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Scientists from IBM and the German Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) have built the world's smallest magnetic data storage unit. It uses twelve atoms per bit, the basic unit of information, and squeezes a byte (8 bit) into as few as 96 atoms.For the first time, the...

Physi­cists at the Nanosystems Initiative Munich (NIM) have managed to detect sound waves at minuscule length scales. Their nanoear is a single gold nanoparticle that is kept in a state of levitation by a laser beam. Upon weak acoustic excitation the particle oscillates parallel to the direction of sound...

From delivering care to the developing world, to remote echocardiography, to hearing assessment, telemedicine has opened doors to new and potentially improved forms of diagnosis and treatment. Dermatology is one area in particular that stands to benefit greatly from this technology.

MIT engineers have developed a nanoscale biological coating that can halt bleeding nearly instantaneously, an advance that could dramatically improve survival rates for soldiers injured in battle. The researchers, led by Paula Hammond and funded by MIT’s Institute of Soldier Nanotechnologies and a...

A team of researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory are exploring ways to design batteries that heal themselves when damaged.The idea is to station tiny microspheres, each smaller than a single red blood...

Despite uncertainty, automakers are still making a big push for electric vehicles in 2012. Ford, for example, will have five such cars by the end the year, including the 2013 Ford Fusion hybrid and 2013 Ford Fusion Energi plug-in electric, which were both shown at last...

Raven II, a robotic surgery system developed at UC Santa Cruz and the University of Washington, is being shared on an open-source basis with five other universities. Researchers hope that this will enable users to share software, replicate experiments, and collaborate in other ways — and ultimately...

The Army-led science and technology Joint Multi-Role (JMR) Demonstrator effort to design a next-generation vertical-lift aircraft by 2030 is heavily focused on leveraging advanced electronic and avionics capabilities. Sensors, electronics, avionics and cutting-edge mission and...

Dr. Jen-Ping Chen, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at The Ohio State University, is working to improve the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software that engineers use to simulate and evaluate the operation of turbomachinery. Chen was the chief architect...

Improved safety, operational effectiveness and efficiency are a few reasons Air Force Air Mobility Command (AMC) officials are looking into using tablet devices such as electronic flight bags (EFBs) for aircrew members’ reference materials in the cockpit during in-flight...

A University of Oklahoma interdisciplinary research team will field test a newly developed ‘quad porosity model’ for shale gas reservoirs in the next few months. The three-year, $1.5 million project was funded by the Research for Partnership to Secure Energy for America and a consortium of nine oil...

Graphene, a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon, slows down an object sliding across its surface. New software from the National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST) simulates the tip of an atomic force microscope moving across a stack of graphene sheets. Research using this software indicates that...

To advance the acceptance and incorporation of sustainable remediation metrics into the larger body of remedial work, the Center for Sustainable Groundwater and Soil Solutions (CSGSS) within the Savannah River National Laboratory (SNRL) created the Sustainable Remediation Initiative (SRI).

According to a seismologist investigating regional earthquakes, a northeast Ohio well used to dispose of wastewater from oil and gas drilling almost certainly caused a series of 11 minor quakes. Some environmentalists are already critical of the drilling method known as hydraulic...

A Microsoft Research Connections project proposes to develop a contact lens that monitors blood glucose levels for type 1 diabetes patients. Other non-invasive alternatives to the finger-pricking method have also been explored elsewhere — such as this tear-based glucose sensor from Arizona State University,...

The road to better, longer-lasting hip implants may be paved with better lubricants. A team of engineers and physicians recently discovered that graphitic carbon is a key element in a lubricating layer for longer-lasting metal-on-metal hip implants. The ability to extend the life of implants would have enormous...

Engineers at the University of Illinois have developed a bandage that stimulates and directs blood vessel growth on the surface of a wound. The bandage, called a “microvascular stamp,” contains living cells that deliver growth factors to damaged tissues in a defined pattern. The new approach is the...

New technology from North Carolina State University and West Virginia University can reduce air pollutant emissions from some chicken and swine barns while also reducing their energy use by recovering and possibly generating heat. A proof-of-concept unit incorporates a biofilter and a heat exchanger to reduce...

Leaping lizards and agile dinosaurs may have used their tails as stabilizers, a technique that UC Berkeley biologists and researchers are studying in hopes of developing robots with increased capabilities.The interdisciplinary team focused on testing the value of a tail. In the lab, lizards were...

Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have usedthe capabilities of the Rensselaer Center for Nanotechnology Innovations (CCNI) supercomputer touncover the properties of a promising form of graphene, known as graphenenanowiggles. The graphitic nanoribbons can be segmented into several...

An online toolkit developed at MIT and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has been designed to make it easier for researchers to find materials with specific properties. The Web site, the Materials Project, allows users to explore an ever-growing database of more than 18,000 chemical...

Researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory are looking into a novel approach that could some day aid scientific space and planetary research without the need for power-intense options often used today. Integrating the NRL-developed technologies in microrobotics, microbial fuel cells, and low...