Handheld, miniature microscope being developed by University of Washington mechanical engineers could allow surgeons to “see” at a cellular level in the operating room and determine where to stop cutting. The new technology, developed in collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Stanford University and the Barrow Neurological Institute, is outlined in a paper published in January in the journal Biomedical Optics Express. The handheld microscope, roughly the size of a pen, ...

Paralyzed people and Parkinson’s disease patients can regain some control of their limbs and symptoms with neural implants. The problem is that with traditional implant hookups, wires from the implant run through the skull and connect with an external computer. Not only are the wires cumbersome but there is a high risk of infection with the open entry holes in the skull. Scientists at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore have designed a low power chip that works with existing n...

Brains are built over time, from the bottom up. The basic architecture of the brain is constructed through an ongoing process that begins before birth and continues into adulthood. Early experiences affect the quality of that architecture by establishing either a sturdy or a fragile foundation for all of the learning, health and behavior that follow. In the first few years of life, 700 new neural connections are formed every second. After this period of rapid proliferation, connections are...

The world at the quantum level, at the scale of particles too small for the eye to see, is very strange. It's possible, for instance, to have two particles that are "entangled" -- that is, they function as if they were connected, even if they are many miles away from each other. New research co-authored by Francesco Marsili, microdevices engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, makes use of this phenomenon in a technological advancement published in the journal ...

An 18-month NASA research effort to visualize the passenger airplanes of the future has produced some ideas that at first glance may appear to be old fashioned. Instead of exotic new designs seemingly borrowed from science fiction, familiar shapes dominate the pages of advanced concept studies which four industry teams completed for NASA's Fundamental Aeronautics Program in April 2010. Look more closely at these concepts for airplanes that may enter service 20 to 25 years from now and you'll ...

Pill coated with tiny needles can deliver drugs directly into the lining of the digestive tract. Given a choice, most patients would prefer to take a drug orally instead of getting an injection. Unfortunately, many drugs, especially those made from large proteins, cannot be given as a pill because they get broken down in the stomach before they can be absorbed. To help overcome that obstacle, researchers at MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have devised a novel drug capsule coat...

University of Tokyo is developing a wearable and modular device allowing users to perceive and respond to spatial information using haptic cues in an intuitive and unobtrusive way. The system is composed of an array of "optical-hair modules", each of which senses range information and transduces it as an appropriate vibro-tactile cue on the skin directly beneath it (the module can be embedded on clothes or strapped to body parts as in the figures below). An analogy for our artificial sensory sys...

University of Tokyo researchers have developed an ultrathin, ultraflexible, protective layer and demonstrated its use by creating an air-stable, organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display. This technology will enable creation of electronic skin (e-skin) displays of blood oxygen level, e-skin heart rate sensors for athletes and many other applications. Integrating electronic devices with the human body to enhance or restore body function for biomedical applications is the goal of researchers ...

From outer space to the wide open spaces of farmland in Crookston, Minn., the benefits originating from International Space Station research and technology stretch far and wide. The space station provides a microgravity environment for researchers to conduct multidisciplinary investigations, for educators to inspire next generation scientists and engineers, and to serve as a stepping stone to future exploration that was not possible just 15 years ago. A few of the many benefits provided by resea...

Up to thirty percent of the rain that falls in tropical forests is water that the rainforest has recycled into the atmosphere. Water evaporates from the soil and vegetation, condenses into clouds, and falls again as rain in a perpetual self-watering cycle. In addition to maintaining tropical rainfall, the evaporation cools the Earth’s surface. In many computer models of future climate, replacing tropical forests with a landscape of pasture and crops creates a drier, hotter climate in the tropics...

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced the detection of gravitational waves by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), a pair of ground-based observatories in Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana. Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves in his general theory of relativity a century ago, and scientists have been attempting to detect them for 50 years. Einstein pictured these waves as ripples in the fabric of space-time produ...

OBJECTIVES: Stress and anxiety-related problems are some of the most common and costly behavioral health problems in society. For those working in operational environments (i.e., astronauts, flight controllers, military), stress and anxiety-related problems before, during, or after missions can seriously compromise efficiency, safety, and performance. To address behavioral health issues like stress, it is important to maximize the privacy, validity, and acceptability of the training and counter...

A variety of large-scale medical studies are being conducted in space by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI). Prominent among these is the Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity Study, in which astronauts (including former ISS Commanders Leroy Chiao and Gennady Padalka) perform ultrasound scans under the guidance of remote experts to diagnose and potentially treat hundreds of medical conditions in space. Usually there is no physician on board the International Spa...

Dynamic light scattering technology, which was developed at the NASA's Glenn Research Center to protect the health of astronauts, can be used in simple noninvasive eye examinations to diagnose health problems long before clinical symptoms appear. The technology uses light to look into the eye as a "window to the body." It works because, for every tissue type in the body, there is a corresponding tissue type in the human eye. By measuring subtle changes in the tissues, fluids, and blood vess...

Sound may not be a normal cleaning product in your house, but it is just the thing for cleaning delicate jewelry, surgical instruments, lenses, and many other small, intricate objects. Soon, it could also make cleaning big objects like houses or machines much more efficient. Cutaway view of a loudspeaker. One model of an ultrasonic cleaner. This benchtop size is used by jewelers, cosmetic and tattoo professionals, dive shops, light manufacturing facilities, maintenance facilities and more. Ph...

