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Ice Detector Warns Drivers of Slippery Roads

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed an automatic slipperiness detection system for cars that helps drivers avoid accidents in slippery road conditions. Thanks to the system, vehicles are warned in advance of a road’s actual slipperiness. If the road becomes slippery, other...

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Automated System Rapidly Produces 3D Zebrafish Images

Engineers at MIT have now built an automated system that can rapidly produce 3-D, micron-resolution images of thousands of zebrafish larvae and precisely analyze their physical traits. The system offers a comprehensive view of how potential drugs affect vertebrates.

News: RF & Microwave Electronics
Wireless Telemetry System Captures Complex Flight of Dragonflies

Wireless Telemetry System Captures Complex Flight of Dragonflies Duke University electrical engineers have developed a wirelessly powered telemetry system that is light and powerful enough to allow scientists to study the intricate neurological activity of dragonflies as they...

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Microscope Captures Motion of DNA Structures

Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have recently developed techniques for visualizing the behavior of biological nanostructures in both space and time, allowing them to directly measure stiffness and map its variation throughout the network.

Knowing the mechanical...

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NASA Robot Digs Lunar Soil

After decades of designing and operating robots full of scientific gear to study other worlds, NASA is working on a prototype that leaves the delicate instruments at home in exchange for a sturdy pair of diggers and the reliability and strength to work all day, every day for years.

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Motion Control Keeps Electric Car’s Four Wheels on the Road

It weighs half as much as a sports car, and turns on a dime—so its no surprise that the electric car being developed at Ohio State University needs an exceptional traction and motion control system to keep it on the road. With four wheels that turn independently, each with its own...

News: Motion Control
Scientists Design and Control Movements of Molecular Motor

An international team of scientists has taken the next step in creating nanoscale machines by designing a multi-component molecular motor that can be moved clockwise and counterclockwise.

Although researchers can rotate or switch individual molecules on and off, the new study is...

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Robot to Serve as Future Military’s ‘Pack Mule’

The warfighter who carries up to 100 pounds of equipment on his back is expected to get relief from the cumbersome weight. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) semiautonomous Legged Squad Support System (LS3) robot will carry 400 pounds of warfighter equipment, walk 20...

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New Electronic Switch Mimics Behavior of Biological Neuron

University of Michigan engineers are developing a new type of electronic switch that mimics the behavior of a biological neuron in the human brain, which is able to perform complex tasks much more efficiently than regular computers. Like brains, these computers would be able to reach...

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System Cleans ‘Produced Water’ from Natural Gas Wells

A process developed by engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology produces clean water at relatively low cost. After further development, the process could also lead to inexpensive, efficient desalination plants for communities in the developing world, the researchers say.

The...

News: Photonics/Optics
Hogberry Inspires Color-Tunable Photonic Fibers

A team of materials scientists at Harvard University and the University of Exeter, UK, has invented a new fiber that changes color when stretched. Inspired by nature, the researchers identified and replicated the unique structural elements that create the bright, iridescent blue color of a tropical...

News: Government
Screening System Detects Wafer Defects

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have developed an instrument that puts pressure on wafers to find which ones are too fragile to make it through the manufacturing process. The device then kicks out weak wafers before they go through their costly...

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Novel Material Dislodges Bacteria from Ship's Surface

Duke University engineers have developed a material that can be applied like paint to the hull of a ship and will literally be able to dislodge bacteria, keeping it from accumulating on the ship’s surface. This buildup on ships increases drag, reduces the energy efficiency of the vessel, as...

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Corps of Engineers Completes Army's Largest Solar Array Installation

The largest solar power system in the U.S. Army is coming online at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The Energy Savings Performance Contract, or ESPC, project, awarded and managed by the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville, provides the sprawling desert base...

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Squirrels and Birds Help Researchers Create Deceptive Robots

Using deceptive behavioral patterns of squirrels and birds, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed robots that are able to deceive each other. The research is funded by the Office of Naval Research and is led by Professor Ronald Arkin, who suggests the...

News: Manned Systems
Lab Testing Seeks To Improve Tactical Vehicle Gunner Protection

The best way to evaluate the effectiveness of a product is to put it in the hands of the user, obtain feedback, and make adjustments accordingly. With a newly developed Virtual Environment Test Bed, or VETB, scientists and engineers at the Target Behavioral Research Laboratory at...

News: Energy

The Department of Energy has announced about $6 million in funding for projects that will develop and demonstrate supply chain technologies to deliver commercial-scale...

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Remodeled 'Chamber A' Tests Webb Telescope

NASA's "Chamber A" thermal vacuum testing chamber has now been upgraded and remodeled to accommodate the testing of the James Webb Space Telescope.

Chamber A, the largest high-vacuum, cryogenic-optical test chamber in the world, was made famous for testing the space capsules for NASA's Apollo...

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Researchers Develop CT-Scan Test Rig for Ceramic Composites

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed the first testing facility that enables CT-scanning of ceramic composites under controlled loads, at ultrahigh temperatures and in real-time.

The scientists...

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Researchers Create Self-Healing, Stretchable Wires Using Liquid Metal

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed elastic, self-healing wires in which both the liquid-metal core and the polymer sheath reconnect at the molecular level after being severed. The team first created tiny tunnels, called microfluidic channels, in a...

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In December, we asked NASA Tech Briefs readers to select the one product from our 12 Products of the Month that they thought was the most significant new introduction to the design engineering...

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Aerial Platform Supports Development of Lightweight Sensors for UAVs

A research team at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is developing an airborne testing capability for sensors, communications devices and other airborne payloads. This aerial test bed, called the GTRI Airborne Unmanned Sensor System (GAUSS), is based on an unmanned...

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NASA Research Planes Will Help Improve Air Quality Knowledge

Residents in California's San Joaquin Valley will see some unusual air traffic over their region that is designed to some day help improve the air all of us breathe. Two NASA research planes will fly between Bakersfield and Fresno - one as close as 1,000 feet to the ground – to...

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Strong, Light, Glass Nanofibers Could Impact Aviation Industry

The University of Southampton (UK) is pioneering research into developing the strongest silica nanofibers in the world. Globally, the quest has been on to find ultra-high-strength composites, leading scientists to investigate light, ultra-high-strength nanowires that are not...

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Spray-Coated Image Sensors Increase Light Sensitivity

Researchers from Technische Universität München (TUM) have developed a new generation of image sensors that are more sensitive to light than the conventional silicon versions.

They consist of electrically conductive plastics, which are sprayed on to the sensor surface in an ultra-thin...

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Sensor System Uses Metamaterial 'Lens' to Image Scenes

Duke University engineers have developed a novel sensor for airport security scanners and collision avoidance systems. The researchers fabricated a unique metamaterial that acts as a “lens” to image scenes using fewer components than conventional detectors. Because of the properties of...

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Nanoscale Coating Repels Liquids

A nanoscale coating repels the broadest range of liquids of any material in its class, causing them to bounce off the treated surface, according to the University of Michigan engineering researchers who developed it. In addition to stain-resistant clothes, the coating could lead to breathable garments to protect...

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Snail Teeth Improve Solar Cells

An assistant professor at the University of California, Riverside’s Bourns College of Engineering is using the teeth of a marine snail found off the coast of California to create less costly and more efficient nanoscale materials to improve solar cells and lithium-ion batteries.

David Kisailus, an assistant...

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Polymer Film Harvests Energy from Water Vapor

MIT engineers have created a new polymer film that can generate electricity by drawing on a ubiquitous source: water vapor. The new material changes its shape after absorbing tiny amounts of evaporated water, allowing it to repeatedly curl up and down. Harnessing this continuous motion could drive...

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