Category Technology/Electronics

Periosteum is a tissue fabric layer on the outside of bone, as seen in the upper diagonal segment of the tissue image volume. The natural weave of elastin (green) and collagen (yellow) are evident when viewed under the microscope. Elastin gives periosteum its stretchy properties and collagen imparts toughness. Muscle is organized into fiber bundles, observed as round structures in the lower diagonal segment of the tissue image volume. The volume is approximately 200 x 200 microns (width x height) x 25 microns deep. Credit: Professor Melissa Knothe Tate

For the first time, UNSW biomedical engineers have woven a ‘smart’ fabric that mimics the sophisticated and complex properties of bone tissue, periosteum...

As soon as it comes out of the printing nozzle, the solvent evaporates and the ink solidifies. It takes the form of filaments slightly bigger than a hair. The manufacturing work can then begin. Credit: Polytechnique Montréal

Carbon nanotubes have made headlines in scientific journals for a long time, as has 3D printing. But when both combine with the right polymer, in this case a thermoplastic, something special occurs: electrical conductivity increases and makes it possible to monitor liquids in real time. This is a huge success for Polytechnique Montréal. In practical terms, the result of this research looks like a cloth; but as soon as a liquid comes into contact with it, said cloth is able to identify its nature. In this case, it is ethanol, but it might have been another liquid...

Illustration of the polar directions in relaxor-ferroelectric solid solutions where a small amount of polar nanoregions embedded in a long-range ferroelectric domain leads to dramatically enhanced piezoelectric and dielectric properties. Credit: Xiaoxing Cheng/ Penn State

All ferroelectric materials possess piezoelectricity in which an applied mechanical force can generate an electrical current and an applied electrical field can elicit a mechanical response. Ferroelectric materials are used in a wide variety of industrial applications, from ultrasound and sonar to capacitors, transducers, vibration sensors and ultrasensitive infrared cameras...

Researchers created an optomechanical silicon bullseye disk that traps optical waves in the outermost ring via total internal reflection while the radial groves confine the mechanical waves to the same area. Credit: Thiago P. Mayer Alegre, University of Campinas

Trapping light and mechanical waves within a tiny bullseye, design could enable more sensitive motion detection. The new device is highly customizable and compatible with commercial manufacturing processes. Optomechanical devices use light to detect movement. They can be used as low-power, efficient building blocks for the accelerometers that detect the orientation and movement of a smart phone or that trigger a car’s airbag to deploy split seconds after an accident...