Tech

CAMBRIDGE, Ma. - Jan. 20, 2016 - During a 2014 talk on his exploration of deep-sea coral reefs, Baruch College marine biologist David Gruber showed a video of clunky robotic hands collecting fragile specimens of coral and sponges from the ocean floor. Harvard engineer and roboticist Robert J. Wood was in the audience -- the two scientists were being recognized as Emerging Explorers by the National Geographic Society -- and a lightbulb went off.

A one-of-a-kind instrument built at CSU lets scientists map cellular composition in three dimensions at the nanoscale, allowing researchers to watch how cells respond to new medications at the most minute level ever observed.

The new mass-spectral imaging system is the first of its kind in the world and its applications are just beginning to surface, said Carmen Menoni, a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Heartbeats can now be measured without placing sensors on the body, thanks to a new technology developed in Japan. Researchers at the Kyoto University Center of Innovation, together with Panasonic Corp, have come up with a way to measure heartbeats remotely, in real time, and under controlled conditions with as much accuracy as electrocardiographs.

The researchers say this will allow for the development of "casual sensing" -- taking measurements as people go about their daily activities, for instance, when they are going to bed or getting ready to start the day.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers have created nanoribbons of an emerging class of materials called topological insulators and used a magnetic field to control their semiconductor properties, a step toward harnessing the technology to study exotic physics and building new spintronic devices or quantum computers.

The falling price of gasoline at the pumps may warm the hearts of consumers but it chills the souls of scientists who recognize that humankind must curtail the burning of fossil fuels to reduce the threat of climate change. Biofuels can help mitigate climate change and provide us with a sustainable source of transportation energy if yields and production costs are economically competitive. A major step towards achieving this goal has been achieved by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI).

It took Jackie Goordial over 1000 Petri dishes before she was ready to accept what she was seeing. Or not seeing. Goordial, a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences at McGill University has spent the past four years looking for signs of active microbial life in permafrost soil taken from one of the coldest, oldest and driest places on Earth: in University Valley, located in the high elevation McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, where extremely cold and dry conditions have persisted for over 150,000 years.

Billions of people use the internet, which requires huge data centres and results in an enormous energy consumption. In her doctoral dissertation at Umeå University in Sweden, Mina Sedaghat has developed techniques and algorithms to manage and schedule the resources in these large data centres at a lesser cost, more efficiently, more reliably and with a lower environmental impact.

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - Researchers at Binghamton University have become the first to use an open-source graphics processor unit (GPU) for research.

Scientists at the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are studying what may seem paradoxical - certain defects in silicon solar cells may actually improve their performance.

The findings run counter to conventional wisdom, according to Pauls Stradins, the principal scientist and a project leader of the silicon photovoltaics group at NREL.

A Southampton study using high resolution imaging to create a "virtual bone biopsy" has shed new light on why people with type 2 diabetes are at risk of bone fractures.

Researchers from the Medical Research Council Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, used high resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HRpQCT) to assess bone structure and strength at a microstructural level in living patients.

3D printing techniques have quickly become some of the most widely used tools to rapidly design and build new components. A team of engineers at the University of Bristol has developed a new type of 3D printing that can print composite materials, which are used in many high performance products such as tennis rackets, golf clubs and aeroplanes. This technology will soon enable a much greater range of things to be 3D printed at home and at low-cost.

Researchers from MIPT have found a solution to the problem of overheating of active plasmonic components. These components will be essential for high-speed data transfer within the optoelectronic microprocessors of the future, which will be able to function tens of thousands of times faster than the microprocessors currently in use today. In the paper published in ACS Photonics the researchers have demonstrated how to efficiently cool optoelectronic chips using industry-standard heatsinks in spite of high heat generation in active plasmonic components.

EPFL scientists have developed a solar-panel material that can cut down on photovoltaic costs while achieving competitive power-conversion efficiency of 20.2%.

An international team of researchers has taken a step toward achieving controlled nuclear fusion--a process that powers the Sun and other stars, and has the potential to supply the world with limitless, clean energy.

A new study from the Medical Research Council Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, shows lesions, which can best be seen on MRI scans, could help identify individuals who are more likely to suffer from more rapidly progressing osteoarthritis.

Osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis in the UK and can cause the joints to become painful and stiff. Almost any joint can be affected, but it most often causes problems in the knees, hips, and small joints of the hands. It can progress at varying speeds.