Feature Channels: Engineering

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CRISPR, the Nobel Prize-winning gene editing technology, is poised to have a profound impact on the fields of microbiology and medicine yet again. A team led by CRISPR pioneers Jennifer Doudna and Jill Banfield has developed a tool to edit the genomes of bacteria-infecting viruses called bacteriophages using a rare form of CRISPR. The ability to easily engineer custom-designed phages will help researchers treat dangerous drug-resistant infections and control microbiomes without antibiotics or harsh chemicals.

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The pandemic prompted workplace changes that proved beneficial to people with disabilities in science, technology, engineering, math and medicine (STEMM), but there’s fear that these accommodations will be rolled back. With International Day of Persons with Disabilities taking place on Dec. 3, a research team including faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York is calling for ways to make work in STEMM more accessible.

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Our palms tell us a lot about our emotional state, tending to get wet when people are excited or nervous.

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TuFF — Tailored Universal Feedstock for Forming — is a strong, highly aligned, short-fiber composite material that can be made from many fiber and resin combinations. Created at the University of Delaware’s Center for Composite Materials (CCM), it can be stamped into complex shapes, just like sheet metal, and features high-performance and stretchability up to 40%.

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Enrico Fermi’s Chicago Pile 1 experiment in 1942 launched an atomic age, an unrivaled national laboratory system, fleets of submarines, cancer treatments and the unending promise of clean nuclear energy. Argonne National Laboratory builds on its legacy.

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Argonne, along with five other national laboratories and 15 companies, has signed a pledge to double the energy efficiency of microelectronics every two years for 10 generations.

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Engineers developed a battery-free, pill-shaped ingestible biosensing system that gives scientists the ability to monitor gut metabolites in real time, which wasn’t possible before. The work could lead to a new understanding of intestinal metabolite composition, which significantly impacts human health.

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By 2033, more than 1 billion laptops, cellphones, and other electronic devices could be entering the U.S. waste stream each year. However, with better end-of-life management, new Berkeley Lab research shows electronic waste could also represent a source of valuable metals, namely gold, that could benefit the future economy by offsetting increasing demand for virgin mining.

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Columbia researchers invent new method to treat obesity by using cationic nanomaterials that can target specific areas of fat and inhibit the unhealthy storage of enlarged fat cells. “Our studies highlight an unexpected strategy to treat visceral adiposity and suggest a new direction of exploring cationic nanomaterials for treating metabolic diseases,” said Columbia Engineering’s Biomedical Engineering Prof Kam Leong, a pioneer in using polycation to scavenge pathogens.

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Earthquakes are notoriously hard to predict, and so too are the usually less-severe aftershocks that often follow a major seismic event.

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COVID-19 has had a lasting global health impact that continues to challenge the health care system.

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Groundbreaking research by Argonne National Laboratory finds new method to quickly identify COVID-19 virus variants. Their work wins the Gordon Bell Special Prize.

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The University of Utah College of Engineering and the United States Air Force are proud to announce a new education partnership that will create valuable learning opportunities for students and research projects that can advance technologies from wireless communications and cybersecurity to robotics and composite materials.

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The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has unveiled a newly renovated lab that will provide construction management and civil engineering students with an edge for their future careers in Arkansas’s growing construction industry. With generous support from Nabholz, the new Nabholz Construction High Bay Lab has been redesigned to provide an upgraded workspace for classes, student projects, and demonstrations for students, faculty, and industry members.

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Walking can boost not only your own energy but also, potentially, the energy of your wearable electronic devices.

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Berkeley Lab scientists have demonstrated a new technique, modeled after a metabolic process found in some bacteria, to convert carbon dioxide into solar fuels through artificial photosynthesis.

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When neurons are damaged by degenerative disease or injury, they have little, if any, ability to heal on their own. Restoring neural networks and their normal function is therefore a significant challenge in the field of tissue engineering. Prof. Orit Shefi and doctoral student Reut Plen from the Kofkin Faculty of Engineering at Bar-Ilan University have developed a novel technique to overcome this challenge using nanotechnology and magnetic manipulations, one of the most innovative approaches to creating neural networks.

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Hearing-impaired people whose auditory nerve is still intact can often be helped with a cochlear implant. But inserting the implant into the inner ear is not without risks, as facial nerves can be damaged in the process. Empa researchers have developed a novel smart drill that minimizes the risk by automatically shutting off when it comes near nerves.

