science wire

As militaries develop autonomous robotic warriors to replace humans on the battlefield, new ethical questions emerge.

MIT's Medical Electronic Device Realization Center aims to connect microelectronics with new health-care tools.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.

To achieve buff biceps, proper form for strength-training exercises is key, and people often turn to professional trainers to correct them and prevent injury.

Engineers from the University of Bristol have developed illuminating 'magic wands' that work by picking up radio signals from mobile devices.

A new scientific instrument, a "time machine" of sorts, built by UCLA astronomers and colleagues, will allow scientists to study the earliest galaxies in the universe, which could never be studied before.

Cornell robotics researcher Hadas Kress-Gazit is part of a five-year, $10 million National Science Foundation Expeditions in Computing project to make computer programming faster, easier and more intuitive.

A breakthrough in the development of a new generation of plastic electronic circuits by researchers at the Cavendish Laboratory brings flexible and transparent intelligent materials - such as artificial skin and interactive playing cards - a step closer.

Robot nannies could diminish child care worries for parents of young children. Equipped with alarms and monitoring capabilities to guard children from harm, a robot nanny would let parents leave youngsters at home without a babysitter. Sign us up, parents might say. Human-like robot babysitters are in the works, but it's unclear at this early stage what children's relationships with these humanoids will be like and what dangers lurk in this convenient-sounding technology.

MEDIA ADVISORY DATE: 9 a.m. 4:30 p.m. April 9, 2012. EVENT: Self-driving cars, smart wheelchairs and a remote-controlled Segway that's mapping campus in four dimensions are a few of the latest robotic systems that will be discussed or demonstrated at Robotics Day 2012.

Busy first days for ATV Edoardo Amaldi Just two days after a flawless docking with the ISS on 29 March, ESA's third ATV has conducted its first 'test' reboost, proving that it is fully integrated with the Station and ready to perform orbit boosts and manoeuvres if necessary.

A Yale-led research team will spend the next five years developing a new breed of sophisticated "socially assistive" robots for helping young children learn to read, appreciate physical fitness, overcome cognitive disabilities, and perform physical exercises.

By depositing atoms on one side of a grid of the "miracle material" graphene, researchers at Stanford have engineered piezoelectricity into a nanoscale material for the first time. Twist it and it generates electricity. The implications could yield a dramatic degree of control in nanotechnology. To the long list of exceptional physical properties of graphene, Stanford engineers have added yet another: piezoelectricity, the property of some materials to produce an electric charge when bent, squeezed or twisted.

NSF grant funds team of researchers at MIT, Harvard, and Penn to create design and print-your-own robot technology April 3, 2012 - An ambitious new project to reinvent how robots are designed and produced is being funded by a $10-million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

At the heart of digital photography is a chip called an image sensor that captures a map of the intensity of the light as it comes through the lens and converts it to an electronic signal.

Results provide fresh support for Einstein's cosmological constant Analysis of data from the 10-meter South Pole Telescope is providing new support for the most widely accepted explanation of dark energy, the source of the mysterious force that is responsible for the accelerating expansion of the universe.

Online passwords are so insecure that one per cent can be cracked within 10 guesses, according to the largest ever sample analysis.

New algorithms could enable heaps of 'smart sand' that can assume any shape, allowing spontaneous formation of new tools or duplication of broken mechanical parts.

The University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University are taking part in an ambitious new project, led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to reinvent how robots are designed and produced.

Kyle Shen, assistant professor of physics, has been awarded $566,000 over three years from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Program.

Reception and service at central level for international students after arrival at KTH.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.-A University of Michigan startup marketing next-generation computer memory that could write 1,000 times faster than Flash is the recipient of U-M's first investment in one of its own startup companies.

Researchers at Penn State and the University of Notre Dame have announced breakthroughs in the development of tunneling field effect transistors (TFETs), a semiconductor technology that takes advantage of the quirky behavior of electrons at the quantum level.

A new research centre at The University of Nottingham will develop the next generation of electrical machines for transportation, energy and industry.

Robot companions at the cutting edge of a number of international research projects will be mingling with members of the European Parliament in Brussels next week.

Researchers met the grand challenge of producing magnetic fields in excess of 100 tesla while conducting six different experiments.

California's Santa Rita Jail just got a little more secure this week, thanks to the completion of a $14 million "microgrid" project that gives the facility its own autonomous power supply — a feat rooted in University of Wisconsin-Madison technology.

A major effort to study a mysterious substance that could enhance understanding of the cosmos and fusion energy has received a critical boost from the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) . Scientists at PPPL have designed and delivered a crucial component for a device that can heat a spot of foil to 30,000 degrees Centigrade in less than a billionth of a second.

Expert on nano-optics will further strengthen SEAS' teaching and research in electrical engineering Harvard President Drew Faust has approved Marko Loncar for promotion to the role of full professor with tenure at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).

Businesses, residents and organisations in Cambridge are being urged to recycle their broken electronics at a three-day event being held at University of Cambridge, Sidgwick Site Car Park, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge CB3 9DD.

MIT researchers are developing a system that would allow aircraft-carrier crews to guide in autonomous planes using ordinary hand gestures.

The watery depths of Western Australia's Ningaloo coast will be audited by marine engineers and scientists this week using an aquatic robot and technology developed by University of Sydney mechatronic experts. The innovative technology will assist scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in detailed mapping of the seabed communities of Ningaloo Reef's deeper waters, which form part of Australia's Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS).

A Penn State researcher is co-editor of the latest issue of Bank Street's Occasional Papers Series, a prominent academic journal that serves as a forum for educators to discuss timely academic matters.

The Cornell-developed robotic gripper that already boasts Internet fame and imitation has evolved: Now, it can throw things, without swinging an arm, by using air pressure to launch objects forward.

Like something straight out of "Star Wars," armies of robots could nimbly be crawling up towers and skyscrapers to make repairs in the not-so-distant future, so humans don't have to.

If robots are to take over people’s jobs then they must become, well, more human! When it comes to learning from previous experience, fine motor skills and manual dexterity, today’s robots are far behind humans.

This car was not snapped with a camera but scanned by a 3D imaging lidar, the laser equivalent of radar.

For 50 years, scientists searched for the secret to making tiny implantable devices that could travel through the bloodstream.

The technological world of the 21 st century owes a tremendous amount to advances in electrical engineering, specifically, the ability to finely control the flow of electrical charges using increasingly small and complicated circuits.

As the brilliant colors of the aurora borealis, or northern lights, delights skygazers, Cornell researchers are discovering how their physics affects satellite signals here on Earth.

PITTSBURGH - The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded Carnegie Mellon's College of Engineering and the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Science a

Production method inspired by children's pop-up books enables rapid fabrication of tiny, complex devices : Caroline Perry , (617) 496-1351 - A new technique inspired by elegant pop-up books and origami will soon allow clones of robotic insects to be mass-produced by the sheet.

January saw the biggest solar storm since 2005, generating some of the most dazzling northern lights in recent memory. The source of that storm—and others like it—was the sun's magnetic field, described by invisible field lines that protrude from and loop back into the burning ball of gas.

In this video Ingrid Graz shows us a thin layer of gold on top of rubber. Cracks in the gold allow it to stretch and we can use this for stretchable electronics.

A team of University of California, San Diego researchers has built the smallest room-temperature nanolaser to date, as well as an even more startling device: a highly efficient, "thresholdless" laser that funnels all its photons into lasing, without any waste. The two new lasers require very low power to operate, an important breakthrough since lasers usually require greater and greater "pump power" to begin lasing as they shrink to nano sizes.