Twelve finalists have been picked to invent the heir to Angus MacGyver — the 1980s television hero who inspired a generation of engineers by foiling criminals with household items like cooking oil, a shop vac or a tube sock. Only this time the engineering heroine will be a woman.
A research team out of Michigan Tech has found a way to solve one of the biggest challenges of making metamaterials. Their optical work is a big step towards creating a "perfect lens".
A research team funded by the National Institutes of Health has generated a novel system for growing cardiac tissue from undifferentiated stem cells on a culture plate. This heart on a chip is a miniature physiologic system that could be used to model early heart development and screen drugs prescribed during pregnancy. Researchers from the University of California (UC) Berkeley; the Gladstone Institutes, in San Francisco; and UC San Francisco, reported their work in the July 14, 2015, online issue of Nature Communications.
ORNL study demonstrates economic value of variable flow heat pumps; New catalyst provides potential solution to meet emissions challenges; ORNL, UK researchers working to develop cleaner crude oil; New climate data easily accessed at Data.gov
A team of scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has found that blue light emitting diodes (LEDs) have strong antibacterial effect on major foodborne pathogens, and are most effective when in cold temperatures (between 4°C and 15°C) and mildly acidic conditions of around pH 4.5. This opens up novel possibilities of using blue LEDs as a chemical-free food preservation method.
North Carolina State University researchers have developed an effective and environmentally benign method to combat bacteria by engineering nanoscale particles that add the antimicrobial potency of silver to a core of lignin, a ubiquitous substance found in all plant cells. The findings introduce ideas for better, greener and safer nanotechnology and could lead to enhanced efficiency of antimicrobial products used in agriculture and personal care.
A new material design tested in experiments at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory could make low-cost solar panels far more efficient by greatly enhancing their ability to collect the sun’s energy and release it as electricity.
Future distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) deployment levels are highly sensitive to retail electricity rate design, according to a newly released report by researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). The study also explores the feedback effects between retail electricity rates and PV deployment, and suggests that increased solar deployment can lead to changes in PV compensation levels that either accelerate or dampen further deployment.
Hybrid rocket fuel research by a University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) mechanical engineering doctoral student could hasten the day when a simpler, safer hybrid engine propels space missions.
When electrons move in a phosphorus transistor, they do so only in two dimensions, according to a study published in Nature Communications . The finding suggests that black phosphorus could help engineers surmount one of the big challenges for future electronics: designing energy-efficient transistors.
Imagine a fleet of driverless taxis roaming your city, ready to pick you up and take you to your destination at a moment’s notice. While this may seem fantastical, it may be only a matter of time before it becomes reality. And according to a new study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, such a system would both be cost-effective and greatly reduce per-mile emissions of greenhouse gases.
A new type of sensor, that is much faster than competing technologies used to detect and identify hidden objects, has been developed by scientists at the University of Warwick.
Engineers and imagers from the University of Warwick’s Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) and anatomists from Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick are helping Art historians from the University of Cambridge have been working together to try to understand how the two mysterious Renaissance bronzes were made and why they look the way they do by making accurate replicas of the originals. The latest technology-neutron imaging, XRF analysis, 360 degree laser scanning, 3D printing, and real-time x-ray videography - has been involved in this Renaissance ‘whodunnit’.
Other topics include memories and protein, physics and gas mileage, agriculture and food safety, vaccine for Dengue, retinoblastoma proteins in cancer progression, and more.
The next big thing in wearable technology may show up right inside your mouth.
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory advanced ngle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) to help study the electronic properties of new materials.
Researchers at the University of Georgia College of Engineering are helping NASA determine if a key rocket component can withstand the rigors of the next generation of space flight. The parts in question—bellows expansion joints—serve several functions in rocket propulsion system.
A group of University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers and a collaborator from China have developed a nanogenerator that harvests energy from a car's rolling tire friction.
University of Chicago researchers have made a crucial step toward nuclear spintronic technologies. They have gotten nuclear spins to line themselves up in a consistent, controllable way, and they have done it using a high-performance material that is practical, convenient, and inexpensive.
Fujitsu has developed a new smartphone with iris recognition and a Clarkson University professor says the technology is giving people more options to protect their electronic devices and should be available in the United States in the near future.
Other topics include: breast cancer, blood thinners and surgery, cognitive impairment, and new ultra-dark galaxies discovered.
A high-strength steel being developed at Missouri University of Science and Technology could help auto manufacturers in their quest to meet future fuel efficiency requirements.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina and NC State have created the first “smart insulin patch” that can detect increases in blood sugar levels and secrete doses of insulin into the bloodstream whenever needed.
Researchers at Binghamton University are focusing on printed electronics: using inkjet technology to print electronic nanomaterials onto flexible substrates. When compared to traditional methods used in microelectronics fabrication, the new technology conserves material and is more environmentally friendly.
Cavitation bubbles can kill fish and damage boat propellers. Virginia Tech researcher say learning more about them could harness that power for industrial uses, like safer cleaning processes.
Jaeyoun (Jay) Kim and his research group have developed microrobotic tentacles that can be the hands and fingers of small robots designed to safely handle delicate objects. The engineers describe their micro-tentacles in the journal Scientific Reports.
Topics include: treating advanced skin cancer, big data and bioenergy, cancer research, 10 reasons to eat quinoa, sleep issues in the nursing field, advances in cancer surgery, genes for sleep, brain receptor for cocaine addiction, and nano imaging on insect adaptations.
