Prototyping
The Lead
RapidFire: Human Ear 3D Printed with Embedded Electronics
May 14, 2013 2:42 pm | by Eric Sorensen, Multimedia Coordinator | Videos | Comments
On today’s episode of RapidFire, brought to you by 3D Creation Systems, your number one source for 3D printing services and technology, we’re exploring the emerging technology behind bionic 3D printing with embedded electronics.
World’s Smallest Droplets
May 17, 2013 2:21 pm | by David Salisbury | News | Comments
Physicists may have created the smallest drops of liquid ever made in the lab. Evidence of the...
The Missing Piece of Einstein's Theory
May 17, 2013 1:43 pm | by Mike Wolterbeek, University of Nevada, Reno | News | Comments
A new window into the nature of the universe may be possible with a device proposed by...
Using Earthquake Sensors to Track Endangered Whales
May 17, 2013 1:33 pm | by Hannah Hickey, University of Washington | News | Comments
The fin whale is the second-largest animal ever to live on Earth. It is also, paradoxically, one...
Planes, Trains and Automobiles: Faster, Stronger, Lighter
May 20, 2013 1:43 pm | by Jennifer Chu, MIT | News | CommentsThese days, aerospace engineering is all about the light stuff: building airplanes with lighter wings, fuselage and landing gear in an effort to reduce fuel costs.Advanced carbon-fiber composites have been used in recent years to lighten planes’ loads.
Kinks and Curves at the Nanoscale
May 20, 2013 1:38 pm | by Joshua Brown, University of Vermont | News | CommentsOne of the basic principles of nanotechnology is that when you make things extremely small—one nanometer is about five atoms wide, 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair—they are going to become more perfect.
Robots Learn to Take a Proper Handoff
May 20, 2013 1:35 pm | by Jennifer Liu, Disney Research | News | CommentsA humanoid robot can receive an object handed to it by a person with something approaching natural, human-like motion thanks to a new method developed by scientists at Disney Research, Pittsburgh in a project partially funded by the International Center for Advanced Communication Technologies (interACT) at Carnegie Mellon University and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).
Add Boron for Better Batteries
May 20, 2013 1:32 pm | by Mike Williams, Rice University | News | CommentsFrustration led to revelation when Rice University scientists determined how graphene might be made useful for high-capacity batteries. Calculations by the Rice lab of theoretical physicist Boris Yakobson found a graphene/boron anode should be able to hold a lot of lithium and perform at a proper voltage for use in lithium-ion batteries. The discovery appears in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.
Dream Chaser Testing Begins
May 20, 2013 1:28 pm | by NASA | News | CommentsSierra Nevada Corporation's (SNC) Space Systems Dream Chaser flight vehicle has arrived at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, CA, to begin tests of its flight and runway landing systems. The tests are part of pre-negotiated, paid-for-performance milestones with NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP), which is facilitating U.S.-led companies' development of spacecraft and rockets that can launch from American soil.
Kickstarter of the Week: Turn Your Smartphone Into a Laptop
May 20, 2013 12:22 pm | by Eric Sorensen, Coordinator of Multimedia Development | Videos | CommentsToday on PD&D's Kickstarter of the Week, we use the Casetop from Livi Designs to turn our Smartphones into a Laptop.
Kickstarter of the Week: Make Any Smartphone a Laptop
May 20, 2013 10:39 am | by Melissa Fassbender, Associate Editor, PD&D | Articles | CommentsA self-proclaimed nerd by trade, John Andrus, Founder of Livi Design, is turning ordinary smartphones into laptops with the launch of the Casetop. After the iPhone debuted, Andrus knew that smartphones were going to become a disruptive technology. So why not do more to harness the devices power? After asking this question, he sat down and started designing his idea.
ERA President: EDS 2013 ‘Very Productive’
May 17, 2013 11:07 am | by David Mantey, Executive Editor, PD&D | News | CommentsAfter the dust had settled, and most of the industry had returned to their native lands, ERA President Paul C. Nielsen of Brainard-Nelsen Marketing was able to put EDS 2013 in perspective. “I thought EDS was great,” Nielsen said. “It had a very high energy level with a lot of productive professional and personal meetings.”
After EDS: Q&A with John Knight
May 17, 2013 10:53 am | by David Mantey, Executive Editor, PD&D | Orion Fans | News | CommentsAccording to John Knight, Vice President of Knight Electronics/Orion Fans, EDS 2013 proved to provide an excellent venue for networking within the electronics industry, and it continues the highlight the trends in the ever-evolving electronics distribution industry. After the event, Knight had a chance to reflect on the event.
Printing Guns
May 17, 2013 9:26 am | by Karl Stephan, Consulting Engineer, Texas State University, San Marcos | Blogs | CommentsSomebody was going to do it sooner or later. And we have Cody Wilson, a law student at the University of Texas at Austin, to thank for the fact that, when it was finally done for the first time, the news media learned about it right away. All the same, now that somebody has used a 3-D printer to make a functional gun, we face a whole array of questions that up till now were hypothetical ones.
Powerful Integrated Software Tools Reinvent the Engineers' Desktop
May 16, 2013 2:31 pm | News | Comments3D Systems (NYSE:DDD) today announced the launch of its integrated design-to-manufacturing software tools under its Geomagic Solutions brand combining 3D Systems' comprehensive reverse engineering tools together with its affordable mechanical CAD, fully automated inspection and verification software and its cutting-edge haptic modeling to deliver intra-operable design functionality.
