Technologies News

Atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) technology and design principle of super hygroscopic polymer films (SHPFs): (a) key steps of AWH technology; (b) geographic distribution of world average annual relative humidity; regions with less than 40% relative humidity are indicated from brown to red (warm color) regions; (c) material design of SHPFs for AWH at low relative humidity; (d) qualitative comparison of different materials in terms of core requirements for practical application of AWH. Image credit: Guo et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-30505-2.

Super Hygroscopic Polymer Film Can Harvest Water from Arid Air

May 31, 2022 by News Staff

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a low-cost polymer film made of renewable biomass and hygroscopic salt that can extract...

The fully 3D-printed flexible OLED display prototype is about 1.5 inches on each side and has 64 pixels. Image credit: McAlpine Group, University of Minnesota.

Scientists 3D Print Flexible OLED Display

Jan 12, 2022 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of Minnesota, MIT, Korea Institute of Industrial Technology and Pusan National University has demonstrated a...

The ENGAGE device. Image credit: Northwestern University.

Researchers Create Battery-Free, Energy-Harvesting Gaming Device

Sep 4, 2020 by News Staff

A team of scientists from Northwestern University and the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) has developed the first-ever battery-free, personal...

Conceptual illustrations of drawing on-skin electronics on paper using a 9B sketching pencil. Image credit: Xu et al, doi: 10.1073/pnas.2008422117.

Researchers Use Pencil to Draw Bioelectronic Devices on Human Skin

Jul 26, 2020 by News Staff

Scientists from the University of Missouri, the University of Illinois and Yale University have demonstrated that a combination of pencils and paper could...

The wood-based hierarchical solar steam generator: CNT - carbon nanotubes, BC - bacterial cellulose, GB - glass bubbles. Image credit: Guan et al, doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c01088.

New Device Harnesses Solar Energy to Purify Water

Jul 8, 2020 by News Staff

A team of scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China has developed an efficient and sustainable hierarchical steam generator that,...

Cai et al demonstrate the catalytic activity of Ag and Au clusters physically deposited onto titanium dioxide (TiO2) powders with the MACS in the catalytic ozonation of nitrophenol; compared to traditional catalysts reported in the literature, the catalysts produced by the MACS exhibit at least comparable activities and show excellent reusability without evident degradation after five cycles: (a) photograph and (b) schematic diagram of the MACS system; (c) photograph of the Ag cluster on TiO2 powder catalyst produced (1 g), showing the color change from white to brown. Image credit: Cai et al, doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c05955.

Scientists Develop Environmentally Friendly Method for Removing Chemicals from Water

Jul 2, 2020 by News Staff

The newly-invented method, named the matrix assembly cluster source (MACS), involves no solvent and is a step change in the approach to water treatment...

An illustration of a quantum radar prototype. Image credit: Philip Krantz / Institute of Science and Technology Austria.

Researchers Create Prototype of Microwave Quantum Radar

May 12, 2020 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Austria, the U.S., the UK, and Italy has demonstrated a new technology called microwave quantum illumination that uses entangled...

The new flat lens could drastically reduce the weight, complexity and cost of cameras and other imaging systems, while increasing their functionality. Image credit: Rajesh Menon, University of Utah.

Scientists Develop Focus-Free Camera with Flat Lens

Mar 18, 2020 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, and Oblate Optics, Inc. has created a camera that does not require focusing. The new...

Conventional ultrasound verifies soft- and hard-tissue features detected in laser ultrasound (LUS) imaging on the forearm: (a) single time trace from LUS imaging of a volunteer’s forearm; (b) photograph of a volunteer’s forearm region, imaged using LUS and conventional ultrasound; a green tracking laser from the LDV is also visible; (c) reconstructed LUS image of a volunteer’s forearm with multiple visible tissue layers; (d) matching conventional ultrasound image of the volunteer’s forearm using a GE Logiq E9 system and a 9 MHz linear probe confirming features detected in the LUS image. Image credit: Zhang et al, doi: 10.1038/s41377-019-0229-8.

