A small, secretive creature with unlikely qualifications for defying gravity may hold the answer to an entirely new way of getting off the ground. Analysis of high-speed film reveals how salamanders—or at least several species of the Plethodontidae family—achieve vertical lift.
A Kansas State University engineer has made a breakthrough in rechargeable battery applications.
Salaries for engineers rose in 2013 amid the growing global demand for technology services across industry sectors, according to a survey.
PNNL scientists at the Joint Global Change Research Institute, a partnership with the University of Maryland in College Park, Md., have created a unique model that projects how much energy can be saved with changes to China's building energy codes.
Nearly 30 years after the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity, many questions remain, but an Oak Ridge National Laboratory team is providing insight that could lead to better superconductors.
Researchers have produced an advanced web-based tool that lets physically separated participants collaborate on model-based systems engineering projects. The program utilizes open-source software components to allow users to visualize a system's potential expense alongside its performance, reliability and other factors.
University of Utah bioengineers showed that tiny blood vessels grow better in the laboratory if the tissue surrounding them is less dense. Then the researchers created a computer simulation to predict such growth accurately – an early step toward treatments to provide blood supply to tissues damaged by diabetes and heart attacks and to skin grafts and implanted ligaments and tendons.
A Virginia Tech research team has developed a battery that runs on sugar and has an unmatched energy density, a development that could replace conventional batteries with ones that are cheaper, refillable, and biodegradable.
From the sleek hulls of racing yachts to Michael Phelps’ shaved legs, most objects that move through the water quickly are smooth. But researchers from UCLA have found that bumpiness can sometimes be better. They modeled the fluid flow between two surfaces covered with tiny ridges and found that even in turbulent conditions the rough surface reduced the drag created by the friction of flowing water. The researchers report their findings in Physics of Fluids.
Sandia National Laboratories conducts a rocket-driven impact test of B61 nonnuclear components.
Using arm sensors that can “read” a person’s muscle movements, Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have created a control system that makes robots more intelligent. The sensors send information to the robot, allowing it to anticipate a human’s movements and correct its own. The system is intended to improve time, safety and efficiency in manufacturing plants.
Electric cars could travel farther on a single charge and more renewable energy could be saved for a rainy day if lithium-sulfur batteries can last longer. PNNL has developed a novel anode that could quadruple the lifespan of these promising batteries.
Lithium-ion batteries, such as those used in electric vehicles, are in high demand, with a global market value expected to reach $33.1 billion in 2019. But their high price and short life need to be addressed before they can be used in more consumer, energy and medical products. Venkat Subramanian, PhD, associate professor of energy, environmental & chemical engineering, and his team are working to solve this problem buy developing optimal charging profiles for the batteries.
Kansas State University architects, designers and engineers are developing ideas from concept to prototype using some of the latest 3-D printers.
A team of scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has successfully developed a method to chemically exfoliate molybdenum disulfide crystals into high quality monolayer flakes, with higher yield and larger flake size than current methods.
Researchers have developed a way to microscopically view battery electrodes while they are bathed in wet electrolytes, mimicking realistic conditions inside actual batteries.
Researcher is using the first ever high-altitude sampling device designed to collect microorganisms from the upper atmosphere, to examine the massive dust clouds that roll into Florida from Africa each year. He's looking to see if the latest plant, animal or human health threats will come from the sky.
A special interdisciplinary issue of the journal Climatic Change includes the most detailed description yet of the proposed Oxford Principles to govern geoengineering research, and surveys the technical hurdles, ethics and regulatory issues related to deliberately manipulating the planet's climate.
If scientists can control cellular functions such as movement and development, they can cripple cells and pathogens that are causing disease in the body.
In a study published in the journal Chemical Communications, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook University, and Syracuse University show that shrinking the core of a quantum dot can enhance the ability of a surrounding polymer to extract electric charges generated in the dot by the absorption of light.
A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has successfully developed an innovative one-step method to grow and transfer high-quality graphene on silicon and other stiff substrates, opening up opportunities for graphene to be used in high-value applications that are currently not technologically feasible.
Penn State researchers have proved the feasibility of a new type of transistor that could make possible fast and low-power computing devices for energy constrained applications.
Chenyang Lu, PhD, has received a three-year, $304,000 grant from the Office of Naval Research to extend RT-Xen into a new real-time virtualization platform for embedded systems and real-time cloud computing services.
Mark Anastasio, PhD, has received a grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a new imaging system that will help biomedical engineers see what happens when engineered tissue is implanted in the body.
In a first-of-its-kind activity for an interplanetary spacecraft, thousands of amateur (ham) radio operators around the world were able to say “Hi” to NASA’s Juno spacecraft Oct. 9 as it swung past Earth on its way to Jupiter.
What’s the best place to conduct a conversation about a confidential or even classified matter? Surprisingly, probably not a conference room designed in accordance with acoustical criteria approved by the Department of Defense. While such “secret” rooms might meet DOD standards, they offer less protection against snooping than is found in a luxury condo. So says Marlund Hale of Advanced Engineering Acoustics in Simi Valley, California, who evaluated the acoustic performance of several classified spaces.
When attached to the wheels or the tracks of rail transit systems, vibration absorbers may reduce the noise from trains, bringing more peace and quiet to passengers and those who work or live near the tracks. In tests of two major metropolitan public rail systems, researchers say that vibration absorbers have a modest effect if any on wheel or rail rolling noise, but they may be effective in reducing wheel squeal.
