In a first-of-its-kind activity for an interplanetary spacecraft, thousands of amateur (ham) radio operators around the world were able to say “Hi” to NASA’s Juno spacecraft Oct. 9 as it swung past Earth on its way to Jupiter.
What’s the best place to conduct a conversation about a confidential or even classified matter? Surprisingly, probably not a conference room designed in accordance with acoustical criteria approved by the Department of Defense. While such “secret” rooms might meet DOD standards, they offer less protection against snooping than is found in a luxury condo. So says Marlund Hale of Advanced Engineering Acoustics in Simi Valley, California, who evaluated the acoustic performance of several classified spaces.
When attached to the wheels or the tracks of rail transit systems, vibration absorbers may reduce the noise from trains, bringing more peace and quiet to passengers and those who work or live near the tracks. In tests of two major metropolitan public rail systems, researchers say that vibration absorbers have a modest effect if any on wheel or rail rolling noise, but they may be effective in reducing wheel squeal.
Until now, 3D printing has been a polymer affair, with most people in the maker community using the machines to make all manner of plastic consumer goods, from tent stakes to chess sets. A new low-cost 3D printer developed by Joshua Pearce and his team could add hammers to that list.
A new algorithm designed at the University of Toronto has the power to profoundly change the way we find photos among the billions on social media sites such as Facebook and Flickr. This month, the United States Patent and Trademark Office will issue a patent on this technology. Developed by Parham Aarabi, a professor in The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, and his former Master’s student Ron Appel, the search tool uses tag locations to quantify relationships between individuals, even those not tagged in any given photo.
Our sense of smell is often the first response to environmental stimuli. Odors trigger neurons in the brain that alert us to take action. However, there is often more than one odor in the environment, such as in coffee shops or grocery stores. How does our brain process multiple odors received simultaneously? Barani Raman, PhD, of the Washington University in St. Louis School of Engineering & Applied Science is using locusts to help find the answer.
By working with a model spacesuit, a group of Kansas State University engineering professors and students are exploring how wearable medical sensors can be used in future space missions to keep astronauts healthy.
Up, up in the sky: It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a . . . jellyfish? That's what researchers have built -- a small vehicle whose flying motion resembles the movements of those boneless, pulsating, water-dwelling creatures. The work, which will be presented at the APS’s DFD meeting on November 24, demonstrates a new method of flight that could transport miniaturized future robots for surveillance, search-and-rescue, and monitoring of the atmosphere and traffic.
Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have developed a method for greatly enhancing biofuel production in tiny marine algae.
Iowa State engineers are working to protect computer networks and data by using unique keyboard, computer mouse and mobile device "fingerprints." The research is supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense.
A team of Columbia Engineering researchers, led by Mechanical Engineering Professor James Hone and Electrical Engineering Professor Kenneth Shepard, has taken advantage of graphene’s special properties—its mechanical strength and electrical conduction—and created a nano-mechanical system that can create FM signals, in effect the world’s smallest FM radio transmitter. The study is published online on November 17, in Nature Nanotechnology.
At the APS’s Division of Fluid Dynamics meeting, Nov. 24 – 26, Flavio Noca, who has explored leveraging penguins’ “rocket” properties to create new propulsion technologies with high maneuverability and improved hydrodynamic efficiency, will present a penguin-inspired propulsion system that uses a novel spherical joint mechanism developed and manufactured by Bassem Sudki, a research assistant within Noca’s aerodynamics group, under the supervision of Professor Michel Lauria who leads hepia’s Robotics Laboratory.
A pair of carbon nanotube arrays will be flying in space by the end of the year to test technology that could provide more efficient micro-propulsion for future spacecraft. The arrays will support what is expected to be the first-ever space-based testing of carbon nanotubes as electron emitters.
Stingrays swim through water with such ease that researchers from the University at Buffalo and Harvard University are studying how their movements could be used to design more agile and fuel-efficient unmanned underwater vehicles.
Invisibility cloaking is no longer the stuff of science fiction: two researchers in The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering have demonstrated an effective invisibility cloak that is thin, scalable and adaptive to different types and sizes of objects.
A STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education program and a forum on advanced manufacturing – exploring the powerful impact of 3D printing on product design and fabrication – will be among the highlights of the 2013 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, which opens Nov. 15 in San Diego.
Engineers and cardiology experts have teamed up to develop a fingernail-sized biosensor that could alert doctors when serious brain injury occurs during heart surgery.
A better understanding of the aerodynamic properties of butterfly wings may lead to improved human-made flight, according to research at The University of Alabama recently funded by NSF.
The puzzling, apparently wasteful habit of some animals to exert force in the direction opposite of where they want to go actually has an important purpose: to increase both stability and maneuverability.
Microbes in tap water are mostly harmless, with a few exceptions. A Virginia Tech research team is investigating four harmful pathogens that have been documented in tap water and suggest a natural, probiotic way to deal with dangerous germs.
Although a significant build-up in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere would alter worldwide precipitation patterns, geoengineering would also interfere with rainfall and snowfall. An international study, led by NCAR scientists, finds that “geoengineering” could result in monsoonal rains in North America, East Asia, and other regions dropping by 5-7 percent compared to preindustrial conditions because of less evaporation and reduced plant emissions of water.