Novel Laser Ultrasound Technique Doesn’t Require Contact with Patient’s Body

Dec 24, 2019 by News Staff

The noncontact laser ultrasound technique, developed by a team of MIT engineers, leverages an eye- and skin-safe laser system to remotely image the inside...

Raman et al highlighted the remarkable possibility and potential of generating small amounts of power by radiative cooling at night using low-cost, off-the-shelf, commodity components (less than $30 USD for the initial proof of concept demonstration). In off-grid locations throughout the world, this approach of generating light from darkness highlights an entirely new way of maintaining lighting, entirely passively, at night. The power generated could also be used to power small sensors in remote locations, with their lifetimes not being limited by batteries but the lifetime of the thermoelectric module, which can be an order of magnitude longer. Image credit: Raman et al, 10.1016/j.joule.2019.08.009.

Thermoelectric Device Generates Light from ‘Darkness of Space’

Sep 13, 2019 by News Staff

A thermoelectric generator device developed by researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles and Stanford University harnesses the cold darkness...

A 3D-printed, small-scaled human heart engineered from the patient’s own materials and cells. Image credit: Noor et al, doi: 10.1002/advs.201900344.

Researchers Create 3D-Printed Heart Using Patient’s Own Cells

Apr 17, 2019 by News Staff

A team of scientists at Tel Aviv University, Israel, has 3D-printed the first vascularized engineered heart using a human patient’s own cells and biological...

Abramson et al developed a drug capsule that could be used to deliver oral doses of insulin. Image credit: Felice Frankel.

Microneedle Pill Could Be Used to Deliver Oral Doses of Insulin

Feb 12, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of researchers from the United States, Denmark and Sweden has pioneered a new approach that brings an oral formulation of insulin...

Infrared lamp. Image credit: Bernd Marczak.

Newly-Developed Chemical Process Converts Infrared into Visible Light

Jan 16, 2019 by News Staff

A group of researchers has succeeded in developing a chemical process to convert infrared into visible light. The technology, described in the journal...

Wearable cytometry system on flexible PCB with integrated microfluidic polydimethylsiloxane chip, microcontroller, and BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) readout to smartphone (not shown). Image credit: Furniturewalla et al, doi: 10.1038/s41378-018-0019-0.

Researchers Develop Wearable Microfluidic Cytometer

Aug 7, 2018 by News Staff

Researchers at Rutgers University-New Brunswick have created a wearable microfluidic impedance cytometer with a wireless connection to smartphones. Their...

Team Zopherus of Rogers is the first-place winner in NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge, Phase 3: Level 1 competition. Image credit: NASA.

NASA Awards Top Five Design Finalists in 3D Printed Martian Habitat Challenge

Jul 31, 2018 by News Staff

Future missions to Mars and beyond will require innovative options to shelter explorers. NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge, a Centennial Challenges...

An aqueous spiral, 6.8 cm long, thread thickness 100 μm, in silicone oil. Scale bar - 2 mm. Image credit: Forth et al, doi: 10.1002/adma.201707603.

Researchers 3D Print All-Liquid Objects

Mar 30, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the United States and China has found a way to print 3D structures composed entirely of liquids. The team’s all-liquid material...

A new 4D printing technique could one day allow manufacturers to produce electronic devices and their wiring in a single process. Image credit: Lutz Peter.

Pioneering 4D Printer Developed

Mar 21, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology and the Singapore University of Technology and Design has developed a powerful new 4D printer...

This illustration shows NASA’s NICER mission at work aboard the International Space Station. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

NASA Engineers Demonstrate Pulsar-Based Navigation in Space

Jan 16, 2018 by News Staff

NASA engineers have successfully demonstrated X-ray navigation in space — a capability that could revolutionize NASA’s ability in the future to...

New technique 3D prints genetically programmed bacterial cells into living devices. Image credit: Liu et al / Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

MIT Researchers 3D Print Living Tattoo

Dec 6, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has devised a 3D printing technique that uses a novel kind of hydrogel ink made...