INSIDER

INSIDER: Imaging

High-Speed Infrared Reveals Safer Hypergolic Propellant

When SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule splashed down off the Florida coast in August following its first crewed mission, the two astronauts inside could not exit the capsule...

INSIDER: Test & Measurement

New Fiber Optic Temperature Sensing Approach Could Keep Fusion Power Plants Running

The pursuit of fusion as a safe, carbon-free, always-on energy source has intensified in recent years, with a number of organizations pursuing aggressive...

INSIDER: Photonics/Optics

New Products: March 2021 Photonics & Imaging Insider

IR and UV Optics

Edmund Optics (EO) (Barrington, NJ) has released Zinc Selenide (ZnSe) Wedged Windows, which are ideal for infrared (IR) applications, and TECHSPEC® Calcium...

INSIDER: Imaging

SoloHI Imager Captures Rare Shot of Venus, Earth, Mars, and Uranus

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) and NASA’s Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI) recently recorded an image showing three of the four inner rocky planets. The...

INSIDER: Motion Control

Perseverance Rover Safely Lands on Mars

Perseverance – the largest, most advanced rover NASA has sent to another world – touched down on Mars last week after a 203-day journey traversing 293 million miles. About the size of a car,...

INSIDER: Electronics & Computers

Making Cheaper Biocompatible E-Skin Electrodes

Scientists around the world are working to develop electronic skins that attach to the body and monitor vital signs. These E-skins need to be comfortable, breathable, and flexible for...

INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition

This LED Can Be Integrated Directly Into Computer Chips

Light-emitting diodes — LEDs — are important in many more applications than just illumination. These light sources are useful in microelectronics too. Smartphones, for example,...

INSIDER: Electronics & Computers

New Transistor Design Disguises Key Computer Chip Hardware to Protect Against Hackers

A hacker can reproduce a circuit on a chip by discovering what key transistors are doing in a circuit — but not if the transistor “type” is...

INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Ultra-Thin and Highly Sensitive Strain Sensors

A research team from National University of Singapore (NUS) has taken a first step towards improving the safety and precision of industrial robotic arms by developing a new range of...

INSIDER: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Chemically Driven Wheels “Morph” Into Gears

University of Pittsburgh researchers have utilized a catalytic reaction that causes a two-dimensional, chemically coated sheet to spontaneously “morph” into a three-dimensional...

INSIDER: Motion Control

T-REX Rover Looks to the Dark Side

The Tethered permanently shadowed Region EXplorer (T-REX) rover, designed and built by a team of Michigan Technological University students – is designed to provide reliable power and data to other...

INSIDER: Imaging

New Products: January 2021 Photonics & Imaging Insider

Bandpass Filters

MidOpt® (Palatine, IL) introduced the BP450 Indigo Bandpass and the BN450 Narrow Indigo Bandpass, two new filters designed for multi-application use. The...

INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Large-Area Flexible Organic Photodiodes Can Compete with Silicon Devices

The performance of flexible large-area organic photodiodes has advanced to the point that they can now offer advantages over conventional silicon photodiode...

INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Combining Electronic, Photonic Chips Enables Super-Fast Quantum Light Detection

Researchers from the University of Bristol’s Quantum Engineering Technology Labs (QET Labs) and Université Côte d‘Azur have made a new miniaturized...

INSIDER: Imaging

Orbiting Instrument Hints That Stored Magnetic Energy Heats Solar Atmosphere

A phenomenon first detected in the solar wind may help solve a long-standing mystery about the sun: why the solar atmosphere is millions of degrees hotter than...

INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control

Robots Learn to Drive a Car in a Few Easy Lessons

USC researchers have developed a method that could allow robots to learn complicated new tasks, like setting a table or driving a car, from observing a small number of demonstrations.

INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control

Materials Transform Robots Made of Robots

Scientists from the U.S. Army and MIT created a new way to link materials with unique mechanical properties, opening up the possibility of future military robots made of robots. The method...

INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control

Laser Jolts Microscopic Robots into Motion

A Cornell University team has created microscopic robots that incorporate semiconductor components, allowing them to be controlled – and made to walk – with standard electronic signals. The...

INSIDER: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Miniscule Machines Made of Metal and Plastic

Researchers have developed a technique for manufacturing micrometer-long machines by interlocking multiple materials in a complex way. The micromachines are made out of metal and plastic, in...

INSIDER: Motion Control

Teaching Old Robots New Tricks

With a training technique commonly used to teach dogs to sit and stay, computer scientists showed a robot how to teach itself several new tricks including stacking blocks. With the method, the robot was...

INSIDER: Electronics & Computers

Advanced Solar Panels Extract More Energy from Sunlight

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers working to maximize solar panel efficiency said layering advanced materials atop traditional silicon is a promising path to eke...

INSIDER: Energy

New Technique Extends Next-Generation Lithium Metal Batteries

Electric vehicles (EVs) hold great promise for our energy-efficient, sustainable future but among their limitations is the lack of a long-lasting, high energy density battery...

INSIDER: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Fast Calculation Dials in Better Batteries

A simpler and more efficient way to predict performance will lead to better batteries, according to Rice University engineers. That their method is 100,000 times faster than existing modeling...

INSIDER: Energy

Clean, Limitless Power from Graphene

A team of University of Arkansas physicists has successfully developed a circuit capable of capturing graphene’s thermal motion and converting it into an electrical current.

INSIDER: Manufacturing & Prototyping

How to Make Tomorrow’s Electronics Using Ink-Jet Printed Graphene

Researchers at the University of Nottingham have cracked the conundrum of how to use inks to 3D-print novel electronic devices with useful properties, such as an...

INSIDER: Data Acquisition

NIST Sensor Experts Invent Super-Cold Mini-Thermometer

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have invented a miniature superconducting thermometer with big potential applications, such as monitoring the...

INSIDER: Electronics & Computers

Novel Miniaturized Organic Semiconductor Will Support Flexible Electronic Devices

Field Effect Transistors (FET) are the core building blocks of modern electronics such as integrated circuits, computer CPUs, and display backplanes....

INSIDER: Test & Measurement

Sensors Driven by Machine Learning Sniff-Out Gas Leaks Fast

A new study has confirmed the success of a natural-gas leak-detection tool pioneered by Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists, which uses sensors and machine learning to...

INSIDER: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Printing Paper Structures for Mechatronics

Natural motion in plants occurs because of cellulose fibers absorbing and releasing water. Scientists developed a simple method to produce self-folding origami structures based on this concept....