Magazine

Giant Telescope Construction Viewed Through an Industrial Lens

Once installed at Las Campanas Observatory in the Chilean Andes, the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) will introduce incredible opportunities for astrophysics.

Imaging Technology Could Improve Cancer Surgery

Cancer treatment could be dramatically improved by precisely locating the edges of tumors during surgery to remove them.

Long-Range Wireless Sensor Network

The network is designed for remote, low-resource locations where power and communications infrastructure are scarce.

Algorithm Improves Navigation of Autonomous Driving Robots

Future robots could be taught how to outperform humans.

Ring Detects Finger Location to Track Hand Movements

The technology, which could be added to smart watches, could detect the onset of Parkinson’s disease or help with stroke rehabilitation.

Octopus-Inspired Soft Robotic Arm

The Tentacle Bot can grip, move, and manipulate a wide range of objects.

Balance Scale Predicts and Helps Prevent Falls

A technique to assess astronauts’ balance recovery helps people assess their risk of falling.

Sunlight Converts Emissions into Useful Materials

An environmentally friendly method upcycles carbon dioxide emissions into polymers and other materials.

Virtual and Augmented Reality Device Simulates Vision Loss

VR/AR devices can simulate some of the key difficulties experienced due to glaucoma.

3D-Printed Sweating Robot Muscle

This form of thermal management can help enable untethered, high-powered robots to operate for long periods of time without overheating.

Tiny, Magnetically Powered Neural Stimulator

Tests show magnetoelectric power is a viable option for clinical-grade implants.

New Products

Multi-sensor imaging systems, eyesafe laser finders, machine vision algorithms, and more.

Continuous and Stable Lasing Achieved From Low-Cost Perovskites at Room Temperature

With low-cost materials called perovskites, stable, continuous lasing is achieved at room temperature for over an hour.

Megapixel Photon-Counting Camera Technology

See what kinds of applications are possible when you can literally see light propagating through space.

Material Advances for LED Quantum Dot Efficiency

Creating next-generation LEDs for novel efforts like COVID-19 decontamination requires LED manufacturers to reevaluate the materials that they’re using.

Ambient Light Alters Refraction in 2D Material

See how tantalum disulfide is supporting new kinds of optics, and potentially new kinds of application for VR and self-driving cars.

“Alexa, Go to The Kitchen and Fetch Me a Snack”

MIT engineers are envisioning robots more like home helpers.

Overcoming Pitfalls When Measuring Thin, Parallel Optics

A "TPSI" process makes it possible to distinguish between the front and back of optical surfaces, and to characterize the quality of both in a single measurement.

Measuring Layer Thickness Using a Microscope

With Nikon's Layer Thickness software module, comprehensive information about a specimen is obtained more quickly than if an operator is making all the measurements by hand.

Recovering Data: NIST’s Neural Network Model Finds Small Objects in Dense Images

A NIST method employs a neural network to detect patterns like geometric objects in imaging data.

Product of the Month

The SHFQA Quantum Analyzer from Zurich Instruments operates at up to 8.5 GHz and can perform direct readout of superconducting and spin qubits.

Possible Significant Response Speedup from Detuning a Resonator Bolometer

The response time of kinetic inductance bolometers can be greatly enhanced by electrothermal feedback for devices that are both sensitive and speedy.

New on the Market: October 2020

Tubing plugs, displacement measurements, CAM software, and more.

Using Silicon for Battery Anodes

A nanostructure design lends extraordinary strength to a promising storage ingredient.

Facility Focus: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

In 2020, the EPA marks 50 years of preparing for, responding to, preventing, and mitigating natural and manmade disasters.

Hybrid Material is an Efficient Photodetector

A metal-organic framework does not contain cost-intensive raw materials and can be produced in bulk.

Optical Neural Network Recognizes Objects Instantly

This technology can work with multiple wavelengths of light simultaneously.

Mass-Producible, Centimeter-Scale Metalens

Applications include low-light conditions such as on orbital satellites and VR applications where the lens needs to be larger than a pupil.

Bending an Organic Semiconductor Boosts Electrical Flow

This method could benefit next-generation electronics.