NASA Spinoff
Health and Medicine
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Biometric Sensors Optimize Workouts
NASA Technology
What if, as a pilot was pulling heavy G-forces and headed toward a blackout, a voice in his or her ear said, “Pull out of the turn”? What if ground control had a screen...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Compact Spectrometers Unveil Clues to Diagnose Cancer
NASA Technology
It may seem hard to remember now, with thousands of planets of various types and sizes discovered throughout the galaxy, but back in the 1990s, the field of...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Fluorescent Diagnostic Test Readers Offer Fast, Low-Cost Results
NASA Technology
NASA astronauts are screened for sound health, among a slew of other requirements, but no one is invulnerable, especially in space. For reasons...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Cooling Garments Find New Medical, Athletic, and Industrial Uses
NASA Technology
When Bill Elkins started working on liquid cooling garments to keep early astronauts cool, no one saw a use for them beyond maintaining thermal...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Mini Heat Pipes Wick Away Heat in Brain Surgery
NASA Technology
Neurosurgery is one of those things where you want the tools to be as precise and reliable as possible. One important tool of the trade, bipolar forceps, uses...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Active Pixel Sensors Lead Dental Imagery into the Digital Age
NASA Technology
They’re in your cell phone camera and probably in your handheld digital camera, but they may have been in your dentist’s X-ray machine first:...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Space Grant Research Launches Rehabilitation Chair
NASA Technology
A stay on the International Space Station is no vacation. During a visit to the orbiting National Laboratory, astronauts divide their time among a variety of...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Liquid Cooling Technology Increases Exercise Efficiency
NASA Technology
The human body in space is as vulnerable as a fish out of water. Beyond a spacecraft’s protective environment, there is no oxygen to breathe and nothing...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Algae-Derived Dietary Ingredients Nourish Animals
NASA Technology
Algae-based food ingredients pioneered by NASA-sponsored research in the early 1980s revolutionized the infant formula industry a decade later and have...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Audio App Brings a Better Night's Sleep
NASA Technology
With demanding schedules, a sunrise or sunset every 45 minutes, and extremely noisy surroundings, it’s understandable why many astronauts onboard the International Space...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Vision Trainer Teaches Focusing Techniques at Home
NASA Technology
Inventions often find unintended uses. The first mechanical clocks in Europe were intended to track the motions of celestial bodies and found their original...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
3D Endoscope to Boost Safety, Cut Costs of Surgery
NASA Technology
“A lot of things are not easy to solve when you’re trying to break through a new technology right from the get-go,” says Harish Manohara, supervisor of the...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Patient Simulators Train Emergency Caregivers
NASA Technology
Medical training is one of the most important aspects of preparing astronauts for space. Every crewmember must become proficient in basic emergency skills, such as...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Solar Refrigerators Store Life-Saving Vaccines
NASA Technology
Over the years, NASA has advanced photovoltaic (PV) technology in order to advance many of its missions. This renewable source of energy is produced when certain...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Miniaturized, Portable Sensors Monitor Metabolic Health
NASA Technology
On Earth, gravity might weigh you down, but it also builds you up. For astronauts working in space for long durations, the weightless environment can cause...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Handheld Diagnostic Device Delivers Quick Medical Readings
NASA Technology
In a 1962 speech, President John F. Kennedy said, “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Innovative Software Tools Measure Behavioral Alertness
NASA Technology
For astronauts working aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in low-Earth orbit, getting adequate sleep is a challenge. For one, there’s that...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Monitors Enable Medication Management in Patients’ Homes
NASA Technology
To build a small and mobile monitoring and processing system for use onboard the station to capture, store, and transmit sensor data about astronauts...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Water Treatment Technologies Inspire Healthy Beverages
NASA Technology
If you wandered the halls of Johnson Space Center in the mid-1990s, you might have run across Mike Johnson lugging a large container of freshly collected...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Dietary Formulas Fortify Antioxidant Supplements
NASA Technology
The astronaut’s life and work is so different from our own daily experiences that it’s easy to forget that astronauts are people, too. Just like everyone...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Rovers Pave the Way for Hospital Robots
NASA Technology
Before Curiosity came the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. Before Spirit and Opportunity came Pathfinder and Sojourner. Before Pathfinder and Sojourner, the...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Dry Electrodes Facilitate Remote Health Monitoring
NASA Technology
You wouldn’t find a big bowl of spaghetti served on the International Space Station (ISS). In microgravity, it would be a complete mess. There is, however,...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Superconductors Enable Lower Cost MRI Systems
NASA Technology
The future looks bright, light, and green—especially where aircraft are concerned. The division of NASA’s Fundamental Aeronautics Program called the Subsonic...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Telescope Innovations Improve Speed, Accuracy of Eye Surgery
NASA Technology
One of the main components of NASA’s vision for the future of space exploration will actually have a keen eye for the past. The James Webb Space...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Bioreactors Drive Advances in Tissue Engineering
NASA Technology
It was an unlikely moment for inspiration. Engineers David Wolf and Ray Schwarz stopped by their lab around midday. Wolf, of Johnson Space Center, and Schwarz,...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Tooling Techniques Enhance Medical Imaging
NASA Technology
They can release as much energy as tens of billions of hydrogen bombs exploding at the same time. They send protons and electrons rocketing at near the speed of light....
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Ventilator Technologies Sustain Critically Injured Patients
NASA Technology
Consider this scenario: A soldier has been critically wounded in a sudden firefight in a remote region of Afghanistan. The soldier’s comrades attend...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Protein Innovations Advance Drug Treatments, Skin Care
NASA Technology
Dan Carter carefully layered the sheets of tracing paper on the light box. On each sheet were renderings of the atomic components of an essential human...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Mass Analyzers Facilitate Research on Addiction
NASA Technology
The famous “go/no go” command for Space Shuttle launches comes from a place called the Firing Room. Located at Kennedy Space Center in the Launch Control Center...
Spinoff: Health and Medicine
Frameworks Coordinate Scientific Data Management
NASA Technology
Voyager 2 sailing beyond the far boundary of the solar system. The rover Opportunity churning across the red soil of Mars. Cassini-Huygens imaging the moons of...