The John H. Glenn Research Center introduces the Portable Unit for Metabolic Analysis (PUMA), an instrument that measures quantities indicative of human metabolic function. The PUMA makes time-resolved measurements of temperature, pressure, flow, and the partial pressures of oxygen and carbon dioxide in breath during inhalation and exhalation.
The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center has developed a process for engineering multicellular tissues by the controlled enzymatic degradation of polymeric beads in a low-fluid-shear bioreactor. The polymeric beads serve as temporary scaffolds to support the cell assemblies in a tissue-like 3D configuration. Engineered tissues could be grown in weeks or days instead of months.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has developed a system of electronic hardware that noninvasively tracks the direction of a person's gaze in real time. The system operates at a frame rate of several kilohertz and thereby offers enhanced capability for applications that involve human-computer interactions.
