Need Hair, Fur, Brushes, And Bristles? Press “Print

Need Hair, Fur, Brushes, And Bristles? Press “Print”

By Alton Parrish.     These days, it may seem as if 3-D printers can spit out just about anything, from a full-sized sports car, to edible food, to human skin. But some things have defied the technology, including hair, fur, and other [...]
New Electronic Nose To Sniff Out Diseases Cheaply, Analyzes Breath for Health Diagnosis

New Electronic Nose To Sniff Out Diseases Cheaply, Analyzes Breath for Health Diagnosis

  By Alton Parrish.   Researchers at the Texas Analog Center of Excellence (TxACE) at UT Dallas are working to develop an affordable electronic nose that can be used in breath analysis for a wide range of health diagnosis. While devices [...]
New Way to Turn Electricity into Light, Using Graphene, Could Make Computer Chips a Million Times Faster

New Way to Turn Electricity into Light, Using Graphene, Could Make Computer Chips a Million Times Faster

By Alton Parrish.   When an airplane begins to move faster than the speed of sound, it creates a shockwave that produces a well-known “boom” of sound. Now, researchers at MIT and elsewhere have discovered a similar process in a sheet [...]
Salt Baths Boost Next Generation Batteries for Electric Cars

Salt Baths Boost Next Generation Batteries for Electric Cars

By Alton Parrish.   The next generation of rechargeable lithium batteries set to disrupt the electric vehicle industry may soon be here, thanks to the humble salt bath. CSIRO scientists, in collaboration with RMIT University and QUT, have [...]
Can Computers Do Magic?

Can Computers Do Magic?

By Alton Parrish.   Magicians could join composers and artists in finding new ideas for their performances by using computers to create new magic effects, according to computer scientists at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). Writing [...]
Works in The Visible Spectrum, Sees Smaller Than a Wavelength of Light

Works in The Visible Spectrum, Sees Smaller Than a Wavelength of Light

By Alton Parrish.   Curved lenses, like those in cameras or telescopes, are stacked in order to reduce distortions and resolve a clear image. That’s why high-power microscopes are so big and telephoto lenses so long. While lens technology [...]
Hot New Aluminum Alloys Can Jump-Start U.S. Rare Earth Production

Hot New Aluminum Alloys Can Jump-Start U.S. Rare Earth Production

By Alton Parrish. Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and partners Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Wisconsin-based Eck Industries have developed aluminum alloys that are both easier to work with [...]
Polymer Opals For Smart Clothing, Buildings and Security

Polymer Opals For Smart Clothing, Buildings and Security

By Alton Parrish.   The team, led by the University of Cambridge, have invented a way to make such sheets on industrial scales, opening up applications ranging from smart clothing for people or buildings, to banknote security. Using a [...]
Quantum Satellite Device Tests Technology for Global Quantum Network

Quantum Satellite Device Tests Technology for Global Quantum Network

By Alton Parrish.   You can’t sign up for the quantum internet just yet, but researchers have reported a major experimental milestone towards building a global quantum network – and it’s happening in space. With a network [...]
Stretchy Fast Circuits May Yield New Wave of Wireless Wearable Electronics

Stretchy Fast Circuits May Yield New Wave of Wireless Wearable Electronics

    By Alton Parrish.   The consumer marketplace is flooded with a lively assortment of smart wearable electronics that do everything from monitor vital signs, fitness or sun exposure to play music, charge other electronics or [...]
Fish Power? Electric Ray's Organ Provides Power To Generator

Fish Power? Electric Ray’s Organ Provides Power To Generator

  By Alton Parrish.   The electric ray may be the most electrosensitive of all animals. Their eyes are situated on the top of their heads, resulting in poor vision  that must be compensated for with the use of other senses, including [...]
Computer to Train Dogs Autonomously Based on Dog's Body Language

Computer to Train Dogs Autonomously Based on Dog’s Body Language

By Alton Parrish.       North Carolina State University researchers have developed and used a customized suite of technologies that allows a computer to train a dog autonomously, with the computer effectively responding to the [...]
Flying RoboBees, Tiny Surveillance Helicopters and Swarms of Smart Gliders

Flying RoboBees, Tiny Surveillance Helicopters and Swarms of Smart Gliders

By Alton Parrish.     Flying micro-robots have a fine future carrying out almost every imaginable task in surveillance and detection.  You can run but it is getting harder and harder to hide. In a recent article in Science, Harvard [...]
Engineers Take First Step Toward Flexible, Wearable, Tricorder-Like Device

Engineers Take First Step Toward Flexible, Wearable, Tricorder-Like Device

    By Alton Parrish.   Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed the first flexible wearable device capable of monitoring both biochemical and electric signals in the human body. The Chem-Phys patch records [...]
'CardBoardiZer' Allows Users to Create Robotic Models in Minutes

‘CardBoardiZer’ Allows Users to Create Robotic Models in Minutes

  By Alton Parrish.   A new computerized system allows novice designers to convert static three-dimensional objects into moving robotic versions made out of materials including cardboard, wood and sheet metal. “We are taking [...]
Ingestible Robot Operates in Simulated Stomach

Ingestible Robot Operates in Simulated Stomach

By Alton Parrish.   In experiments involving a simulation of the human esophagus and stomach, researchers at MIT, the University of Sheffield, and the Tokyo Institute of Technology have demonstrated a tiny origami robot that can unfold [...]
Child’s Robot Learning Companion Serves as a Customizable Tutor

Child’s Robot Learning Companion Serves as a Customizable Tutor

  By Alton Parrish.   Parents want the best for their children’s education and often complain about large class sizes and the lack of individual attention.  A new social robot from MIT helps students learn through personalized [...]
Five-Fingered Robot Hand Learns to Get a Grip On Its Own

Five-Fingered Robot Hand Learns to Get a Grip On Its Own

  by Alton Parrish.     Robots today can perform space missions, solve a Rubik’s cube, sort hospital medication and even make pancakes. But most can’t manage the simple act of grasping a pencil and spinning it around to get [...]
Suicide Bomb Detector Moves Forward

Suicide Bomb Detector Moves Forward

  By Alton parrish.     On the chilling list of terrorist tactics, suicide bombing is at the top. Between 1981 and 2015, an estimated 5,000 such attacks occurred in more than 40 countries, killing about 50,000 people. The global [...]
Computers in Your Clothes: Clothes that Receive and Transmit Digital Information Are Closer to

Computers in Your Clothes: Clothes that Receive and Transmit Digital Information Are Closer to Reality

  By Alton Parrish.       Researchers who are working to develop wearable electronics have reached a milestone: They are able to embroider circuits into fabric with 0.1 mm precision—the perfect size to integrate electronic [...]