Briefs : Manufacturing & Prototyping
3D Printing of All-Liquid 3D Structures

A method was developed for printing 3D structures composed entirely of liquids. Using a modified 3D printer, threads of water were injected into silicone oil, sculpting tubes made of one liquid within...

Briefs : Electronics & Computers
Linear Resonators Make Electronics More Resistant to Damage and Defects

Mobile phones, tablets, and other portable devices are prone to failure caused by small defects in their complex electronics that can result from regular use. An innovation provides robust protection against circuitry damage that affects signal transmission.

Briefs : Materials
Rubber-Like Adhesive Film Sticks to Highly Deformable Areas

Adhesives used for common pain-relieving bandages often do not stick properly when attached to places that encounter large, inhomogenous bending motion, like elbows and knees. To...

Briefs : Electronics & Computers
Advances in Spintronic Devices

Spintronic devices promise to solve major problems in today's computers, which use massive amounts of electricity to generate heat. This requires expending even more energy for cooling. By contrast, spintronic...

Articles : Aerospace
Plant Food for Space Grows Crops on Earth

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...

Who's Who : Materials
Q&A: Dr. Sara Abdollahi, Carnegie Mellon University College of Engineering, Pittsburgh, PA

Researchers in Carnegie Mellon University's College of Engineering have developed a novel approach to optimizing soft-material 3D printing. The Expert-Guided Optimization (EGO) method combines expert judgment with an optimization algorithm that efficiently...

Articles : Electronics & Computers
Auxiliary Power Solutions for 1500 VDC Photovoltaic Systems

Photovoltaic systems are continually evolving to improve their efficiency and financial viability. One trend is to move to larger strings of cells giving higher dc voltages to be...

Briefs : Medical
Ingestible Sensors Powered by Stomach Acid

A small voltaic cell was developed that is sustained by the acidic fluids in the stomach. The system can generate enough power to run small sensors or drug delivery devices that can reside in the...

Briefs : Materials
Water-Repellent Nanotextures Possess Anti-Fogging Capability

Some insect bodies have evolved the ability to repel water and oil, adhere to different surfaces, and eliminate light reflections. Scientists have been studying the physical mechanisms underlying these properties found in nature and mimicking them to design materials for use in...

Application Briefs : Materials
Reducing Weight and Design Time for Dream Chaser Spacecraft
Collier Research Corporation
Newport News, VA
www.hypersizer.com

With the go-ahead from NASA for a first mission to the International Space Station (ISS), the...

Briefs : Manufacturing & Prototyping
Diamond Pellet Grinding Tool

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center has developed a numerically controlled grinding tool that eliminates undesirable periodic variations in surface contours in optical and other surfaces — such as mid-spatial...

Briefs : Electronics & Computers
Chemical Heat Battery Material Releases Energy on Demand

A new chemical composite could be used to store heat from the Sun during the day in a thermal battery, and release the heat when needed. A common approach to thermal storage is to use...

Briefs : Transportation
Electrode Design Boosts Supercapacitor Performance

Supercapacitors are rechargeable energy storage devices that deliver more power for their size than similar-sized batteries. They also recharge quickly, and they last for hundreds to thousands of recharging cycles. Today, they are used in hybrid cars’ regenerative braking systems and for other...

Briefs : Sensors/Data Acquisition
Built-In Temperature Sensing Method in a Microheater

NASA Ames Research Center has developed an innovative built-in temperature sensing method for micro-heaters. The temperature sensing of chip-based microheaters is conventionally done with...

Products : Photonics/Optics
New on the Market: August 2018

DC Current Transducers

NK Technologies, San Jose, CA, introduced DT-FD Series DC current transducers that provide a large sensing window and the ability to safely monitor circuits with voltages up to...

Question of the Week
Are Robo-Fleets 'Very Economically Viable?'

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