Tech
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Tech
Silicon goes optical
The advent of a fast, light-manipulating microdevice made from silicon suggests that speedy optical-fiber links now too expensive for broad use in businesses and homes may soon become widespread.
- Tech
Body Builders
By growing stem cells on three- dimensional polymer scaffolds, tissue engineers hope to mimic natural tissue development and ultimately produce replacement body parts.
- Computing
Straining for Speed
Hitting fundamental limits on how small they can make certain structures within semiconductor transistors, chip makers are deforming the silicon crystals from which those transistors are made to eke out some extra speed.
- Tech
The rat in the hat
A compact positron-emission tomography (PET) brain scanner may make possible studies of awake rats that link brain functions and behaviors.
- Computing
Paint by Pixel
Aaron Hertzmann is both a computer scientist and a painter. Among his art-related programming projects, he has developed a way for computers to refashion images and animations to reflect different painting styles. Other work includes a stretched “canvas” that projects a continually-changing painting of the viewer and a learning-by-example system that animates characters based on […]
- Tech
Snappy DNA: Long strand folds into octahedron
By harnessing the self-assembling properties of DNA, researchers coerced a single strand of the genetic material to assume the shape of an octahedron.
- Tech
Diagnosing the Developing World
Researchers are learning how to adapt sophisticated technologies to meet the health-care needs of the developing world.
- Tech
Software enhances view of aircraft flaws
New software can run an ultrasonic machine that will map corrosion beneath the surface of an airplane more quickly, safely, and effectively than can existing devices.
- Tech
Virtual Nanotech
With computers becoming ever more powerful, researchers are simulating nanoscale materials and devices down to the level of atoms and even electrons.
- Tech
Tapping sun’s light and heat to make hydrogen
Researchers have demonstrated a highly efficient means of splitting water molecules to generate hydrogen fuel.
- Tech
Electronic skin senses touch
A pressure-detecting membrane laminated onto a sheet of flexible plastic electronics may lead to artificial skin for robots.
- Tech
Flashy Transistors: Electronic workhorses also shed light
Researchers have discovered that the transistor can emit light, a yet-untapped talent.
