INSIDER

Better Batteries for Grid-Scale Energy Storage

Molten sodium batteries have been used for many years to store energy from renewable sources, such as solar panels and wind turbines. However, commercially available molten sodium-sulfur...

Breathing New Life into Fuel Cells

The demand for clean energy has never been higher, and it has created a global race to develop new technologies as alternatives to fossil fuels. Fuel cells are among the promising green energy...

New Type of Wireless Charger Can Charge Multiple Devices Simultaneously

While researchers around the globe are working on free-position wireless charging — which would unchain devices from set charging points — the most common...

More Efficient Electricity Distribution Thanks to New Insulation Material

If we are to transition to a world powered by renewable energy, efficient long-distance transport of electricity is essential, since the supply — renewable...

Inflatable Robotic Hand Gives Amputees Real-Time Tactile Control

Engineers at MIT and Shanghai Jiao Tong University have designed a soft, lightweight, and potentially low-cost neuroprosthetic hand. The prosthetic, designed with a system...

Brain-Inspired Highly Scalable Neuromorphic Hardware

Researchers from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) fabricated brain-inspired highly scalable neuromorphic hardware by co-integrating single transistor neurons...

Using Silicone Wristbands to Measure Air Quality

A study by researchers at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health shows that inexpensive and convenient devices such as silicone wristbands can be used to yield quantitative...

This Touchy-Feely Glove Senses and Maps Tactile Stimuli

When you pick up a balloon, the pressure to keep hold of it is different from what you would exert to grasp a jar. And now engineers at MIT and elsewhere have a way to precisely...

New Manufacturing Technique for Flexible Electronics

Ultrathin, flexible computer circuits have been an engineering goal for years, but technical hurdles have prevented the degree of miniaturization necessary to achieve high performance....

Robotic Finger Senses Buried Items

MIT researchers have designed a sharp-tipped robot finger equipped with tactile sensing to meet the challenge of identifying buried objects. Digger Finger was able to dig through granular media such as...

Simulator Helps Robots Sharpen Their Cutting Skills

USC researchers unveiled a new simulator for robotic cutting that can accurately reproduce the forces acting on a knife as it slices through common food such as fruit and vegetables....

Navigating a Heavy Uphill Climb

A team of scientists has uncovered how heavy, motorized objects climb steep slopes — a newly discovered mechanism that also mimics how rock climbers navigate inclines. The “micro-swimmers” are about...

“Sound Tweezers” Pick Up Objects Without Contact

Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University developed a method that allows non-contact manipulation of small objects using sound waves.

Air-Powered Computer Memory Controls Soft Robots

Engineers at UC Riverside developed an air-powered computer memory that can be used to control soft robots. Existing systems for controlling pneumatic soft robots still use electronic...

Researchers Can Turn a Single Photo into a Video

Sometimes photos cannot truly capture a scene. How much more epic would that vacation photo of Niagara Falls be if the water were moving?

Labsphere and ASU to Collaborate on FLARE Technology Development

Labsphere, Inc. announced plans to locate a Field Line of sight Automated Radiance Exposure (FLARE) testing site at Arizona State University's (ASU) Polytechnic campus as...

Infrared Imaging by Ultrathin Nanocrystal Layers

The demand for detecting infrared (IR) light, invisible to human eyes, is constantly growing, due to a wide variety of applications ranging from food quality control and remote sensing to...

New Products: July 2021 Photonics & Imaging Insider

Autofocus, Waterproof Lenses

Edmund Optics® (EO) (Barrington, NJ) offers the TECHSPEC® LT Series and TECHSPEC® Cw Series fixed focal length lenses. TECHSPEC® LT Series fixed...

Material Motion is “Flexoelectric”

Researchers from the University of Houston have demonstrated “giant flexoelectricity” in soft elastomers that could improve robot movement range and make self-powered pacemakers a real...

New Skin Patch Brings Us Closer to Wearable All-In-One Health Monitor

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a soft, stretchy skin patch that can be worn on the neck to continuously track blood pressure and...

“Agricomb” Measures Multiple Gas Emissions From ... Cows

After the optical frequency comb made its debut as a ruler for light, spinoffs followed, including the “astrocomb” to measure starlight and a radar-like comb system to...

This Advance May Enable 2D Transistors for Tinier Microchip Components

Atomically thin materials are a promising alternative to silicon-based transistors; now researchers can connect them more efficiently to other chip elements.

Ultra-Thin Terahertz Source Paves the the Way to Next Generation of Communication Tech

Physicists from the University of Sussex have developed an extremely thin, large-area semiconductor surface source of terahertz, composed of just a...

Inexpensive Tin Packs a Big Punch for the Future of Supercapacitors

A sustainable, powerful micro-supercapacitor may be on the horizon. Until now, these high-capacity, fast-charging energy storage devices have been limited by the...

Reduced Heat Leakage Improves Wearable Health Device

North Carolina State University engineers continue to improve the efficiency of a flexible device worn on the wrist that harvests heat energy from the human body to monitor health.

Compound Normally Found in Candles Lights the Way to Grid-Scale Energy Storage

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Richland, WA) have shown that low-cost organic compounds hold promise...

Nanoscale Defects Could Boost Energy Storage Materials

A collaboration led by Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) used X-ray nanoimaging to gain an unprecedented view into solid-state electrolytes, revealing previously undetected crystal...

NASA Rover Seeks Moon Resources

As part of the Artemis program, NASA is planning to send its first mobile robot to the Moon in late 2023 in search of ice and other resources on and below the lunar surface. Data from the Volatiles...

Mars Helicopter Begins New Phase

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has a new mission. Having proven that powered, controlled flight is possible on the Red Planet, the Ingenuity experiment will soon embark on a new operations...