Iowa State engineers have developed 3-D teleconferencing technology that's live, real-time and streaming at 30 frames per second. They say the technology could be ready for smart phones in a few years.
Engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas have developed a novel dynamic testing system for characterizing and evaluating the structural condition of short- to medium-span bridges – structures up to 300 feet long.
Columbia Engineering researchers have developed a new approach to designing novel nanostructured materials through an inverse design framework using genetic algorithms. The study, published in PNAS’s October 28 Early Online edition, is the first to demonstrate the application of this methodology to the design of self-assembled nanostructures, and could help speed up the materials discovery process. It also shows the potential of machine learning and “big data” approaches.
Although an irregular heartbeat is a common malady in the United States, affecting an estimated 5 million people, the treatments for it are limited in scope and effectiveness. Now, Igor Efimov, PhD, at Washington University in St. Louis, is studying a new potential treatment that may be much more effective and less painful for patients.
If the U.S. is to meet important challenges of the 21st century, a new paradigm for the building and retrofitting of critical pipeline infrastructure system will be required, one that addresses the conflicting goals of diverse economic, environment, societal, and policy interests, according to Sunil Sinha of Virginia Tech's College of Engineering who has led the development of a National Pipeline Infrastructure Database.
A University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) aerospace engineering undergraduate student’s idea for a new, more efficient way to package rocket engines has won him and two UAH professors a recent patent.
Putting new super-efficient rooftop HVAC units in broad use would be about equal to taking 700,000 cars off the road each year in terms of saved energy and reduced pollution, according to a new study.
Nanoscale engineering boosts performance of quantum dot light emitting diodes
Bioengineers from the University of California, San Diego have created a new method for analyzing RNA transcripts from samples of 50 to 100 cells. The approach could be used to develop inexpensive and rapid methods for diagnosing cancers at early stages, as well as better tools for forensics, drug discovery and developmental biology.
Jellyfish are one of the most energetically efficient natural propulsors on the planet, according to Shashank Priya, professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech. He led a study highlighting the motion of the jellyfish. The work appeared in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Humans rarely walk the straight and narrow; something's always in the way. So Michigan Tech scientists are developing a computer-controlled artificial limb that can turn like a flesh-and-blood foot.
A senior design class and the Office of Technology Commercialization at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) are working with an 89-year old former von Braun rocket team member on a device that will make semi trucks turn better.
The University of Washington is working with Boeing and an Everett company to build a carbon-fiber submersible that will carry five passengers almost 2 miles deep.
For years scientists have been working to fundamentally understand how nanoparticles move throughout the human body. One big unanswered question is how the shape of nanoparticles affects their entry into cells. Now researchers have discovered that under typical culture conditions, mammalian cells prefer disc-shaped nanoparticles over those shaped like rods.
Researchers in Japan have developed a new photodiode that can detect in just milliseconds a certain type of high-energy ultraviolet light, called UVC, which is powerful enough to break the bonds of DNA and harm living creatures. The researchers describe their new device in the journal Applied Physics Letters.
A team led by the University of Washington has developed a programming language for chemistry that it hopes will streamline efforts to design a network that can guide the behavior of chemical-reaction mixtures in the same way that embedded electronic controllers guide cars, robots and other devices. The findings were published online Sept. 29 in Nature Nanotechnology.
A problem developing more efficient organic LED light bulbs and displays is that much of the light is trapped within the light-emitting diode, or LED. University of Utah physicists believe they have solved the problem by creating a new organic molecule that is shaped like rotelle – wagon-wheel pasta – rather than spaghetti.
A Missouri S&T researcher has developed a new feedback system to remotely control mobile robots. This research will allow robots to operate with minimal supervision and could eventually lead to a robot that can learn or even become autonomous.
A space-based laser system proposed to NASA by University of Alabama in Huntsville researchers could be a cost-effective way to nudge small asteroids away from a collision course with Earth.
A lens invented at The Ohio State University combines the focusing ability of a human eye with the wide-angle view of an insect eye to capture images with depth.
New research shows that the catalyst used in the latest catalytic converters attacks its target pollutant in an unusual way, providing insight into how to make the best catalytic converters.
Researchers from Columbia Engineering and Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified a series of clues that particular arrangements of electrical charges known as “stripes” may play a role in superconductivity, using a method to detect fluctuating stripes of charge density in a material closely related to a superconductor.
A weekly news magazine that has been around since before Time began celebrates its 90th anniversary this week with a special issue commemorating chemistry’s contributions over the past nine decades to medicine, industry and other scientific advances that have improved people’s lives. The magazine, Chemical & Engineering News, a publication of American Chemical Society (ACS), is also sponsoring a slew of celebratory events at the 246th ACS National Meeting & Exposition in Indianapolis.
University of Utah electrical engineers have developed a network of wireless sensors that can detect a person falling. This monitoring technology could be linked to a service that would call emergency help for the elderly without requiring them to wear monitoring devices.
This new flexible patch treatment can quicken drug delivery time while cutting waste, and can likely minimize side-effects in some cases, notable in vaccinations and in cancer therapy.
University of Michigan researchers today released seven technical reports that together form the most comprehensive Michigan-focused resource on hydraulic fracturing, the controversial natural gas and oil extraction process commonly known as fracking.
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