New Sensor Network Reveals Telltale Patterns in Neighborhood Air Quality

Black carbon, commonly known as soot, is a significant contributor to global warming and is strongly linked to adverse health outcomes. Produced by the incomplete...

Tiny Laser is an Important Step Toward New Sensors

In a major step toward developing portable scanners that can rapidly measure molecules in pharmaceuticals or classify tissue in patients’ skin, researchers have created an imaging system...

What is the ‘Lunar Gateway?’ NASA Details Its Return to the Moon

Sign up now to hear how NASA plans to get back to the Moon by 2024.

Tiny “Walking” Motor Made with Five Parts

A new approach developed at MIT to building robots is based on a set of five millimeter-scale components, all of which can be attached to each other by a standard connector. Using this simple...

MEMS Accelerometer Begins with Multi-Layer Metal Structures

A high-sensitivity and low-noise MEMS accelerometer was developed using multi-layer metal structures composed of multiple metal layers. The accelerometer achieves 1 µG level...

Answering Your Questions: How Will Emulation Be Used in Automotive Design?

A reader asks: What role will emulation play in the verification of modern automotive solutions?

Apollo 11

In this special edition of Here's an Idea, we explore the many tools and materials that began as one small step toward the Moon.

Answering Your Questions: What Are My Lithium-Ion Battery Inspection Options?

Our readers ask: How do you know that you have the right anode? How can you inspect the electrolyte or electrode material?

A Self-Healing Glass, Inspired by a Butterfly Wing

A team from the University of Pittsburgh looked to the butterfly to create a glass that is self-healing, liquid-repellant, and anti-fogging.

A Work of Art: Researchers Create Complex Actuators, Automatically

MIT's new way of automatically creating actuators is a bit like solving a Rubik's Cube.

New Products

Blue Pulsed Laser Diode Module OSI Laser Diode (LDI) (Edison, NJ) launched a blue 450-nm pulsed laser diode module that includes an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device. The new CVB 450-TO56R gallium nitride (GaN) laser...

Using Light Waves to Enable Ultrafast Quantum Computing

Jigang Wang patiently explained his latest discovery in quantum control that could lead to superfast computing based on quantum mechanics. He mentioned light-induced superconductivity...

How to Bend Light Waves in the Right Place

In free space, the light wave of a laser beam spreads on an exactly straight line. Under certain circumstances, however, a much more complicated behavior occurs. If the movement of the wave is...

Russian Engineers Prepare to ‘Light Up’ a Lamp Revolution

Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences have designed and tested a prototype...

Answering Your Questions: Are Military Standards Influencing Commercial UAV?

A reader asks our industry expert: Will air taxis be influenced by military UAV standards?

The Apollo 11 ‘Spinoff’ Technologies We Still Use Today

Many of the technologies we use today – space blankets, hearing aids, food packaging – began on the Apollo 11 mission.

The Sensors Behind the GEN II Wearable Device

The population is aging and more people need healthcare support, which is having a big impact on the overall cost of medical care. As a result, authorities and health insurance companies are putting...

More Sensitive Measurement of Semiconductor Material Quality

Accurately measuring semiconductor properties of materials in small volumes helps engineers determine the range of applications for which these materials may be suitable in the...

Fuel Cell Technology Runs on Solid Carbon

Whereas hydrogen fuel cells (e.g., proton exchange membrane (PEM) and other fuel cells) generate electricity from the chemical reaction between pure hydrogen and oxygen, direct carbon fuel cells (DCFCs)...

Fabricating Nanochips via Thermal Lithography

A process for fabricating atom-thin processors can be used to produce at the nanoscale for smaller and faster semiconductors.

Q&A: Power Anomalies Detect Malware in Embedded Systems

Aydin Aysu, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in the Electrical & Computer Engineering Department at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, where he helped develop a technique for...

Supergel System Cleans Radioactively Contaminated Structures

A system was developed that can remove radioactive cesium contamination from porous structures such as brick and concrete that are hard to clean, as well as contamination from metal...

Hybrid Transformer

Researchers have developed a hybrid transformer that has the benefit of a full planar transformer design but uses a wire-wound secondary winding to keep the parasitic winding capacitances lower. Alone, planar transformers...

5 Ws of PDK Recyclable Plastic

Who Anyone who uses products made of plastic. The new recyclable plastic could be a good alternative to many nonrecyclable plastics in use today.

Noninvasive Device Tests Sweat Continuously for Hours

A continuous-testing device was developed that samples sweat as effectively as blood but in a noninvasive way and over many hours. After examining the use of saliva, tears, and interstitial...

Machining Capabilities Enhance Space-Related Programs

InsacoQuakertown, PAwww.insaco.com Since 1947, Insaco has been machining, grinding, and polishing ceramics, sapphire, and glass to meet and often exceed client specifications. A large...