A team of Harvard University researchers with expertise in 3D printing, mechanical engineering, and microfluidics has demonstrated the first autonomous, untethered, entirely soft robot. This small, 3D-printed robot — nicknamed the octobot — could pave the way for a new generation of completely soft, autonomous machines. In this video, see the octobot in action. It is the first entirely soft, autonomous robot, made by a combination of embedded 3D printing, modeling, and soft lithography. Credit:...

At the University of California, Los Angeles clinical researchers have successfully used focused ultrasound to “jump-start” the brain of a man coming out of a coma. The 25-year-old patient was barely conscious once he woke up from the coma, but soon after the initiation of treatment his condition improved measurably. A 25-year-old man recovering from a coma has made remarkable progress following a treatment at UCLA to jump-start his brain using ultrasound. The technique uses sonic stimulation...

Allergy Amulet is a rapid, portable, point-of-consumption allergen detection device. Users will wear the device as a necklace, bracelet, or carry it in their pocket or purse. The first Amulet will detect peanut allergens; future Amulets will detect other common food allergens and ingredients. Amulet uses a molecularly imprinted polymer that can capture the presence of an allergen in seconds. The polymer has synthetic cavities that match specific allergens in shape, charge, and other molec...

ScanEagle is an autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), part of ScanEagle® Unmanned Aircraft Systems, developed and built by Insitu Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of The Boeing Company. The UAV is based on Insitu’s SeaScan miniature robotic aircraft developed for the commercial fishing industry. ScanEagle carries an electro-optic or a dual imager in a gyro-stabilized turret. The camera has full pan, tilt and zoom capabilities and allows the operator to track both stationary and moving targ...

After an extensive review process and passing a major development milestone, NASA is ready to proceed with final design and construction of its next Mars rover, currently targeted to launch in the summer of 2020 and arrive on the Red Planet in February 2021. The Mars 2020 rover will investigate a region of Mars where the ancient environment may have been favorable for microbial life, probing the Martian rocks for evidence of past life. Throughout its investigation, it will collect samples of ...

With its blue skies, puffy white clouds, warm beaches and abundant life, planet Earth is a pretty special place.  A quick survey of the solar system reveals … nothing else like it. But how special is Earth, really? One way to find out is to look for other worlds like ours elsewhere in the galaxy.  Astronomers using NASA’s Kepler space telescope and other observatories have been doing just that.  In recent years they have been finding other planets increasingly similar to Earth—but still no...

Patrick Taylor, an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, says that one of the main factors for the Arctic's rapid warming is how clouds interact with frozen seawater, known as sea ice. These interactions influence the Arctic’s albedo feedback, which is a term scientists use to describe changes in the amount of solar energy absorbed by the Earth due to changes in the Earth's albedo caused by increased greenhouse gases. The Earth's albedo is basically ...

Researchers at the MIT Media Lab have developed a new imaging device that consists of a loose bundle of optical fibers, with no need for lenses or a protective housing. The fibers are connected to an array of photosensors at one end; the other ends can be left to wave free, so they could pass individually through micrometer-scale gaps in a porous membrane, to image whatever is on the other side. Bundles of the fibers could be fed through pipes and immersed in fluids, to image oil fields, a...

NASA is preparing to launch its first mission to return a sample of an asteroid to Earth. The mission will help scientists investigate how planets formed and how life began, as well as improve our understanding of asteroids that could impact Earth. The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft will travel to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu and bring a sample back to Earth for intensive study. Launch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. E...

MIT biological engineers have devised a memory storage system as a DNA-embedded meter that is recording the activity of a signaling pathway in a human cell. MIT biological engineers have devised a way to record complex histories in the DNA of human cells, allowing them to retrieve “memories” of past events, such as inflammation, by sequencing the DNA. This analog memory storage system — the first that can record the duration and/or intensity of events in human cells — could also help scien...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved an expanded indication for the Sapien XT and Sapien 3 transcatheter heart valves for patients with aortic valve stenosis who are at intermediate risk for death or complications associated with open-heart surgery. These devices were previously approved only in patients at high or greater risk for death or complications during surgery. Edwards Lifesciences is an American medical equipment company specializing in artificial heart valves and he...

Molecular Informatics and Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) A fundamental big data challenge Microsoft is working on is related to Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies, which generate data at a rate much faster than that of the growth of compute and storage capacity. Researchers predict that the amount of genomic data will exceed that of YouTube, and genomic computations will exceed 5 million compute days per year by 2020. By the end of 2016, Microsoft will host large, open Genomic...

Everyone knows the score with black holes: even if light strays too close, the immense gravity will drag it inside, never to be seen again. They are thought to be created when large stars finally spend all their fuel and collapse. It might come as a surprise, therefore, to find that physicists in the UK have now managed to create an “artificial” black hole in the lab. Originally, theorists studying black holes focused almost exclusively on applying Einstein’s theory of general relativity, whi...

NASA Goddard Tech Transfer -  the GPM mission is the first to coordinate a network of international satellites (current and planned) to produce the next generation of data on global precipitation. The star of the mission is the GPM Core Observatory, launched in February of 2014. It carries an advanced radar/radiometer system and serves as a reference standard that will unify precipitation measurements from the constellation. To do this, technology had to be developed that could link the data fro...

There’s a new tool in the push to engineer rechargeable batteries that last longer and charge more quickly. An X-ray microscopy technique recently developed at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has given scientists the ability to image nanoscale changes inside lithium-ion battery particles as they charge and discharge. The real-time images provide a new way to learn how batteries work, and how to improve them. The method was developed at Berkeley ...

