Rice University synthetic biologists have hacked bacterial sensing with a plug-and-play system that could be used to mix-and-match tens of thousands of sensory inputs and genetic outputs. The technology has wide-ranging implications for medical diagnostics, the study of deadly pathogens, environmental monitoring and more. In a project spanning almost six years, Rice bioengineer Jeff Tabor…
‘Spidey Senses’ Assist Autonomous Machines with Sight
What if drones and self-driving cars had the tingling “spidey senses” of Spider-Man? They might actually detect and avoid objects better, says Andres Arrieta, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, because they would process sensory information faster. Better sensing capabilities would make it possible for drones to navigate in dangerous environments and…
Smart Device Finds Food Contaminants in Real Time
Fast, accurate and affordable food safety testing is now possible. Thanks to a portable scanner, farmers, food manufacturers and retailers can now do their own tests in the field, eliminating costly and time-consuming lab tests. Consumers place importance on different things in the foods they consume. Some insist on locally grown or organic food. Others…
Electron Beam Manipulates Atoms One at a Time
The ultimate degree of control for engineering would be the ability to create and manipulate materials at the most basic level, fabricating devices atom by atom with precise control. Now, scientists at MIT, the University of Vienna, and several other institutions have taken a step in that direction, developing a method that can reposition atoms…
Displacement Sensor Developed to Measure Gravity of Smallest Source Mass Ever
One of the most unknown phenomena in modern physics is gravity. Its measurement and laws remain somewhat of an enigma. Researchers at Tohoku University have revealed important information about a new aspect of the nature of gravity by probing the smallest mass-scale. Professor Nobuyuki Matsumoto has led a team of researchers to develop a gravity…
Blood and Sweat Enhance Training App
The 20,000 entrants who ran the Stockholm Marathon in 2018 may remember what a warm day it was, and how many of them were forced to quit due to the hot weather. KTH Royal Institute of Technology researcher Gaston Crespo and his colleagues have developed a multifaceted measuring technology that is able to detect a…
Smartphones Sniff Out Disease
Gastric cancer, also known as stomach cancer, is the fifth most common cause of cancer-related deaths in Europe. Because of the lack of early signs specifically related to the disease, it’s usually only detected at an advanced stage—when treatment is for the most part ineffective. Driven to improve stomach and other cancer survival rates, for…
Innovative New Sensor Reacts to Light, Heat, Touch
Inspired by the behavior of natural skin, researchers at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics have developed a sensor that will be suitable for use with electronic skin. It can measure changes in body temperature, and react to both sunlight and warm touch. Robotics, prostheses that react to touch, and health monitoring are three fields in…
Researchers Develop New Power Supply for Synthetic Skins
Sensor Sniffs out Spoiled Milk Prior to Opening
Expiration dates on milk could eventually become a thing of the past with new sensor technology from Washington State University scientists. Researchers from the Department of Biological Systems Engineering (BSE), the WSU/UI School of Food Science and other departments have developed a sensor that can “smell” if milk is still good or has gone bad.…
A New Look at 2D Magnets using Diamond Quantum Sensors
For the first time, physicists at the University of Basel have succeeded in measuring the magnetic properties of atomically thin van der Waals materials on the nanoscale. They used diamond quantum sensors to determine the strength of the magnetization of individual atomic layers of the material chromium triiodide. In addition, they found a long-sought explanation…
Sensor Finds Rare Metals Used in Smartphones
A more efficient and cost-effective way to detect lanthanides, the rare earth metals used in smartphones and other technologies, could be possible with a new protein-based sensor that changes its fluorescence when it binds to these metals. A team of researchers from Penn State developed the sensor from a protein they recently described and subsequently…
A New Path to Achieving Invisibility without the Use of Metamaterials
A pair of researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) describes a way of making a submicron-sized cylinder disappear without using any specialized coating. Their findings could enable invisibility of natural materials at optical frequency and eventually lead to a simpler way of enhancing optoelectronic devices, including sensing and communication technologies. Making objects invisible…
