Technology Leaders: Industry Renaissance Transforms Invention, Learning, Production, and Trade

Digital technologies are enabling an "Industry Renaissance" of virtual experiences.

Vote for Tech Briefs Product of the Year 2020

These 12 products are the nominees for the 2020 Tech Briefs Readers’ Choice Product of the Year.

Graphene-Reinforced Carbon Fiber

This high-strength material could be used to improve safety and reduce the cost of producing cars.

Formula May Help 5G Wireless Networks Share Communications Frequencies

This method of machine learning could make communications in the unlicensed bands much more efficient.

How Digitalization Reduces Program Risk in Platform Development

Digitalization gives product teams a new way of looking at familiar challenges.

Quantum Computing at Room Temperature

Quantum computer circuits that will no longer need extremely cold temperatures to function could become a reality.

Machine-Learning Tool for Developing Tougher Materials

This rapid screening system tests fracture resistance in billions of potential materials.

Machine Learning Enables Rapid Rocket Engine Design

This method provides a fast way to assess rocket engine performance in a variety of operating conditions.

Open-Source Software Analyzes Economics of Biofuels and Bioproducts

This fast, flexible tool allows researchers to quickly compare and prioritize strategies for converting biomass to fuels and products.

Human Torso Simulator

The simulator could help in the development of new back braces.

Method Manipulates Electrons and Transmits Information Quantum-Mechanically

This technology could lead to the creation of fully functional quantum computers.

Mathematical Technique Quickly Tunes Next-Generation Lenses

Most of us know optical lenses as curved, transparent pieces of plastic or glass, designed to focus light for microscopes, spectacles, cameras, and more. For the most part, a...

Dynamic Microstructures Move by Light and Temperature

3D printing via direct laser writing involves a computer-controlled focused laser beam that acts as a pen and creates the desired structure in the printer ink — a photoresist. In this...

Virtual Test Laboratory

The mechanical properties of sheet metal materials are directional. Their deformation behavior and their strength differ significantly depending on the viewing direction; for example, in the direction of rolling, or...

Tiny Robots Grow Bio-inspired Shapes

Hundreds of small robots can work in a team to create biology-inspired shapes without an underlying master plan, purely based on local communication and movement. To achieve this, the biological...

Simulation for Everyone

With the computational power and software available today, numerical simulation is a real option to quickly get answers to complicated technical, scientific, and engineering questions. Not only has the hardware...

Ray Optics Simulation of Inertial Navigation Systems

Attitude detection is a crucial element in aircraft and spacecraft navigation. The motion of an aircraft consists of a translational component (motion of its center of mass with respect to...

Method 3D-Prints Marine-Grade Stainless Steel

Marine-grade stainless steel is valued for its performance under corrosive environments, and for its high ductility — the ability to bend without breaking under stress. But conventional...

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Established in 1943, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico was site Y of the Manhattan Project for a single purpose: to design and build an atomic bomb, which took just 27 months. The Los Alamos...

Airborne Background Oriented Schlieren Technique

NASA has developed a novel method to render visible the density changes in air that cause a refractive index change by an airborne vehicle. These density changes include shock waves, vortices,...

LLNL Finds Reason Behind Defects in 3D Printing

High-speed images of a common laser-based metal 3D printing process, coupled with newly updated computer models, have revealed the mechanisms behind material redistribution, a phenomenon that...

Metamaterial Converts Linear Compression Forces into a Rotational Movement

Using 3D printers, researchers have created a metamaterial from cubic building blocks that responds to compression forces by a rotation. Usually, this can only be...

Flap Edge Noise Reduction Fins

NASA’s Langley Research Center has developed aircraft flap tip modifications that reduce noise produced during approach and landing. The modifications are rigid open lattice (honeycomblike) and fin structures...

Using Aerial Towing to Study Sonic Booms

Researchers at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) recently completed a study of the feasibility of aerial towing an unpiloted, sub-scale vehicle to supersonic flight conditions to examine...