Heracleion (Greek: Ἡράκλειον), also known as Thonis (Θῶνις), was an ancient Egyptian city near Alexandria whose ruins are located in Abu Qir Bay, currently 2.5 km off the coast, under 10 m (30 ft) of water. Its legendary beginnings go back to as early as the 12th century BC, and it is mentioned by ancient Greek historians. Its importance grew particularly during the waning days of the Pharaohs—the late period, when it was Egypt's main port for international trade and collection of taxes. Hera...

S+, the non-contact sleep sensor that helps you sleep better from the very first night. S+ combines a bedside sleep monitor, smartphone app and web-based app to help you track and better understand your sleeping patterns, and then creates personalized feedback and suggestions to help improve your sleep. Using advanced bio-motion technology and rigorous sleep science, S+: Measures your breathing and body movements throughout the night Analyzes light, noise and temperature levels in y...

The Hope spacecraft orbiter is a planned 2020 unmanned mission to Mars by the United Arab Emirates to study the Martian atmosphere and climate. The robotic space probe is expected to be launched in the summer of 2020 and to take seven to nine months to arrive at Mars. In designing the orbiter, the Emirates Mars Mission deputy project manager and science lead, Sarah Amiri, is expected to collaborate with the University of Colorado, the University of California, Berkeley and the Arizona State Univ...

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham are exploring the concept of a wearable personal cloud — a fully functioning, yet compact and lightweight cloud computing system embedded into clothing. Ragib Hasan, Ph.D., assistant professor of computer and information sciences in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences, and Rasib Khan, Ph.D., a recent postdoctoral graduate student, presented the concept and prototype of a wearable cloud jacket at the 40th Institute of Electrical and Elect...

NASA has selected five U.S. aerospace companies to conduct concept studies for a potential future Mars orbiter mission. Such a mission would continue key capabilities including telecommunications and global high-resolution imaging in support of the agency's Journey to Mars. The companies contracted for these four-month studies are: The Boeing Company in Huntington Beach, California; Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver; Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in Redondo Beach, California; Orbit...

Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design graduate Liron Gino has designed a set of jewellery-like devices that allow people that have challenge hearing to experience music through vibration. The Vibeat collection is an alternative to headphones that features a necklace, bracelet and pin with circular modules attached to them. What is music like when you can't hear it? It's a question that sounds like a philosophical debate on par with trees falling in the woods and single hands clapping, but thi...

IKEA is introducing an indoor gardening series that lets you grow your own tasty lettuce and herbs in water. Developed in collaboration with agricultural scientists in Sweden, KRYDDA/VÄXER series includes everything you need to get sprouting and keep your garden growing - even in the winter! How it works? Just keep an eye on the water level. Hydroponics simply means growing plants in water without soil. With added nutrients and the right light, it allows you to garden in any small space all y...

The nation’s airlines could realize more than $250 billion dollars in savings in the near future thanks to green-related technologies developed and refined by NASA’s aeronautics researchers during the past six years. These new technologies, developed under the purview of NASA’s Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) project, could cut airline fuel use in half, pollution by 75 percent and noise to nearly one-eighth of today’s levels. “If these technologies start finding their way into t...

Smart ring claims to measure calorie and protein intake and a whole lot ... bio-impedance sensor and optical heart rate sensor to capture data The BioRing utilizes three sensors - 3-axis accelerometer, bio-impedance and optical HR sensor give you an unique insight into your body and diet. When you eat, your food consists of primarily carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Carbs are broken down into glucose, which is transported into your cells with the help of insulin. When glucose enters yo...

Like sending sensors up into a hurricane, NASA has flown four spacecraft through an invisible maelstrom in space, called magnetic reconnection. Magnetic reconnection is one of the prime drivers of space radiation and so it is a key factor in the quest to learn more about our space environment and protect our spacecraft and astronauts as we explore farther and farther from our home planet. Space is a better vacuum than any we can create on Earth, but it does contain some particles — and it's b...

Researchers from the George Washington University have managed to switch consciousness on and off in an epileptic woman by stimulating a single region of the brain with electrical impulses. While this is a single case study, it provides an exciting insight into the neural mechanisms behind consciousness, a subject of great interest that is poorly understood despite decades of research. The study has been published in Epilepsy & Behavior. Consciousness is a fascinating topic that has both ...

GABA (gamma amino butyric acid) is considered the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system. It regulates neuronal excitability and muscle tone.1 GABA is synthesized from glutamate (using vitamin B6 as a cofactor). GABA is Interestingly, while glutamate is the brain’s main excitatory neurotransmitter,2 GABA “puts the brakes” on in the brain, helping to control overstimulation. gamma-Aminobutyric acid (γ-Aminobutyric acid) /ˈɡæmə əˈmiːnoʊbjuːˈtɪrᵻk ˈæsᵻd/ (also called G...

Pentaho, a Hitachi Group company, is a leading data integration and business analytics company with an enterprise-class, open source-based platform for diverse big data deployments. Pentaho’s unified data integration and analytics platform is comprehensive, completely embeddable and delivers governed data to power any analytics in any environment. Pentaho’s mission is to help organizations across multiple industries harness the value from all their data, including big data and IoT, enabling them...

An independent nonprofit founded by MIT has been selected to run a new, $317 million public-private partnership announced today by Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. National public-private consortium led by MIT will involve manufacturers, universities, agencies, companies. The partnership, named the Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA) Institute, has won a national competition for federal funding to create the latest Manufacturing Innovation Institute. It is designed to acceler...

Some of the wind-sculpted sand ripples on Mars are a type not seen on Earth, and their relationship to the thin Martian atmosphere today provides new clues about the atmosphere's history. The determination that these mid-size ripples are a distinct type resulted from observations by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. Six months ago, Curiosity made the first up-close study of active sand dunes anywhere other than Earth, at the "Bagnold Dunes" on the northwestern flank of Mars' Mount Sharp. "Earth...