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. (Phys.org) —A California-based company has a new kind of wheel for skateboards that delivers a novel shape and claims a special ride experience. This is the Shark Wheel, not circular, not square, but something more interesting. The wheels appear as square when in motion from a side view but the wheel geometry is more than that. The wheels feel circular to the rider, and viewing them along with more details may help to clear the mystique. The wheels are made of three strips each; these create a helical shape when they roll, and they form a sine wave pattern. When the wheels make contact with the ground, good things happen, say the team behind the wheels—the user gets speed, better grip, and a smoother ride. http://phys.org/news290192388.html Technology Tue, 11 Jun 2013 18:00:00 EST news290192388 Cameras fitted with a new revolutionary sensor will soon be able to take clear and sharp photos in dim conditions, thanks to a new image sensor invented at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). http://phys.org/news289117315.html Nanotechnology Thu, 30 May 2013 07:50:02 EST news289117315 Childhood toys lost in a war-torn field have inspired an odd-looking invention which its young Dutch inventor hopes can help save thousands of lives and limbs in his native Afghanistan. http://phys.org/news276411038.html Technology Thu, 03 Jan 2013 04:50:51 EST news276411038 A Congolese inventor has unveiled what he says is the first African-designed smartphone. http://phys.org/news276003468.html Electronics Sat, 29 Dec 2012 11:37:54 EST news276003468 Industries across Europe are threatened with shutdown as European Union emission rules for Volatile Organic Compounds are tightened. Now an air cleaning invention from the University of Copenhagen has proven its ability to remove these compounds. And in the process they have helped a business in Danish town Aarhus improve relations to angry neighbors. http://phys.org/news275916499.html Space & Earth Fri, 28 Dec 2012 13:00:01 EST news275916499 (AP)—Norman Joseph Woodland, the co-inventor of the bar code that labels nearly every product in stores and has boosted productivity in nearly every sector of commerce worldwide, has died. He was 91. http://phys.org/news274630419.html Other Sciences Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:13:54 EST news274630419 A 29-year-old Indian inventor on Tuesday won $50,000 to help him make a new low-cost mobile phone for the blind that uses a Braille display. http://phys.org/news273226737.html Technology Tue, 27 Nov 2012 08:30:01 EST news273226737 (Phys.org)—An inventor in his teen years has been on a three-week visit to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a guest resident. From university officers to labs workers, to bloggers, Americans enjoyed the chance to get to know him better as he got to know his way around university life in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is the youngest invite ever to MIT's Visiting Practitioner's Program for international development. A 16-year-old from Sierra Leone, he is a self-taught engineer. He never took any engineering or electronics class, but at 13 figured out how to make a battery suitable enough to power his family home. Kelvin Doe told his interviewers that "I love inventing." Never mind that the things he made have been from bits and pieces found around the house and from electronic parts found in dustbins which he used to head toward after school. That is how he made the first Doe battery http://phys.org/news272997558.html Technology Sat, 24 Nov 2012 16:39:32 EST news272997558 (AP)—A retired Kodak scientist and the inventor of a widely used color filter array that bears his name has died. Bryce Bayer was 83. http://phys.org/news272910607.html Technology Fri, 23 Nov 2012 16:30:19 EST news272910607 (Phys.org)—Don't tell Izhar Gafni that a bicycle can't be made of cardboard. An Israeli engineer working in industrial design, he was always fascinated by the potential that comes from the interplay of technologies applied to materials. Gafni was too curious about turning materials into new uses and he could not take no for an answer. What's more, bicycles, he said, went beyond "hobby." With him, it was "in my soul." That might explain his three years of efforts in coming up with a fully functioning bicycle made of cardboard, which has been accorded ample research and development to reach final stages and readiness to show the world. http://phys.org/news269666791.html Technology Wed, 17 Oct 2012 05:10:01 EST news269666791 (AP) — An inventor claims his design was the basis for the cap used to choke off the flow of oil to the Gulf of Mexico nearly three months after BP's undersea well blew in 2010. And he says it was stolen. http://phys.org/news259434819.html Technology Wed, 20 Jun 2012 18:13:51 EST news259434819 Google won a major victory Wednesday as jurors sided with the Internet giant in a high-stakes court battle over patents with business software titan Oracle. http://phys.org/news257003114.html Technology Wed, 23 May 2012 14:45:26 EST news257003114 As a boy growing up in Croatia, Marin Soljacic wanted to be an inventor. But he wasn’t interested only in designing new products; he wanted to discover physical phenomena that would enable completely new technologies. http://phys.org/news256203011.html Physics Mon, 14 May 2012 08:30:20 EST news256203011 A device invented by two Newcastle University graduates could help keep people warm next winter and save on their fuel bills at the same time. http://phys.org/news252135662.html