Autonomous mobile robots rely on sensors to navigate through their environment.

Iowa State researchers led by Vikram Dalal are hoping their work with materials science and plasma chemistry will bump up the performance of solar panels by 40%–50%. The key lies in improving hydrogen bonding to the silicon in thin-film panels.

NIST researchers have devised a novel platform for self-assembling hierarchical surfaces in a fluid. Rather than mixing the components on a substrate and letting them dry, the investigators allowed them to mix and assemble freely in a fluid and then quickly froze them in place.

MIT molecular biologist Shuguang Zhang and colleagues at the University of Hong Kong have designed several materials that self-assemble into nanostructures. One is a molecular scaffold that could contribute to the regrowth of severed nerves.

Ozan Akkus, a biomedical engineer at Purdue, has built a wearable device that detects seismic activity capable of detecting stress fractures in bones. Athletes, dancers, runners, and racehorses could benefit from these early warning signs of an impending major fracture.

When it comes to having blood drawn or an IV inserted, some patients might as well be turnips or stones. The veins of the very young, the elderly, and users of "needle drugs" are notoriously hard to find, and repeated attempts don't sit well with anyone. The VeinViewer Imaging System developed by Luminetx Technologies Corp. could put an end to human pincushions.

It's hard to overestimate the impact of MEMS—or LabVIEW—on sensor applications.

One problem with every type of eyeglasses, contact lenses, and even the plastic lenses implanted after cataract removal is that they all have a fixed focal length. Auto-focus cameras don't, but they operate on a principle that wouldn't work for a pair of spectacles. Until now.

Magic Spectacles; Lose the Leads; No-Antenna Radar; Get More from a Scan; Safety Net for Miners