-Tolerant DC-DC Converters
Application Briefs: Energy
Lithium-Ion Batteries Critical to Mars Spacecraft
Application Briefs: Aerospace
System Recycles and Purifies Large Volumes of Helium for SLS
