A 60-year-old mystery about the source of energetic, potentially damaging particles in Earth’s radiation belts has been solved using data from a shoebox-sized satellite built and operated by students. The satellite is called a CubeSat. Imagine a fully instrumented satellite the size of a half-gallon milk carton. Then imagine that milk carton whirling in space,…
Robots to Provide a Steadying Hand at the Right Time
Many new robots look less like the metal humanoids of pop culture and more like high-tech extensions of ourselves and our capabilities. In the same way eyeglasses, wheelchairs, pacemakers and other items enable people to see and move more easily in the world, so will many cutting-edge robotic systems. Their aim is to help people…
Outwitting Poachers with Artificial Intelligence
A century ago, more than 60,000 tigers roamed the wild. Today, the worldwide estimate has dwindled to around 3,200. Poaching is one of the main drivers of this precipitous drop. Whether killed for skins, medicine or trophy hunting, humans have pushed tigers to near-extinction. The same applies to other large animal species like elephants and…
Making the Maker Movement Accessible
3D printing is often lauded for its ability to create assistive technologies for those who are differently-abled. The “Iron Man” arm, created by Albert Manero and his team from the University of Central Florida for a young boy in Florida, is in many ways an icon for the movement and its transformative potential. But when…
Smaller and Cheaper Particle Accelerators?
Traditionally, particle accelerators have relied on electric fields generated by radio waves to drive electrons and other particles close to the speed of light. But in radio-frequency machines there is an upper limit on the electric field before the walls of the accelerator “break down,” causing it to not perform properly, and leading to equipment…
How Robots Can Help Build Better Doctors
A young doctor leans over a patient who has been in a serious car accident and invariably must be experiencing pain. The doctor’s trauma team examines the patient’s pelvis and rolls her onto her side to check her spine. They scan the patient’s abdomen with a rapid ultrasound machine, finding fluid. They insert a tube…
Teaching Tykes to Program Robots
Playgrounds are popular spaces for young children to play and learn. They promote exploration of the physical environment and motor and social skill development, allowing young children to be autonomous while developing core competencies. Playpens, by contrast, corral children into safe, confined spaces. Although they are mostly riskfree, there is little opportunity for exploration and…
R&D Expenditures Recognized as Investment in U.S. GDP Statistics
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) now treats expenditures in research and development (R&D) as investment when estimating U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) and other national income and product accounts statistics. BEA and the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) collaborated in developing methodology to use NCSES R&D expenditure statistics…
Biophotonics Poised to Make Major Breakthroughs in Medicine
Imagine having the ability to manipulate light waves in order to see through a skull right into the brain, or being able to use lasers to diagnose a bacterial infection in a matter of minutes. At the Center for Biophotonic Sensors and Systems (CBSS) at Boston University, you might say that technologies enabling these abilities and many…
Engineering the Spark That Starts the Wildfire
Hot metal fragments can be created from power lines, overheated brakes, railway tracks or any other manner of metal-on-metal action in our industrialized society. The particles can reach more than 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, around the boiling point of most metals. Although these bits cool as they fall to the ground, they can ignite a flame…
Floating Wind Turbines Bring Electricity Where It’s Needed
It’s a balloon that lifts a wind turbine. VIEW: Photos of the Day: Wind Turbine Floats 2,000 Feet That’s the easiest way to describe the technology being developed by Altaeros Energies, led by Ben Glass, inventor and CEO of the young company. Glass has reimagined the possibilities of balloon and airship technology to lift a…
Tiny, Self-Powered Sensors Ward Off Failure
Imagine a world where bridges, roads, heart valves or knee replacements could monitor themselves and send a warning signal before they fail. Imagine then, if these advanced pieces of technology could power themselves and operate for years without needing any maintenance. Shantanu Chakrabartty, a researcher at Michigan State University (MSU), has worked for almost a…
Engineering Seismic Retrofits That Don’t Break the Bank
Researchers at the state-of-the-art Structural Engineering and Materials Laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology are using a full-scale model building to test new ways to protect structures from earthquakes and potentially save lives. The three-story concrete building is based on designs common through much of the 20th century. It has been subjected to round…
Tomorrow’s Tech-Most-Wanted at Eureka Park
Smarter home systems, better batteries, more wearable tech, and totally outside-the-box electronics with the potential to usher in the next generation of high-tech living can be found in one place in January. That place is Eureka Park, an area dedicated to up-and-coming technology born from fundamental science and engineering innovation, at the world’s largest consumer electronics…
“SciGirls” TV Series Encourages Girls to Succeed in STEM
Real-world STEM adventures inspire millions of girls through the power of media The magic of life unfolds, but for adolescents Mimi, Izzie and Quinn, watching a monarch butterfly emerge from its cocoon and spread its wings is more than a fascinating moment–cameras are rolling! With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Richard…
New & Updated Resource on STEM Education, Workforce
It just became a lot easier for educators, students, parents, policymakers and business leaders to learn more about national trends in education and jobs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The National Science Board (NSB) yesterday released an interactive, online resource featuring new and updated data and graphics about STEM education and workforce in…
Enabling a New Future for Cloud Computing
NSF awards $20 million to two new testbeds to support cloud computing applications and experiments The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced two $10 million projects to create cloud computing testbeds–to be called “Chameleon” and “CloudLab”–that will enable the academic research community to develop and experiment with novel cloud architectures and pursue new, architecturally-enabled applications of…
Can Our Computers Continue to Get Smaller and More Powerful?
University of Michigan computer scientist reviews frontier technologies to determine fundamental limits of computer scaling From their origins in the 1940s as sequestered, room-sized machines designed for military and scientific use, computers have made a rapid march into the mainstream, radically transforming industry, commerce, entertainment and governance while shrinking to become ubiquitous handheld portals to…
Unmanned Aircraft Successfully to Measure Changes in Polar Ice Sheets
Scientists studying the behavior of the world’s ice sheets–and the future implications of ice sheet behavior for global sea-level rise–may soon have a new airborne tool that will allow radar measurements that previously would have been prohibitively expensive or difficult to carry out with manned aircraft. In a paper published in the March/ April edition…
Photos of the Day: Recovering Seafloor Electromagnetic Receivers
Using advanced seafloor electromagnetic imaging technology pioneered at SIO, the scientists imaged a 25-kilometer- (15.5-mile-) thick layer of partially melted mantle rock below the edge of the Cocos plate where it moves beneath Central America. Researchers pull an ocean bottom electromagnetic receiver onto the vessel Melville’s deck. Credit: Kerry Key Read the full story here.…