Data Acquisition
Tracking Gunfire with a Smartphone
April 26, 2013 11:54 am | by David Salisbury, Vanderbilt University | News | CommentsYou are walking down the street with a friend. A shot is fired. The two of you duck behind the nearest cover and you pull out your smartphone. A map of the neighborhood pops up on its screen with a large red arrow pointing in the direction the shot came from.
SLAS2014
April 25, 2013 9:23 am | EventsSLAS returns to the west coast in 2014 when SLAS2014, the third annual conference of the Society for Laboratory Automation, convenes January 18-22 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. SLAS2014 will feature all the great scientific education, programming, intelligent network building and new products and services you have come to expect from SLAS.
NIWeek 2013
April 25, 2013 8:44 am | EventsNIWeek delivers technical networking and instruction with interactive sessions by NI R&D engineers and guest lecturers; targeted industry summits; hands-on workshops; exhibitions on the latest advancements in design, research, and test; and keynote presentations from leading technology thought leaders.
Superstorm Sandy jolted United States
April 19, 2013 11:01 am | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsSuperstorm Sandy didn't just rattle the East Coast, it also jiggled the ground across the country ever so slightly, scientists reported Thursday.Earthquake sensors located as far away as the Pacific Northwest detected the storm's energy as it surged toward the New York metropolitan region last year.
NASA Sees Distant Planets that Seem Ideal for Life
April 19, 2013 10:58 am | by Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsNASA's planet-hunting telescope has discovered two planets that seem like ideal places for some sort of life to flourish. They are just the right size and in just the right place near their star. The distant duo are the best candidates for habitable planets that astronomers have found so far, said William Borucki, the chief scientist for NASA's Kepler telescope.
Strater 4
April 18, 2013 2:33 pm | Golden Software, Inc. | Product Releases | CommentsStrater 4 is a well log, borehole and cross section plotting software package for geoscientists. It is designed to enable users to quickly create professional well logs, cross sections and location maps from interval, depth and other borehole data. Features include abilities to display deviated logs in a cross section, display deviation paths on a map, and to create cross sections using line logs.
Peel-and-stick Solar Cells may soon Power Transistors and Sensors
April 16, 2013 6:54 pm | by National Renewable Energy Laboratory | News | CommentsIt may be possible soon to charge cell phones, change the tint on windows, or power small toys with peel-and-stick versions of solar cells, thanks to a partnership between Stanford University and the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). A scientific paper, "Peel and Stick: Fabricating Thin Film Solar Cells on Universal Substrates," appears in the online...
A Telescope at the Bottom of the World
April 16, 2013 2:00 pm | by Shelley Littin, University of Arizona | News | CommentsAlone in a wilderness of snow and ice, 600 miles from the Earth's South Pole, a solitary telescope watches the stars, searching for the origins of the colorful nebulae in which stars are born. The brilliantly colored, sweeping nebulae featured on magazine covers and posters lining museum exhibits are the birthplaces and cradles of the stars in our galaxy.
UN-SCAN-IT Version 7.0 Graph Digitizing Software
April 15, 2013 10:46 am | Silk Scientific, Inc. | Product Releases | CommentsUN-SCAN-IT Version 7.0 graph digitizing software for Windows is designed to make digitizing (x,y) graphs easier. Features include a zoomable and scalable digitizing screen.
Wave Glider SV3 Unmanned Ocean Robot Observation Breakthrough
April 9, 2013 11:33 am | News | CommentsLiquid Robotics announced the introduction of the Wave Glider SV3, the world’s first hybrid wave and solar propelled unmanned ocean robot on April 8, 2013. The Wave Glider SV3 incorporates the latest advancements in energy harvesting technology providing the ability to utilize both wave and solar energy for forward propulsion.
Final MAVEN Instrument Integrated to NASA Spacecraft
April 3, 2013 7:36 pm | News | CommentsAn instrument that will measure the composition of Mars' upper atmosphere has been integrated to NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft. MAVEN has a scheduled launch date of November 18, 2013. Engineers and scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, in collaboration with partners, built the Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer (NGIMS) instrument.
Satellite Tagging Maps Secret Migration of White Sharks
April 3, 2013 7:36 pm | News | CommentsLong-life batteries and satellite tagging have been used to fill in the blanks of female white sharks' (Carcharodon carcharias) lifestyles. Research published in the launch edition of BioMed Central's open access journal Animal Biotelemetry defines a two year migratory pattern in the Pacific Ocean. Pregnant females travel between the mating area at Guadalupe Island and nursery in Baja California,...
