Tech
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Tech
When the Chips are Down
Scientists seek alternatives to a computer technology nearing its limits.
- Tech
Novel sensing system catches the dud spud
A new device can detect a single potato that's infected with bacterial soft rot while buried deep in a storage crate with hundreds of healthy tubers.
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- Tech
Chair becomes personalized posture coach
Pressure imprints made by a person in a chair provide a new type of computer input useful for tracking posture or, perhaps, other clues to someone's activities and state of mind.
- Tech
Pores of glass skin shrink from light
Ultraviolet light can fine-tune the properties of intricately structured, porous films of glass that, among other uses, may make possible the long-sought direct extraction of oxygen and nitrogen gases from air.
- Tech
Pile-o’-polymers breaks up on command
Stacks of polymers designed to break apart in acid solution or at a certain voltage may prove useful for releasing drugs, pesticides, or other compounds where and when needed.
- Computing
Calculating Swarms
Ant teamwork suggests models for computing faster and organizing better.
- Tech
Aircraft trick may give big rigs a gentle lift
Using sheet-like jets of air to control aerodynamic drag and lift—a technology first developed for aircraft—may boost gas mileage and improve braking and handling of tractor-trailer trucks.
- 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.
- Computing
Virtual stampede sees faces in crowd
A new computer model based on particle interactions suggests ways to prevent a panicked crowd from stampeding.
- Tech
Device ups hydrogen energy from sunlight
A solar-electric cell that stands above an acid bath on electrode legs has converted light to hydrogen fuel with unprecedented efficiency.
- Tech
Robots making robots, with some help
A new type of robotic system that designs and produces robotic offspring may represent a first step toward self-replicating "artificial life."