A new study shows that the tiny hairs of Saharan silver ants possess crucial adaptive features that allow the ants to regulate their body temperatures and survive the scorching hot conditions of their desert habitat. To study how the hairs allow the creatures to control heat in this manner, the Columbia Engineering research team turned to the resources and expertise available at Brookhaven Lab’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN).
Topics include: A bioengineered patch to improve stem cell therapy for heart patients, Antacid meds raise risk of C. Diff. bacteria infection in kids, nutrition, new treatments for aggressive breast cancer, lab tests, genetic risks.
You can whack it with a hammer, attack it with a drill, or even stab it with a screwdriver. But try as you might, you won’t be able to get into this pill dispenser. Which is exactly the idea.
Researchers have discovered two strategies that enable Saharan silver ants to stay cool in one of the world’s hottest environments. They are the first to demonstrate that the ants use a coat of uniquely shaped hairs to control electromagnetic waves over an extremely broad range from the solar spectrum to the thermal radiation spectrum and that different physical mechanisms are used in different spectral bands to realize the same biological function of reducing body temperature.
Despite the intense activity and high hopes that surround the use of stem cells to reverse heart disease, scientists still face multiple roadblocks before the treatment will be ready for clinical prime time. Researchers are now finding ways to maximize the healing potential of stem cells by helping them overcome the inhospitable conditions of a damaged heart – bringing the promise of stem cell therapy for heart disease one step closer to reality.
Routine communications blackouts, between a re-entry spacecraft and ground control, can cause anxiety, as there is no way to know or control the location and state of the spacecraft from the ground, but researchers at the Harbin Institute of Technology in China have proposed a new way to maintain communication with spacecraft as they re-enter the atmosphere. The approach might also be applied to other hypersonic vehicles such as futuristic military planes and ballistic missiles.
A research team has realized one of the long-standing theoretical predictions in nonlinear optical metamaterials: creation of a nonlinear material that has opposite refractive indices at the fundamental and harmonic frequencies of light.
The technology can increase the lifetime and controllability of miniature satellites.
Led by James Hone’s group at Columbia Engineering, a team of scientists from Columbia, SNU, and KRISS demonstrated—for the first time—an on-chip visible light source using graphene, an atomically thin and perfectly crystalline form of carbon, as a filament. They attached small strips of graphene to metal electrodes, suspended the strips above the substrate, and passed a current through the filaments to cause them to heat up. (Nature Nanotechnology AOP June 15)
Graduate students invent a headband-shaped device to deliver noninvasive brain stimulation that tamps down the symptoms of Parkinson's disease.
The way insects see and track their prey is being applied to a new robot under development at the University of Adelaide, in the hopes of improving robot visual systems.
Origami, the Japanese art of paper folding, can be used to create beautiful birds, frogs and other small sculptures. Now a Binghamton University engineer says the technique can be applied to building batteries, too.
A space-based system that relies on lasers to generate and deliver energy to spacecraft has won a University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) professor a U.S. patent and could become a first-line defense against asteroids on a collision course with Earth.
Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center report progress in their goal to make use of the more than 2,600 kidneys that are donated each year, but must be discarded due to abnormalities and other factors. The scientists aim to “recycle” these organs to engineer tailor-made replacement kidneys for patients.
Discovered in the 1970s, SERS is a sensing technique prized for its ability to identify chemical and biological molecules in a wide range of fields. It has been commercialized, but not widely, because the materials required to perform the sensing are consumed upon use, relatively expensive and complicated to fabricate. That may soon change. An international research team led by University at Buffalo engineers has developed nanotechnology that promises to make SERS simpler and more affordable. Described in a research paper published today in the journal Advanced Materials Interfaces, the photonics advancement aims to improve our ability to detect trace amounts of molecules in diseases, chemical warfare agents, fraudulent paintings, environmental contaminants and more.
In Science Advances, University at Buffalo researchers will report that they have managed to turn E. coli into tiny factories for producing new forms of the popular antibiotic erythromycin — including three that were shown in the lab to kill drug-resistant bacteria.
As drought continues, and demand grows, researchers like Alex Mayer from Michigan Technological University are looking to new models to improve the Rio Grande region's drought resiliency.
In Monster Proof, a new browser-based puzzle game from voidALPHA, players assume the role of a newly crowned ruler of a vast country in a fantasy setting. To win, they use problem-solving skills to answer illustrated mathematical questions. As each level is solved, the game crowd sources the software security process of formal verification.
The increasing inequality in income and wealth in recent years, together with excessive pay packages of CEOs in the U.S. and abroad, is of growing concern.. Columbia Engineering Professor Venkat Venkatasubramanian has led a study that examines income inequality through a new approach: he proposes that the fairest inequality of income is a lognormal distribution (a method of characterizing data patterns in probability and statistics) under ideal conditions, and that an ideal free market can “discover” this in practice.
Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: genetics, cancer, nanotech, elderly care, marketing research, energy, children's health, and immunology.
Ask mechanical and aerospace engineering students at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) and you’ll find plenty who can quote from at least part of something known as Blackmon’s Rules, a list of best practices for encouraging innovation.
Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: genetics and cancer, diabetes and blindness, nanotech, engineering, personalized medicine, energy, and e-cigarettes.
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have just taken a big step toward the goal of engineering dynamic nanomaterials whose structure and associated properties can be switched on demand. In a paper appearing in Nature Materials, they describe a way to selectively rearrange the nanoparticles in three-dimensional arrays to produce different configurations, or phases, from the same nano-components.
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