Published in Nature Electronics, Carnegie Mellon University has introduced flexible wearables to augment human senses in both the real and virtual world. 

Engineers at Duke University have developed a wireless patch that can non-invasively measure skin and tissue stiffness at depths of up to a couple of inches. Already smaller than a smartwatch, the device could be a gateway into a wide array of medical applications such as the monitoring of wound healing, chronic conditions like skin cancer, fluid management during resuscitation efforts and muscle rehabilitation.

Engineers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, shows how the signal from a household WiFi device can be used for heart rate monitoring with state-of-the-art accuracy—without the need for a wearable.

Scientists at the Salk Institute have discovered a genetic mechanism for how plants integrate light and temperature information to control their flowering. Understanding this system will now help Salk’s Harnessing Plants Initiative optimize crop growth under changing environmental conditions. 

Rice University biosciences professor Matthew Bennett has received a $1.99 million grant from the National Science Foundation to lead research on engineered bacterial consortia that could form the basis of biological computing systems. The four-year project will also involve co-principal investigators Kirstin Matthews, Caroline Ajo-Franklin and Anastasios Kyrillidis from Rice along with Krešimir Josić from the University of Houston. The research team aims to develop platforms that integrate microbial sensing and communication with electronic networks, paving the way for computing systems constructed from living cells instead of traditional silicon-based hardware.

ORNL, in partnership with technology company Quantum Brilliance, has made the first big steps in the advance of quantum computers for scientific discovery with the installation of a Quantum Brilliance computer system at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility.