Tiny, easy-to-produce particles, called quantum dots, may soon take the place of more expensive single crystal semiconductors in advanced electronics found in solar panels, camera sensors and medical imaging tools. Although quantum dots have begun to break into the consumer market – in the form of quantum dot TVs – they have been hampered by […]
Patients With Paralysis Use Brain Signals to Operate a Tablet
New clinical trial results show that people with paralysis who have been equipped with a technologically advanced, baby-aspirin-sized brain implant can learn to directly operate an off-the-shelf computer tablet, just by thinking about making cursor movements and clicks on a wireless mouse paired to the device. The implant-enabled trial participants were able to carry out […]
Stanford Engineers Develop Tiny Light Detectors That Work Like Gecko Ears
Geckos and many other animals have heads that are too small to triangulate the location of noises the way we do, with widely spaced ears. Instead, they have a tiny tunnel through their heads that measures the way incoming sound waves bounce around to figure out which direction they came from. Gecko ears contain a […]
Students Deploy Machine Learning to Aid Environmental Monitoring
As Hurricane Florence ground its way through North Carolina, it released what might politely be called an excrement storm. Massive hog farm manure pools washed a stew of dangerous bacteria and heavy metals into nearby waterways. More efficient oversight might have prevented some of the worst effects, but even in the best of times, state […]
Wearable Device From Stanford Measures Cortisol In Sweat
The hormone cortisol rises and falls naturally throughout the day and can spike in response to stress, but current methods for measuring cortisol levels require waiting several days for results from a lab. By the time a person learns the results of a cortisol test – which may inform treatment for certain medical conditions – […]
Artificial Intelligence Helps Stanford Researchers Predict Drug Combinations’ Side Effects
Last month alone, 23 percent of Americans took two or more prescription drugs, according to one CDC estimate, and 39 percent over age 65 take five or more, a number that’s increased three-fold in the last several decades. And if that isn’t surprising enough, try this one: in many cases, doctors have no idea what […]
An Artificial Nerve System Gives Prosthetic Devices And Robots A Sense Of Touch
Stanford and Seoul National University researchers have developed an artificial sensory nerve system that can activate the twitch reflex in a cockroach and identify letters in the Braille alphabet. The work, reported May 31 in Science, is a step toward creating artificial skin for prosthetic limbs, to restore sensation to amputees and, perhaps, one day give […]
Technique to See Objects Hidden Around Corners
A driverless car is making its way through a winding neighborhood street, about to make a sharp turn onto a road where a child’s ball has just rolled. Although no person in the car can see that ball, the car stops to avoid it. This is because the car is outfitted with extremely sensitive laser […]
New Method For Waking Up Devices
As smartphone users know all too well, a sleeping device can still suck the life out of a battery. One solution for extending the battery life of wireless devices under development by researchers at Stanford University is to add a wake-up receiver that can turn on a shut-off device at a moment’s notice. Angad Rekhi, […]
New Method For Waking Up Devices
As smartphone users know all too well, a sleeping device can still suck the life out of a battery. One solution for extending the battery life of wireless devices under development by researchers at Stanford University is to add a wake-up receiver that can turn on a shut-off device at a moment’s notice. Angad Rekhi, […]