Forest Products Laboratory (FPL)

Bioresorbable splint used for first time, successfully stopped life-threatening tracheobronchomalacia, case featured in New England Journal of Medicine Every day, their baby stopped breathing, his collapsed bronchus blocking the crucial flow of air to his lungs. April and Bryan Gionfriddo watched helplessly, just praying that somehow the dire predictions weren’t true. “Quite a few doctors

“Our robot can go places people can’t, particularly in areas of power plants that are radioactively contaminated,” Several snake-like robots have been developed around the world, and while we keep hearing about their potential applications few have managed to slither outside of their research labs. Earlier this year Carnegie Mellon University’s Biorobotics Lab put its modular snake

A new U of T Scarborough study suggests that globally we’re growing more of the same kinds of crops, and this presents major challenges for agricultural sustainability on a global scale. The study, done by an international team of researchers led by U of T assistant professor Adam Martin, used data from the U.N.’s Food and

“This is a very challenging design problem” Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), such as those used by the military for surveillance and reconnaissance, could be getting a hand –and an arm– from engineers at Drexel University as part of a National Science Foundation grant to investigate adding dexterous limbs to the aircrafts. The project, whose subject

Explosive Population Growth Means Challenges for Developing Nations Global population is expected to hit 7 billion later this year, up from 6 billion in 1999. Between now and 2050, an estimated 2.3 billion more people will be added — nearly as many as inhabited the planet as recently as 1950. New estimates from the Population

When the sun dips below the horizon for the night, most solar panels become interesting roofing tiles, instead of valuable generation resources. During the day, a single cloud can quickly send residential solar power generators back to a fossil fuel-based grid for their electricity. This intermittency in fuel resource availability, combined with the current lack

Vehicles could be affordably produced for a wide variety of specialized purposes using a sophisticated wheel unit developed by researchers at the University of Waterloo. The self-contained unit combines a wheel and an electric motor with braking, suspension, steering and a control system in a single module designed to be bolted to any vehicle frame.

SCIENTISTS at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) have devised a novel method to identify suitable new homes for animals under threat from climate change. Conservation scientists used their knowledge on species ecology to create habitat suitability maps and correctly identify sites that will remain viable in the future regardless of changing climate. However, the

If MINOS were to confirm OPERA‘s find, the consequences would be enormous. Neutrino results challenge a cornerstone of Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity, which itself forms the foundation of modern physics. An Italian experiment has unveiled evidence that fundamental particles known as neutrinos can travel faster than light. Other researchers are cautious about the

From the Amazon description: As our knowledge of the human body becomes ever more exact, scientists have made remarkable leaps forward in many fields. Yet for one question that many of us would like answered–What causes the body to burn fat?–we find all sorts of confusing claims. Since we know so much about how our