science wire

ESA Space in Images On 20 May, over a million tonnes of dirt and rock buried part of Californiaâ?'s Highway 1 along the Pacific coastline in the stateâ''s Big Sur region.

CMU's Interactive Tool Helps Novices and Experts Make Custom Robots By Byron Spice A new interactive design tool developed by Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute enables both novices and experts to build customized legged or wheeled robots using 3-D-printed components and off-the-shelf actuators.

ESA Space in Images The Copernicus Sentinel-1B satellite brings us over the Gulf of Finland, with part of Finland along the top, Estonia along the bottom and Russia to the right.

With the release of Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel's blueprint for Australia's future electricity market, ANU experts below provide their thoughts on the way forward to ensure the country's energy security.

AUSTIN, Texas - The Department of Energy has selected the Center for Electromechanics (CEM) in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin to lead a new $1.6 millio

As the energy sector eagerly awaits Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel's final report on the review of the electricity market's future security, ANU experts below provide their thoughts on what to expect.

Eight years ago, Ted Adelsonâ?'s research group at MITâ''s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) unveiled a new sensor technology, called GelSight, that uses physical contact with an object to provide a remarkably detailed 3-D map of its surface.

New robotic exosuit could push the limits of human performance and lead to new wearable technologies for athletes and consumers What if running the 26.2 miles of a marathon only felt like running 24.9 miles, or if you could improve your average running pace from 9:14 minutes/mile to 8:49 minutes/mile without weeks of training?

ANN ARBOR'With yogurt and crushed glass, University of Michigan researchers have taken a step toward using visible light to image inside the body. Their method for focusing light through these materials is much faster and simpler than today's dominant approach. Dense structures like bone show up clearly in x-rays, but softer tissues like organs and tumors are difficult to make out.

Mid-infrared wavelengths of light are invisible to the eye but can be useful for a number of technologies, including night vision, thermal sensing, and environmental monitoring. Now, a new phenomenon in an unconventional metal, found by physicists at MIT and elsewhere, could provide a new way of making highly sensitive detectors for these elusive wavelengths.

Scientists have developed a new method of characterizing grapheneâ?'s properties without applying disruptive electrical contacts, allowing them to investigate both the resistance and quantum capacitance of graphene and other two-dimensional materials. Researchers from the Swiss Nanoscience Institute and the University of Baselâ''s Department of Physics reported their findings in the journal Physical Review Applied.

Living cells must constantly process information to keep track of the changing world around them and arrive at an appropriate response.

On behalf of CERN, researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a high-tech device for the production of extremely precise, high voltage pulses that could be used in the next generation of particle accelerators.

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ANN ARBOR?Inspired by how mammals see, a new "memristor" computer circuit prototype at the University of Michigan has the potential to process complex data, such as images and video orders of magnitude, faster and with much less power than today's most advanced systems.

Social scientists from universities in the USA and Scotland have carried out ground-breaking analysis of the benefits of providing off-grid solar power to rural communities in India.

There are 1.7 million jobs in the United States that involve driving a truck, and Silicon Valley experts predict that these workers may be replaced by self-driving vehicles over the next decade, with a devastating effect on the economy.

CMU's plug-In "Synthetic Sensor" transforms any room into smart environment By Byron Spice Ubiquitous sensors seem almost synonymous with the internet of things (IoT), but some Carnegie Mellon Univer

When it comes to removing very dilute concentrations of pollutants from water, existing separation methods tend to be energyand chemical-intensive. Now, a new method developed at MIT could provide a selective alternative for removing even extremely low levels of unwanted compounds. The new approach is described in the journal Energy and Environmental Science , in a paper by MIT postdoc Xiao Su, Ralph Landau Professor of Chemical Engineering T. Alan Hatton, and five others at MIT and at the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany.

A blue plaque to commemorate the life and work of a great interdisciplinary thinker, whose interest was in visual illusion and what these revealed about human perception, will be unveiled tomorrow [Wednesday 10 May].

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Engineers are unveiling an upgrade to the transistor laser that could be used to boost computer processor speeds - the formation of two stable energy states and the ability to switch between them quickly.

