http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. The wearable computing craze went to the dogs on Wednesday with startup Whistle introducing a smart pendant that tracks physical activity levels and sleep patterns in canines. http://phys.org/news289666929.html Electronics Wed, 05 Jun 2013 16:40:01 EST news289666929 Technology that's used in smartphones and other electronic devices also is being used by veterinarians at the University of Illinois to help horses recover safely from anesthesia. http://phys.org/news288596665.html Biology Fri, 24 May 2013 07:00:01 EST news288596665 The commercial application of MEMS, or micro-electro-mechanical systems, will receive a major boost today following the presentation of a brand new way to accurately measure the power requirements and outputs of all existing and future devices. The cheap and easy to apply technique will be presented for the first time today at the TechConnect World Conference 2013 by a research team from Laboratoire national de métrologie et d'essais (LNE) in France. The researchers believe it will help manufacturers improve product performance, develop new functionalities, reduce energy consumption of mass production, respond to market demands for miniaturization, and increase reliability of MEMS devices around the world. http://phys.org/news287753920.html Technology Tue, 14 May 2013 12:38:49 EST news287753920 The US army is working to limit its dependence on GPS by developing the next generation of navigation technology, including a tiny autonomous chip, the director of the Pentagon's research agency said Wednesday. http://phys.org/news286084720.html Technology Thu, 25 Apr 2013 04:58:53 EST news286084720 (Phys.org) —Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Biorobotics laboratory have adapted one of their robotic snakes to cause it to automatically wrap itself around an object after being thrown. Upon impact, the snake immediately wraps its body around the target—in the test cases, a light pole and tree branch, and holds on, supporting itself. http://phys.org/news283155866.html Biology Fri, 22 Mar 2013 10:00:02 EST news283155866 Researchers at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid have developed a new system which improves the ability of a GPS to determine a vehicle's position as compared to that of conventional GPS devices by up to 90 percent, and which can be installed in any vehicle at a very low cost. http://phys.org/news279892175.html Technology Tue, 12 Feb 2013 12:10:01 EST news279892175 (Phys.org)—Japanese researchers have taken the science of studying an animal in its natural environment a step further by attaching a camera and accelerometers to Adelie penguins as they forage for food off the waters of Antarctica. In their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers describe how they were able to watch the intimate details of the foraging habits of the penguins in ways never before seen. http://phys.org/news278059571.html Biology Tue, 22 Jan 2013 06:48:00 EST news278059571 (Phys.org)—Researchers at the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory want to table smartphones as pocket-sized seismometers. The phones used as warning systems could make a life or death difference in the seconds one might have before meeting up with the next event. "We are trying to set up a whole new network of smartphones so we can use the accelerometers in the smartphones to detect earthquakes," a team spokesman told BBC News. With so many devices in circulation, detailed information could be known on who felt what, where. http://phys.org/news274098360.html Space & Earth Fri, 07 Dec 2012 11:10:13 EST news274098360 In computer science, the buzzword of the day is "big data." The proliferation of cheap, Internet-connected sensors—such as the GPS receivers, accelerometers and cameras in smartphones—has meant an explosion of information whose potential uses have barely begun to be explored. In large part, that's because processing all that data can be prohibitively time-consuming. http://phys.org/news272045482.html Technology Tue, 13 Nov 2012 16:11:34 EST news272045482 Smoke-divers are exposed to high temperatures, physical exhaustion and stress, and they can easily exceed the limits of what good health can tolerate. A new method based on measurements made by a wireless sensor system lets them know when the body has had enough. http://phys.org/news271671256.html Technology Fri, 09 Nov 2012 08:30:03 EST news271671256 It's fall football season, when fight songs and shouted play calls fill stadiums across the country. Another less rousing sound sometimes accompanies football games: the sharp crack of helmet-to-helmet collisions. Hard collisions can lead to player concussions, but the physics of how the impact of a helmet hit transfers to the brain are not well understood. A research team from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., has created a simplified experimental model of the brain and skull inside a helmet during a helmet-to-helmet collision. The model illustrates how the fast vibrational motion of the hit translates into a sloshing motion of the brain inside the skull. The researchers will present their findings at the 164th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), held Oct. 22 – 26 in Kansas City, Missouri. http://phys.org/news269800446.html Physics Thu, 18 Oct 2012 17:34:14 EST news269800446 (Phys.org)—If you ease up on a pencil, does it slide more easily? Sure. But maybe not if the tip is sharpened down to nanoscale dimensions. A team of researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has discovered that if graphite (the material in pencil "lead") is sticky enough, as measured by a nanoscale probe, it actually becomes harder to slide a tip across the material's surface as you decrease pressure—the exact opposite of our everyday experience. http://phys.org/news269681890.html Nanotechnology Wed, 17 Oct 2012 08:38:24 EST news269681890 (Phys.org)—Intel's new breed of Ultrabooks will be lighter, thinner but loaded with new features and functions that end users will either see as bloat or muscle, and Intel is counting on the latter. The look and functions of Intel's next-generation Intel Ultrabooks were revealed by Intel executives at the Intel Developer Forum. The new computers will bring in voice recognition, touch, finger tracking, augmented reality, and gesture-based interfaces. The technologies that generally are expected out of smartphones and tablets will be applied toward the thin and light computers. Ultrabook manufacturers will start to integrate sensors gyroscopes, accelerometers, GPS, NFC, and 3G and 4G-LTE connectivity. http://phys.org/news266681782.html Electronics Wed, 12 Sep 2012 15:16:40 EST news266681782 The BepiColombo mission to Mercury has undergone a series of shock tests at ESA's test facilities to replicate conditions it will experience during its intense ride into space. This video shows tests to mimic the moment it separates from the launch vehicle. The spacecraft will be connected to the upper stage of an Ariane 5 rocket when it blasts off from Earth in 2015. Once the upper stage and its cargo have reached orbit, the pair will separate. http://phys.org/news265349312.html Space & Earth Tue, 28 Aug 2012 05:08:51 EST news265349312 Battery-powered devices could soon be a thing of the past thanks to a group of UK researchers who have created a novel energy harvester to power some of the latest wearable gadgets. http://phys.org/news258913319.html Technology Thu, 14 Jun 2012 19:00:01 EST news258913319 University of Nevada, Reno computer science engineering team Kostas Bekris and Eelke Folmer presented their indoor navigation system for people with visual impairments at two national conferences in the past two weeks. The researchers explained how a combination of human-computer interaction and motion-planning research was used to build a low-cost accessible navigation system, called Navatar, which can run on a standard smartphone. http://phys.org/news256565780.html Technology Fri, 18 May 2012 13:21:01 EST news256565780 To achieve buff biceps, proper form for strength-training exercises is key, and people often turn to professional trainers to correct them and prevent injury. Cornell student engineers have developed an alternative: A simple electronic device that guides the user through a proper bicep curl. http://phys.org/news253930111.html Technology Wed, 18 Apr 2012 01:08:47 EST news253930111 In the last decade, MEMS (microelectromechanical devices) have wrought revolutions in several industries: Arrays of micromirrors, for instance, enabled digital film projectors, and accelerometers like those in Microsoft’s Wii controller have changed gaming. But commercially successful MEMS represent a tiny sampling of the prototypes developed in academic and industry labs — from supersensitive biological sensors to films that can turn any surface into a loudspeaker to devices that harvest energy from motion. http://phys.org/news252825226.html Technology Thu, 05 Apr 2012 06:13:58 EST news252825226 ColdQuanta Inc. of Boulder and the University of Colorado have finalized an agreement allowing ColdQuanta to commercialize cutting-edge physics research developed by CU-Boulder and SRI International. The licensed technology centers on Bose-Einstein Condensate, or BEC, a new form of matter created just above absolute zero. http://phys.org/news251383990.html Physics Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:53:29 EST news251383990 Researchers have created new "microtweezers" capable of manipulating objects to build tiny structures, print coatings to make advanced sensors, and grab and position live stem cell spheres for research. http://phys.org/news246023644.html Technology Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:54:15 EST news246023644 Firefighter Ray Hodgson hits the talk button on his walkie-talkie: "I have fire showing, possibility of a rescue on the third floor. Engine 35, initiate a rescue group. Also back him up with a hose line." http://phys.org/news242380339.html Technology Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:10:01 EST news242380339 Nutmeg-loving toucans wearing GPS transmitters recently helped a team of scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama address an age-old problem in plant ecology: accurately estimating seed dispersal. The tracking data revealed what scientists have long suspected: toucans are excellent seed dispersers, particularly in the morning. Also, for the first time, the data enabled researchers to create a map of the relative patterns and distances that toucans distribute the seeds of a nutmeg tree. http://phys.org/news231070632.html Biology Thu, 28 Jul 2011 11:50:02 EST news231070632 Tiny sensors known as accelerometers are everywhere. The near-weightless technology can measure the impact of a dangerous tackle on a football player's helmet, control the flow of highway and runway traffic, analyze a golf pro's swing, orient the next generation of smart phones, and keeping fighter jets and missiles on target. http://phys.org/news200671390.html Technology Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:40:01 EST news200671390 (PhysOrg.com) -- When a 240-pound forward slam dunks a basketball, some fans probably wonder how much force is being generated into the goal. Students at Clemson University now can answer that question with a new creation: a first-of-its-kind basketball rating system that measures the impact of a slam dunk. http://phys.org/news154624848.html Technology Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:22:41 EST news154624848