Tech

A Johns Hopkins computer scientist played a key role in a new study that analyzed online news and search engine records to gauge the public's response to actor Charlie Sheen's Nov. 17, 2015, disclosure on NBC's TODAY Show that he was HIV-positive.

SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Feb. 22, 2016) -- On November 17, 2015 actor Charlie Sheen on NBC's Today Show publicly disclosed he was human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive.

For some time scientists and advocates have recognized the importance of celebrity in public health. Could Sheen's disclosure, albeit tragic, generate renewed national attention for HIV and HIV prevention, providing an important public health benefit?

Physicists have zoomed in on the transition that could explain why copper-oxides have such impressive superconducting powers.

Nature shows us how it is done: Plants can absorb sunlight and store its energy chemically. Imitating this on large industrial scale, however, is difficult. Photovoltaics convert sunlight to electricity, but at high temperatures, the efficiency of solar cells decreases. Electrical energy can be used to produce hydrogen, which can then be stored -- but the energy efficiency of this process is limited.

Nowadays Li-ion batteries power a wide range of electronic devices: mobile phones, tablets, laptops. They became popular in 90s and subsequently ousted widespread nickel-metal hydride batteries.

Long ago, in a field far away...

Impressions of cockroach egg cases from 4,300 year old Japanese potsherds (broken pottery fragments) have been found in southern Japan. X-ray, computed tomography (CT) and scanning electron microscopy were used to image the impressions and reveal aspects about ancient Japanese life in this latest archeological survey from Kumamoto University.

These are impressions you are looking for

Everyday materials found in the kitchen, such as aluminum foil, sticky note paper, sponges and tape, have been used by a team of electrical engineers from KAUST to develop a low-cost sensor that can detect external stimuli, including touch, pressure, temperature, acidity and humidity. Their work was published on Feb. 19, 2016 in the inaugural issue of Advanced Materials Technologies by Wiley-VCH (Germany).

HOUSTON -- (Feb. 22, 2016) -- Rice University bioengineering researchers have modified a commercial-grade CO2 laser cutter to create OpenSLS, an open-source, selective laser sintering platform that can print intricate 3-D objects from powdered plastics and biomaterials. The system costs at least 40 times less than its commercial counterparts and allows researchers to work with their own specialized powdered materials.

Short-term exposure to engineered nanoparticles used in semiconductor manufacturing poses little risk to people or the environment, according to a widely read research paper from a University of Arizona-led research team.

When remote regions with limited health facilities experience an epidemic, they need portable diagnostic equipment that functions outside the hospital. As demand for such equipment grows, EPFL researchers have developed a low-cost and portable microfluidic diagnostic device. It has been tested on Ebola and can be used to detect many other diseases.

MALIBU, Calif., February 19, 2016 -- HRL Laboratories, LLC, today announced that researchers in its Sensors and Materials Laboratory have developed an active variable stiffness vibration isolator capable of 100x stiffness changes and millisecond actuation times, independent of the static load. According to Principal Investigator Christopher Churchill, "This performance surpasses existing mechanisms by at least 20 times in either speed or useful stiffness change."

New research demonstrates that particles at the quantum level can in fact be seen as behaving something like billiard balls rolling along a table, and not merely as the probabilistic smears that the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics suggests. But there's a catch - the tracks the particles follow do not always behave as one would expect from "realistic" trajectories, but often in a fashion that has been termed "surrealistic."

HANOVER, N.H. - Dartmouth College researchers have developed a digital "magic wand" to improve home healthcare and to prevent hackers from stealing your personal data.

The system, called "Wanda," will be presented at the IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications in April.

An exciting new scientific frontier--synthetic biology--took center stage as a celebrated scientist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recently spoke at the headquarters of the Office of Naval Research (ONR).

As part of a Distinguished Lecture Series celebrating ONR's 70th anniversary, world-class scientists, researchers and experts from diverse fields will be speaking at ONR in 2016. Dr. Christopher Voigt, an MIT professor of biological engineering, inaugurated the lecture series with a look at the revolutionary potential of synthetic biology.

Topological insulators appeared to be rather well-understood from theory until now. The electrons that can only occupy "allowed" quantum states in the crystal lattice are free to move in only two dimensions, namely along the surface, behaving like massless particles. Topological insulators are therefore highly conductive at their surfaces and electrically insulating within. Only magnetic fields should destroy this mobility, according to theory.