Topic

Options for Reducing Friction When Using Silicone Elastomers

Silicone has a long and proven history of use with medical devices and can provide many benefits, from flexibility to cushioning. When working with some medical devices, however,...

Astronaut Experience Inspires Single-Handed Drone Flight Controller

After retiring from NASA, Scott Parazynski became chief technology officer at a hospital in Houston. When he started to look at robotic surgical tools, he was not impressed.

Injectable, Flexible Electrode Could Replace Rigid Nerve-Stimulating Implants

By electrically stimulating nerves, neuromodulation therapies can reduce epileptic seizures, soothe chronic pain, and treat depression and a host of other health...

Water-Powered Engines Offer Satellite Mobility

NASA found a corporate partner—Millennium Space Systems—to share the cost of maturing HYDROS thrusters.

3D Printed Plastics with High-Performance Electrical Circuits

Engineers have embedded high-performance electrical circuits inside 3D printed plastics, which could lead to better-performing biomedical implants. They used pulses of high-energy...

AirMap Guides Drones toward Widespread Use

We need a system to safely track all the new flying vehicles, and NASA is playing a big role in developing it.

What We’re Driving: 2020 Range Rover Sport HST

JLR (Jaguar Land Rover) goes straight to the point: it's new inline six-cylinder gasoline engine is “more responsive and better balanced” than a V6, the company said. That’s what...

Magnetic Metamaterial Could Improve MRIs

Researchers have developed a low-cost, “intelligent” metamaterial that could revolutionize magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), making the entire MRI process faster, safer, and more accessible to...

Unique Sensors Will Improve Aerodynamic Design, Aircraft Performance

In DirectShear sensors, a tiny, micromachined silicon sensor moves back and forth as air passes over it, changing the output voltage to indicate shear stress.

Low-Field MRI Improves Lung, Cardiac Imaging

National Institutes of Health researchers, along with researchers at Siemens, have developed a high-performance, low-magnetic-field MRI system that vastly improves image quality of the lungs and...

Variable-Gravity Device Enables Medical, Pharmaceutical Research

Gravity can have surprising effects on basic biological products and processes. Techshot’s Multi-User Variable-Gravity device contains two carousels that spin at varying speeds to simulate different forces of gravity.

Volvo’s Polestar Powerhouse Plug-In Hybrid

You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. That’s why Polestar, Volvo’s new electric performance subsidiary, used its first vehicle as a rolling showcase of the brand’s...

Scientists Replace Metal Collimators with Plastic Analogs

Scientists have developed plastic collimators that can replace their metal analogs used in radiation therapy. The team focused on the exact characteristics of the desired product, its...

Rockets, Rovers Spur New Offshore Drilling Safety Technology

A 15,000-pound SureShear system replaces 170,000 pounds of traditional compressed-gas tanks.

Implants: Protective Membrane Reduces Tissue Buildup

Scientists have developed a special protective membrane made of cellulose that significantly reduces the buildup of fibrotic tissue around cardiac pacemaker implants, as reported in a recent...

Freeze-Dried Foods Nourish Adventurers and the Imagination

When NASA improved methods for freeze-drying food, the dried food industry began adopting it, too.

Inside Tremec’s Corvette Dual-Clutch Transmission

Explaining Corvette’s move to one transmission for all buyers, global chief engineer Tadge Juechter notes, “Our customers began requesting a dual-clutch automatic transmission [DCT]...

Implantable Bioartificial Kidney Achieves Preclinical Milestone

Scientists successfully implanted a prototype kidney bioreactor containing functional human kidney cells in large animals without significant safety concerns. The device, which is...

Laser Enables Precise Measurements for Weather Forecasting, Industry

The Cross-Track Infrared Spectrometer (CrIS), which scans the atmosphere, from the ground all the way up, helps forecasters understand hurricanes.

How to Protect Patients from Potential Electrical Failure

People and power don’t mix well, and this is particularly true when people are medical patients. Aside from the more usual environment of a medical facility, patients are also...

Field-Scanning Drone Gives Farmers Better Data

Quantix launches vertically, but then turns on its side to let the wings take over. It makes sweeping passes over a field or orchard, autonomously following boundaries the farmer draws using the app.

What We’re Driving: 2019 Toyota Corolla Hatchback

For the 2019 model year, Toyota rediscovered and reintroduced the hatchback body style for the Corolla. Take the sheetmetal as you will – to me, some angles appeal, others don’t –...

The Future of Connected Health

The three main global goals of healthcare continue to be: improving the quality of care, universal access to care, and keeping costs under control. Technologies and remote connected healthcare are touted as the...

Autonomous Drone Navigation System Ends Reliance on GPS

NASA Technology Self-piloted drone traffic may be just over the horizon, metaphorically speaking, but for now, vehicles cannot legally fly beyond the operator’s line of sight, at least...

Making a Great Cardio Product Even Better: The Next-Generation Zio Heart Patch

Nearly half of all adults in the United States have some type of cardiovascular disease. This group of over 121 million people are often diagnosed with potential...

Carbon-Fiber Heat Sink Makes Batteries Safer for Electric Cars, Bikes, and More

KULR phase-change heat sinks have been used and improved in a variety of NASA projects all the way through the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer instrument installed aboard the International Space Station.

New Products and Services

External PSUs XP Power, Tokyo, Japan, has released two series of external power supplies that are intended for modern medical applications, including safety approvals for home-based healthcare, and IT applications...

Simulation Software Optimizes High-Speed, Efficient Data Networks

Designed and controlled by a nonprofit corporation, the RapidIO communication protocol has come to be used in the data center, supercomputing, communications, and automation industries, among others.

Thermal Imaging Makes Its Case for ADAS, AVs

What specific sensor types will comprise the advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) of the 2020s? That’s a controversial subject among engineers who are developing SAE Level 2 and 3 (and...