science wire

A new technique for revealing images of hidden objects may one day allow pilots to peer through fog and doctors to see more precisely into the human body without surgery. Developed by Princeton engineers, the method relies on the surprising ability to clarify an image using rays of light that would typically make the image unrecognizable, such as those scattered by clouds, human tissue or murky water.

A new technique developed by Princeton University engineers for producing electricity-conducting plastics could dramatically lower the cost of manufacturing solar panels.

A team of researchers led by John Rogers, the Lee J. Flory-Founder Chair in Engineering at Illinois, has developed biocompatible silicon devices that could mark the beginning of a new wave of surgical electronics. Photo by Thompson-McClellan CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Arrhythmic hearts soon may beat in time again, with minimal surgical invasion, thanks to flexible electronics technology developed by a team of University of Illinois researchers, in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Northwestern University.

As the electronics industry works toward developing smaller and more compact devices, the need to create new types of scaled-down semiconductors that are more efficient and use less power has become essential.

Graphene, a one-atom-thick layer of a carbon lattice with a honeycomb structure, has great potential for use in radios, computers, phones and other electronic devices. But applications have been stymied because the semi-metallic graphene, which has a zero band gap, does not function effectively as a semiconductor to amplify or switch electronic signals.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $24.5 million to researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, to head an ambitious, multi-institutional center that could one day lead to a million-fold reduction in power consumption by electronics.

Sheffield scientists celebrated the launch of NASA´s latest space mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida yesterday (Thursday 11 February 2010).

The iPod Nano is a household name, and the Tata Nano - the world's least expensive production car - is set to become one.

David Carmichael has won the 2009 UCL Centre for Neuroimaging Techniques Investigator of the Year award.

A UCL review of electronic patient record (EPR) programmes has revealed that while such programmes promise much, sometimes they deliver little. The major literature review, published in the US journal The Milbank Quarterly this week, identifies fundamental and often overlooked tensions in the design and implementation of EPR programmes.

Surround sight has come to the camera. Inspired by the eye of a fly, EPFL scientists have invented a camera that can take pictures and film in 360° and reconstruct the images in 3D.

A pioneering new research centre which will use advanced techniques in computing and robotics to unlock the secrets of the brain is set to open at the University of Birmingham in 2010. The centre for Computational Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics (CN-CR) will discover more about how the brain learns, ages and recovers from severe injuries and degenerative or developmental neurological disorders.

The event is an opportunity for business leaders and community members to learn about where science is heading, as well as for students to discover potential new career directions.

Cambridge, Mass.

BERKELEY — Three researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are among an elite group of young scientists to watch, according to the national magazine Technology Review 's just-released 2009 list of Top Young Innovators Under 35.

PA 196/09 A low-cost generator with the potential to transform lives in the world's poorest communities is now being tested across the UK and in Nepal.

Engineers at the University of Birmingham have been awarded £750,000 to conduct research on analysing and optimising the performance of supercritical coal fired power plants - a cleaner way of using coal to produce electricity.

UCL has won four grants worth a total of just over £5million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to support research into large-scale integrated projects that exploit nanotechnology for healthcare purposes.

An international team of scientists, led by a Princeton University group, has observed an exciting and strange behavior in electrons' spin within a new material that could be harnessed to transform computing and electronics.