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From pangolin scales that can stand up to hard hits to colorful but sturdy peacock feathers, nature can do a lot with a few simple molecules.

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A brief roundup of news and story ideas from the experts at UCLA Health.

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NIBIB-funded researchers are fine-tuning a wearable, cuffless blood pressure monitor. Made of graphene, one of the thinnest materials in the world, the device is worn on the underside of the wrist and can measure blood pressure with comparable accuracy to a standard blood pressure cuff.

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A Cornell-led collaboration used machine learning to pinpoint the most accurate means, and timelines, for anticipating the advancement of Alzheimer’s disease in people who are either cognitively normal or experiencing mild cognitive impairment.

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For the pieces, Jason Lee, associate professor of sculpture in the West Virginia University College of Creative Arts, stacks logos. Most prints incorporate between 10 and 25 band logos each, some stack more than 30.

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The system regulates its own temperature in response to environmental disturbances

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Nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering have developed an AI algorithm that predicts the structure and dynamic properties of any material—whether existing or new—almost instantaneously. Known as M3GNet, the algorithm was used to develop matterverse.ai, a database of more than 31 million yet-to-be-synthesized materials with properties predicted by machine learning algorithms. Matterverse.ai facilitates the discovery of new technological materials with exceptional properties.

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Researchers have demonstrated a way to entangle atoms to create a network of atomic clocks and accelerometers. The method has resulted in greater precision in measuring time and acceleration.

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Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory created a novel testbed to explore the behavior of electrons in a special class of materials called topological insulators, which could see applications in quantum computing.

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Researchers at the University of Bonn have developed a method that allows the water level of rivers to be monitored around the clock.

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A multi-institution research team has developed an optical chip that can train machine learning hardware.

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Although blockchain is best known for securing digital currency payments, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are using it to track a different kind of exchange: It’s the first time blockchain has ever been used to validate communication among devices on the electric grid.

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Globally recognized research and development leader Chris Heckle has been appointed as the first director of the Materials Manufacturing Innovation Centerat the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory.

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Collaborative research between SMU nanorobotics authority MinJun Kim’s Biological Actuation, Sensing, and Transport (BAST) Lab and international research and engineering company ARA has demonstrated for the first time that certain chemical coatings, applied to micro/nanoparticles, can alter their swimming propulsion within biological fluids.

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Gadgets that emit small electrical pulses can drastically cut the number of sharks and stingrays caught accidentally on fishing lines, new research shows.

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Seven Penn State materials researchers have received the 2022 Rustum and Della Roy Innovation in Materials Research Award.

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Argonne’s Experimental Operations and Facilities (EOF) division works to enable a broad range of experiments at the laboratory.

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A bit of laboratory serendipity led University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) researchers to a simple mechanical way to generate electricity to operate electronic devices, says a paper they have published.

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CSU researchers have created the first successful soft robotic gripper capable of manipulating individual droplets of liquid, according to a recent article in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Materials Horizons.

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When Brad Duerstock was 18, a spinal cord injury paralyzed his arms and legs, requiring him to use what control he had left in his hands to operate a power wheelchair.

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The Materials Research Society (MRS) announced that Chang-Beom Eom, University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been honored with the 2022 David Turnbull Lectureship.

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Engineers and physicians at UC San Diego have developed a device to non-invasively measure cervical nerve activity in humans, a new tool they say could potentially inform and improve treatments for patients with sepsis or post-traumatic stress disorder.

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University of Minnesota Twin Cities faculty members Christopher Tignanelli and Ju Sun are co-leading a collaborative study on an artificial intelligence technique called federated learning and how it can be implemented in real-world healthcare settings to improve patient care.

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Irvine, Calif., Nov. 17, 2022 – Researchers at the University of California, Irvine have discovered that the safe operation of a negative pressure room – a space in a hospital or biological research laboratory designed to protect outside areas from exposure to deadly pathogens – can be disrupted by an attacker armed with little more than a smartphone.

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As climate change accelerates, scientists are investigating ways to lower carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

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Amazon Web Services (AWS) was recently announced as an industry partner within the Q-NEXT research center. AWS research scientist Antia Lamas-Linares is helping advance technologies for long-distance quantum networks and build a quantum workforce for the future.