Stories

NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft officially is the first human-made object to venture into interstellar space. The 36-year-old probe is about 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) from the sun.

Apple Inc. added a fingerprint scanner to its latest version of the iPhone, offering biometric security possibilities for workplaces or mobile commerce. Some analysts say that Apple's embrace of fingerprint scanning could lead to wider adoption and mainstream usage. Many laptops, external...

One of the concerns about commercial aircraft is their stability on the ground during taxiing, takeoff, and landing. During these processes, planes must maintain stability under various operating conditions. However, in some situations, the aircraft landing gear displays unwanted...

Under the sponsorship of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation R&D, Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National have partnered to develop a 3D model of the Earth’s mantle and crust called SALSA3D, or Sandia-Los...

Mechanical engineers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) invented a robot designed to scoot along utility lines, searching for damage and other problems that require repairs. Made of off-the-shelf electronics and plastic parts printed on an inexpensive 3D printer, the SkySweeper...

Electric mobility may be economically efficient today. Battery-based electric drives can be applied efficiently in urban buses, for instance. Frequent acceleration and slow-down processes as well as a high utilization rate in short-distance traffic make their use profitable even...

Purdue researchers are working with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory to develop a technology for creating parts out of interlocking segments.

A team of researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University has found a way to self-assemble complex structures out of bricks smaller than a grain of salt. The self-assembly method could help solve one of the major challenges in tissue engineering:...

To better predict severe weather, a device developed at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) has become a valuable tool in researchers' quest to determine how lightning is spawned in clouds.

"CubeSats,” and other small satellites, are making space exploration cheaper and more accessible: The minuscule probes can be launched into orbit at a fraction of the weight and cost of traditional satellites.

Bluetooth HD earmuffs, made by activewear company 180s, will debut this fall. The Bluetooth product, which warms your ears while also hiding speakers and a microphone, is another example of wearable computing — a technology area that includes trendy devices like smartwatches and Google Glass. Many...

An enemy convoy transporting a supply of fuel rumbles across the desert floor, an ideal target for armor-piercing incendiary projectiles. These projectiles are most useful for "after-armor effects," such as an incandescent flash immediately after penetrating a hard target. The resulting plume...

As the U.S. mission in Afghanistan changes and forces conduct more dispersed operations, new tactical communications equipment for vehicles at the company level will help extend the network over vast distances to keep soldiers connected and commanders informed.

When U.S pilots encounter enemy air defenses, onboard electronic warfare (EW) systems protect them by interfering with incoming radar signals – a technique known as electronic attack (EA) or jamming. Conversely, electronic protection (EP) technology prevents hostile forces from using EA...

A fog-harvesting system developed by MIT and Chilean researchers could provide potable water for the world’s driest regions.

University of Washington researchers have performed what they believe is the first noninvasive human-to-human brain interface, with researcher Rajesh Rao able to send a brain signal via the Internet to control the hand motions of fellow researcher Andrea Stocco.

Researchers at the Netherlands' Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) have designed, built, and tested what they say is the world's smallest autopilot for small unmanned aircraft.

NASA has released this conceptual animation depicting the agency's planned mission to find, capture, redirect, and study a near-Earth asteroid.

Astronomers at the University of Arizona, the Arcetri Observatory near Florence, Italy, and the Carnegie Observatory have developed a new type of camera that allows scientists to take sharper images of the night sky than ever before, and in visible light. Using a telescope mirror that vibrates a...

The London borough of Brent is using a virtual receptionist, or hologram, to greet visitors in its new civic center. The hologram responds to questions about locations in the building, such as where to register births or where to head to apply for a marriage certificate. The virtual employee will be...

MIT researchers have developed a lightweight structure whose tiny blocks can be snapped together much like the bricks of a child’s construction toy. The new material, the researchers say, could revolutionize the assembly of airplanes, spacecraft, and even larger structures,...

Iowa State University’s Hui Hu and Blake Johnsonare developing new technologies to accurately test and improve engine cooling strategies. Their current focus is to improve the turbine blades spun by the engine’s exhaust. Those blades at the back of the engine drive front blades that force...

A team of Army researchers developed a new gel-propellant engine called the vortex engine. Michael Nusca Ph.D., a researcher in Army Research Laboratory’s Propulsion Science Branch at Aberdeen Proving Ground, explained the new technology.

Young stars are violent objects — ejecting material at speeds as high as one million kilometers per hour. When this material crashes into the surrounding gas it glows, creating what is called a Herbig-Haro object.

MIT researchers have engineered a new rechargeable flow battery that does not rely on expensive membranes to generate and store electricity. The device, they say, may one day enable cheaper, large-scale energy storage.

Physicists at ETH Zurich have for the first time successfully teleported information in a solid state system. The researchers used a device similar to a conventional computer chip.