Tech

Tech

Curve on golf club sends ball straight

Although the curved faces of golf clubs called drivers blast balls sideways, their convex design works just right to compensate for other effects tending to make balls veer off the fairway, new calculations show.

Tech

Cooling film tempers tiny hot spots

Shattering a 40-year-old performance limit, a new layered, semiconductor material promises to spur wider use of so-called thermoelectric devices that cool or heat electrically and can convert heat to electric power.

Tech

Brain cells stay in focus as rats roam

So light that it doesn't weigh down a rat's head, a new microscope mounted over a hole in the awake animal's skull promises to open a window into individual neurons as a rat carries out normal activities.

Tech

Natural micromachines get the points

In custom-made microscopic channels marked with arrows, mobile and thread-like cell structures called microtubules no longer wander aimlessly but slither in a fixed direction—a potential step toward tiny, man-made factories where cellular micromachinery churns out drugs or novel materials.

Tech

Microjaws chomp cells to change them

A tiny, new biomedical device operates on such a small scale that it can grab individual red blood corpuscles in its jaws.

Tech

Nervy chip may open window into brain

Researchers have built a simple circuit that blends living neurons with silicon-based transistors.

Tech

Designing planet rovers that tumble

Before the decade is out, towering wind-driven balloons may roam the Martian surface, traveling far more extensively than wheeled rovers do.

Tech

Futuristic engine proves its mettle

A miniature missile shot from a cannon has demonstrated for the first time in free flight that a futuristic jet engine called a scramjet can propel itself.

Tech

Quantum bell rings to electron beat

A new nanoscale transistor that parcels out electrons with metronome-like regularity has the potential to lead to designs for electronic noses and tiny devices inside of cell phones.

Tech

Crystal listens for telltale sounds of virus

Scientists have built a device that can hear the movement of viral particles in fluids.

Computing

Computer paints a charged bioportrait

By employing a novel computational strategy, researchers have mapped the electrical landscape of biological molecules made up of more than 1 million atoms.

Tech

The Seeing Tongue

Blind people can now use their tongues to see, albeit crudely, thanks to prototype technology that involves licking arrays of electrodes attached to video cameras.