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Visitors flocked to Imperial Festival's newest exhibit today to discover how science could change the future of food.

When robots become common in our homes and workplaces, how will we relate to them? Will we treat them with dignity and respect or regard them as second-class citizens' Could we develop emotional rela

A new semiconductor developed by Stanford researchers is as flexible as skin and easily degradable. It could have diverse medical and environmental applications, without adding to the mounting pile of global electronic waste. As electronics become increasingly pervasive in our lives - from smart phones to wearable sensors - so too does the ever rising amount of electronic waste they create.

Researchers at MIT, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory have devised a way to wirelessly power small electronic devices that can linger in the digestive tract indefinitely after being swallowed.

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Wireless communications is a technology that is used every day. Across society, there is a move away from using the internet on desktop computers and towards smartphones, tablets and laptops. Engineers at the University of Bristol have developed a novel radio frequency (RF) design tool that will speed up the design of tuneable wireless devices and will enable smartphones to roam internationally.

His work is recognized by the Office of Naval Research Imagine using the electrical properties of neurons to illuminate aspects of neural diseases.

Many of today's greatest innovations are built on the shoulders of fundamental research conducted decades ago.

Physicists at the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter at Caltech have discovered the first three-dimensional quantum liquid crystal'a new state of matter that may have applications in ultrafast quantum computers of the future. "We have detected the existence of a fundamentally new state of matter that can be regarded as a quantum analog of a liquid crystal," says Caltech assistant professor of physics David Hsieh , principal investigator on a new study describing the findings in the April 21 issue of Science .

E veryone experiences stiff muscles from time to time, whether after a rigorous workout, in cold weather, or after falling asleep in an unusual position.

In 2016, annual global semiconductor sales reached their highest-ever point, at $339 billion worldwide.

A research team led by UCLA electrical engineers has developed a new technique to control the polarization state of a laser that could lead to a new class of powerful, high-quality lasers for use in medical imaging, chemical sensing and detection, or fundamental science research.

ANN ARBOR?Despite considerable concerns about the safety of flying cars, two-thirds of Americans say they would like to ride in or operate their own airborne vehicle.

Discovered more than 100 years ago, black phosphorus was soon forgotten when there was no apparent use for it. In what may prove to be one of the great comeback stories of electrical engineering, it now stands to play a crucial role in the future of electronic and optoelectronic devices. With a research team's recent discovery, the material could possibly replace silicon as the primary material for electronics.

By Emily Durham From left to right, Antonio Garcia-Smith, Danielle Quan, Sean Reidy, Abha Agrawal and Adam Zeloof are members of the RoboBuggy team.

While using X-rays generated by the Advanced Light Source (ALS), a synchrotron facility at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), to study a bismuth-containing thermoelectric material that can convert heat into electricity, physicist M. Zahid Hasan of Princeton University saw that something was interfering with the anticipated view of electrons' behavior inside the material.

A team of researchers led by Caltech's Hyuck Choo has developed an eye implant for glaucoma patients that could one day lead to more timely and effective treatment.

Vast amounts of energy are wasted every year in the form of heat. A new project led by the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Berkeley Lab) seeks to efficiently capture that heat and convert it to electricity, potentially saving California up to $385 million per year.

Cardiff University is celebrating the landmark stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) procedure, which was conducted at The University Hospital of Wales and is the first of its kind to be carried out with robotic assistance in Wales.

Cutting-edge electronics research in the UK has received a huge boost, thanks to grants for the University of Warwick - totalling almost £1.75 million - from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

A smart street mapping initiative, using technology developed by Oxford Robotics Institute , could help transform how infrastructure services are managed in the city.

Car battery researchers at WMG at the University of Warwick have just bought specialist "Hardware-in-the-Loop" high power computing equipment.

Microprocessors based on atomically thin materials hold the promise of the evolution of traditional processors as well as new applications in the field of flexible electronics.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. A new method to improve semiconductor fiber optics may lead to a material structure that might one day revolutionize the global transmission of data, according to an interdisciplinary team of researchers.