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Supertiny satellites launched

By Sid Perkins / March 6, 2013

Cordell Grant, an aerospace engineer at the University of Toronto in Canada, assembles one of his team’s nanosatellites. These are the smallest space telescopes ever sent into Earth orbit. Credit: Johannes Hirn (Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto)

Researchers are building simple, miniature satellites to bring down their costs and expand their availability

Posted in Technology & Engineering | Tagged aerospace engineer, astronomy, Canada; Kieran Carroll, Canada; orbiting telescope, cosmology, exoplanet, Gedex, getinvolved, Hubble Space Telescope, infrared, Mississauga, nanosatellites (nanosats); Cordell Grant, Ontario, Orbit, satellites, sensors, space shuttle, stars, telescope, topstories, University of Toronto, wavelengths

Quake, quake, go away

By Stephen Ornes / March 1, 2013

An earthquake caused widespread damage to San Francisco in 1989. Scientists are designing a new type of seismic shield that may help protect buildings from tremors. Credit: J.K. Nakata/USGS

French engineers report success in the first test of an underground seismic shield

Posted in Technology & Engineering | Tagged cloaking, Duke University, earthquake, electromagnetic radiation, engineering, getinvolved, Grenoble, Imperial College London, Institut Fresnel, Invisibility, John Pendry, light, light waves, Marseille, metamaterials, microwaves, Sébastien Guenneau, seismic waves, shields, topstories

Feeling the invisible

By Sid Perkins / February 18, 2013

A rat with an infrared-detecting sensor wired into its brain soon learned that it could find water at a door marked with an invisible infrared light.
Credit: Thomson et al., Nature Communications (2013)

Sensor wired into a rat’s brain lets it detect light it can’t see

Posted in Animals, Light & Radiation, Tech & Math, Technology & Engineering | Tagged bioengineer, brain, Duke University, electromagnetic radiation, getinvolved, infrared light, Miguel Nicolelis, neuroscientist, plasticity, rat, San Diego, sight, spectrum, Todd Coleman, topstories, touch, University of California

Genetic memory

By Stephen Ornes / February 8, 2013

A DNA molecule looks like a twisted ladder. Scientists have found a way to use the rungs of that ladder to store data efficiently. Credit: NHGRI

The stuff of genes can be used to store digital data, too

Posted in Computers & Electronics, Technology & Engineering | Tagged bioengineering, biology, computer science, data storage, deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA, Drew Endy, engineering, England, European Bioinformatics Institute, genes, getinvolved, nature, Nick Goldman, nucleotides, Stanford, synthetic DNA

Your head’s battery

By Sid Perkins / January 17, 2013

Scientists have designed a small electronic circuit (inside the two golden squares) that can monitor the strength of the natural battery in a guinea pig’s inner ear. The tiny device had to collect energy from the ear’s battery and then store it until there was enough power to transmit data to doctors. Credit: Mercier et al. (2012), Nature Biotechnology

Fluids in the inner ear can actually power an electronic device, such as an implant

Posted in Computers & Electronics, Tech & Math, Technology & Engineering | Tagged cochlea; Anantha Chandrakasan, current, ear surgeon, electrical engineer, electrodes, getinvolved, guinea pig, Harvard Medical School; Gene Frantz, implant, inner ear, MIT; Konstantina Stankovic, potential, Texas Instruments; battery, voltage

Strong and slimy

By Stephen Ornes / January 10, 2013

Scientist Atsuko Negishi holds a hagfish in one hand and its slime in the other. She studies the ooze in the lab of materials scientist David Fudge, at far right. Credit: Andra Zommers/University of Guelph

Scientists spin threads from snotlike secretions of hagfish

Posted in Technology & Engineering | Tagged Atsuko Negishi, Canada, Douglas Fudge, fabric, getinvolved, goo, hagfish, material science, materials, mucus, National Museum of New Zealand, ooze, predators, proteins, slime, threads, topstories, University of Guelph

How to stop a speeding bullet

By Stephen Ornes / November 26, 2012

Scientists take a close look at a plastic that has Superman’s ability to stop a speeding bullet

Posted in Technology & Engineering | Tagged body armor, bullets, getinvolved, glass, Jae-Hwang Lee, materials science, mechanical engineering, Ned Thomas, Northwestern University, plastic, polymers, polyurethane, protection, Rice University, rubber, Space debris, topstories

Cool Jobs: Explosive pursuits

By Sharon Oosthoek / November 14, 2012

Mining engineer Bibhu Mohanty sets off controlled explosions as part of his job designing blasts that break apart rock. Credit: Bibhu Mohanty

These researchers study things that go boom — or poof!

Posted in STEM Careers, Technology & Engineering | Tagged airport security, Bibhu Mohanty, blast, bomb, bomb sniffer, bunchberry dogwood, carbon, catapult, chemical reaction, cool jobs, explosions, explosive, feature, geology, gold, Guinness Book of World Records, high speed photography, iron, Joan Edwards, land mine, minerals, mining, molecular sieve, nickel, oxidizer, pollen, reaction, rocks, TNT, topstories, University of Delaware, University of Toronto, Williams College, Yushan Yan, zeolite

Cool Jobs: The science of secrets

By Susan Gaidos / October 31, 2012

Chick-a-dee-dee-dee. The chickadee gets its name from its distinctive call. The greater the danger, the more “dees” a chickadee adds to the call’s end. Credit: Christopher N. Templeton

Researchers harness science to encode — and decode — hidden messages

Posted in STEM Careers, Technology & Engineering | Tagged acoustics, Adaptation, Aequorea Victoria, agar, animal behavior, Antibiotics, bacteria, bird of prey, bird song, birdsong, chickadee, Chris Templeton, codes, colors, cool jobs, crime, criminal, cryptography, David Walt, decode, decryption, detective, digital, electronics, encryption, FBI, feature, Federal Bureau of Investigation, fluorescence, fluorescent protein, forensic, global positioning system, GPS, Heather Mahalik, investigator, invisible ink, jellyfish, key, merlin, microbiology, patterns, predator, pygmy owl, raptor, sonogram, topstories, Tufts University, University of Montana, University of St. Andrews, warning calls

Color-changing robot

By Stephen Ornes / October 14, 2012

Tiny tubes filled with colored dyes let these soft robots blend in with their environments. Credit: S. Morin, Harvard University

Tiny tunnels within the “skin” of a robot allow it to blend in with or stand out from its surroundings

Posted in Technology & Engineering | Tagged chameleons, color-changing, colors, DARPA, engineering, getinvolved, Harvard University, infrared, materials science, octopus, physics, robots, soft robots, topstories, University of Cincinnati

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