Information Technologies
Researchers create shape-shifting mobile devices
April 29, 2013 8:19 am | News | CommentsAt a conference this week in Europe on human-machine interfaces, a research team from the U.K. will introduce the concept of “shape resolution”, which it has used to compare the resolution of six prototypes built using new technologies in shape-changing material, such as shape memory alloy and electro active polymer. One example is the Morphees, a self-actuated flexible mobile device that can change shape on-demand.
Tracking gunfire with a smartphone
April 26, 2013 8:41 am | by David Salisbury, Vanderbilt University | News | CommentsYou are walking down the street with a friend. A shot is fired. The two of you duck behind the nearest cover and you pull out your smartphone. A map of the neighborhood pops up on its screen with a large red arrow pointing in the direction the shot came from. A team has made such a scenario possible by developing a system that transforms a smartphone into a shooter location system.
What did Alexander Graham Bell's voice sound like?
April 26, 2013 8:34 am | News | CommentsLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s sound-restoration experts have done it again. They’ve helped to digitally recover a 128-year-old recording of Alexander Graham Bell’s voice, enabling people to hear the famed inventor speak for the first time. The recording ends with Bell saying “in witness whereof, hear my voice, Alexander Graham Bell.”
Piezoelectric taxels convert motion to electronic signals for tactile imaging
April 26, 2013 8:20 am | News | CommentsUsing bundles of vertical zinc oxide nanowires, researchers have fabricated arrays of piezotronic transistors capable of converting mechanical motion directly into electronic controlling signals. The arrays could help give robots a more adaptive sense of touch, provide better security in handwritten signatures, and offer new ways for humans to interact with electronic devices.
Bold move forward in molecular analyses
April 25, 2013 2:42 pm | News | CommentsA dramatic leap forward in the ability of scientists to study the structural states of macromolecules such as proteins and nanoparticles in solution has been achieved by a pair of researchers with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The researchers have developed a new set of metrics for analyzing data acquired through small angle scattering experiments with X-rays or neutrons.
Imaging technology could reveal cellular secrets
April 25, 2013 2:30 pm | News | CommentsResearchers have married two biological imaging technologies, creating a new way to learn how good cells go bad. Being able to study a cell's internal workings in fine detail would likely yield insights into the physical and biochemical responses to its environment. The technology, which combines an atomic force microscope and nuclear magnetic resonance system, could help researchers study individual cancer cells.
Scientists image nanoparticles in action
April 25, 2013 8:49 am | News | CommentsThe macroscopic effects of certain nanoparticles on human health have long been clear to the naked eye. What scientists have lacked is the ability to see the detailed movements of individual particles that give rise to those effects. Scientists at Virginia Tech have invented a technique for imaging nanoparticle dynamics with atomic resolution as these dynamics occur in a liquid environment.
Engineers generate world-record millimeter-wave output power from nanoscale CMOS
April 25, 2013 7:44 am | News | CommentsA team of electrical engineers from Columbia University has generated a record amount of power output—by a power of five—using silicon-based nanoscale CMOS technology for millimeter-wave power amplifiers. Power amplifiers are used in communications and sensor systems to boost power levels for reliable transmission of signals over long distances as required by the given application.
Team Effort
April 24, 2013 2:16 pm | by Paul Livingstone | Articles | CommentsAdvances in microscopy and fundamental science are closely intertwined. Without prior understanding of the basis for research, the tools of microscopy are useless. Without microscopy, an understanding of how materials, chemistry, or life behave(s) at the molecular and atomic level cannot be discovered.
FDA device will screen for fake medicines overseas
April 24, 2013 1:19 pm | by MATTHEW PERRONE - AP Health Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsU.S. health officials are making a high-tech screening device available to African authorities to help spot counterfeit malaria pills in hopes that the technology may eventually be used to combat the fake drug trade worldwide. The FDA announced Wednesday that regulators in Ghana will begin using a federally developed handheld device to screen for fake or diluted versions of two common malaria pills.
The Right Touch for Control
April 24, 2013 12:19 pm | by Paul Livingstone | Articles | CommentsWhen not properly controlled or monitored, a scientific instrument is of little practical use. Developers of scientific instrumentation are aware of this, and invest considerable time and money ensuring that users can properly achieve the results promised by the instrument’s design parameters.
Remote Sensing to the Next Level
April 24, 2013 12:12 pm | by Dick Merk and Thomas J Tague Jr., PhD, Bruker Optics, Billerica, Mass. | Articles | CommentsBruker Corporation has coupled highly efficient interferometer technology and proprietary chemometric methods for automatic identification and imaging of chemical species present. The HI 90 hyperspectral imager rapidly detects molecules over a large field of regard (FOR) in seconds and provides both spatial and spectral analysis of the FOR.
