Topic

A team of experts in mechanics, materials science, and tissue engineering at Harvard has created an extremely stretchy and tough gel that has potential as a replacement for damaged cartilage in human joints.

A team of engineers at Stanford has demonstrated the feasibility of a super-small, implantable cardiac device that gets its power not from batteries but from radio waves transmitted from a small power device on the surface of the body.

Many wireless-monitor products today track daily activity, including a person's steps and calories burned. Wearable sensors, and even internal ones, however, may also be used to monitor one's specific biological processes. "Stretchable electronics," for example,...

An associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, has developed a silicon-on-insulator (SOI)–complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process for fabricating flexible electronics. As reported in Applied Physics Letters, the technology may some day be...

Scientists working at SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source have captured the first single-shot X-ray microscope image of a magnetic nanostructure and shown that it can be done without damaging the material.This result not only demonstrates the success of a powerful new X-ray technique, but it...

NASA's Mars Curiosity has debuted the first recorded human voice that traveled from Earth to another planet and back. The voice playback was released along with new telephoto camera views of the varied Martian landscape during a news conference at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The...

By modifying the rate at which chemical reactions take place, nanoparticle catalysts fulfill myriad roles in industry, the biomedical arena, and everyday life. They may be used for the production of polymers and biofuels, improving pollution and emission control devices,...

Applied physicists at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have created an ultrathin, flat lens that focuses light without imparting the distortions of conventional lenses. At 60 nanometers thick, the flat lens is essentially two-dimensional, yet its focusing power...

Using smartphones' GPS and imaging capabilities, University of Missouri researchers have developed new software that determines the exact location of distant objects, as well as monitors the speed and direction of moving objects. The software could eventually allow smartphone-armed soldiers...

Did you know that you can use federal laboratory-developed technologies to grow your business? The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer has created a free, online “One-Stop Shop” to quickly find the right opportunity for you — no matter which federal lab it comes from. The new...

A team of engineers at Stanford University, Stanford, CA, has demonstrated that a tiny, implantable cardiac device can get its power from radio waves transmitted from a small power device on the surface of the body. The implanted device could fit on the head of pin. In their paper, published in the journal...

Scientists at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, have invented a self-charging power cell that directly converts mechanical energy to chemical energy, storing the power until it is released as electrical current. By eliminating the need to convert mechanical energy to electrical energy for...

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has created coated sutures with sensors that could monitor wounds and speed up healing. The electronic sutures, which contain ultra-thin silicon sensors integrated on polymer or silk strips, can be threaded through needles and, in animal tests,...

Scientists at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, have found a way to use the regenerative power of stem cells to improve orthopedic implant surgery. They are collaborating with surgeons at Glasgow’s Southern General Hospital to develop a new type of orthopedic implant that could be stronger and more...

With a whistle and a roar, the "Mighty Eagle," a NASA robotic prototype lander, sailed to an altitude of 100 feet. During the 35-second run, the vehicle was "open loop," navigating autonomously without the command of the onboard camera and flying on a preprogrammed flight profile.Once it reached the...

PML researchers have devised a novel source of portable sunlight that may fill an urgent need in renewable energy research – namely, light sources that generate a near-perfect solar spectrum to be used in testing the performance and efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) materials.The team’s...

Medical device makers should report all adverse events in pre-market clinical trials, including serious health threats, unanticipated serious effects, as well as any deficiencies that might lead to a serious adverse event, states the Global Harmonization Task Force’s (GHTF) final guidance on...

The first commercially licensed grid-connected wave-energy device in the United States, designed by the New Jersey-based Ocean Power Technologies, is in its final weeks of testing before a planned launch in October. The computer-equipped buoy captures the energy created by a wave, which is fueled by the...

Biologists at Stanford University, Stanford, CA, pursuing a model for studying heat dissipation, have created a glove that can rapidly cool down athletes’ core temperatures and dramatically improve exercise recovery and performance. A version of the heat-extraction glove is currently nearing...

accurate inertial navigation system (INS) is coupled with GPS receivers to provide stable and highly accurate positioning, attitude, and inertial measurements while being subjected to highly dynamic maneuvers. In contrast to conventional methods that use extensive, ground-based, real-time tracking...