Feature Channels: Engineering

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The latest video in NIBIB's 60 Seconds of Science video series explains what tissue engineering is and how it works.

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Virginia Tech led a research team to make a beetle-inspired surface that uses chemical micropatterns to control the growth of condensation and frost. They were even able to create a surface where inter-droplet ice growth is completely stopped.

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A lithium-ion battery that self heats if the temperature is below 32 degrees Fahrenheit has multiple applications, but may have the most impact on relieving winter "range anxiety" for electric vehicle owners, according to a team of researchers from Penn State and EC Power, State College.

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Kyoto University and Panasonic Corporation demonstrate new remote-sensing technology.

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Columbia Engineering Professor Elisa Konofagou won a $3.33 million DARPA grant to develop a new way to use focused ultrasound for stimulation of peripheral nerves that will ultimately be able to control organ function. The grant is part of DARPA’s new Electrical Prescriptions program aimed at developing novel technologies to improve physical and mental health using targeted stimulation of the peripheral nervous system to exploit the body’s natural ability to quickly and effectively heal itself.

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Lithium ions are depleted as a battery charges and are also lost to the formation of a thin coating on a battery’s anode. ORNL researchers used powerful neutron science facilities to try to understand the dynamics behind this phenomenon.

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Rice University scientists mix up a new type of flexible composite.

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Researchers are using a technology likened to "mini force fields" to independently control individual microrobots operating within groups, an advance aimed at using the tiny machines in areas including manufacturing and medicine.

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ASU professor discusses advances in recycling dirty water, and harvesting its content.

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Bioengineers and cognitive scientists have developed the first portable, 64-channel wearable brain activity monitoring system that’s comparable to state-of-the-art equipment found in research laboratories. The system is a better fit for real-world applications because it is equipped with dry EEG sensors that are easier to apply than wet sensors, while still providing high-density brain activity data.

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A nature-inspired method to model the reflection of light may have applications for advanced optical coatings for glass, laser protection, infrared imaging systems, optical communication systems and photovoltaics, according to Penn State researchers.

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A unique filtering technology that combines light (photons) and sound (phonon) waves on a single chip is expected to detect radar and communications frequencies better than conventional electronics.

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University of Arkansas engineering researchers – experts in the study of how soil reacts to stress caused by earthquakes or floods – are participating in a multi-institutional research mission to document the effects of recent, severe flooding in the Midwest.

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A pioneering surgical technique has allowed an amputee to attach APL’s Modular Prosthetic Limb directly to his residual limb, enabling a greater range of motion and comfort than previously possible.

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Stanford researchers have developed the first lithium-ion battery that shuts down before overheating, then restarts immediately when the temperature cools.

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A team of University of Delaware researchers takes a new approach to pediatric rehabilitation, using an interactive anthropomorphic robot.

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Scientists at three Department of Energy national laboratories have discovered how to keep a promising new type of lithium ion battery cathode from developing a crusty coating that degrades its performance. The solution: Use a simple manufacturing technique to form the cathode material into tiny, layered particles that store a lot of energy while protecting themselves from damage.

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A research team from the National University of Singapore has developed a new lightweight and smart rehabilitation device called EsoGlove to help patients who have lost their hand functions due to injuries or nerve-related conditions to restore their hand movements.

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A two-stage power management and storage system could dramatically improve the efficiency of triboelectric generators that harvest energy from irregular human motion such as walking, running or finger tapping.

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Magnesium infused with dense silicon carbide nanoparticles could be used for airplanes, cars, mobile electronics and more.

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By combining sophisticated RNA sequencing technology with a new device that isolates single cells and their progeny, MIT researchers can now trace detailed family histories for several generations of cells descended from one “ancestor.”

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Research conducted by members of the Colorado School of Mines Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering demonstrates microscale biomedical devices shaped like wheels can be injected into the body and effectively “roll” to treat areas in need – such as arterial blockages.

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Joan Brennecke, Keating-Crawford Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, is the recipient of a $2 million U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant for research that could fundamentally change the way the country uses and produces energy.

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Cornell biomedical engineers have discovered natural triggers that could reduce the chance of life-threatening, congenital heart defects among newborn infants. Those triggers can override developmental, biological miscues, leading to proper embryonic heart and valve formation.

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Thousands bound together are still thinner than a single strand of human hair, but with research from Binghamton University, boron nitride nanotubes may help build better fighter planes and space shuttles. A team of scientists led by Changhong Ke, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Binghamton University’s Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science, and researcher Xiaoming Chen were the first to determine the interface strength between boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) and epoxy and other polymers.

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The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, an independent, research-driven graduate-level university focused on advanced energy and sustainable technologies, today announced that its researchers have successfully demonstrated that desert sand from the UAE could be used in concentrated solar power (CSP) facilities to store thermal energy up to 1000°C.