Until now, 3D printing has been a polymer affair, with most people in the maker community using the machines to make all manner of plastic consumer goods, from tent stakes to chess sets. A new low-cost 3D printer developed by Joshua Pearce and his team could add hammers to that list.
A new algorithm designed at the University of Toronto has the power to profoundly change the way we find photos among the billions on social media sites such as Facebook and Flickr. This month, the United States Patent and Trademark Office will issue a patent on this technology. Developed by Parham Aarabi, a professor in The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, and his former Master’s student Ron Appel, the search tool uses tag locations to quantify relationships between individuals, even those not tagged in any given photo.
Our sense of smell is often the first response to environmental stimuli. Odors trigger neurons in the brain that alert us to take action. However, there is often more than one odor in the environment, such as in coffee shops or grocery stores. How does our brain process multiple odors received simultaneously? Barani Raman, PhD, of the Washington University in St. Louis School of Engineering & Applied Science is using locusts to help find the answer.
By working with a model spacesuit, a group of Kansas State University engineering professors and students are exploring how wearable medical sensors can be used in future space missions to keep astronauts healthy.
Up, up in the sky: It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a . . . jellyfish? That's what researchers have built -- a small vehicle whose flying motion resembles the movements of those boneless, pulsating, water-dwelling creatures. The work, which will be presented at the APS’s DFD meeting on November 24, demonstrates a new method of flight that could transport miniaturized future robots for surveillance, search-and-rescue, and monitoring of the atmosphere and traffic.
Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have developed a method for greatly enhancing biofuel production in tiny marine algae.
Iowa State engineers are working to protect computer networks and data by using unique keyboard, computer mouse and mobile device "fingerprints." The research is supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense.
A team of Columbia Engineering researchers, led by Mechanical Engineering Professor James Hone and Electrical Engineering Professor Kenneth Shepard, has taken advantage of graphene’s special properties—its mechanical strength and electrical conduction—and created a nano-mechanical system that can create FM signals, in effect the world’s smallest FM radio transmitter. The study is published online on November 17, in Nature Nanotechnology.
At the APS’s Division of Fluid Dynamics meeting, Nov. 24 – 26, Flavio Noca, who has explored leveraging penguins’ “rocket” properties to create new propulsion technologies with high maneuverability and improved hydrodynamic efficiency, will present a penguin-inspired propulsion system that uses a novel spherical joint mechanism developed and manufactured by Bassem Sudki, a research assistant within Noca’s aerodynamics group, under the supervision of Professor Michel Lauria who leads hepia’s Robotics Laboratory.
A pair of carbon nanotube arrays will be flying in space by the end of the year to test technology that could provide more efficient micro-propulsion for future spacecraft. The arrays will support what is expected to be the first-ever space-based testing of carbon nanotubes as electron emitters.
Stingrays swim through water with such ease that researchers from the University at Buffalo and Harvard University are studying how their movements could be used to design more agile and fuel-efficient unmanned underwater vehicles.
Invisibility cloaking is no longer the stuff of science fiction: two researchers in The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering have demonstrated an effective invisibility cloak that is thin, scalable and adaptive to different types and sizes of objects.
A STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education program and a forum on advanced manufacturing – exploring the powerful impact of 3D printing on product design and fabrication – will be among the highlights of the 2013 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, which opens Nov. 15 in San Diego.
Engineers and cardiology experts have teamed up to develop a fingernail-sized biosensor that could alert doctors when serious brain injury occurs during heart surgery.
A better understanding of the aerodynamic properties of butterfly wings may lead to improved human-made flight, according to research at The University of Alabama recently funded by NSF.
The puzzling, apparently wasteful habit of some animals to exert force in the direction opposite of where they want to go actually has an important purpose: to increase both stability and maneuverability.
Microbes in tap water are mostly harmless, with a few exceptions. A Virginia Tech research team is investigating four harmful pathogens that have been documented in tap water and suggest a natural, probiotic way to deal with dangerous germs.
Although a significant build-up in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere would alter worldwide precipitation patterns, geoengineering would also interfere with rainfall and snowfall. An international study, led by NCAR scientists, finds that “geoengineering” could result in monsoonal rains in North America, East Asia, and other regions dropping by 5-7 percent compared to preindustrial conditions because of less evaporation and reduced plant emissions of water.
Iowa State engineers have developed 3-D teleconferencing technology that's live, real-time and streaming at 30 frames per second. They say the technology could be ready for smart phones in a few years.
Engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas have developed a novel dynamic testing system for characterizing and evaluating the structural condition of short- to medium-span bridges – structures up to 300 feet long.
Columbia Engineering researchers have developed a new approach to designing novel nanostructured materials through an inverse design framework using genetic algorithms. The study, published in PNAS’s October 28 Early Online edition, is the first to demonstrate the application of this methodology to the design of self-assembled nanostructures, and could help speed up the materials discovery process. It also shows the potential of machine learning and “big data” approaches.
RSS
Medicine keyboard_arrow_right
Sciencekeyboard_arrow_right
Life keyboard_arrow_right
Business keyboard_arrow_right
Journal News keyboard_arrow_right
By Location keyboard_arrow_right
Meetings, Grants, and Events keyboard_arrow_right