News by Subject Technology & Engineering

Mechanical structures in steerable cars are optimized to fit exactly one particular shape of the toy. If designers want to reuse such a mechanism with different shapes, the necessary adjustments to the components were often unmanageable for non-experts. Scientists at IST Austria have developed an interactive design tool that allows users to easily adjust a mechanical template to the shape of their choice. The tool will be presented at this year's prestigious "SIGGRAPH" conference.

IBS scientists developed a new faster and more efficient optogenetic tool to manipulate protein clusters under blue light.

Researchers at the University of Illinois have designed a sound that is completely inaudible to humans (40 kHz or above) yet is audible to any microphone. The sound combines multiple tones that, when interacting with the microphone's mechanics, create what researchers call a 'shadow,' which is a sound that the microphones can detect.

'A single phrase can conjure up completely different images in our minds, depending on how that concept is organized in our mental models,' said Samarth Swarup, a research assistant professor at Virginia Tech.

In a proof-of-concept study, North Carolina State University engineers have designed a flexible thermoelectric energy harvester that has the potential to rival the effectiveness of existing power wearable electronic devices using body heat as the only source of energy.

Exosomes - tiny biological nanoparticles which transfer information between cells - offer significant potential in detecting and treating disease, the most comprehensive overview so far of research in the field has concluded. Areas which could benefit include cancer treatment and regenerative medicine.