Colour night vision breakthrough turns the darkest midnight into day
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to see in colour, even during the darkest nights, is a game changer that will have ramifications for multiple industries. When we think of night vision our minds automatically turn to grainy black and green images. But today things have begun to...
First of a kind material lets solar panels generate electricity from snow
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As our knowledge of materials and how they behave improves we can generate electricity from almost anything. Scientists have announced that they’ve developed a first of its kind material that generates electricity from nothing other than, wait for it… snow. Based upon the principles...
Paper based bio-battery uses bacteria to power the internet of things
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The Internet of Things relies of billions of sensors to work, but only a handful of these sensors can be powered with traditional batteries, so new alternatives are needed. In remote parts of the world, access to batteries for diagnostic devices, medical equipment and...
Simple paper blood test diagnoses disease faster and cheaper
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Not everyone has access to a lab that can process blood tests, so this breakthrough will help people in developing nations diagnose disease faster. Dutch and Japanese scientists have developed an inexpensive new paper-based blood test kit that quickly determines if patients have infectious...
Researchers have created a digital nose that can sniff out disease
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF There are many ways to detect disease, and one of the most effective ways is using smell, so scientists have developed a digital nose. An electronic nose typically identifies odours by detecting the “fingerprint” of a chemical compound across an array of sensors that are...
Russian researchers used a common inkjet printer to print advanced Nano-Sensors
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As we develop more nanoscale things we need to be able to keep track of them and monitor them and now we have an inexpensive way to achieve that. Researchers from ITMO University in Russia have created a new type of optical Nano-Sensor that...
US military genetics program to turn marine life into giant living sensor networks
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As we learn more about the genetic code and how to modify it organisations around the world are starting to look into new ways of turning nature to their advantage. A few months ago I wrote about how DARPA, the bleeding edge research arm...
Scientists have created an ultrasound patch to monitor your vital health
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Having access to ultrasound is like having a window into your body, and now it’s on a patch. Earlier this year we heard how scientists from the University of California San Diego in the US had developed a flexible ultrasound patch that allows users to see...
Mine hunting bees tracked with Lidar help farmers boost crop yields
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Bees help pollinate nearly 75 percent of our crops, this new system can track their progress and predict deadly colony collapses before they happen. You might expect to hear an angry buzzing when honeybees have been disturbed. But some apiarists reckon they can also...
MIT created a nanobot spray that gives dumb objects superpowers
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to spray nanobots onto surfaces and objects is a fast way to turn them from dumb objects into smart ones that have new sensing capabilities. You may have sworn off aerosol sprays back in the 1990’s when everyone was talking about the hole...
Scientists have 3D printed the world’s first physical neural network
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to print advanced and complex AI’s mean we can produce them cheaply and position them at the edge of networks where computer power might be limited. Recently a team of researchers in the US revolutionised artificial intelligence when they made the world’s first...
Revolutionary Nano-antenna is hundreds times smaller than today’s state of the art
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF It’s not just our devices that are getting smaller and more powerful, the components that make our devices are also going through their own revolutions. Recently I discussed how a new Metalense breakthrough from Harvard University will help us realise atomic sized camera lenses,...
Scientists create edible electronics using Graphene to improve food safety
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to quickly and easily tag foods and other products with sensors and other electronics that can be safely eaten could improve food safety and security. James Tour believes anything can be turned into the wonder material, Graphene, a material so versatile it...
The robots of the future might not have a brain
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The classical view of an intelligent robot is one whose intelligence comes from a centralised location, such as a brain, or in their case, a centralised computing platform, but there’s no reason why this has to be the case. The classical view of a...
Semi-synthetic cells could revolutionise everything from sensors to healthcare
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The ability to create semi-synthetic cells that have both organic and inorganic properties opens up a whole world of new use cases that span everything from biotech to new forms of manufacturing. The more we study natural biological cells, the more we learn about...
MIT’s breakthrough battery makes electricity from thin air, literally
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF We still live in a world where many people live in energy poverty and inventions like this one could one day become an important part of the overall energy mix. Energy devices that can generate electricity from thin air are increasingly appearing in labs...
China’s new “Ghost Imaging” satellites will make US stealth obsolete
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The age of using stealth to avoid radar and other electromagnetic based detection systems is coming to an end as new quantum sensors and sensing systems will increasingly render today’s stealth obsolete. Following on from their announcement that they’ve created the world’s first Quantum...
Quantum sensor breakthrough could one day replace global GPS systems
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Today’s sensors are sensitive, but Quantum sensors are millions times more sensitive, meaning that they can detect even more things with even more accuracy. Thanks to the miracle of GPS we can now work out where we are almost anywhere on Earth, but it...
Passive Wi-Fi breakthrough could revolutionise the Internet of Things
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Wi-Fi is ubiquitous, sensors are ubiquitous, but putting batteries in small sensors is impractical, now passive Wi-Fi that doesn’t need an energy source will change all that For those that live in developed countries it has to be said that wireless internet, and Wi-Fi,...
Lockheed’s new camera puts a space telescope in your pocket
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Increasingly we’re using new, and advanced, optical systems to monitor everything that goes on around us, both on Earth and in space, and the more the sensors improve the more we can watch. Today’s space telescopes, like the Hubble or the newest kid on the...
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