Instrument design and development, as a research topic, encompasses the systematic conception, engineering, optimization, and validation of measurement tools and devices used to acquire quantitative or qualitative data in scientific studies. It includes defining measurement constructs or physical variables, selecting or creating appropriate sensing or response modalities, establishing performance specifications (e.g., sensitivity, specificity, resolution, reliability, validity), and iteratively refining prototypes based on empirical testing. The topic also involves calibration procedures, error and uncertainty analysis, standardization across measurement contexts, and documentation of psychometric or metrological properties to ensure reproducibility, comparability, and robust interpretation of data across experiments, populations, or environments.
A University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist is participating in a U.S. government effort to design a satellite and instruments capable of detecting space debris as small as 1 centimeter, less than one-half inch.
Space Exploration
Feb 27, 2025
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Researchers have developed a freely available droplet microfluidic component library, which promises to transform the way microfluidic devices are created. This innovation, based on low-cost rapid prototyping and electrode ...
Nanophysics
Feb 18, 2025
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40
An international team of researchers, led by physicists from the University of Vienna, has achieved a breakthrough in data processing by employing an "inverse-design" approach. This method allows algorithms to configure a ...
Condensed Matter
Feb 4, 2025
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69
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has successfully completed integration of the Roman Coronagraph Instrument onto Roman's Instrument Carrier, a piece of infrastructure that will hold the mission's instruments, ...
Astronomy
Oct 28, 2024
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7
In a study published in Engineering, researchers from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Zhejiang University have unveiled a pioneering approach to designing on-chip computational spectrometers, heralding ...
Optics & Photonics
Sep 27, 2024
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6
On Sept. 9 and 10, scientists and engineers tested NASA's LEMS (Lunar Environment Monitoring Station) instrument suite in a "sandbox" of simulated moon regolith at the Florida Space Institute's Exolith Lab at the University ...
Space Exploration
Sep 26, 2024
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3
A new open-source software package developed by Monash University researcher Julian Ceddia aims to significantly streamline the study of materials using scanning tunneling microscopes (STMs).
Nanomaterials
Sep 9, 2024
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105
A Cornell research team has developed a new way to design complex microscale machines, one that draws inspiration from the operation of proteins and hummingbird beaks.
Nanomaterials
Aug 16, 2023
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