Stories

University of Washington engineers have created a new wireless communication system that allows devices to interact with each other without relying on batteries or wires for power.

University of Washington engineers have created a new communication technique, called ambient backscatter, that takes advantage of ambient TV and cellular transmissions. Two devices communicate with each other by detecting, harnessing, and reflecting the existing RF signals to...

University of Rochester researchers have measured for the first time light emitted by photoluminescence from a nanodiamond levitating in free space. The researchers used a laser to trap nanodiamonds in space and then, using another laser, caused the diamonds to emit light at given...

Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have designed and tested an all-solid lithium-sulfur battery with approximately four times the energy density of conventional lithium-ion technologies that power today's electronics. The ORNL battery design, which...

Using shock waves similar to those generated by meteorites striking the Earth, researchers at Purdue University have developed new super-strength materials.

For more than a decade, instruments on Terra and Aqua, two of NASA’s flagship Earth-observing satellites, have scanned the surface of our planet for fires. An instrument on both satellites, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), has revolutionized what scientists know about fire’s role...

To understand how solar cells heal themselves, look no further than the nearest tree leaf or the back of your hand.

As medical technology advances, doctors are increasingly being assisted by robots. Tele-operated machinery like the Da Vinci system, for example, helps surgeons perform a variety of surgeries. One of the latest technologies, Veebot, is a robot phlebotomist that uses infrared light, a camera, and...

Lithium ion batteries are at the energetic heart of almost all things tech, from cell phones to tablets to electric vehicles. That’s because they are a proven technology, light, long-lasting and powerful. But they aren’t perfect.

Research conducted with a large new battery could help make the Northwest's and the nation's electric system smarter and more efficient. Portland General Electric's 5-megawatt, lithium-ion energy storage system is part of PGE's contribution to the Battelle-led Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration...

Researchers have demonstrated the reliability and efficiency of "real-time hybrid simulation" for testing a type of powerful damping system that might be installed in buildings and bridges to reduce structural damage and injuries during earthquakes.

Octopods, also known as octopuses or squid, are considered to be the most intelligent invertebrates. While they generally move along the ocean floor with their eight arms, they flee by swimming head-first, in line with the principles of propulsion.

Just as remotely operated vehicles help humans explore the depths of the ocean from above, NASA has begun studying how a similar approach may one day help astronauts explore other worlds. NASA tested the Surface Telerobotics exploration concept, in which an astronaut in an orbiting...

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new technique for creating devices out of a water-based hydrogel material that can be patterned, folded, and used to manipulate objects. The technique holds promise for use in “soft robotics” and biomedical applications.

A new transparent, bio-inspired coating makes ordinary glass tough, self-cleaning, and incredibly slippery. Researchers created the glass honeycomb-like structure with craters, coating it with a Teflon-like chemical that binds to the honeycomb cells to form a stable liquid film. The film repels droplets of both...

University of Minnesota engineers have discovered novel technology for producing "electronic ink." The specialized type of ink is made from non-toxic, nanometer-sized crystals of silicon.

This month, researchers at the Scripps Institute in Florida found that mice injected with a protein called REV-ERB underwent physiological changes usually associated with exercise, including increased metabolic rates and weight loss. The scientists suggested that we are therefore closer than ever before to...

A NASA technologist has developed a fully automated tool that gives mission planners a preliminary set of detailed directions for efficiently steering a spacecraft to hard-to-reach interplanetary destinations, such as Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, and most comets and asteroids.

Angel Perez Garcia, a student at NTNU in Norway, uses the movements of his eyes, eyebrows, and other parts of his face to control a robot. "With my eyebrows, I can select which of the robot's joints I want to move," explains Angel. Facial grimaces generate major electrical activity (EEG signals) across our...

A sensor developed by scientists at SINTEF’s MiNaLab will help to make microphones hypersensitive. With technology of this sort, a microphone will be able to “see” where the sound comes from, pick up the voice of the person speaking, and filter out other sources of noise in the room. The microphone...

Engineers and technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Langley Research Center in Virginia, and Lockheed Martin Space Operations in Denver, CO, prepared unique hardware that was used in a fit check of equipment that will recover Orion upon splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. After...

A small car can't pull a heavy trailer, and sports utility vehicles don't have a compact car's fuel efficiency. A perfect, one-size-fits-all vehicle doesn't exist, and the same goes for unmanned ground vehicles, known as UGVs. Soldiers use UGVs – such as the 40-pound PackBot or...

In June, a radio navigation research team from The University of Texas at Austin successfully coerced an $80 million, 213-foot yacht off its course using a custom-made GPS device.

Military analysts now have a tool that brings together unprecedented modeling and simulation features to help them better choose or build weapons to overpower future threats. Such features allow military researchers to analyze, for example, how a grenade, artillery round or any other...

In the future, Army aircraft may be made of all composite materials, and the Prototype Integration Facility Advanced Composites Laboratory is ready. Part of the Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center's (AMRDEC's) Engineering Directorate, the Prototype Integration...

By figuring out how messed up GPS satellite signals get when bouncing around in a storm, NASA Langley researchers have found a way to do something completely different with GPS: measure and map the wind speeds of hurricanes.

The same 3D printing process used to produce an object can simultaneously generate an internal, invisible tag, say scientists at Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft Research.

NASA engineers at Johnson Space Center have been designing instruments to slightly warp the trajectory of a photon, changing the distance it travels in a certain area, and then observing the change with an interferometer. The team is experimenting with photons to see if warp drive — traveling...