Tech
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Tech
Morphing wheels for beginner bikers
A new bike design for kids morphs from tricycle into bicycle as the rider gets moving, possibly easing the often-fearful starts at riding two-wheelers.
- Tech
Nuke batteries get more practical
Nuclear batteries that will last for decades may have moved closer to reality with the demonstration of a silicon chip riddled with radioactive, tritium-filled pits where radiation is efficiently converted to electricity.
- Tech
Carbon nanotubes drive X-ray scanner
X-ray scanners based on carbon nanotubes could make airport luggage screening and high-tech medical imaging more efficient.
- Tech
In Its Own Image: Simple robot replicates itself block by block
A robot made by stacking identical, cubelike modules has demonstrated that it can copy itself.
- Tech
Radio-a-Wreck
Radio transmitters broadcasting from imploding buildings are informing engineers about how such collapses disrupt radio communications and how rescuers might overcome those disruptions.
- Tech
Double bubble comes off in a pinch
By nestling droplets inside larger droplets, scientists have created a new strategy for encapsulating food additives and fragrances.
- Tech
Special Treatment
Researchers are developing nanosize metallic particles that can break down soil and groundwater contaminants faster and more cheaply than any other existing technology.
- Tech
Open Sesame: Portable devices may achieve magnetic resonance views
Top-notch magnetic resonance sensing now found only in hospitals and chemical labs may become available in portable devices, thanks to a new type of magnetic sensor.
- Tech
Leak Locator: Ultrasound for finding holes in spacecraft
Researchers have devised a way to pinpoint leaks in spacecraft by listening to ultrasound waves traveling through the ship's hull.
- Tech
X rays detect fingerprints
Analytical chemists have developed a method that visualizes elusive fingerprints with X rays.
- Tech
Silicon chips land a lasting laser
The first microchip-size silicon lasers promise to boost the maximum speeds of ordinary computers and electronic gadgets.
- Tech
Remembering, on the cheap
A new type of cheap plastic memory bit that stays set even when electrical power is off could facilitate the spread of flexible, radio-equipped tags as price tags, identity labels, and surveillance sensors.
