Stories

The Army is refining an initial capabilities document for a new fixed-wing utility aircraft that is designed to replace more than 112 airframes with a common platform. The new platform should be able to perform a range of key mission sets and services.

The search for a “greener” way to prevent corrosion on the kind of aluminum used in jetliners, cars and other products has led scientists to an unlikely source, according to a report in ACS’ journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research. It’s the juice of the...

A pioneering technology capable of atomic-level precision is now being developed to detect what so far has remained imperceptible: gravitational waves or ripples in space-time caused by cataclysmic events including even the Big Bang itself.Goddard physicist Babak Saif, along with...

Eight billion years ago, rays of light from distant galaxies began their long journey to Earth. That ancient starlight has now found its way to a mountaintop in Chile, where the newly constructed Dark Energy Camera, the most powerful sky-mapping machine ever created, has...

3D printing has been used in the health care field to make prosthetic limbs, custom hearing aids, dental fixtures, and other helpful tools for patients. The printing technology is now being used to create more complex structures, even human tissue. Bio-printers, for example, form human tissue using...

Scientists at Harvard University, Texas A&M, and two Italian universities are reporting development of a revolutionary new lens — flat, distortion-free, and so small that more than 1,500 would fit across the width of a human hair — capable in the future of replacing lenses in...

In the operating room, surgeons can see inside the human body in real time using advanced imaging techniques, but primary care physicians, the people who are on the front lines of diagnosing illnesses, haven't commonly had access to the same technology until now. Engineers from...

Using a novel method of integrating video technology and familiar control devices, a research team from Georgia Tech and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is developing a technique to simplify remote control of robotic devices.

NASA's first mobile application and software that models the behavior of earthquake faults to improve earthquake forecasting and the understanding of earthquake processes are co-winners of NASA's 2012 Software of the Year Award. The award recognizes innovative software technologies that...

A new dynamic simulation method provides precise simulation of fluid materials. The technique distinguishes itself significantly from known simulation methods which use mesh structures where the vertices are locked in a fixed position. In the new process, the mesh structure is replaced by a dynamic structure...

MIT chemists designed a new type of pencil lead consisting of carbon nanotubes, which can be drawn onto sheets of paper. The carbon nanotube sensors offer a powerful new way to detect harmful gases in the environment.

As part of the Navy's plan to convert at least 50% of its energy demands to alternative sources by 2020, the branch may cover part of Pearl Harbor with solar panels. The 4000-foot, unused runway in the center of Pearl Harbor's military base is a good location for the solar project and is "critically important to...

A team of researchers brought a pair of scale model space capsules to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to try out a rotor system that could be used in place of parachutes on returning spacecraft.The design would give a capsule the stability and control of a...

Although the term "pyrotechnic delay system" may be met with blank stares, such items are actually more commonplace than most people might realize. In fact, on the Fourth of July, they are an integral component of most commercial fireworks. Pyrotechnic delays serve as "chemical timers." In simple terms, a...

Camouflage face makeup for warfare is undergoing one of the most fundamental changes in thousands of years, as scientists at a recent meeting of the American Chemical Society described a new face paint that both hides soldiers from the enemy and shields their faces from the searing...

The U.S. Army has begun the final phase for manufacturing a microchip-sized prototype that will support efforts to provide highly accurate location and battlefield situational awareness for the dismounted soldier, even in the temporary absence of GPS capability.

University of Illinois researchers have a new low-cost method to carve delicate features onto semiconductor wafers using light – and watch as it happens. The team’s new technique can monitor a semiconductor’s surface as it is etched, in real time, with nanometer resolution. It uses...

The Orlando Sentinel reported last week that NASA's next major mission could be the construction of a "gateway spacecraft" outpost that would send astronauts 277,000 miles from Earth, farther than ever before. The outpost would hover in orbit on the far side of the moon, support a small astronaut crew, and...

Today’s parking assistant systems enable drivers to safely park their cars even in the narrowest of gaps. Such sophisticated parking aids – as well as manufacturing robots – that require millimeter-precision control rely on precise all-around radar distance measurement....

Jackknifing is a major cause of devastation in a traffic accident involving tractor-trailer trucks. Researchers in Greece have now designed a device to prevent this often lethal action. The team’s sliding kingpin device allows the so-called kingpin junction between the front tractor and the...

Kessler Foundation has released preliminary research findings from its clinical study of the wearable robotic exoskeletal device, Ekso, made by Ekso Bionics. Ekso has been undergoing clinical investigation in patients with spinal cord injury at Kessler since October 2011, when the...

Professor Rick Neptune and his mechanical engineering students at the University of Texas at Austin demonstrate in this video how they're paving the way for more customized prosthetics and orthotic devices for injured soldiers.

MIT researchers have built a wearable sensor system that automatically creates a digital map of the environment through which the wearer is moving. The prototype system is envisioned as a tool to help emergency responders coordinate disaster response.In experiments conducted on the MIT...

In today's work environments, robots are often kept isolated from humans due to their massive weight and speed, traits that could possibly endanger humans in their vicinity. Many machines are kept either inside glass cages or behind laser-controlled light curtains. New robots, however, are being built with...

Scientists at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have reached a record precision in radar distance measurements. With the help of a new radar system, an accuracy of one micrometer was achieved in joint measurements. The system is characterized by...