Tech

Tech

Craft Tech

The Craft Technology Group at the University of Colorado, Boulder, interweaves computation with craft materials both new and old. This Web site offers glimpses of innovative projects involving the use of software to design mechanical toys and paper sculptures, embedding computation and behavior in simple objects such as tacks and hinges, developing affordable three-dimensional printing, […]

Tech

Timing Is Everything: Implantable polymer chip delivers meds on schedule

A polymer microchip implanted under the skin could deliver multiple doses of medications at programmed intervals, eliminating the need for pills and injections.

Tech

Sweet-toothed microbe tapped for power

Using a newly discovered bacterium that both frees electrons from sugars and injects those charges straight into electric circuits, scientists have created a fuel cell that converts carbohydrates to electricity with extraordinary efficiency.

Tech

Wash Those Hands!

A Florida-based company is now developing a laser-based scanning technology to scout for dirty hands. Installed in restaurant washrooms or daycare centers, it could identify fecal traces — evidence that hand washing was incomplete. Indeed, these sensors might even be coupled to a lock that allows workers back into a kitchen after a restroom break, notes Richard Stroman, vice president of eMerge Interactive, which is applying for a patent on the system. Kitchen or food-processing-plant workers who don't pass the laser test would be forced to go back and lather up again.

Tech

Special Delivery: Metallic nanorods shuttle genes

A new gene therapy technique relies on nanorods made of gold and nickel to deliver genes to cells in the body.

Tech

The Daily Flicks: Morphing ink may bring video to newspapers

New types of electronic-paper pixels may eventually make it possible to view full-color video clips in your morning newspaper.

Tech

Dream Machines from Beans: Legume proteins provide motion

Plant proteins swell and shrink in response to calcium, sparking new ideas for micromachines.

Tech

Channeling light in the deep sea

Light-conducting fibers that naturally sprout from certain deep-sea sponges may hold lessons for makers of optical fibers for telecommunications.

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

Memory Enhancers

Engineers take aim at increasing the density of data storage on magnetic media.

Tech

Smart dust can swarm target

Microscopic mirrors can swarm a target and produce an optical signal that identifies the target to the observer.

Tech

Mind-Expanding Machines

Researchers have designed computer systems aimed at amplifying human thought and perception, such as a new type of cockpit display for aircraft pilots that exploits the power of peripheral vision.