Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)

Device offers new hope to local wheelchair users Twenty-two-year-old Mary Beth Davis of Guthrie was injured in a car accident on her way home from school in Stillwater in 2010. She was left paralyzed from the chest down. Like many millions of people with spinal cord injuries before her, the wheelchair was the only mobility

Purdue University researchers are developing a novel biomedical imaging system that combines optical and ultrasound technology to improve diagnosis of life-threatening diseases. Photoacoustic tomography is a noninvasive technique that works by converting absorbed optical energy into acoustic signal. Pulsed light is sent into body tissue, creating a small increase in temperature that causes the tissue to

Using implants made from porous biocompatible materials, scientists have recently been successful in regrowing things such as teeth, tendons and heart tissue, plus bone and cartilage. The materials act as a sort of nanoscale three-dimensional scaffolding, to which lab-cultivated cells can be added, or that the recipient’s own cells can colonize. Now, a Spanish research team has used the same

High-power, self-cleaning solar panels might be coming soon to a roof near you. There are two obvious problems with photovoltaic cells, solar panels. First, they are very shiny and so a lot of the incident sunlight is simply reflected back into the sky rather than being converted into electricity. Secondly, they get dirty with dust

Chemists in the College of Arts and Sciences have figured out how to turn bacterial molecules into potential drug molecules. Yan-Yeung Luk, associate professor of chemistry, and his research team have published their findings in ChemBioChem (John Wiley & Sons, 2015), explaining how they have created molecules that mimic and dominate toxic ones secreted by

A large section of the mighty West Antarctica ice sheet has begun falling apart and its continued melting now appears to be unstoppable, two groups of scientists reported on Monday. If the findings hold up, they suggest that the melting could destabilize neighboring parts of the ice sheet and a rise in sea level of

As a growing population and climate change threaten food security, researchers around the world are working to overcome the challenges that threaten the dietary needs of humans and livestock. A pair of scientists is now making the case that the knowledge and tools exist to facilitate the next agricultural revolution we so desperately need. Cold

For the first time researchers succeeded to place a layer of graphene on top of a stable fatty lipid monolayer. Surrounded by a protective shell of lipids graphene could enter the body and function as a versatile sensor. The results are the first step towards such a shell, and have been published in the journal

Berkeley Lab study finds way to pack more data in single acoustic beam for underwater transmissions A new approach to sending acoustic waves through water could potentially open up the world of high-speed communications to divers, marine research vessels, remote ocean monitors, deep sea robots, and submarines. By taking advantage of the dynamic rotation generated as