Tech
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Tech
Surgical tool smokes out cancer in seconds
Sniffing for telltale molecules, method analyzes tissue with every cut.
- Tech
Sound waves put levitation on the move
Technique transports nonmagnetic particles such as cells, water droplets and coffee grounds.
- Tech
What parents just don’t understand about online privacy
Not long ago, police and school officials in Old Saybrook, Conn., held a high school assembly on Internet safety. The purpose of the assembly, wrote New Haven Register reporter Susan Misur, was to make students aware of how public their photos, tweets and profiles are online. To make this point, the presentation included a slide […]
- Tech
Twisted light transmits more data
Spiral beams allow multiple information streams in one cable.
- Tech
Eye chip sends signals to blind rats’ brains
When struck with light, retinal prostheses stimulate animals' visual cortices.
- Tech
Faster memory could accelerate computing
Experimental microchip improves reliability and speed of writing and reading data.
- Tech
Highlights from the International Congress on Acoustics
Selections from the meeting held June 2-7 in Montreal include personal listening zones in cars and music of the body.
- Tech
Computer scientists grapple with how to manage the digital legacy of the departed
In April, Google added to its services an Inactive Account Manager, which lets you designate an heir who will control your Google data when you die. You choose a length of inactivity, and if your accounts are ever quiet for that long, Google will notify your heirs that they’ve inherited access to your Gmail correspondence, […]
- Tech
Camera captures voices without a microphone
Throat movements get decoded to reveal sounds of speech.
- Animals
Winged robots may shed light on fly aerobatics
After years of trying, researchers create flapping machines that can hover and perform rudimentary flight maneuvers.
- Tech
Recreating the eye of the fly
Inspired by insect vision, camera with 180 linked lenses captures panoramic views.
- Tech
Obama worried about research funding
Barack Obama offered yet another argument about why the current federal-budget stalemate is so risky: “[T]he sequester, as it’s known in Washington-speak — it’s hitting our scientific research.” As things now stand, “we could lose a year, two years of scientific research as a practical matter, because of misguided priorities here in this town.”