New World Record in Wireless Data Transmission
May 16, 2013 12:43 pm | by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology | News | CommentsResearchers of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics and the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology have achieved the wireless transmission of 40 Gbit/s at 240 GHz over a distance of one kilometer. Their most recent demonstration sets a new world record and ties in seamlessly with the capacity of optical fiber transmission.
Photo of the Day: Webb Undergoes Eye Surgery
May 16, 2013 12:38 pm | by NASA | News | CommentsMuch like the inside of an operating room, in the clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., engineers worked meticulously to implant part of the eyes of the James Webb Space Telescope. They scrubbed up and suited up to perform one of the most delicate performances of their lives.
Insights into Heat Transference Could Lead to Improved Electronics
May 16, 2013 12:29 pm | by University of Toronto Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering | News | CommentsU of T Engineering researchers, working with colleagues from Carnegie Mellon University, have published new insights into how materials transfer heat, which could lead eventually to smaller, more powerful electronic devices.
3D Modeling Technology Offers Solutions for Engineers
May 16, 2013 12:25 pm | by Beck Lockwood, University of Sheffield | News | CommentsSoftware developed at the University of Sheffield has the potential to enable engineers to make 'real world' safety assessments of structures and foundations with unprecedented ease. Developed in the Department of Civil & Structural Engineering, the software can directly identify three-dimensional collapse mechanisms and provide information about margin of safety, vitally important to engineers.
Teardown: Agilent N9344C 20GHz Spectrum Analyzer
May 16, 2013 9:34 am | by EEVblog | Videos | CommentsWhat's inside an $18K 20 GHz handheld spectrum analyzer? On this week's teardown, EEVblog finds out.
World's Lightest Material a Possible Fix for Heavy Problems
May 16, 2013 9:28 am | by Reuters | Videos | CommentsA scientist in China has produced the lightest substance ever recorded, which he says could provide solutions to heavy problems, such as pollution control. Gao Chou says his carbon aerogel can absorb up to 900 times its own body weight, in addition to displaying other qualities that make it ideal for further development.
Cambridge Nanotherm Establishes First Step Towards Mass Manufacturing
May 15, 2013 5:24 pm | by Technology Strategy Board | News | CommentsElectronics thermal management innovator Cambridge Nanotherm is to build its first prototype manufacturing plant in Haverhill, UK following the award of £250,000 in matched funding from the UK Innovation Agency - Technology Strategy Board (TSB).
Making Frequency-Hopping Radios Practical
May 15, 2013 2:45 pm | by Larry Hardesty, MIT | News | CommentsThe way in which radio spectrum is currently allocated to different wireless technologies can lead to gross inefficiencies. In some regions, for instance, the frequencies used by cellphones can be desperately congested, while large swaths of the broadcast-television spectrum stand idle.
HotSpot Episode 12: 3D Microbatteries
May 15, 2013 2:40 pm | by Eric Sorensen, Multimedia Coordinator | Videos | CommentsThis week on WDD's HotSpot, a netbook-like combo that uses a smartphone for its computing power, new microbatteries for a balance between energy and density, satellites that listen in on ADS, and a sound camera that shows the location of troublesome noises in machinery.
Engineered Biomaterial Could Improve Success of Medical Implants
May 14, 2013 1:40 pm | by Michelle Ma, University of Washington | News | CommentsIt’s a familiar scenario – a patient receives a medical implant and days later, the body attacks the artificial valve or device, causing complications to an already compromised system. Expensive, state-of-the-art medical devices and surgeries often are thwarted by the body’s natural response to attack something in the tissue that appears foreign.
Nanoscale Alloys So Bright They Could Have Medical Applications
May 14, 2013 1:35 pm | by B. Rose Huber, University of Pittsburgh | News | CommentsAlloys like bronze and steel have been transformational for centuries, yielding top-of-the-line machines necessary for industry. As scientists move toward nanotechnology, however, the focus has shifted toward creating alloys at the nanometer scale—producing materials with properties unlike their predecessors.
Solar Panels as Inexpensive as Paint?
May 14, 2013 1:04 pm | by Cory Nealon, University at Buffalo | News | CommentsMost Americans want the U.S. to place more emphasis on developing solar power, recent polls suggest. A major impediment, however, is the cost to manufacture, install and maintain solar panels. Simply put, most people and businesses cannot afford to place them on their rooftops.
Physicists Light "Magnetic Fire" to Reveal Engergy's Path
May 14, 2013 1:00 pm | by James Devitt, New York University | News | CommentsNew York University physicists have uncovered how energy is released and dispersed in magnetic materials in a process akin to the spread of forest fires, a finding that has the potential to deepen our understanding of self-sustained chemical reactions.
Stratasys Raises Standard for Dental Model Production
May 14, 2013 12:56 pm | by Stratasys | News | CommentsStratasys (NASDAQ: SSYS) has announced the immediate availability of VeroDentPlus MED690 dental material for the Objet EdenV series of 3D Printers. VeroDentPlus MED690 enables the 3D printing of dental models that are highly accurate, economical to produce, and offer the appearance of dental stone with fine details and resolution.
