Who would have thought taking a simple scan of your finger could save your life?

Unlikely on the face of it, perhaps, but a consortium including Cranfield Impact Centre and Nissan Technical Centre Europe, has developed a prototype bone density scanning system which could be used to improve driver and passenger restraint systems in cars.

The system would work by taking an ultrasound scan of your finger and using the data to estimate the bone strength of each passenger,

Demonstrating breakneck signal speed of 10 gigahertz, method uses nanotubes instead of conventional copper wires

UC Irvine scientists in The Henry Samueli School of Engineering have demonstrated for the first time that carbon nanotubes can route electrical signals on a chip faster than traditional copper or aluminum wires, at speeds of up to 10 GHz. The breakthrough could lead to faster and more efficient computers, and improved wireless network and cellular phone systems, addi

Goddard Technologist Proposes Sensitive Skin Covering for Robots

A ballerina gracefully dances on a small stage. She is followed not by a male partner, but by a robotic arm manipulator that seems to sense her every move. For NASA Goddard technologist Vladimir Lumelsky, the performance shows the future of robotics.

It also demonstrates an advanced technology that Lumelsky hopes to develop as part of the push from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. t

A car that can automatically alert emergency services in the event of an accident, giving its precise location and the health status of occupants would save thousands of lives each year. Thanks to the work of AIDER such a vehicle is a step closer to becoming reality.

Developed over three years by 10 partners under the European Commission’s IST programme, the AIDER system has been completely tested in the field and, from the car maker’s perspective, contributes towards meeting the

The University of Waterloo has joined 16 other top North American universities as teams of engineering students compete to design the vehicles of the future. The Waterloo team, with a fuel-cell-powered vehicle design, is the only Canadian team in the Challenge X competition being held this week in Detroit. The team is sponsored by Natural Resources Canada and Hydrogenics Corporation.

“This is an exciting opportunity for young people to be involved in designing the environmental tec

Sustainable energy source could solve Bermuda Triangle riddle

Experts at Cardiff University, UK, have designed world-first technology to investigate sustainable energy sources from the ocean bed by isolating ancient high-pressure bacteria from deep sediments.

Scientists and engineers at Cardiff University are investigating bacteria from deep sediments which despite high pressures (greater than 1,000 atmospheres), gradually increasing temperatures (from an icy 2°C to over

Microbiologists seeking ways to eliminate pollution from waterways with microbes instead discovered that some pollution-eating bacteria commonly found in freshwater ponds can generate electricity. They present their findings today at the 105th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.

“The bacteria are capable of continuously generating electricity at levels that could be used to operate small electronic devices. As long as the bacteria are fed fuel they are abl

A scientist at the University of Liverpool has helped to create the world’s smallest transistor – by proving that a single molecule can power electric circuits

A scientist at the University of Liverpool has helped to create the world’s smallest transistor – by proving that a single molecule can power electric circuits.

Dr Werner Hofer, from the University’s Surface Science Research Centre, is one of an international team of scientists who have created a pr

Motorway Traffic Control Centres use a range of sensors for traffic surveillance and control. The shortcomings of one type, magnetic loop detectors, has led researchers to successfully develop algorithms for alternative video sensors.

“Loop detectors have a short life span of two to three years before they break,” explains project partner Jo Versavel, General Manager, Traficon, Belgium. “They are also very expensive to repair because they involve road closings. Another drawback

University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering researchers have discovered a new way to make a diesel-like liquid fuel from carbohydrates commonly found in plants.

Reporting in the June 3 issue of the Journal Science, Steenbock Professor James Dumesic and colleagues detail a four-phase catalytic reactor in which corn and other biomass-derived carbohydrates can be converted to sulfur-free liquid alkanes resulting in an ideal additive for diesel transportation fuel. Co-re

In the time it takes to read this sentence, your fingernail will have grown one nanometer. That’s one-billionth of a meter and it represents the scale at which electronics must be built if the march toward miniaturization is to continue.
Reporting in the June 3 issue of the Journal Science, an international team of researchers shows how control over materials on this tiny scale can be extended to create complex patterns important in the production of nano-electronics.

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Researchers at the Alberta Research Council Inc. (ARC) have completed a pilot study identifying a more efficient technology to insulate homes, reducing space heating costs for homeowners. Researchers proved by combining direct solar collection and heat storage technology with existing structural insulated panel system (SIPS), energy consumption for space heating could be reduced by 48 per cent.

The study focused on measuring energy consumption during a peak energy load perio

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that airbags installed in automobiles have saved some 10,000 lives as of January 2004. A just-released study by a statistician at the University of Georgia, however, casts doubt on that assertion.

In fact, said UGA statistics professor Mary C. Meyer, a new analysis of existing data indicates that, controlling for other factors, airbags are actually associated with slightly increased probability of death in a

Rensselaer Researchers Detail Potential for Smart Lighting in Science

“Smart” solid-state light sources now being developed not only have the potential to provide significant energy savings, but also offer new opportunities for applications that go well beyond the lighting provided by conventional incandescent and fluorescent sources, according to E. Fred Schubert and Jong Kyu Kim of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

In an article published May 27, 2005 in the journal S

Materials scientists at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, have devised a novel and easy technique to make thin, crystal-like materials for electronic devices. The technique could supplement today’s tedious and exacting method of growing crystals with an additional benefit of producing materials in sizes and shapes not now possible.

In a recent issue of the American Chemical Society journal Langmuir, Rutgers scientists and collaborators from Ceramare Corporation a

In this month’s issue of the freely available online journal PLoS Medicine, Dr. Thomas N. Williams and colleagues from Kilifi, Kenya, show that the protection against malaria given by carrying the gene for sickle cell haemoglobin may involve the immune system. Studying a group of children and adults in the Kilifi District of coastal Kenya, they found that this protection increased during childhood up to age 10, and then declined.

Malaria causes about a million deaths yearly,