science wire

Allison Okamura is a professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford University and leads the CHARM lab.

As long as a free end gets stuck on something, and some force from moving water or struggling fish pulls in the opposite direction, tiny skeins of thread produced by hagfish can unspool fast enough to make an enormous amount of protective slime. Photo courtesy of Jean-Luc Thiffeault Hundreds of meters deep in the dark of the ocean, a shark glides toward what seems like a meal.

As members of Carnegie Mellon University's NextManufacturing Center , Kate Whitefoot and Levent Burak Kara are using additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, to reimagine what is possible when creating component parts.

Harvesting power from the ocean, through spinning underwater turbines or bobbing wave-energy converters, is an emerging frontier in renewable energy. Researchers have been monitoring how these systems will affect fish and other critters that swim by. But with most available technology, scientists can get only occasional glimpses of what's going on below.

How academia and industry can solve the challenges of future aircraft propulsion was the focus of an annual showcase held at a major centre for aerospace research at the University of Nottingham this week.

In response to epoch-making developments in aviation and space flight, the Bavarian Minister President Dr. Markus Söder announced the establishment of a new engineering department at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in his government statement on April 18, 2018.

Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window) Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Click to print (Opens in new window) Last week, Berkeley students noticed that one of the Campanile's four clocks stopped.

Fully wearable soft exosuit with automatic tuning helps users save energy and walk outside over difficult terrain  Multi-joint Personalized Soft Exosuit Breaks New Ground from Wyss Institute on Vimeo. In the future, smart textile-based soft robotic exosuits could be worn by soldiers, firefighters and rescue workers to help them traverse difficult terrain and arrive fresh at their destinations so that they can perform their respective tasks more effectively.

Advances in performance of batteries and electric motors has provided new technological possibilities including drones and transport devices like hoverboards, e-bikes and e-scooters - technologies th

Carnegie Mellon University's Sheng Shen has created a solder-like material called supersolder, with twice the thermal conductivity of conventional solders and a compliance higher by two to three orders of magnitude.

As the vertical position is unstable—for both trees and humans—mechanisms are needed to offset the effect of gravity.

New research presence will serve to advance innovation in the aerospace industry and shape East Campus gateway.

This questionnaire-game is still as worthwhile as it was in the days of Marcel Proust. Here, we have answers by Franziska Ochsenfarth, student representative in the TUM Senate and the TUM Board of Trustees.

No 206/2018 from Jul 27, 2018 The Institute of Computer Science at Freie Universität Berlin is involved in a joint project that deals with testing and optimizing the safety aspects of networked, self-driving cars. In a project called "Security For Connected, Autonomous Cars" (SecForCARs), a group led by Jörn Eichler is investigating the interaction of cybersecurity and functional safety and their systematic inclusion in the development of interconnected vehicles with automated driving functions.

What goes on at an X-ray light source?  Tune in to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's (Berkeley Lab's) Facebook page, at https://www.facebook.com/BerkeleyLab/ , at 1:30 p.m. (Pacific Time) this Friday, July 27.

The University of Nottingham is working with UK-based aerospace technology firm Derwent Aviation to assess the performance of their new Dual Drive Booster (DDB).

The University of Nottingham is among top UK aerospace research universities joining forces to create a national aviation consortium; a single point of engagement for the world's aerospace community.

Professor Anthony Bull was inaugurated in a Dublin ceremony celebrating his work on joints. The Council is the world's leading professional body dedicated to biomechanics - a field that studies the structure and function of the mechanical aspects of biological systems.

Wimbledon begins on 2 July. Over the course of the Championships some 2,500 tennis balls will be used.

Prosthetic limb technology has advanced by leaps and bounds, giving amputees a range of bionic options, including artificial knees controlled by microchips, sensor-laden feet driven by artificial intelligence, and robotic hands that a user can manipulate with her mind. But such high-tech designs can cost tens of thousands of dollars, making them unattainable for many amputees, particularly in developing countries.

Campus news The super-high-speed train Hyperloop is intended to carry passengers at close to the speed of sound.

MIT engineers have designed a robotic glider that can skim along the water's surface, riding the wind like an albatross while also surfing the waves like a sailboat. In regions of high wind, the robot is designed to stay aloft, much like its avian counterpart. Where there are calmer winds, the robot can dip a keel into the water to ride like a highly efficient sailboat instead.

By Ute Wiedner What structural durability and bouldering have in common and how mechatronics engineer Peter Brunnhofer came to be head of the Fatigue Testing Laboratory at TU Graz is revealed in the interview.

Engineers at Caltech and ETH Zurich have developed robots capable of self-propulsion without using any motors, servos, or power supply. Instead, these first-of-their-kind devices paddle through water as the material they are constructed from deforms with temperature changes. The work blurs the boundary between materials and robots.

Physicists and material scientists have succeeded in constructing a motor and an energy storage device from one single component.

Ranchers in rural Montana, oncology researchers, and touring rock musicians all have one thing in common-they face problems that an engineer could help solve.

Even octopuses understand the importance of elbows. When these squishy, loose-limbed cephalopods need to make a precise movement - such as guiding food into their mouth - the muscles in their tentacles contract to create a temporary revolute joint.

Even in the odd world of quantum physics, the phenomenon known as entanglement-in which two objects become tied together although not physically connected-is among the hardest to comprehend.

For athletes and weekend warriors alike, returning from a tendon injury too soon often ensures a trip right back to physical therapy. However, a new technology developed by University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers could one day help tell whether your tendons are ready for action. A team of researchers led by UW-Madison mechanical engineering professor Darryl Thelen and graduate student Jack Martin has devised a new approach for noninvasively measuring tendon tension while a person is engaging in activities like walking or running.

Aerospace engineers from the University of Sydney are among a cohort of industry and research organisations who will develop a next-generation Small Unmanned Aerial System (SUAS) for use by Australian soldiers.

While some riders claim that motorcycle helmets can break necks during a crash, a University of Wisconsin-Madison study shows they have the opposite effect.

Rolls-Royce, the University of Nottingham and Ansys, a specialist in engineering simulation software, have embarked on a five-year collaboration to develop breakthrough technology for advanced aircraft engines.