HEADLINES ARCHIVE
UBC Invention Uses Bacteria to Purify Water
A University of British Columbia-developed system that uses bacteria to turn non-potable water into drinking water will be tested next week in West Vancouver prior to being installed in remote communities in Canada and beyond.
Materials May Lead to Self-healing Smartphones
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, report that they have developed a self-healing polymeric material with an eye toward electronics and soft robotics that can repair themselves.
Stretching the Boundaries of Neural Implants
Implantable fibers have been an enormous boon to brain research, allowing scientists to stimulate specific targets in the brain and monitor electrical responses. But similar studies in the nerves of the spinal cord, which might ultimately lead to treatments to alleviate spinal cord injuries, have been more difficult to carry out. That's because the spine flexes and stretches as the body moves, and the relatively stiff, brittle fibers used today could damage the delicate spinal cord tissue.
Reinventing Metal 3D Printing with New Direct Writing
Metal 3D printing has enormous potential to revolutionize modern manufacturing. However, the most popular metal printing processes, which use lasers to fuse together fine metal powder, have their limitations.
Curbing Coffee Cup Usage
The use of disposable coffee cups could be reduced by 50-300 million annually according to research announced today by leading coffee roaster Bewley’s.
Graphene-Coated Contact Lens Block EM Radiation
Graphene-coated contact lenses can protect wearers from electromagnetic radiation and dehydration.
Autonomous Crack Detection in Nuclear Power Plants
An advanced algorithm and a powerful machine learning technique to detect cracks based on the changing texture surrounding cracks on steel surfaces.
Device Predicts Hemorrhagic Shock
New monitoring technology can be used in battlefield and hospital settings to detect when a patient is going into hemorrhagic shock.
A Solution for Wastewater Treatment Plant Stink
Identifying various odors, which run the gamut from burnt matches to rotten eggs to fecal matter, is a challenge at wastewater treatment plants.
PolyU Develops Accurate Contactless 3-D Fingerprint Identification System
The minutiae features from the fingerprint ridges — such as ridge ending and bifurcation — are universally considered to be the most reliable of fingerprint details, ensuring that each fingerprint is unique.
Legos Inspire Next Generation Materials
Researchers from Tianjin University of Technology and Harvard University have used the idea of assembling building-blocks to make the promise of next-generation materials a practical reality.
Reusable Carbon Nanotubes Could be the Water Filter of the Future
A new class of carbon nanotubes could be the next-generation clean-up crew for toxic sludge and contaminated water, say researchers at Rochester Institute of Technology.
Use of LIDAR in Forestry Applications
Light detection and ranging (LIDAR) carries a significant premium and limited spatial field in comparison to satellite imagery, but offers unprecedented accuracy and is emerging as a preferred technique in forestry management and related operational activities.
Molecular "Treasure Maps" to Help Discover New Materials
Scientists at the University of Southampton, working with colleagues at the University of Liverpool, have developed a new method that has the potential to revolutionize the way we search for, design and produce new materials.
Flexible Electronic Devices with Roll-to-Roll Overmolding Technology
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has, for the first time, performed all manufacturing stages for a flexible in-molded LED foil with a roll-to-roll process.
New Type of Sensor Material Developed
Hokkaido University scientists have succeeded in developing a nickel complex that changes color and magnetism when exposed to methanol vapor.
Visualizing Cholesterol with NanoSIMS
A new imaging modality enables quantification of a pool of cholesterol called “accessible cholesterol” on cell surfaces.
A Big Leap Toward Tinier Lines
For the last few decades, microchip manufacturers have been on a quest to find ways to make the patterns of wires and components in their microchips ever smaller, in order to fit more of them onto a single chip and thus continue the relentless progress toward faster and more powerful computers.
Surprising Twist in Confined Liquid Crystals: A Simple Route to Developing New Sensors
Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have found a material used for decades to color food items ranging from corn chips to ice creams could potentially have uses far beyond food dyes.
Researchers Create Artificial Materials, Atom-by-Atom
Researchers at Aalto University have manufactured artificial materials with engineered electronic properties.