INSIDER

INSIDER: Motion Control

Smallest Motor in the World

The smallest motor in the world — consisting of just 16 atoms – measures less than one nanometer or about 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. The rotor rotates on the surface of the...

INSIDER: Energy

Precision Spray Coating Makes Better Perovskite Solar Cells

Although perovskites are a promising alternative to silicon for solar cells, new manufacturing processes are needed to make them practical for commercial production. To help...

INSIDER: Energy

Potassium Metal Battery Emerges as a Rival to Lithium-Ion Technology

Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have demonstrated how to overcome a persistent challenge to potassium metal batteries — dendrites. Their new battery...

INSIDER: Electronics & Computers

Solid State Batteries With Ten Times More Current Density

Solid state batteries are of great interest to the electric vehicle industry. New technology developed by scientists at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden and Xi'an...

INSIDER: Energy

Scavenger Technology Allows Robots to ‘Eat’ Metal for Energy

A new metal-air scavenger works like a battery, in that it provides power by repeatedly breaking and forming a series of chemical bonds. But it also works like a harvester,...

INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control

Mini Rover Pedals Out of Trouble

The next generation of exploration rovers will need to be good at climbing hills covered with loose material and avoiding entrapment on soft granular surfaces. Built with wheeled appendages that can be...

INSIDER: Medical

In Vivo Imaging Links Sensory Experience to Activity

Novel biosensors allow the simultaneous study of both neuronal activity and transcription factor dynamics.

News: Photonics/Optics

Optical Imaging Technology for Treating Tumors

A new tool for medical professionals may help shed light on tumors.

News: Medical

Coronavirus Testing Kits Use RNA Imaging Technology

Simon Fraser University researchers will use their pioneering imaging technology – called Mango, for its bright color – to develop coronavirus testing kits.

News: Medical

New Imaging Method for Alzheimer's Disease

Researchers have tested a new imaging method to understand the brain as an individual develops Alzheimer's disease.

INSIDER: Materials

Layered Solar Cell Technology Boosts Efficiency and Affordability

The future’s getting brighter for solar power. Researchers from CU Boulder have created a low-cost solar cell with one of the highest power-conversion efficiencies to...

INSIDER: Software

Inverse Design Software Automates Design Process for Optical, Nanophotonic Structures

Stanford University researchers created an inverse design codebase called SPINS that can help researchers explore different design methodologies to...

INSIDER: Photonics/Optics

Upconverting Nanolasers from Subwavelength Plasmons

A research team has used the Molecular Foundry, a Department of Energy Office of Science user facility, to create miniature lasers. These lasers are stable and work continuously. What...

INSIDER: Imaging

New Products: May 2020 Photonics & Imaging Insider

Low-Power Sealed Laser

Luxinar (Kingston Upon Hull, UK) has introduced the SR 08s for marking, scribing and kiss cutting applications requiring average rather than peak power. The...

INSIDER: Medical

Student-Developed Emergency Ventilator Treats COVID-19 Patients

ApolloBVM – an open-source emergency ventilator developed by Rice University students – could help COVID-19 patients who are less-critically ill while they await...

INSIDER: Wearables

Stretchy Electronics for Next Generation Smart Devices

A new manufacturing process could produce flexible electronics for things like virtual reality-enabled contact lenses, solar-powered skins that mold to the contours of your car, and...

INSIDER: Physical Sciences

Atomic Chains in Nanotubes Push the Electronics Frontier

Wearable tech and electronic cloth may be the way of the future, but to get there the wiring needs to be strong, flexible, and efficient.

INSIDER: Semiconductors & ICs

New Etching Technique Produces Far Smaller Semiconductors

Microelectronics like semiconductor devices are at the heart of the technologies we use each day. As we move into an era where we are stretching the limits of Moore’s Law, it is...

INSIDER: Electronics & Computers

Ultra-Low Power Chip for IoT Wi-Fi

More portable, fully wireless smart home setups; lower power wearables; batteryless smart devices, could all be made possible with this new ultra-low power Wi-Fi radio. It is housed in a chip smaller...

INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control

Foldable Robots for Future Moon Mission

The newest edition of NASA's small, foldable robots successfully traversed rugged terrain in the Mars Yard at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

INSIDER: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Small, Precise Gyroscope Navigates Without GPS

A small, inexpensive, and highly accurate gyroscope, developed at the University of Michigan, navigates without GPS. The key to making the gyroscope is a nearly symmetrical mechanical...

INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control

Robot Draws Blood and Inserts Catheters

Rutgers University engineers have created a tabletop device that can draw blood or insert catheters to deliver fluids and drugs. The device can accurately pinpoint blood vessels, improving success...

INSIDER: Photonics/Optics

New Technology for Pathogen Detection is Driven by Lasers

Researchers at Purdue University have been working to develop new technologies to help stop the spread of foodborne illnesses, which kill 3,000 people a year, by detecting them...

INSIDER: Materials

Using Light to Put a Twist on Electrons

Some molecules, including most of the ones in living organisms, have shapes that can exist in two different mirror-image versions. The right- and left-handed versions can sometimes have different...

INSIDER: Imaging

New Products: March 2020 Photonics & Imaging Insider

Final Vision Inspection (FVI) System

CyberOptics® Corporation (Minneapolis, MN) has launched the Multi-Reflection Suppression™ (MRS™)-enabled 3D MX3000 Final Vision Inspection...

INSIDER: Photonics/Optics

Simple Retrofit Transforms Electron Microscopes into High-Speed Atom-Scale Cameras

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their collaborators have developed a way to retrofit the transmission...

INSIDER: Energy

Used Nissan LEAF Batteries Given “Second Life”

When electric vehicles end their life, the remaining storage capacity of the lithium battery is expected to be higher than 70%. After this, they can be reused for less demanding...

INSIDER: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Researchers Develop A Roadmap to Use Perovskites for New Solar Cells

Materials called perovskites show strong potential for a new generation of solar cells, but they’ve had trouble gaining traction in a market dominated by...

INSIDER: Energy

Fast-Charging Supercapacitor is an Energy Storage Breakthrough

A new bendable supercapacitor made from graphene, which charges quickly and safely stores a record-high level of energy for use over a long period, has been developed and...