Smart Surgical Microscope

Imaging technology used to map the universe shows promise for more accurately and quickly identifying cancer cells in the operating room.

Understanding Sensitivity in sCMOS Microscopy Cameras

A new iteration of sCMOS camera technology promises even higher sensitivity than prior designs.

New High-Speed Microscope Can Capture Brain Neuroactivity

A research team has built a super-high-speed microscope.

Artificial Intelligence Finds and Labels 2D Materials Instantly

The AI system can help shorten the time required for 2D material-based electronics to be ready for consumer devices.

Cryogenic Near-Field Optical Microscope Images Dynamics of Graphene

This imaging technique could impact optical communications and signal processing.

Smart, Hybrid Actuators Combine Nanometer Precision, Large Forces, and Long Travel Ranges with High Dynamics

The characteristics of hybrid drives present a practical solution when a position needs to be detected with high precision

Graphene Lid Extends Photoemission Electron Microscopy to Liquids

By capping liquids with graphene (an ultrathin sheet of pure carbon), researchers can easily image and analyze liquid interfaces and the surface of nanometer-scale objects...

Researchers Create Smartphone System to Test for Lead in Water

Researchers at the University of Houston have created an inexpensive system that can detect lead in tap water at levels commonly accepted as dangerous, using a lens made with an...

5 Ws of the Lead-Detection Smartphone System

Who

Individuals needing or wanting to examine lead content in their drinking water on-demand and in virtually any environmental setting.

Microscopy Technique Works at Extreme Heat

A stainless steel alloy — alloy 709 — has potential for elevated-temperature applications such as nuclear reactor structures. It is exceptionally strong and resistant to damage when exposed to...

Imaging Technique Detects Skin Cancer Without Invasive Biopsy

Researchers funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) have developed a non-invasive imaging technique that accurately detects skin cancer...

Deep Learning Transforms Smartphone Microscopes into Laboratory-Grade Devices

Researchers at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering have demonstrated that deep learning, a powerful form of artificial intelligence, can discern and enhance...

COSMIC Impact: Next-Gen X-Ray Microscopy Platform

A next-generation X-ray beamline now operating at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) brings together a unique set of capabilities to measure the...

Principles of Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopes

Today’s high-resolution laser scanning confocal microscopes (LSCM), also referred to simply as laser scanning microscopes, are powerful high-magnification surface metrology instruments with...

Solving a Problem that Plagues Scanning Tunneling Microscopes

Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas have solved a longstanding problem that has been plaguing the scanning tunneling microscope for more than 35 years: How to prevent...

Positional Sensor Measures Rotational and Lateral Displacements

Positional sensors have applications where a very accurate measurement of position is needed over a limited range. One example of such an application is in manipulation of a...

Imaging Flexible DNA ‘Building Blocks’ in 3-D

Over the past decade, researchers have been working to create nanoscale materials and devices using DNA as construction materials through a process called DNA origami. A single long “sca...

Lens-Free Fluorescent Microscope

Rice engineers have developed a wide-field microscope thinner than a credit card, small enough to sit on a fingertip and capable of micrometer resolution over a volume of several cubic millimeters.

Essential Principles for Designing and Specifying Laser Optics

Laser engineers are leveraging new materials, unusual gain mechanisms, and innovative cavity designs to push laser performance into new regimes. Pulse lengths are getting...

Using Digital Microscopes as Inspection Tools

Digital microscopes are being automated and computerized to make them easier to use, display more data with more detail and precision, and expand their areas of application. With traditional...

A Fast, Non-Destructive Test for Two-Dimensional Materials

Thinning a material down to a single-atom thickness can dramatically change that material’s physical properties. Graphene, the best known two-dimensional (2D) material, has...

The Effects of Micro-Electric Discharge Machining (μEDM) on the Topography of Stainless Steel

Two basic components make up the value added to a work piece by the micro-electric discharge machining (μEDM) process: form and surface finish....

Bulk Preparation of Holey Graphene via Controlled Catalytic Oxidation

Researchers at NASA have developed new methods to manufacture carbon materials (e.g., nanotubes, graphene) with holes through the graphitic surface of the particles. The...

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...

Improved Surface Characterization with AFM Imaging

To shrink device size yet still tightly control performance, new technology often requires increasingly stringent surface specifications. Characterization tools, in turn, must keep pace by...

Scientists Demonstrate New Real-Time Technique for Studying Ionic Liquids at Electrode Interfaces

Ionic liquids—salts made by combining positively charged molecules (cations) and negatively charged molecules (anions) that are liquid at...