Stories

A team of researchers at MIT and Children’s Hospital Boston has built cardiac patches studded with tiny gold wires that could be used to create pieces of tissue whose cells all beat in time, mimicking the dynamics of natural heart muscle. The development could someday help...

Research scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications are optimizing the technologies that make it possible to watch TV in 3D without technical aids such as 3D glasses. A new four-camera system will even be able to handle live transmissions.

A scanner that combines the convenience of a desktop scanner with the functionality of a powerful laboratory imaging device has been developed at the University of Oxford (UK), and is now being commercialized by a new company, Oxford Multi Spectral (OMS) Limited, which was spun out by...

A team of researchers in Munich, Germany, has developed a new imaging technology using laser light to detect cancer based on molecular signatures, leading to the localization of even small cancer cell nests that surgeons might otherwise overlook during surgery. The technique has been...

This week's Question: The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, reported that a neutrino beam fired from a particle accelerator near Geneva to a lab 454 miles away in Italy traveled 60 nanoseconds faster than the speed of light — a claim that potentially questions Einstein's 1905 special...

The winning design of a NASA student competition to create a new greener aircraft looks a little like a cross between a plane and a Swiss Army knife. More than 20 seniors from the University of Virginia contributed to the winning design and project they called the VERDe Atrema or Virginia...

Officials at the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base are working with Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. to provide the Air Force with a deployable precision approach landing capability to support contingency operations or humanitarian missions across the globe.

Boeing (Everett, WA) has delivered the first 787 Dreamliner to Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA). The 787 Dreamliner is an all-new airplane featuring a host of technologies that benefit both airlines and passengers. It is the first mid-size airplane capable of flying long-range routes, enabling...

Marlow Industries (Dallas, TX) has introduced the EverGen series of thermoelectric-based energy harvesting devices, offering a zero-maintenance power solution for wireless sensor applications. EverGen thermal energy harvesters power wireless sensors without a battery, reducing replacement...

A polymer has been shown to offer 10 times the piezoelectric effect of crystals and ceramics, making it potentially suitable for hundreds of everyday uses, according to researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.Until now, scientists did not believe that non-polar polymers were capable of exhibiting...

Engineers at Harvard have created plasmonic nanotweezers that may make it easier to isolate and study tiny particles such as viruses. The device uses light from a laser to trap nanoscale particles, creates strong forces more efficiently than traditional optical tweezers, and eliminates the overheating...

University of Utah engineers who built wireless networks that see through walls now are aiming the technology at a new goal: noninvasively measuring the breathing of surgery patients, adults with sleep apnea and babies at risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Neal Patwari, senior author of a study of...

Researchers have designed what they believe to be a new type of magnetic cloak, which shields objects from external magnetic fields, while at the same time preventing any magnetic internal fields from leaking outside, making the cloak undetectable.The development of such a device, described as an...

  This week's Question: NASA recently unveiled its new "Space Launch System," which will be designed to carry the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, as well as important cargo, equipment, and science experiments to Earth's orbit and destinations beyond. "Tomorrow's explorers will now dream of one day walking on Mars,"...

To avoid wireless sensor power constraints, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers are harnessing electricity from low-power sources in the environment, such as vibrations from swaying bridges, humming machinery, and rumbling foot traffic. Such natural energy sources could do away with...

Chemists at Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences have built the world's first single molecule electric motor, a development that may potentially create a new class of devices that could be used in applications ranging from medicine to engineering.In research published...

The next generation of robust and reliable temperature sensing equipment may be much more accurate, with the advent of a new form of crystal that can deliver highly accurate temperature readings down to individual milli-kelvins, over a very broad range of temperatures: –120 to +680...

Engineers at Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) in Munchen, Germany developed an electronic sensor chip that can be implanted close to the tumor to determine the oxygen content in a patient’s tissue fluid. The data can be wirelessly transmitted to the patient’s doctor to support the choice of therapy....

Two types of design tests for relays and relay systems that relate to the immunity of this equipment to repetitive electrical transients are specified. Test generator characteristics, test waveforms, selection of equipment terminals on which...

Code created by a start-up company called Narrative Science takes data, including sports statistics, company financial reports, and housing sales, and turns it into readable news articles. Supporters of this type of software note an increasing sophistication in the technology's ability to make...

This week's Question: While companies debate the merits of cloud computing, the U.S. government has been weighing its own options. By gradually shifting to maintenance-free services that are based on the Internet and run by private companies, Vivek Kundra, the White...