New Device Helps Heal Fractured Bones
Threading a needle is hard, but at least you can see it. Think about how challenging it must be to thread a screw through a rod inside a bone in someone’s leg. Rice University seniors at the Brown School of Engineering set out to help doctors simplify the process of repairing fractured long bones in…
Handheld Device Quickly Monitors Quality of Drinking Water
Scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed a portable device, inspired by the ability of the human body, to detect trace levels of heavy metals in drinking water in just five minutes. The secret lies in an organic substance within the circulating human bloodstream, called a chelating agent, which can detect and…
Pin-sized Sensors Embedded in Smartphones Could ID Chemicals
Imagine pointing your smartphone at a salty snack you found at the back of your pantry and immediately knowing if its ingredients had turned rancid. Devices called spectrometers can detect dangerous chemicals based on a unique “fingerprint” of absorbed and emitted light. But these light-splitting instruments have long been both bulky and expensive, preventing their…
Off-the-shelf Smart Fabric Aids Athletes, Physical Therapy Patients
A computer science research team at Dartmouth College has produced a smart fabric that can help athletes and physical therapy patients correct arm angles to optimize performance, reduce injury and accelerate recovery. The proposed fabric-sensing system is a flexible, motion-capture textile that monitors joint rotation. The wearable is lightweight, low-cost, washable and comfortable, making it…
Precision Sensor Delves Deep into Fingerprints
A fingerprint can serve as identification to access locked doors and more, but current scanners can be duped with fake or even similar fingerprints. That may change soon, thanks to a collaborative research team based in Japan. The group has developed a new proximity capacitance imaging sensor that has such high sensitivity and resolution, a…
Threads Can Detect Gases When Woven into Clothing
Tufts University engineers have developed a novel fabrication method to create dyed threads that change color when they detect a variety of gases. The researchers demonstrated that the threads can be read visually, or even more precisely by use of a smartphone camera, to detect changes of color due to analytes as low as 50…
Graphene Oxide Technology Provides Alternative to Biopsy
A prototype wearable device, tested in animal models, can continuously collect live cancer cells directly from a patient’s blood. Developed by a team of engineers and doctors at the University of Michigan, it could help doctors diagnose and treat cancer more effectively. “Nobody wants to have a biopsy. If we could get enough cancer cells…
Innovative Polymer Mixture Creates Ultra-sensitive Heat Sensor
Scientists at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics at Linköping University have developed an ultra-sensitive heat sensor that is flexible, transparent and printable. The results have potential for a wide range of applications—from wound healing and electronic skin to smart buildings. The ultra-sensitive heat sensor is based on the fact that certain materials are thermoelectric. The…
Tiny Sensors Have Big Potential for Energy
The electrical energy from batteries powers not only the ignition system that turns the engine and moves electric vehicles but also powers almost every sensing feature of today’s automobiles. Electricity turns on the car headlights for night travel, rolls the windows up and down, senses numerous actions within the car to keep drivers aware and…
Sensor Tracks Brain Chemical Gone Rogue Following Neurotrauma
Your chances of getting a nasty migraine increase following a spinal cord injury, thanks to a chemical messenger in the brain that spikes to toxic levels, past studies have suggested. For treatment to get any better, researchers need to catch that split-second spike in action and closely follow its path of destruction. Purdue University engineers…
Graphene Sensors Detect Ultralow Concentrations of NO2
The National Physical Laboratory has, as part of an international research collaboration, discovered a novel technique to monitor extremely low concentrations of NO2 in complex environments, using epitaxial sensors containing the “wonder material” graphene. The research, as published in ACS Sensors, was led by an international collaboration of scientists from Linköping University, Chalmers University of…
Innovative Cellulose-based Material Embodies Three Sensors in One
Cellulose soaked in a carefully designed polymer mixture acts as a sensor to measure pressure, temperature and humidity at the same time. The measurements are completely independent of each other. The ability to measure pressure, temperature and humidity is important in many applications, such as monitoring patients at home, robotics, electronic skin, functional textiles, surveillance…