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"Flying 3D eye-bots" can be deployed as additional surveillance resources during major events, or as high-resolution 3D street imaging systems. These unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are a kind of mini-helicopter, with a wingspan of around two meters. They have a propeller on each of their...

Last year, images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured sand dunes and ripples moving across the surface of Mars — observations that challenged previously held beliefs that there was not a lot of movement on the...

A Georgia Tech research team has developed a novel technology that could change how industry designs and casts complex, costly metal parts. This new casting method makes possible faster prototype development times, as well as more efficient and cost-effective manufacturing procedures...

Researchers have shown how to create morphing mechanisms, robotic forms and shape-shifting sculptures from a single sheet of paper in a method reminiscent of origami, the Japanese art of paper folding.The new method, called Kaleidogami, uses computational algorithms and tools to create...

Most computer chips today have anywhere from four to 10 separate cores, which can work in parallel, increasing the chips’ efficiency. But the chips of the future are likely to have hundreds or even thousands of cores. For chip designers, predicting how these massively multicore chips will behave is no...

If a practical quantum computer is ever to be realized, conventional electronic devices will have to interface with the delicate quantum systems such as atoms or ions in traps or wisps of magnetism near superconducting sensors. A recent paper in the journal Physical Review Letters, written by...

University at Buffalo researchers are making significant progress on rust-proofing steel, using a graphene-based composite that could serve as a nontoxic alternative to coatings that contain hexavalent chromium, a probable carcinogen.In the scientists' first experiments, pieces of steel coated with...

In what will be the first of four high-altitude balloon flights to begin in the summer of 2013, technologists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., and Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va., are preparing to test new deceleration devices. The devices could replace...

A team of biomedical engineers and hematologists at the University of Pennsylvania has made large-scale, patient-specific simulations of blood function under the flow conditions found in blood vessels, using robots to run hundreds of tests on human platelets responding to combinations of activating...

A new air defense radar system is undergoing testing on the White Sands Missile Range to prepare it for later integrated testing with the Navy this fall. The Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System (JLENS) is an advanced radar system intended for use by the Army,...

The deafening roar of supersonic aircraft can cause hearing damage to sailors and Marines on flight decks, so the Office of Naval Research (ONR) is funding a new project to help reduce jet noise. According to the ONR, the noise problem falls into two categories: noise exposure on the flight deck, and...

NASA engineers will be tossing crayons and cereal into jet engines in a test of new aircraft engine health monitoring technology designed to provide early warning of engine problems, including the destructive effect of volcanic ash.

A carbon nanotube sponge developed with help from ORNL researchers holds potential as an aid for oil spill cleanup. Simulations at ORNL explained how the addition of boron atoms encouraged the formation of so-called "elbow" junctions that help the nanotubes grow into a 3-D network.The material's...

Today‘s cars are increasingly custom-built. One customer might want electric windows and heated door mirrors, while another is satisfied with the minimum basic equipment. The situation with aircraft is no different: each airline is looking for different interior finishes. Yet the...

What happens when you put a fully equipped five-story building — which includes an intensive care unit, a surgery suite, piping and air conditioning, fire barriers, and even a working elevator — through a series of high-intensity earthquakes?

An air sampler the size of an earplug is expected to cheaply and easily collect atmospheric samples to improve computer climate models. Developed by Sandia National Laboratories, the design employs a commonly used alloy to house an inexpensive microvalve situated above the sample chamber.

A Queen's University researcher has created a Star Trek-like human-scale 3D videoconferencing pod that allows people in different locations to video conference as if they are standing in front of each other. Two people simply stand in front of their own life-size cylindrical pods and talk to...

A doorknob that knows whether to lock or unlock based on how it is grasped, a smartphone that silences itself if the user holds a finger to her lips and a chair that adjusts room lighting based on recognizing if a user is reclining or leaning forward are among the many...

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany have developed new software that can be used to analyze and optimize transport grids for electricity, gas, and water, even at the planning stage, based on numerical simulations. This can lighten the tasks of retrofitting and expansion, save energy...

All over the country, millions of Americans still live behind dams or levees, and if these were to fail and unleash catastrophic flooding, as some did in New Orleans in 2005, property and life might once again pay the price. Answers to at least some of the problem are now on the way,...

The earlier a problem is detected, the easier it can be solved. Before implementing complex programs in a time-consuming process, computer scientists also want to know whether they will reach the desired performance. The PALLADIO simulation tool, developed by Professor Ralf Reussner at the Karlsruhe...

A gas sensor could one day be used to detect chemical weapon vapors or indicators of disease more precisely than current models do. The device also consumes less power, which is crucial for stretching battery life in a mineshaft or an isolated clinic.A pump and compressor collect gas from the first...

Scientists with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley have directed the first self-assembly of nanoparticles into device-ready materials. Through a technique based on blending nanoparticles with block co-polymer...

Radio signals reach pilots on board an aircraft through the “radar dome,“ the rounded nose of the aircraft. But the errors that occur during the production of this nose — tiny foreign particles, drops of water or air bubbles — can impede radio traffic. In the future, a non-destructive...