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Answering Your Questions: Will Solar Panel Efficiency Improve?

Don’t hold your breath, says Jeff Crystal from Voltaic Systems.

Answering Your Questions: How Long Should a Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) Take?

An FMEA provides a step-by-step way of identifying product failures. Carl Carlson explains just how long the process takes.

After a Successful Landing, What’s Next for the InSight Mission?

InSight project manager Tom Hoffman spoke with Tech Briefs about the importance of digging deep in our knowledge of Mars.

New Metal-Air Battery Design Offers a Potential Boost to Electric Vehicles

Professor Hart spoke with Tech Briefs about why his team's new battery may someday find its way beyond niche applications and into electric vehicles.

Answering Your Questions: How Good are Automotive Sensor Simulation Models?

A reader asks our industry experts: "How good are the simulation models for automotive ADAS sensors?"

Researchers Convert Plastic Bottles into Aerogels that Insulate and Absorb

Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) are trying to solve the problem of plastic waste by converting it into something useful: Aerogels.

Modular Robots Change Shape – Depending on the Task

Professor Hadas Kress-Gazit tells Tech Briefs about the "great promise" of autonomous modular robots.

Answering Your Questions: For an Electric-Aircraft Future, Do We Need to Rethink Design?

For an electric-aircraft future, it's not enough to just change components. You have to rethink design, our expert tells one reader.

From Trash to Treasure: How to Convert ‘Fatberg’ Waste into Biofuel

Have you heard of "fatbergs?" Researcher Asha Srinivasan explains how her team is turning masses of fat, oil, and grease into biofuel.

Want to Reduce Paper Consumption? ‘Disappearing Ink’ is No Joke

Carl Yee invented a new kind of "Invisible Ink," so he could print paper without the guilt.

An Alternative to Air Conditioning: A Paint-On Polymer That Cools Down Your Building

A new solution, applied like paint, cools down rooftops, buildings, water tanks, vehicles, and even spacecraft.

How Robert Holmes Finds Near-Earth Asteroids from His Home-Built Observatories

Robert Holmes spoke with Tech Briefs about his path from "amateur" astronomer to NASA pro.

A Closer Look at Bats, Hummingbirds Offers New Ideas for Flying Robots

Rivers Ingersoll spoke with Tech Briefs about why it is so important to have an up-close understanding of the hummingbird and nectar bat.

Meet Lindley Johnson, Planetary Defense Officer (and Asteroid Hunter)

NASA's Lindley Johnson explains how the exciting business of asteroid detection does have its moments that are “like any other office job.”

‘Smart’ Squid Material Offers Thermal Conductivity, On Demand

Researchers discovered that an on-and-off kind of thermal regulation is possible if you look to the squid.

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds a New Way to Drill Down

A NASA researcher spoke with Tech Briefs about the importance of the Curiosity rover's latest find on Mars.

Design Tool Brings a ‘Structural’ Approach to Color

A new approach to structural coloration is more freeform than you might expect.

Intelligent Machines: Can You Build a Robot You Can Trust?

For social robots to become commonplace in clinical settings, engineers will need to build both technology improvements as well something slightly more complicated: Trust.

How to Authenticate a 3D-Printed Part: ‘Explode’ and Embed a QR Code

Researcher Nikhil Gupta tells Tech Briefs why "exploding" a QR code inside a 3D-printed part makes counterfeiting practically impossible.

How to Simulate an Avalanche – And All Its Subtle Mechanics

Simulation is a helpful go-to tool for assessing risk, but what if the event being simulated is an avalanche – a complex event with countless parameters and physical variables?

How to Power Robots with Popcorn

Cornell researchers have discovered a novel – and delicious – way to power simple robots: Popcorn.

Functional Fabric Brings Semiconductors Directly to the Fiber

Instead of attaching semiconductors to fabric, an MIT team has found a way to add the technology right into the fiber themselves.