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    Tiny Motor can ‘Walk’ to Carry Out Tasks

    July 4, 2019, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    MIT graduate student Will Langford developed a machine that’s like a cross between a 3-D printer and the pick-and-place machines that manufacture electronic circuits, but that can produce complete robotic systems directly from digital designs. (Video in “Related” sidebar below shows the assembly of a machine from five standard parts.)
    Photo by Will Langford

    Mobile motor could pave the way for robots to assemble complex structures – including other robots. Researchers have assembled microrobots from a small set of standardized components, as a step toward self-replicating systems. Years ago, MIT Professor Neil Gershenfeld had an audacious thought...

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    Atmosphere of Midsize Planet revealed by Hubble, Spitzer

    July 4, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This artist’s illustration shows the theoretical internal structure of the exoplanet GJ 3470 b. It is unlike any planet found in the Solar System. Weighing in at 12.6 Earth masses the planet is more massive than Earth but less massive than Neptune. Unlike Neptune, which is 3 billion miles from the Sun, GJ 3470 b may have formed very close to its red dwarf star as a dry, rocky object. It then gravitationally pulled in hydrogen and helium gas from a circumstellar disk to build up a thick atmosphere. The disk dissipated many billions of years ago, and the planet stopped growing. The bottom illustration shows the disk as the system may have looked long ago...
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    Smart Glasses follow our Eyes, Focus Automatically

    July 2, 2019, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

     Front and side views of our autofocal prototype.The RealSense R200 depth camera, the Optotune EL-30-45 focus-tunable lenses, the offset lens holders for prescription correction, and the Pupil Labs eye trackers are shown. (Photo credit: Nitish Padmanaban, Stanford).

    By using eye-tracking technology to automatically control a pair of autofocus lenses, engineers have created a prototype for ‘autofocals’ designed to restore proper vision in people who would ordinarily need progressive lenses.

    Though it may not have the sting of death and taxes, presbyopia is another of life’s guarantees. This vision defect plagues most of us starting about age 45, as the lenses in our eyes lose the elasticity needed to focus on nearby objects...

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    Low-cost Retinal Scanner could help prevent Blindness Worldwide

    July 2, 2019, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Small box with a screen and a boxy gun for scanning retinas
    This OCT system designed at Duke University is 15 times lighter and smaller than current commercial systems and is made from parts costing less than a tenth the retail price of commercial systems.

    Re-engineered device offers clinically accurate eye scans at a fraction of the cost. Biomedical engineers at Duke University have developed a low-cost, portable optical coherence tomography (OCT) scanner that promises to bring the vision-saving technology to underserved regions throughout the United States and abroad.

    Thanks to a redesigned, 3D-printed spectrometer, the scanner is 15 times lighter and smaller than current commercial systems and is made from parts costing less than a tenth the retail price of commercial systems – all without sacrificing imaging quality.

    In its first cl...

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