Technology Wed, 28 Mar 2012 06:41:18 EST news252135662 Titans of Silicon Valley, Hollywood, and finance gazed through the eyes of young innovators as the renowned TED conference formally got under way on Tuesday. http://phys.org/news249714267.html Technology Wed, 29 Feb 2012 05:04:33 EST news249714267 (PhysOrg.com) -- The great artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci once said that "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) research engineer Javier Atencia certainly believes in the wisdom of what da Vinci preached; he has a reputation for creating novel microfluidic devices out of ordinary, inexpensive components. This time, he has combined a glass slide, plastic sheets and double-sided tape into a “diffusion-based gradient generator”—a tool to rapidly assess how changing concentrations of specific chemicals affect living cells. http://phys.org/news247913331.html Chemistry Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:10:01 EST news247913331 Africa has its first handheld tablet to rival the iPad and similar western inventions, which went on sale in the Republic of Congo on Monday, its inventor Verone Mankou said Monday. http://phys.org/news247141207.html Electronics Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:20:27 EST news247141207 British scientist Stephen Hawking was forced to miss a second celebration of his 70th birthday due to illness, organisers said late Thursday. http://phys.org/news246267555.html Physics Fri, 20 Jan 2012 07:39:31 EST news246267555 French anti-racism groups have dropped anti-Semitism suits against Apple after it withdrew a "Jew or not Jew" iPhone app from its online stores worldwide, the groups' lawyer said on Thursday. http://phys.org/news241341843.html Technology Thu, 24 Nov 2011 07:24:14 EST news241341843 (PhysOrg.com) -- While many are taking to the oceans and trying to find the best ways to harness offshore wind and provide clean energy from renewable sources, the basic design of any wind turbine is that of a windmill. That is until now. The new design in the works is by Ehrnberg Solutions AB, which is owned and operated by Daniel Ehrnberg. Ehrnberg is also the inventor behind this newly designed turbine called SeaTwirl. http://phys.org/news236440431.html Technology Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:54:15 EST news236440431 (PhysOrg.com) -- A hand device called the Tacit can help the blind and visually impaired move around safely in complex environments. Wrist-mounted, the device uses ultrasonic sensors mounted above the knuckles that can pick up the distance of objects from one inch to 10 feet away and then translate that distance to pressure on the wrist--the closer the object, the more pressure on the wrist. Pressure is applied on the right or left side of the wrist to help the user determine where the obstacle is located. http://phys.org/news235278667.html Technology Thu, 15 Sep 2011 05:00:01 EST news235278667 The European Union patent system is inefficient because it is more costly than other similar systems and it creates significant barriers to innovation diffusion within the continent. That is one of the conclusions of a study carried out by researchers at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M, Spain) which offers measures to improve this system. http://phys.org/news235044424.html Technology Mon, 12 Sep 2011 11:08:07 EST news235044424 When Twitter inventor Jack Dorsey decided to start a new company last year, he bypassed Silicon Valley and set up shop in San Francisco. http://phys.org/news232944973.html Technology Fri, 19 Aug 2011 05:00:01 EST news232944973 A custom-built, $2.5 million "split magnet" system with the potential to revolutionize scientific research in a variety of fields has made its debut at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University. http://phys.org/news229778784.html Physics Wed, 13 Jul 2011 12:26:40 EST news229778784 Google paid tribute to US guitar legend Les Paul on Thursday by transforming the celebrated logo on its homepage into a guitar which plays when strummed with a computer mouse. http://phys.org/news226842969.html Technology Thu, 09 Jun 2011 12:56:24 EST news226842969 Whizzing around with your own personal jetpack may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but New Zealand inventor Glenn Martin aims to have his "jetski for the skies" on the market within 18 months. http://phys.org/news226640849.html Technology Tue, 07 Jun 2011 05:20:01 EST news226640849 Glasses that adjust to wearer's eyesight, titanium implants for your teeth or steel fibres allowing architects to twist and bend concrete were among innovations shortlisted Thursday for the 2011 European Inventor Award. http://phys.org/news218373085.html Technology Thu, 03 Mar 2011 11:11:56 EST news218373085 The sight of tall, green bamboo stalks swaying above the dusty lands of his west African country led Ibrahim Djan Nyampong to an unusual conclusion: bicycles. http://phys.org/news216222358.html Technology Sun, 06 Feb 2011 13:46:14 EST news216222358 It's a technology that would captivate anyone who grew up on video games. What if you could create an exact digital replica of one of the world's most challenging roads and then drive virtual cars on it to see what happens? http://phys.org/news206272606.html Technology Thu, 14 Oct 2010 10:57:14 EST news206272606 Two New Zealand inventors have produced what they claim are the world's first robotic legs to help paraplegics walk again. http://phys.org/news198475298.html Technology Fri, 16 Jul 2010 05:01:58 EST news198475298