Portable Mini-mapper Captures Intel in Tight Spots
March 26, 2013 7:45 pm | News | CommentsEngineers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory have developed a portable mapping system -- carried in a backpack -- that can be used to automatically create annotated physical maps of locations where GPS is not available, such as in underground areas and on ships.
Incoming! Then Outgoing! Waves Generated by Russian Meteor Recorded Crossing the US
March 7, 2013 3:16 pm | News | CommentsA network of seismographic stations recorded spectacular signals from the blast waves of the meteor that landed near Chelyabinsk, Russia, as the waves crossed the United States. The National Science Foundation- (NSF) supported stations are used to study earthquakes and the Earth's deep interior.
Measuring the Universe: Deducing More Precise Values Than Ever Before
March 6, 2013 1:56 pm | News | CommentsAstronomers survey the scale of the Universe by first measuring the distances to close-by objects and then using them as standard candles 1 to pin down distances further and further out into the cosmos. But this chain is only as accurate as its weakest link. Up to now finding an accurate distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), one of the nearest galaxies to the Milky Way, has proved...
Fermi's Motion Produces a Study in Spirograph
March 4, 2013 2:00 pm | Articles | CommentsNASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope orbits our planet every 95 minutes, building up increasingly deeper views of the universe with every circuit. This image compresses eight individual frames, from a movie showing 51 months of position and exposure data by Fermi's Large Area Telescope (LAT), into a single snapshot. The pattern reflects numerous motions of the spacecraft.
Wi-Fi Range Extension: Network
February 28, 2013 12:08 pm | by John R. Joyce Ph.D. | Blogs | CommentsContinuing our exploration of Wi-Fi networks, there may well be times where addressing the connectivity of an individual machine just won’t cut it, and you are looking to improve the overall status of your wireless network and expand its coverage.
Brown Unveils Novel Wireless Brain Sensor
February 28, 2013 10:55 am | News | CommentsA team of neuroengineers based at Brown University has developed a fully implantable and rechargeable wireless brain sensor capable of relaying real-time broadband signals from up to 100 neurons in freely moving subjects. Several copies of the novel low-power device, described in the Journal of Neural Engineering, have been performing well in animal models for more than year.
Advancing the Art of Magic with Penn & Teller 'Cups and Balls' Illusion
February 19, 2013 11:16 am | News | CommentsCognitive brain researchers have studied a magic trick filmed in magician duo Penn & Teller’s theater in Las Vegas, to illuminate the neuroscience of illusion. Their results advance our understanding of how observers can be misdirected and will aid magicians as they work to improve their art
Smartphones, Tablets help Improve Storm Forecasts
February 7, 2013 10:26 am | News | CommentsThe next advance in weather forecasting may not come from a new satellite or supercomputer, but from a device in your pocket. Atmospheric scientists are using pressure sensors included in the newest smartphones to develop better weather forecasting techniques
Wi-Fi Range Extension: Endpoint
February 4, 2013 10:08 am | by John R. Joyce Ph.D. | Blogs | Commentsweb exclusive John R. Joyce, Ph.D. For many of us, it frequently seems that a reliable Internet connection is almost as important as our life blood. Usually, our network connection at work is fairly reliable, but our home office connection? Perhaps not so much.
Extreme Weather Map Shows 3,527 Monthly Weather Records Shattered in 2012
January 21, 2013 9:49 am | News | CommentsIn 2012, there were at least 3,527 monthly weather records for heat, rain and snow broken by extreme weather events that hit communities throughout the U.S., according to an updated interactive extreme weather mapping tool and year-end review released by the Natural Resources Defense Council
Thermo Scientific Momentum 3.2
January 14, 2013 6:01 am | Thermo Fisher Scientific | Product Releases | CommentsThermo Scientific Momentum 3.2 scheduling software is designed to enable the seamless integration of workflows with maximum operator simplicity by streamlining sample submission and allowing the accurate execution of automated microtiter plate handling processes, with easier user control and process management
Crowd-funded, DIY Spacecraft to Float into Low-Earth Orbit
December 18, 2012 8:54 am | News | CommentsIt'll look like hundreds of postage stamps fluttering toward Earth — each an independent satellite transmitting a signal unique to the person who helped send it to space. A Cornell-based project called KickSat is set to launch more than 200 of these tiny satellites, nicknamed "sprites," into low-Earth orbit as part of a routine NASA-administered mission in 2013 to the International Space Station
Van Allen Probes Reveal New Dynamics of Earth's Radiation Belts
December 18, 2012 8:44 am | News | CommentsJust 96 days since their launch, NASA’s twin Van Allen Probes have already provided new insights into the structure and behavior of the radiation belts that surround Earth, giving scientists a clearer understanding about the fundamental physical properties of these regions more than half a century after their discovery
