Technologies News

The battery-free phone can sense speech, actuate the earphones, and switch between uplink and downlink communications, all in real time. It is powered by either ambient radio signals or light. Image credit: Mark Stone, University of Washington.

First Battery-Free Cellphone Harvests Power from Ambient Radio Signals, Light

Jul 14, 2017 by News Staff

A team of computer scientists and electrical engineers at the University of Washington has invented a cellphone that requires no batteries and harvests...

DNA is emerging as an excellent medium for storing data. Image credit: Shipman et al, doi: 10.1038/nature23017.

Researchers Replay Digital Movie Encoded in Bacterial DNA

Jul 13, 2017 by News Staff

For the first time, researchers have used the CRISPR-Cas microbial immune system to encode a primitive digital movie into — and then ‘play it back’...

The encephalophone is a musical instrument that can be played by the mind alone. Image credit: University of Washington.

Encephalophone: Novel Thought-Controlled Musical Instrument Allows People to Make Music with Their Minds

Jul 13, 2017 by News Staff

An international group of researchers has created a hands-free, thought-controlled musical instrument, the encephalophone. The encephalophone is a musical...

The CARDIS scanner at work. Image credit: CARDIS Project.

Researchers Developing Handheld Laser Scanner for Early Diagnosis of Heart Disease

Jul 5, 2017 by News Staff

A team of European researchers has developed a prototype of a compact multi-laser-beam device that can read your heart’s vital signs like a supermarket...

Cars, trucks and buses worldwide emit 4.6 million tons more harmful NOx than standards allow, according to the new study. Image credit: Arsi Warrior.

Study: Diesel Vehicles Produce 50% More Nitrogen Oxide than Originally Thought

May 16, 2017 by News Staff

Lab tests of harmful nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from diesel vehicles underestimate the real-world emissions by as much as 50%, a new study led by researchers...

A light-activatable 4 x 4 droplet array. Image credit: Restrepo Schild et al, doi: 10.1038/srep46585.

Researchers Create Synthetic, Soft Tissue Retina

May 5, 2017 by News Staff

A synthetic, soft tissue retina developed by researchers at the University of Oxford, UK, could offer fresh hope to visually impaired people. Until now,...

Researchers Manipulate Liquids Using Only Visible Light

Apr 25, 2017 by News Staff

A novel system developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) could make it possible to control the way a liquid moves over...

Heat-driven transistor. Image credit: Linköping University.

Researchers Create World’s First Heat-Driven Transistor

Jan 31, 2017 by News Staff

Researchers at Linköping University in Sweden have created what they say is a heat-gated organic transistor. Heat-driven transistor. Image credit: Linköping...

Popping in to your local hospital may be much more revealing in as little as three years thanks to engineers at Holoxica Limited, who have invented a moving 3D video hologram. Image credit: Holoxica Limited.

First Hologram Video Player to Show Your Organs

Jan 3, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers in the UK is developing an interactive holographic video created from an MRI or CT scan that can display live footage of internal...

Example applications for on-body communication using the fingerprint sensors on smartphones. The smartphone can securely send information to doorknobs or glucose sensors over the body. Image credit: Vikram Iyer / University of Washington.

Scientists Find Way to Send Passwords via Human Body

Oct 3, 2016 by News Staff

A new technique devised by a team of researchers at the University of Washington leverages the signals already generated by fingerprint sensors on smartphones...

Completed virtual unwrapping for the En-Gedi scroll. Image credit: William Brent Seales et al.

En-Gedi Scroll Finally Deciphered

Sep 23, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of researchers led by University of Kentucky scientist Prof. Brent Seales has unlocked the text in the early Leviticus scroll from...

Continuous motion of a self-propelling droplet of Galinstan under a pH gradient, shown at different time intervals. The droplet is placed in a fluidic channel, midway between two reservoirs filled with different electrolytes of acidic and basic nature. Image credit: RMIT University.

Elastic Electronics One Step Closer with Self-Propelling Liquid Metals

Aug 5, 2016 by News Staff

A pioneering work by an international team of scientists from Australia and Switzerland is setting the foundation for moving beyond solid state electronics...

Left: schematic of vitamin-driven lithium-ion battery showing the direction of lithium-ion diffusion under charging and discharging conditions. Right: photograph of a red LED powered by the battery. Image credit: Tyler B. Schon et al.

Canadian Scientists Develop Vitamin-Driven Battery

Aug 4, 2016 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the University of Toronto, Canada, has created a battery that stores energy in a biologically derived unit. The team’s paper...

Solar cells. Image credit: Airman 1st Class Nadine Y. Barclay / U.S. Air Force.

Photosynthetic Solar Cell Converts Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide, Sunlight into Fuel

Aug 1, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of researchers and engineers from South Korea and the United States has developed a solar cell that efficiently converts carbon dioxide...

‘Cinema 3D’ could show 3D movies to any seat in a theater, with no eyewear required. Image credit: Christine Daniloff / MIT.

Cinema 3D: New Display Enables Viewers to Watch 3D Movies without Extra Eyewear

Jul 25, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

In a paper published in the journal ACM Transactions on Graphics, researchers from the United States and Israel have demonstrated a display that lets you...

Security screening area. Image credit: Dan Paluska / CC0 1.0.

Real-Time, Hand-Held Scanner to Revolutionize Airport Security

Jul 20, 2016 by News Staff

A real-time, hand-held chemical scanner with stand-off detection capabilities has been unveiled by a team of researchers and engineers from nine European...

Harmful algal bloom caused by nutrient pollution, Assateague island National Seashore, MD. Image credit: Eric Vance / U.S. EPA.

Reducing Water Pollution with Microbes and Wood Chips

Jul 6, 2016 by Laura Christianson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Harmful algal bloom caused by nutrient pollution, Assateague island National Seashore, MD. Image credit: Eric Vance / U.S. EPA. Beneath fields of corn...

System outline of a blood oxygen level monitor: red and green PLEDs are directed to shine into the finger; reflected light from inside the finger is caught by an ultraflexible organic photodetector; this reflected light provides a measure of blood oxygen and pulse rate; the output of the sensor can be shown on a PLED display. Image credit: Tomoyuki Yokota et al. / Someya Laboratory, University of Tokyo.

Japanese Researchers Develop Ultraflexible ‘E-Skin’

Apr 18, 2016 by News Staff

Professor Takao Someya’s research group at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Engineering has developed an ultraflexible ‘e-skin’...

Fungi use reverse photosynthesis to access sugars and nutrients in plants. This image shows the rust fungus Aecidium magellanicum growing on the bush Berberis microphylla. Image credit: Jason Hollinger / CC BY-SA 3.0.

‘Reverse Photosynthesis’ Process Discovered

Apr 5, 2016 by News Staff

A team of scientists from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden has discovered a natural process it describes...