Technology

Underwater Rockets: Adopting A Penguin Propulsion System

Kids love penguins. They sing and dance in cartoons, they waddle like Charlie Chaplin on land- but underwater, they are all business, accelerating from 0 to 15 miles per hour in less than a second.  ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 17 2013 - 11:13am

CHICA Automated System Improves Autism Screening Rate

An automated system,  the Child Health Improvement through Computer Automation system (CHICA), helps pediatricians focus on the specific health needs of each patient in the short time allotted for preventive care and improves autism screening rates by ide ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 15 2013 - 12:45pm

No Free Lunch: Quitting Smoking Smartphone Apps Lack Basic Effective Strategies

About 11 million smokers in the United States own a smartphone- they have apps to do almost anything, including quitting smoking. Like weight loss or any other behavioral change, their ability to help is limited. But there are some basic strategies most l ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 19 2013 - 4:41pm

Wearable Electronics Update: Solar-Powered Battery Woven Into Fabric

People are already attached to their smartphones but if you have ever been in an airport waiting area and watched them scramble for outlets, you know recharging is not in the 21st century yet. There are some solar recharging devices but they are more nove ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 20 2013 - 1:00pm

It's A Bird! It's A Plane! It's A... Jellyfish?

Researchers have built a small vehicle whose flying motion resembles the movements of those boneless, pulsating, water-dwelling creatures we call jellyfish.  Their presentation at the American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics meeting in ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 30 2013 - 6:00am

Flashes Of Brilliance May Lead To Transmission Signals At Picosecond Speeds

Spontaneous bursts of light, which last trillionths of a second, change color as they pulse from within a solid-state block and illuminate the unusual way interacting quantum particles behave when they are driven far from equilibrium. A way to trigger the ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 28 2013 - 3:25pm

Catching Fish Using Google Earth

Fish is good for you. While fish farming takes hold, the legacy way of providing fish, boats and nets, is still in use. But in most parts of the world, it's hard to know how much fish is being caught, and that makes it difficult to engage in proper r ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 2 2013 - 9:00am

$500 Nano-camera Operates At The Speed Of Light

A $500  three-dimensional  "nano-camera" that can operate at the speed of light has been developed by researchers in the MIT Media Lab and was presented at Siggraph Asia in Hong Kong. It could be used in medical imaging and collision-avoidance d ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 26 2013 - 6:55pm

Artificial Euglenids: Smaller, Softer Robots Have A Cuter Image

The image of robotics in popular culture is classic science fiction; cogwheels, pistons and levers with perhaps a layer of rubberized skin: miniaturized robots of the future will be "soft".  "If I think of the robots of tomorrow, what comes ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 5 2013 - 4:19pm

Mobile Phone Camera Can Be A Mini-Microscope For Low-Cost Diagnostics

Microscopy is the universal diagnostic method for detection of most globally important parasitic infections. But it's not cheap. Methods developed in well-equipped laboratories are not available at the basic levels of the health care system due to la ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 6 2013 - 2:53pm