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New study models adhesion force as key to contact between two rough, yet elastic, surfaces.

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A technique to combine the ultrasensitivity of surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) with a slippery surface invented by Penn State researchers will make it feasible to detect single molecules of a number of chemical and biological species from gaseous, liquid or solid samples.

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Magnesium infused with dense silicon carbide nanoparticles could be used for airplanes, cars, mobile electronics and more.

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Digitizing books published before 1700 has created an aesthetic as well as quite pragmatic “black-dot problem” in translated texts, with the word “love,” for example, showing up as “lo•e.”

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Cornell graduate student Haining Wang came up with an inventive way of measuring the near-instantaneous electrical current generated using a light detector that he and a team of engineers made using an atomically thin material.

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New smartphone-based system could accelerate development of driverless cars.

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Researchers have demonstrated a new process for rapidly fabricating complex three-dimensional nanostructures from a variety of materials, including metals. The new technique uses nanoelectrospray to provide a continuous supply of liquid precursor, which can include metal ions that are converted to high-purity metal by a focused electron beam.

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A team of female students in the Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey, are developing kits to teach young girls the fundamentals of engineering.

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An ultra-high-resolution technique used for the first time to study polymer fibers that trap uranium in seawater may cause researchers to rethink the best methods to harvest this potential fuel for nuclear reactors.

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Drs. Anthony Lowman and Kenneth Blank, of Rowan University, have been named Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors in recognition of their impact to the economy through innovative discoveries, creating startup companies and enhancing the culture of academic invention.

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Two satellites designed and built by students, researchers and faculty from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have been successfully launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh, India, on Wednesday, 16 December 2015 at 8.30pm (Singapore time). These are the University’s first satellites in space, and they are part of six Singapore satellites that were launched in the same operation.

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Researchers are proposing a new "hydricity" concept aimed at creating a sustainable economy by not only generating electricity with solar energy but also producing and storing hydrogen from superheated water for round-the-clock power production.

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State-of-the-art atomic force microscopes (AFMs) are designed to capture images of structures as small as a fraction of a nanometer -- a million times smaller than the width of a human hair. In recent years, AFMs have produced desktop-worthy close-ups of atom-sized structures, from single strands of DNA to individual hydrogen bonds between molecules.

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Biomedical Engineering Professor Helen H. Lu has won a 3-year $1.125 million grant from the Department of Defense for her research on tendon-to-bone integration for rotator cuff repair. Lu is collaborating with William Levine, chairman and Frank E. Stinchfield Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Columbia University Medical Center. The funding will support preclinical trials to test the potential of a nanofiber-based device to enable biological healing between tendon and bone post rotator cuff surgery.

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Colorado State University researchers are creating the next generation of environmental monitoring satellites, at a hundredth the size and weight scale.

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The enduring popularity of and interest in droids like C-3PO and R2-D2 speaks to the fascination many people have with robotics and artificial intelligence. Although no one will have their own C-3PO soon, a number of University of Notre Dame researchers are working to make droids more science fact than science fiction.

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Some of the natural gas harvested by hydraulic fracturing operations may be of biological origin—made by microorganisms inadvertently injected into shale by oil and gas companies during the hydraulic fracturing process, a new study has found.

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A research team including NIBIB-funded scientists have developed a sunscreen that encapsulates the UV-blocking compounds inside bio-adhesive nanoparticles, which adhere to the skin well, but do not penetrate beyond the skin’s surface. These properties resulted in highly effective UV protection in a mouse model, without the adverse effects observed with commercial sunscreens, including penetration into the bloodstream and generation of reactive oxygen species, which can damage DNA and lead to cancer.

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To isolate the contribution of water to the vibrational fluctuations that occur between DNA, bulk water, and the charged biomolecular interface between the two, researchers in Berlin have performed two-dimensional spectroscopic analyses on double-stranded DNA helices at different hydration levels. They detail their investigations in this week’s Structural Dynamics.

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Cleaning up the water left over from mining operations can literally take generations – 25 to 50 years on average – leaving billions of gallons of the precious resource locked up and useless.

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Metal grate developed by a University of Iowa engineer will improve efficiency of primitive wood-burning cookstoves in developing countries.

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Inspired by the natural water purification systems of the roots of the mangrove plant and the human kidney, a team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) Environmental Research Institute (NERI) has engineered a novel biomimetic membrane that can purify water at low pressure, thus reducing energy costs. This new technology can potentially reduce water purification costs by up to 30 per cent.

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Researchers fabricated high-performance quantum cascade lasers (and integrated them into a device to demonstrate new, high-power broadband terahertz frequency combs, which are powerful tools for high-precision measurements and spectroscopy.