INSIDER

This Year’s ‘Create the Future’ Contest Winner: A Highlight in Carbon-Dioxide Conversion

Developers of a “HI-Light” chemical reactor were awarded top honors in this year’s "Create the Future" Design Contest. The grand-prize-winning...

Gesture Recognition: How to Turn Any Object into a Remote Control

A new gesture-recognition technology from Lancaster University can make a remote control out of your coffee mug — or most everyday objects, for that matter.

From the Earth to the Moon: How Robert Goddard Launched Present-Day Spaceflight

On a snowy day in 1926, a 44-year-old physicist named Robert Goddard went with his wife Esther and some colleagues to his Aunt Effie’s ranch in Auburn,...

Robotic Rubber ‘Skin’ Senses Temperatures. What’s Next?

A rubber “skin” developed at the University of Houston allows a robotic hand to sense the difference between hot and cold temperatures. The semiconductor material supports new...

Origami Techniques Expand Compacted Spacecraft

Origami has once again inspired engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. Besides aesthetic beauty, the Japanese tradition of paper-folding addresses a...

Self-Folding Electronics Could Enable Advanced Robotics

MIT researchers have developed a way to print flat electronics that can fold themselves into a desired shape. The researchers say the development could have applications in robotics...

Webb Telescope Actuators Move with Microscopic Accuracy

The James Webb Space Telescope will be the most powerful space telescope ever built. With a 21-foot diameter, the telescope’s primary mirror is six times larger than the one used...

Thin Photodetector Increases Performance Without Adding Bulk

In today’s increasingly powerful electronics, tiny materials are a must as manufacturers seek to increase performance without adding bulk. Smaller also is better for...

Single-Photon Emitter Holds Promise for Quantum Info-Processing

Los Alamos National Laboratory has produced the first known material capable of single-photon emission at room temperature and at telecommunications wavelengths. These carbon...

Laser Pulses Produce Sharp Images of Organs in Motion

Researchers have developed a photoacoustic imaging technique that uses lasers to create detailed ultrasound images in live animals. The method allows for complete internal body scans...

Introducing the 2017 OEM Photonics & Imaging Directory

Looking for new cameras, lasers, or optics? Our 2017 OEM Photonics & Imaging Directory, featured in the September issue of Tech Briefs, reviews essential vendors.

A Piezoelectric Highway? Engineers Take Another Test Drive

Researchers from Lancaster University are looking to pave the next generation of smart road surfaces — with piezoelectric ceramics. When embedded in road surfaces, the tiles convert...

To Watch the Warehouse, Researchers Turn to Drones

Despite the growing use of wireless radio frequency ID (RFID) tags, lost inventory still costs warehouses billions of dollars every year. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of...

A Balancing Act: How Months in Space Impact Astronauts' Performance

When you arrive back on Earth after a year in space, you’re going to feel it. NASA and Jacob Bloomberg, senior scientist in the Houston, TX- headquartered Johnson Space...

Pen Device Identifies Cancer in Seconds

Engineers at The University of Texas at Austin have invented the MasSpec Pen that rapidly and accurately identifies cancerous tissue during surgery, delivering results in about 10 seconds — more...

Mini Spectrometer Has Big Potential

Researchers have created a miniaturized, portable version of the mass spectrometer, which traditionally has been bulky, limiting its in-field potential. Other smaller spectrometers have been less...

Learning to Crawl: Origami Robot Moves Like an Earthworm

A new mechanical innovation unfolded this month at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a team of engineers built a new kind of crawler robot. The wheel-less design takes...

Researchers Print the Unprintable: Kapton

Kapton, a material used in electronics and aerospace applications, has only been available in sheet form. Researchers from Virginia Tech have found a way to 3D-print a polymer with Kapton's structural...

Nanotube Yarns Generate Electricity When Stretched

Scientists at The University of Texas at Dallas and South Korea’s Hanyang University have developed tiny, high-tech yarns that generate electricity when stretched or twisted. The nanoyarns,...

Harmonic Air Motor Offers Very High Efficiency

Currently available air motors have many advantages over electric motors. They are more compact, lighter-weight, instantly reversible without sparking, create no heat buildup, are undamaged by...

Robotic Gripper Cleans Up Space Debris

Currently there are about 500,000 pieces of human-made debris in space, orbiting our planet at speeds up to 17,500 miles per hour. This debris poses a threat to satellites, space vehicles, and...

Wireless Magnetic Field Powers Folding Robots

A team of researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) at Harvard University has created...

Perspiration Power: Biofuel Cell Reacts to Sweat

Engineers from the University of California – San Diego have developed stretchable fuel cells that extract energy from an often-unpleasant source: sweat. The flexible UCSD-developed devices are...

Turning Homes into Power Stations

A new solar project, called SUNRISE, will develop printed photovoltaic cells and new manufacturing processes that can be used to construct solar energy products in India. These will then be integrated into...

Method to Revolutionize Battery Recharging

University of Sydney researchers have developed a three-stage method to recharge zinc-air batteries. While zinc-air batteries are currently used as an energy source in hearing aids and some film...

Tissue Repair, With a Single Touch

Researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Ohio State’s College of Engineering have developed a new kind of TNT — a "Tissue Nanotransfection" device that generates specific cell...

Secure 3D Printing: 'Three-Layer' System Protects Parts from Hackers

A 3D printer is essentially a small embedded computer — and can be exploited like one. Researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology and Rutgers University have developed...

New Software Spots Eye Contact

Did you see? New software developed at Saarland University turns any camera into an eye-contact detector. Why is it so valuable to identify eye contact? We spoke with the inventor about new kinds of applications...

Sprayable Sensing Network Monitors Structural Health

Sprayed sensors were developed that can be networked to render real-time information on the health status of a structure, detecting hidden flaws. The sprayed nanocomposite sensors and an...