Measurement technique offers way of improving optical lens making
April 24, 2013 9:20 am | News | CommentsResearchers at the University of Rochester have applied a sophisticated imaging technique to obtain the first 3D, high-resolution pictures of a recently developed type of optical lenses. They say that using optical coherence tomography during the manufacturing process allows them to significantly improve the quality of these new and promising lenses.
Scientists find way to monitor elusive collisions in space
April 24, 2013 9:10 am | News | CommentsMany collisions occur between asteroids and other objects in our solar system, but scientists are not always able to detect or track these impacts from Earth. Space scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles have now devised a way to monitor these types of collisions in interplanetary space by using a new method to determine the mass of magnetic clouds that result from the impacts.
Rare galaxy found furiously burning fuel for stars
April 24, 2013 9:02 am | News | CommentsAstronomers have found a galaxy turning gas into stars with almost 100% efficiency, a rare phase of galaxy evolution that is the most extreme yet observed. The findings come from the IRAM Plateau de Bure interferometer in the French Alps, NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
U.S. Coast Guard accredits analytical system developed at Purdue
April 24, 2013 7:48 am | News | CommentsIn efforts to prioritize and efficiently manage the repair of boats and stations damaged by Superstorm Sandy, the U.S. Coast Guard has accredited a system called Coast Guard Search and Rescue Visual Analytics (cgSARVA) developed in collaboration with Purdue University.
Study aims to understand how neurons represent the world
April 23, 2013 11:49 am | News | CommentsTo understand the development of sensory representations within our brain, we have to comprehend how electrical activation is linked to the sensory experience. For this reason, researchers in Italy have analyzed the behavior and the activation of neural networks in rats while carrying out tactile object recognition tests. The study represents the first time that the activity of multiple neurons has been monitored.
Nitrogen has key role in estimating CO2 emissions from land use change
April 23, 2013 9:42 am | News | CommentsA new global-scale modeling study that takes into account nitrogen—a key nutrient for plants—estimates that carbon emissions from human activities on land were 40% higher in the 1990s than in studies that did not account for nitrogen. Most existing models used to estimate global emissions changes based on land use do not have the ability to model nitrogen limitations on plant regrowth.
Physicists find right (and left) solution for on-chip optics
April 23, 2013 7:42 am | News | CommentsA Harvard University-led team of researchers has created a new type of nanoscale device that converts an optical signal into waves that travel along a metal surface. Significantly, the device can recognize specific kinds of polarized light and accordingly send the signal in one direction or another.
Decision making in scientific peer review unraveled with modeling
April 22, 2013 11:12 am | News | CommentsA research team from Aalto University has modeled the work processes and human decision making in scientific peer review with the help of statistical physics. Their study will improve understanding of how actions of reviewers and editors during the review work correlate with the decisions to publish or reject article manuscripts.
Superstorm Sandy literally shook the United States
April 19, 2013 12:57 pm | News | CommentsWhen superstorm Sandy turned and took aim at New York City and Long Island last October, ocean waves hitting each other and the shore rattled the seafloor and much of the United States—shaking detected by seismometers across the country, University of Utah researchers have recently found. These “microseisms” generated by Sandy were detected by Earthscope, a network of 500 portable seismometers.
NASA sees distant planets that seem ideal for life
April 19, 2013 12:33 pm | by Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsThe planet-hunting Kepler telescope has discovered two planets that seem like ideal places for some sort of life to flourish. According to scientists working with the NASA telescope, they are just the right size and in just the right place near their star. The discoveries, published online Thursday, mark a milestone in the search for planets where life could exist.
Fine bubble structure of bread dough visualized for first time
April 19, 2013 7:45 am | News | CommentsBaking the perfect loaf of bread is both a science and an art, so researchers are using Canada’s only synchrotron to look at the way bubbles form in bread dough to understand what makes the perfect loaf. Researchers from the University of Manitoba alongside scientists at the Canadian Light Source synchrotron used powerful X-rays on the Biomedical Imaging and Therapy beamline to look carefully at the fine details of dough.
Algorithm helps evaluate, rank scientific literature
April 18, 2013 8:14 am | News | CommentsKeeping up with current scientific literature is a daunting task, considering that hundreds to thousands of papers are published each day. Now researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a computer program to help them evaluate and rank scientific articles in their field.
Sequoia supercomputer transitions to classified work
April 18, 2013 8:05 am | News | CommentsThe National Nuclear Security Administration announced that its Sequoia supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has completed its transition to classified computing in support of the Stockpile Stewardship Program, which helps the United States ensure the safety, security, and effectiveness of its aging nuclear weapons stockpile without the use of underground testing.
