Science360
Chemiscope to catch chemistry in the act
What the microscope did to unlock the secrets of biology, the ""chemiscope"" is intended to do, to revolutionize chemistry. The ultimate goal is to observe chemistry in the act, to see the making and breaking of bonds in real-space and...
Science360
As fast as their tiny bot legs will carry them!
Imagine robots no bigger than your finger tip scrambling through the rubble of a disaster site to search for victims or to assess damage. That's the vision of engineer Sarah Bergbreiter and her research team at the University of...
Science360
RoboBees Design Poses Intriguing Engineering, Computer Science Challenges
It started with a TV show, ""Silence of the Bees,"" about honeybee populations in steep decline. At Harvard University, electrical engineers Rob Wood and Gu-Yeon Wei, and computer scientist Radhika Nagpal saw a challenge. And, so began...
Science360
Medicine And Engineering Join Forces To Restore Disfigured Faces
Patients who have suffered devastating facial injuries sometimes go to great lengths to hide themselves from public view. ""I've had patients come to me wearing motorcycle helmets, with the visor pulled down,"" says Michael Miller, chair...
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Game Changer Research Aims To Forecast Tornadoes
Tornadoes claim hundreds of lives and cause billions of dollars in damages in the United States. With support from the National Science Foundation, computer scientist Amy McGovern at the University of Oklahoma is working to find answers...
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WIFIRE helps firefighters get a jump on wildfires
In recent years, the number and scale of wildfires in the U.S. has risen, threatening cities and forests and forcing large-scale evacuations. NSF is supporting the WIFIRE initiative, led jointly by UC San Diego and the University of...
Science360
Printable Robots Designed To Be Consumer-Friendly, Inexpensive
This project envisions a future where 3-D robotic systems can be produced and designed using 2-D desktop technology fabrication methods. If this feat is achieved, it would be possible for the average person to design, customize and print...
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Cooperative Robots That Learn Less Work For Human Handlers
It is an unusual scientific partnership. With support from the National Science Foundation, Linguist Jeff Heinz and mechanical engineer Bert Tanner are teaching robots about cooperative behavior, by observing how children learn to...
Science360
Manmade Wall of Wind Creates Hurricane Force Winds To Test Construction
A Category 5 hurricane is a monster of a storm that most people would want to avoid. But, Civil Engineer Arindam Chowdhury actually recreates those monster hurricane force winds in hopes of helping us better prepare for the real thing....
Science360
New smart bandages for burn victims and others
Some bandages are embedded with medicine to treat wounds, but researchers at Harvard University and Brigham and Women's Hospital have something much more sophisticated in mind for the future of chronic wound care. With support from the...
Science360
Lab In A Can
Monitoring water quality is vital to make sure dangerous bacteria doesn't creep into our drinking water or overcome sewage treatment plants. With support from the National Science Foundation, engineers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium...
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Climate Change And Other Threats To Worlds Freshwater Goliath's
The Large Lakes Observatory (LLO) helps an interdisciplinary group of scientists use oceanographic research approaches to investigate the mysteries of large lakes, and that includes everything from large-scale reactions to climate change...
Science360
New CoBots are help on wheels
Meet CoBot - short for ""Collaborative Robot."" You might call it ""help on wheels."" With support from the National Science Foundation, computer scientist Manuela Veloso and her team at Carnegie Mellon University are developing CoBots,...
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CAVE2 immerses scientists and engineers in their research literally!
With support from the National Science Foundation, computer scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) are pushing science fiction closer to reality with a wraparound virtual world in which a researcher wearing 3D glasses...
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Chalk Talk Binary
A binary system of numbers is one that is composed only of ones and zeros. It was the system of choice for people who developed early computers--they needed a reliable way to get information across electrical circuits, and a way that was...
Science360
Sandfish Lizard Slithers Into Science Spotlight
In less than a second a sandfish lizard can dig its way into the sand and disappear. Blink and you miss it. The sandfish's slithering moves are inspiring new robotic moves that could one day help search and rescue crews find survivors in...
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Chalk Talk Infrared
Infrared can be divided into three separate categories - near, mid, and far, and even though we can't see it, in some cases we can detect it. Many things, including people and planets, emit infrared. We also use it to transmit...
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Engineering researchers help Tucson plan for drier days ahead - Science Nation
With water resources dwindling as the population continues to rise, many communities in the desert southwest are proactively seeking to make the tough choices now, so they can avoid more drastic measures in the future. The communities...
Science360
This Breathalyzer Reveals Signs Of Disease
This invention could give new meaning to the term ""bad breath!"" It's the Single Breath Disease Diagnostics Breathalyzer, and when you blow into it, you get tested for a biomarker--a sign of disease. For as amazing as that sounds, the...
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OpenfMRI allows neuroscientists to share brain research data
Researchers around the world can compare notes on one of the most powerful tools available for imaging human brain function, the fMRI, thanks to support from the National Science Foundation (NSF). An fMRI is a functional magnetic...
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Solar Fuels: A grand challenge of 21st century chemistry
Solar panels are becoming a familiar sight in communities across the United States, but what about solar fuels? A solar fuel is produced from sunlight through artificial photosynthesis, mimicking what Mother Nature has been doing for...
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Chalk Talk Liquid Crystals
Liquid crystals are a kind of matter that exists somewhere between a liquid and a solid. We can control the order of the liquid crystals used in liquid crystal displays with electricity. Think of it like a valve for light. We can open...
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What if Waste Water Could be Turned into Energy?
All of us use water and in the process, a lot of it goes to waste. Whether it goes down drains, sewers or toilets, much of it ends up at a wastewater treatment plant where it undergoes rigorous cleaning before it flows back to the...
Science360
Developing Robots That Can Teach Humans
When it comes to communication, sometimes it's our body language that says the most - especially when it comes to our eyes. ""It turns out that gaze tells us all sorts of things about attention, about mental states, about roles in...