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Many older adults want to remain active and independent for as long as possible. University of Missouri researchers are using sensors, computers, communication systems, and supportive health care services to monitor the health of older adults who are living at home. The motion sensor networks can detect changes in behavior and...

Cornell University graduate student George Lewis is trying to shrink ultrasound devices to make them practical for any hospital or medical research lab. Lewis has developed a palm-sized, battery-powered ultrasound device powerful enough to stabilize a gunshot wound or deliver drugs to brain cancer patients. Current...

A Princeton-led team of researchers has discovered a new mechanism to make common electronic materials emit laser beams. The finding could lead to lasers that operate more efficiently and at higher temperatures than existing devices, and lead to applications in environmental monitoring and medical diagnostics. The laser in...

A carbon nanotube-coated smart yarn that conducts electricity could be woven into soft fabrics that detect blood and monitor health, engineers at the University of Michigan have demonstrated. Currently, smart textiles are made primarily of metallic or optical fibers, which are fragile and uncomfortable; metal fibers also...

#5: Researchers at Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in Germany are working on a thermoelectric generator that converts the heat from car exhaust fumes into electricity. The thermoelectric module feeds the energy into the car's electronic systems, reducing fuel consumption and carbon dioxide from vehicles. Click here. #4: A...

Each month, the editors of NASA Tech Briefs choose a Product of the Month - a new product with exceptional technical merit and practical value for the engineering community. Now is your chance to vote for the one product among those 12 Products of the Month that you feel was the most significant new product in...

A Stanford University-led research team has developed a prototype blood scanner that can find cancer markers in the bloodstream in early stages of the disease, potentially allowing for earlier treatment and dramatically improved chances of survival. Based on MagArray biodetection chips, the device uses magnetic nanotechnology to...

As the year comes to a close, we highlight the ten INSIDER stories that have generated the highest number of click-throughs. These are the ten stories in which INSIDERs were most interested in 2008. Today's INSIDER highlights numbers 10 through 6. Thursday's INSIDER will highlight the top five stories of 2008. #10...

Physicists, engineers, and technicians from the University of Delaware's Bartol Research Institute are part of an international team working to build the world's largest neutrino telescope in the Antarctic ice. Neutrinos have no electrical charge and can travel millions of miles through space. Dubbed "IceCube," the telescope will...

The Pete Conrad "Spirit of Innovation" Awards combine education, innovation, and entrepreneurship by challenging high school students to design products using science and technology. The competition is named after the late Pete Conrad, commander of Apollo 12 and the third man to walk on the Moon. After retiring from...

Researchers at MIT's Alcator C-Mod fusion reactor are trying to make the promise of fusion as a future power source closer to reality. Physicist Yijun Lin and principal research scientist John Rice are demonstrating a method to use radio frequency waves to circulate hot plasma inside the reactor chamber, thus controlling heat loss...

In March 2008, astronaut Garrett Reisman flew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station, where he spent 95 days living and working in space before returning to Earth in June aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. Reisman originally applied to become an astronaut when in grad school at CalTech, but did...

A method to produce synthetic bone, using techniques to make vehicle catalytic converters, is being developed by researchers at the University of Warwick. The technique involves a state-of-the-art extrusion of the implant material through a mold, to produce a three-dimensional honeycomb texture with uniform pores. The material can then...

Parents buy millions of baby monitors each year in the U.S., but most transmit only sounds or video images of the baby - both useful, but only if a parent is listening or watching. University of Florida engineering researchers have built a prototype baby monitor that focuses on a baby's breathing. If the baby's chest stops moving, the...

Researchers at the University of Portsmouth's Sports Science and Mathematics departments and the U.S. Coast Guard are developing a computer model to predict how long someone will survive when lost at sea, which will in turn determine when to stop a search-and-rescue operation. Called the Search and Rescue Survival Model, the...

A University of Michigan engineer has made a machine that works like a fish to turn potentially destructive vibrations in fluid flows into clean, renewable power. Called VIVACE for Vortex Induced Vibrations for Aquatic Clean Energy, the hydrokinetic energy system relies on vortex-induced vibrations, undulations that a...

Scientists at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois at Urbana Campaign have developed a method to fabricate stretchable electronics that enables the user to subject circuits to extreme twisting. This technology promises flexible sensors, transmitters, photovoltaic and microfluidic devices, and other...

Five years ago, Virginia Tech burst onto the high-performance computing scene using Apple Power Mac G5 computers to build System X, one of the fastest supercomputers of its time. Recently, Kirk Cameron and Srinidhi Varadarajan, two professors of computer science in Virginia Tech's College of Engineering, architected a new...

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are decoding the mysterious mechanisms behind high-temperature superconductors that industry hopes will be used in next-generation systems for storing, distributing, and using electricity. At temperatures approaching absolute zero, many materials...

Analysis and simulation software continues evolving to keep up with a changing market. Virtual prototyping is enabling designers to simulate a design on the computer instead of building a physical prototype, and examine why a product will fail or succeed when physical testing is unable to explain the results. In...

Engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., used software called Disruption-Tolerant Networking, or DTN, to transmit dozens of space images to and from a NASA science spacecraft located more than 32 million kilometers (20 million miles) from Earth. The successful experiment could pave the way for an...

The blood-thinning drug heparin is highly effective when used to prevent and treat blood clots in veins, arteries, and lungs, but contaminated heparin products recently caused serious allergic reactions that led to many deaths. Now, University of Michigan researchers have demonstrated a simple, inexpensive method for...

Researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston are developing an imaging system that will essentially light up and color cancerous tumors, enabling surgeons to evaluate whether they've resected an entire diseased area. The system, called fluorescence- assisted resection and exploration - or FLARE - is...

A National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) study is tackling the issue of spatial disorientation, which is responsible for up to 10 percent of general aviation accidents in the United States and is a major concern for astronaut pilots. The project involves specially designed software that monitors the...

Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed a strong, flexible bio-material that may be used someday to close wounds with minimal scarring and rejection by the immune system. Spun from a common blood protein, the material could be used to make the thin threads needed for wound sutures, larger...

A team of scientists studying the human brain at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Chieti, Italy, report that a simple decision-making task does not involve the frontal lobes, where many of the higher aspects of human cognition, including self-awareness, are thought to originate. Instead, they...

Researchers have developed a new type of small-scale electric power generator able to produce alternating current through the cyclical stretching and releasing of zinc oxide wires encapsulated in a flexible plastic substrate with two ends bonded. When the modules are mechanically stretched and then released, because of the...

Scientists at Stanford University and Japan's National Institute of Informatics have created a new highly sensitive infrared spectrometer. The device converts light from the infrared part of the spectrum to the visible part, where the availability of superior optical detectors results in strongly improved sensing capabilities....

Clemson physics professor Apparao Rao and his team are developing nano-scale cantilevers that have the potential to read and alert us to toxic chemicals or gases in the air. Putting them into small handheld devices could lead to real-time chemical alerts in battle, industry, health care, and even at home. In addition to simultaneously...