Tag: physical sciences
-
Insect Eyes Inspire Multiple Digital Camera Lens Design
Engineers at University of Illinois in Urbana designed a new type of digital camera lens based on the multiple-lens design found in the eyes of bees and dragonflies. The team led by Illinois engineering professor John Rogers, with colleagues from the U.S., Korea, Singapore, and China published their findings in this week’s issue of the…
-
Synthetic Biology Census Shows Company Growth, Consolidation
A census of organizations, agencies, and companies involved in synthetic biology shows rapid growth of the field in the past four years, but also some retrenchment, particularly in the private sector. The study was conducted by the Synthetic Biology Project, an initiative of Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. The Wilson Center…
-
Shape-Changing Capability Developed for Mobile Devices
Computer scientists at University of Bristol in the U.K. developed the ability for mobile devices made with flexible materials to change their shape to better fit their uses at the moment. The team from Bristol’s Interaction and Graphics lab is scheduled today to present a paper on what they call Morphees at the ACM SIGCHI…
-
System Creates Ad Hoc Touch-Based Interfaces on Surfaces
Computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh developed a system that can project images to control computer devices on everyday surfaces almost at will. The team of doctoral candidates Robert Xiao and Chris Harrison, with professor Scott Hudson, will discuss their WorldKit system next week at the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in…
-
Lab-On-A-Chip Diagnoses Multiple Tropical Diseases
The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore’s main science funding agency, and Singapore clinical chip manufacturer Veredus Laboratories unveiled a new automated lab-on-a-chip device that can diagnose 13 tropical diseases from a single blood sample. Veredus is a subsidiary of STMicroelectronics specializing in medical diagnostics. The partnership between A*Star and Veredus that developed…
-
Faster, Automated Test Developed for Sepsis-Causing Fungus
A test for Candida, a fungal infection that can lead to sepsis, identified the pathogen in whole blood samples in a few hours, rather than the two to five days needed by current tests. Researchers from T2 Biosystems, a biotechnology company in Lexington, Massachusetts, with colleagues from Brown University and Harvard University medical schools published…
-
New Type Battery Designed for Solar, Wind Grid Storage
Engineers at Stanford University and Stanford’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory developed a lower-cost design for long term storage of wind and solar energy on the power grid. The team led by Yi Cui, a materials science and engineering professor at Stanford and part of a joint materials and energy science institute at SLAC, published its…
-
Oregon Health, Intel Partner on Genome Analysis Computing
Oregon Health and Science University in Portland and Intel Corporation are developing new computing technologies to increase the speed and precision of analyzing a patient’s genome, while reducing their time and cost. Financial aspects of the multi-year collaboration were not disclosed. The agreement calls for engineers and scientists from Oregon Health and Intel to develop…
-
Solar Nanoscale Protein Filter Cleans Antibiotics from Water
Engineers at University of Cincinnati in Ohio developed a nanoscale filter powered by sunlight that can clean biochemical compounds, such as antibiotics, from lakes and rivers. Environmental engineering professor David Wendell and Ph.D. candidate Vikram Kapoor published their findings online last week in the journal Nano Letters (paid subscription required). The presence of antibiotics from…
-
Low Cost Soft-Touch Robotic Sensor Circuits Commercialized
Computer scientists at Harvard University developed and are taking to market circuits for robotic devices and potentially other electronic products that can sense the slightest application of pressure. The team led by Ph.D. candidate Leif Jentoft and postdoctoral fellow Yaroslav Tenzer in Harvard’s Biorobotics Laboratory started a company to commercialize the technology, and are licensing…