Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)

You’ve seen it in movies: the human-like, robot assassin quickly regenerates its structure after being damaged beyond recognition. This “Terminator” scenario is becoming less far-fetched as recent advances in structural health monitoring systems have led to a variety of ways to identify damage to a structural system. Now, in the Journal of Applied Physics, researchers at

Good news for the computer industry: a team of researchers has managed to make germanium suitable for lasers. This could enable microprocessor components to communicate using light in future, which will make the computers of the future faster and more efficient. Researchers from ETH Zurich, the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and the Politecnico di Milano

The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) was expanded to its full size at 4:10 p.m. EDT. Expansion was completed as the International Space Station flew over the south Pacific at an altitude of 252 miles. The NASA and Bigelow Aerospace teams working with NASA Astronaut Jeff Williams will now begin the final step to open eight

Printing speed is increased by factor of about 100 At the Photonics West, the leading international fair for photonics taking place in San Francisco (USA) this week, Nanoscribe GmbH, a spin-off of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), presents the world’s fastest 3D printer of micro- and nanostructures. With this printer, smallest three-dimensional objects, often smaller

Survival rates in pancreatic cancer linked to inverse correlation between specific oncogene and tumor suppressant A new Tel Aviv University study pinpoints the inverse correlation between a known oncogene — a gene that promotes the development of cancer — and the expression of an oncosuppressor microRNA as the reason for extended pancreatic cancer survival. The study may

Researchers at the University of Birmingham have developed a contact lens that may help people with colour blindness simply by using a low cost dye, according to research published in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials. Colour blindness – or colour vision deficiency (CVD) – is an inherited genetic ocular disorder where some people have difficulty

US intelligence agency aims to forecast unrest by reading the runes of social media. It is every government’s dream: a system that can predict future events such as riots, political upheavals and the outbreak of wars. Last week, a collection of academics and private businesses was scrambling to meet the deadline for proposals for research

Massive global survey reveals ethics preferences and regional differences. A massive new survey developed by MIT researchers reveals some distinct global preferences concerning the ethics of autonomous vehicles, as well as some regional variations in those preferences. The survey has global reach and a unique scale, with over 2 million online participants from over 200

Green-chemistry researchers at McGill University have discovered a way to use water as a solvent in one of the reactions most widely used to synthesize chemical products and pharmaceuticals. The findings, published June 26 in Nature Communications, mark a potential milestone in efforts to develop organic reactions in water. Chao-Jun Li and Feng Zhou of

We’ve seen a number of prototype and concept devices aimed at upgrading or even replacing the low-tech white cane and this latest example from Hebrew University – the Virtual Cane – appears close to becoming a commercial product. Virtual Cane is a handheld device that uses a type of sonar to recognize physical objects up