Santa Clara University

Testing for drug use and disease in humans could soon be much simpler, thanks to new Swedish research. Whereas drug tests currently rely on blood or urine samples, researchers from the University of Gothenburg have identified a method for drug testing by analysing various compounds in exhaled breath. Reporting their results today in the Journal of Breath

Analysts are concerned about how long it will take for the phones to go on sale in the United States. One of the most awkwardly named companies, Research in Motion, has decided it should no longer have to define itself as the maker of BlackBerry smartphones every time the company is mentioned. In an event on

A revolutionary new architecture aims to make the internet more “social” by eliminating the need to connect to servers and enabling all content to be shared more efficiently. One colleague asked me how, using this architecture, you would get to the server. The answer is: you don’t. Dirk Trossen Researchers have taken the first step

Scientists develop new way to detect threatening nanoparticles in food Over the last few years, the use of nanomaterials for water treatment, food packaging, pesticides, cosmetics and other industries has increased. For example, farmers have used silver nanoparticles as a pesticide because of their capability to suppress the growth of harmful organisms. However, a growing

A one-step method enables scalable and more environmentally friendly production of plant-derived plastic monomers, paving the way towards the mass production of a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based materials. An international team, including Kiyotaka Nakajima of Hokkaido University, Japan, and Emiel Hensen of Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands, has developed an energy-efficient method to synthesize

Academics have some ideas, but the ethics are troubling. We’re the ones causing the problem, so maybe there are biological fixes that could make humanity consume fewer resources. Academics have some ideas, but the ethics are troubling. Are you ready for your government-mandated meat patch? In the fight to keep Earth from rapidly warming, humanity

The idea that paralyzed people might one day control their limbs just by thinking is no longer a Hollywood-style fantasy In 2014 billions of viewers worldwide may remember the opening game of the World Cup in Brazil for more than just the goals scored by the Brazilian national team and the red cards given to

The rise of freight airships could go down like a lead balloon with traditional aircraft companies but could also represent a new high for Asian companies seeking to exploit new ways to reach world markets, according to research published in the International Journal of Aviation Management. Barry Prentice of the I.H. Asper School of Business,

The next breakthrough in grid capacity may not be battery storage. Ultracapacitors are faster, discharging in fractions of a second rather than seconds, perform over broader temperature ranges (-40°C to +65°C) and provide more power. As batteries produce and store energy through a chemical reaction, rather than storing it in an electric field, they have

“This is a quite remarkable spatial resolution.” Researchers have created tiny holograms using a “metasurface” capable of the ultra-efficient control of light, representing a potential new technology for advanced sensors, high-resolution displays and information processing. The metasurface, thousands of V-shaped nanoantennas formed into an ultrathin gold foil, could make possible “planar photonics” devices and optical