According to a recent report by the U.S. Geological Survey, male bass are experiencing sex changes due to chemicals that are found in most waterways across Northeast National Wildlife Refuges. Studies have found that up to 85% of male smallmouth bass in the region are demonstrating "characteristics of the opposite sex" – including eggs being located where testes should be. This isn't a one off – in fact, 27% of largemouth bass in the same region also show undesirable sex change indications. M...

AUTONOMOUS RESEARCH VEHICLES USE LIDAR SENSOR TECHNOLOGY TO SEE IN THE DARK Ford tests Fusion Hybrid autonomous research vehicles at night, in complete darkness, as part of LiDAR sensor development – demonstrating the capability to perform beyond the limits of human drivers. Recent test at Ford Arizona Proving Ground shows how the company’s use of LiDAR technology and 3D maps work in conjunction to allow vehicles to drive without headlights on. Testing supports Ford Smart Mobility, the ...

According to measurements from NASA-supported observatories, the sun's vast magnetic field flips every 11 years. The sun's magnetic field changes polarity approximately every 11 years. It happens at the peak of each solar cycle as the sun's inner magnetic dynamo re-organizes itself. The coming reversal will mark the midpoint of Solar Cycle 24. Half of "solar max" will be behind us, with half yet to come. Hoeksema is the director of Stanford's Wilcox Solar Observatory, one of the few observ...

A geomagnetic storm is a major disturbance of Earth's magnetosphere that occurs when there is a very efficient exchange of energy from the solar wind into the space environment surrounding Earth. These storms result from variations in the solar wind that produces major changes in the currents, plasmas, and fields in Earth’s magnetosphere. The solar wind conditions that are effective for creating geomagnetic storms are sustained (for several to many hours) periods of high-speed solar wind, and mo...

There is no "real time" camera or Web cam on board the telescope for live relay links. The images that the Hubble takes are digital pictures and spectra released to the public after one year (to allow the investigators time to do their research). The data, which are transmitted from the telescope in digital form, needs to be converted from this digitized information by computers into black-and-white photos. These are then enhanced to discern details in the images. All the information we ...

On Greenland's ice sheet, a vast icy landscape crisscrossed by turquoise rivers and dotted with meltwater lakes, a small cluster of orange camping tents popped up in late July. The camp, home for a week to a team of researchers, sat by a large, fast-flowing river. Just half a mile (a kilometer) downstream, the river dropped into a seemingly bottomless moulin, or sinkhole in the ice. The low rumble of the waters, the shouted instructions from scientists taking measurements, and the chop of the bl...

Power provides electricity to the spacecraft and its subsystems. Below are examples of the way in which the Mars Science Laboratory mission benefits from past technological development and contributes new capabilities. Inherited Technologies Mars Science Laboratory uses a radioisotope power system to generate electricity needed to operate the rover and its instruments. Radioisotope electrical power and heating systems enable science missions that require greater longevity, more diverse landi...

When you stroll through your front door in the morning, does the yellow haze coating the porch send you leaping back into the house? Can the mere word "pollen" make you start to sniffle, sneeze and reach for the tissue to blow your nose? If you answered "yes" to these questions, you're probably one of millions of people in the United States suffering from hay fever. Pollen can do more, however, than just make you sneeze. If you have asthma, cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonar...

The 3D Printing In Zero-G Technology Demonstration serves as a proof-of-concept test of the properties of melt deposition modeling additive manufacturing in the microgravity environment of the International Space Station (ISS). The lessons learned from this technology demonstration can be applied in the next generation of melt deposition modeling in the permanent NanoRacks Additive Manufacturing Facility (AMF), as well as for any future additive manufacturing technology. This includes any future...

NASA’s CubeSat Launch initiative (CSLI) provides opportunities for small satellite payloads to fly on rockets planned for upcoming launches. These CubeSats are flown as auxiliary payloads on previously planned missions. To participate in the CSLI program, CubeSat investigations should address research in science, exploration, technology, or education consistent with NASA's Strategic Plan and the Education Strategic Coordination Framework. CSLI provides educational opportunities that attrac...

Using new, high-resolution global satellite maps of air quality indicators, NASA scientists tracked air pollution trends over the last decade in various regions and 195 cities around the globe. The findings were presented Monday at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco and published in the Journal of Geophysical Research. "These changes in air quality patterns aren't random," said Bryan Duncan, an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Mary...

Scientists have successfully cultivated a range of human body structures, similar structures that have been successfully tested in animals, and small-scale human organs known as "organoids," which are used to study human organ function and structure at a level of detail that was previously impossible. Using stem cells, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin grew the innermost cellular layer of human fallopian tubes, the structures that connect the ovaries and...

Emerging Possibilities for Space Propulsion Breakthroughs The ideal interstellar propulsion system would be one that could get you to other stars as quickly and comfortably as envisioned in science fiction. Before this can become a reality, two scientific breakthroughs are needed: discovery of a means to exceed light speed, and discovery of a means to manipulate the coupling between mass and spacetime. This article explains why these breakthroughs are needed and introduces the emerging possib...

The history of science is the study of the development of science and scientific knowledge, including both the natural sciences and social sciences. (The history of the arts and humanities is termed as the history of scholarship.) Science is a body of empirical, theoretical, and practical knowledge about the natural world, produced by scientists who emphasize the observation, explanation, and prediction of real world phenomena. Historiography of science, in contrast, often draws on the historica...

High school student Judith Miles Skylab experiment with Keith Demorest and Henry Floyd, both of Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). In her experiment, called "Web Formation in Zero Gravity," spiders were released into a box and their actions recorded to determine how well they adapted to the absence of gravity. The experiment flew aboard the Skylab 3 mission and proved that spiders could still spin webs in microgravity. The experiement was designed to measure motor response, an indicat...