• Unleashing the Potential of the Mind: Controlling Digital Interfaces, Such As Phones, Through Brain Signals

    Unleashing the Potential of the Mind: Controlling Digital Interfaces, Such As Phones, Through Brain Signals

    The MIT startup Pison Technology, founded by Dexter Ang ’05, is using sensors to turn biopotentials on the skin into digital commands for smartphones, robots, IoT equipment, and more. Credit: Pison Pison, founded by Dexter Ang (MIT ’05), enables people to control digital interfaces, such as their phones, through brain signals. Dexter Ang ’05, AF ’16 had been working as a high-frequency trader before he learned his mother had ALS. Over the next year, he watched her slowly lose the ability to walk, feed herself, and even click a mouse to read an e-book, one of her favorite activities. The progression was painful to watch, but what Ang couldn’t accept was that his mother’s physical condition could so negatively affect…

  • New Equipment Finds the Flaws in Everything – From Airplanes to Cell Phones

    New Equipment Finds the Flaws in Everything – From Airplanes to Cell Phones

    Sandia National Laboratories researchers in the Mechanics of Materials department utilize the new fracture testing hangers for traditional interlaminar composite fracture testing as well as advanced hybrid composite laminates, as shown here. Credit: Sandia National Laboratories Fracture technology innovation allows faster materials testing. Tim Briggs has built a career at Sandia National Laboratories tearing and breaking things apart with his team of collaborators. Now, he’s developed a fracture-testing tool that could help make everything from aircraft structural frames to cellphones stronger. Briggs has filed a patent for a device associated with bonded structural composite materials with the deceptively mundane title “Mode I Fracture Testing Fixture.” The device, a small set of two hangers no larger than a hand, fits into…

  • Jumping Frost Crystals: Electrostatic De-icing Effect Could Be a Game-Changer for Aircraft and HVAC Industries

    Jumping Frost Crystals: Electrostatic De-icing Effect Could Be a Game-Changer for Aircraft and HVAC Industries

    Frost breaks off and “jumps” upward due to an electrostatic charge. Credit: Virginia Tech If you have ever gotten up on a winter morning and thrown yourself into the arduous task of scraping frost from a windshield, a Virginia Tech lab is engaging science that could make your life much easier. In research funded by the National Science Foundation, Associate Professor Jonathan Borekyo has led a team in developing a potential solution for frost removal by way of electrostatics. As water freezes, positively charged protons and negatively charged electrons separate. Frozen ice crystals become electrified as the top of the frost becomes warmer than the bottom of the frost. This causes charged ions to move from top to bottom (warm to…

  • Microfluidic Chip Simplifies COVID-19 Testing, Delivers Results on a Phone in 55 Minutes or Less

    Microfluidic Chip Simplifies COVID-19 Testing, Delivers Results on a Phone in 55 Minutes or Less

    Programmed magnetic nanobeads paired with an off-the-shelf cellphone and plug-in diagnostic tool can diagnose COVID-19 in 55 minutes or less, according to Rice University engineers. Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University Programmed magnetic nanobeads enable diagnostic device designed at Rice University. COVID-19 can be diagnosed in 55 minutes or less with the help of programmed magnetic nanobeads and a diagnostic tool that plugs into an off-the-shelf cellphone, according to Rice University engineers. The Rice lab of mechanical engineer Peter Lillehoj has developed a stamp-sized microfluidic chip that measures the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) protein in blood serum from a standard finger prick. The nanobeads bind to SARS-CoV-2 N protein, a biomarker for COVID-19, in the chip and transport it to an…

  • “Acoustic Tweezers” – Human Hands Replaced by Sound Waves in Petri Dish Experiments

    “Acoustic Tweezers” – Human Hands Replaced by Sound Waves in Petri Dish Experiments

    Three proof of concept experimental setups that use acoustic tweezers in Petri dishes. From left to right, a standing pattern for sorting, a whirlpool for concentrating, and high-frequency beam-like waves for concentration and stimulation. Credit: Tony Huang, Duke University Three proof-of-concept prototypes seek to make contactless ‘acoustic tweezer’ technology available to a wide array of laboratories. Mechanical engineers at Duke University have demonstrated a set of prototypes for manipulating particles and cells in a Petri dish using sound waves. The devices, known in the scientific community as “acoustic tweezers,” are the first foray into making these types of tools, which have thus far been relegated to laboratories with specific equipment and expertise, available for use in a wide array of…

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