Stories

Many technical systems work with air or water - air compression systems and water pipes are just two examples. Sensors constantly monitor the pressure of such systems to keep costly fault-related losses to a minimum. At present, these sensors are either battery-driven or connected up by complex technical wiring, making it difficult...

University of Arkansas scientists have developed a neural probe that demonstrates significantly greater electrical charge storage capacity than all other neural prosthetic devices, making it possible to stimulate nerves and tissues with less damage and sense neural signals with better sensitivity. The probe, made of gold...

Engineers at the University of California at Berkeley, are reporting a new way of creating computer chips that could revitalize optical lithography, the dominant patterning technique in integrated circuits manufacturing. The researchers were able to create line patterns only 80 nanometers wide at speeds up to 12 meters...

Researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) have developed a low- cost, high-resolution imaging system that can be attached to a helicopter to create a complete and detailed picture of an area devastated by a hurricane or other natural disaster. The resulting visual information can be used to estimate the number of...

Astronomers at the California Institute of Technology and their colleagues have been able to observe a young star-forming galaxy as it appeared only two billion years after the Big Bang and determine how the galaxy may eventually evolve to become a system like our own Milky Way. The team made their observations by coupling two...

For the first time, seismic signals that precede a volcanic eruption have been simulated and visualized in 3D under controlled pressure conditions in a laboratory. The ability to conduct such simulations will better equip municipal authorities in volcanic hot spots around the world in knowing when to alert people. Nearly 500...

Biochemists Lila Gierasch and Beena Krishnan at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have found a way to slip a fluorescent marker into one of a cell's molecular machines so it lights up when it has formed the proper shape to carry out the cell's "work orders." The new technique should allow labeling of correctly folded...

Register today for NASA Tech Briefs' National Nano Engineering Conference (NNEC), the premier event focused on current and future developments in engineering innovations at the nanoscale. The event returns to Boston this year on November 12-13 at the Boston Colonnade Hotel, featuring the fourth annual Nano 50 Awards,...

Duke University chemists say they have developed a new way to measure temperature changes inside the body with unprecedented precision, by correcting a subtle error in the original theory underlying Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The technique could improve clinical applications of hyperthermia against cancer, and could...

Each month, NTB highlights tech briefs related to a particular area of technology in a special section called Technology Focus. Here are some of the technologies featured in the October issue focus on Sensors.

A terahertz version of the single-pixel camera developed by Rice University researchers could lead to breakthrough technologies in security, telecom, signal processing, and medicine. The researchers replaced expensive, multi-pixel sensor arrays used in current terahertz imaging systems with a single sensor. Two keys to the system are...

Yale University researchers have created a blueprint for artificial cells that are more powerful and efficient than the natural cells they mimic. The energy-generating artificial cells could one day power medical implants and provide a big advantage over battery-operated devices. The scientists began with the question of whether an...

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Colorado School of Mines have developed a prototype sensor that quickly detects very small amounts of hydrogen accumulation in coated pipeline steel. Hydrogen can cause gradual embrittlement in conventional pipelines by slowly diffusing into the metal. The new...

Research conducted by material scientists may lead to the ability to extract water from the Moon and possibly Mars by shooting microwave beams into their surface, according to Bill Kaukler, Associate Research Professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. The Phoenix Mars lander scratched just two inches below...

Purdue University researchers have developed a method of using nanoparticles to help treat injured brain and spinal cord cells. A team led by Richard Borgens of the School of Veterinary Medicine's Center for Paralysis Research and Welden School of Biomedical Engineering coated silica nanoparticles with a polymer to target and...

A light-transmitting compound called (A)ZrPSe 6, where A can be potassium, rubidium, or cesium, has a difficult chemical structure that does not crystallize well. Scientists from the Argonne National Laboratory and Northwestern University were able to determine the structure of the compound using the uniquely...

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a computer program that trains itself to predict genes in the DNA sequences of fungi. Understanding the recently sequenced fungal genomes can help in developing and producing critical pharmaceuticals. Gene prediction can also help to identify potential...

The sixth annual National Nanoengineering Conference returns to Boston this year on November 12-13 at the Boston Colonnade Hotel, featuring the fourth annual Nano 50 Awards, recognizing top 50 technologies, innovators, and products that have significantly impacted the development of nanotechnology. This year's...

Scientists from Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research and the British Columbia Cancer Agency have demonstrated a new instrument that makes it possible to detect and quantify multiple different clinically important proteins in a single tumor sample using conventional staining. Currently, pathologists usually need a separate...

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have transformed cells from human skin into cells that produce insulin, the hormone used to treat diabetes. The breakthrough may one day lead to new treatments for the millions of people affected by the disease, researchers say. The approach...

A Bluetooth system developed at the University of Michigan tells blind or sighted pedestrians about points of interest along their path as they pass them. Called Talking Points, the system is the first known to use Bluetooth, allowing people to operate it entirely with voice commands, and incorporate community-generated...

Scientists at South Dakota State University (SDSU) are working with new materials they say can be used to make devices to convert sunlight to electricity cheaper and more efficiently. Assistant professor Qiquan Qiao in SDSU's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science said so-called organic photovoltaics, or...

Researchers at the University of Michigan, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, and the University of California at San Diego recently demonstrated the fastest quantum computer bit that exploits the main advantage of the qubit over the conventional bit. The scientists used lasers to create an initialized quantum state of this...

Each month, NTB highlights tech briefs related to a particular area of technology in a special section called Technology Focus. Here are some of the technologies featured in the September issue focus on Nano Materials & Manufacturing.

Scientists from Finland, Germany, and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) have developed a new X-ray technique for the early detection of breast cancer. Current X-ray mammography fails to identify about 10 to 20% of palpable breast cancers because glandular tissues can mask cancer lesions. Better results are...

University of Utah engineers devised a new way to slice thin wafers of the chemical element germanium for use in the most efficient type of solar power cells. The new method should lower the cost of such cells by reducing the waste and breakage of the brittle semiconductor. Primarily used on NASA, military, and commercial...

University of Chicago scientists have discovered how to make magnetic sensors capable of operating at the high temperatures required for engines in future cars and aircraft. The key involves slightly diluting samples of a well-known semiconductor material, called indium antimonide, which is valued for its purity. Most...

Gold's ability to catalyze the conversion of toxic carbon monoxide (CO) into more benign carbon dioxide (CO2) at room temperature lay hidden until the 1980s. Since the discovery, scientists have sought to determine exactly how gold nanoparticles function as catalysts. Now researchers from Lehigh University, Cardiff University, and the...

The advantage of using two eyes to see the world around us has long been associated with our capacity to see in 3-D. Now, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute scientist Mark Changizi has uncovered an eye-opening advantage to binocular vision: our ability to see through things. An assistant professor of cognitive science at Rensselaer,...