engineering – Page 5 – The Loh Down On Science

Bumble-Drones

January 21, 2019 Kellen Kartub

Flight of the bumblebee? More like flight of the bumble…drone! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Engineers are always looking to make things lighter, faster, and stronger. Origami-inspired structures are lightweight and cost-effective. That’s perfect for improving robot technology such as drones. However, they have

R-Ray Spex

October 18, 2018 Will Thrift

WOW! X-Ray Specs! Remember ordering those? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying yeah, mine didn’t work either! But, good news, kids! Researchers from M-I-T think they have a NEW way to see through walls. Dina Katabi used radio waves to map people’s locations. This

Chainsaw Bot

October 2, 2018 Loh Down Staff

Robot lumberjacks? Tell me more! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Lumberjacking is dangerous work for humans. How about for chainsaw-wielding robots? There the problem is power. Climbing gobbles energy, as does holding robots vertically in place. So most climbing ‘bots need huge batteries. Inspired

Smell Detector

September 24, 2018 Will Thrift

Is the bathroom still smelly? Odorbot to the rescue! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Ever dream of having a day when smelling unpleasant odors is a distant memory? Kenshi Hayashi and colleagues at Kyushu University share this dream. And they’re working on a solution:

The Nerve!

August 31, 2018 Samantha Leigh

Are cockroaches lending a helping hand? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. I know – technically cockroaches don’t have hands… But they do have legs, and they’re revolutionizing prosthetic limbs. How? Yeongin Kim and colleagues at Stanford University have created an artificial nerve. It senses

Power House

August 30, 2018 Kellen Kartub

Hey couch potatoes! Could watching TV power… your home? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Despite our best intentions, we constantly waste energy. Not because I fell asleep watching Jeopardy, again, but due to heat loss. Phones, computers, cars – almost any device or large

Body Mod

August 22, 2018 Jessie Yaros

Smart watches are SOOOOOO 2017….! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Today’s smartwatches can track everything from your heart rate to your breathing. But Michael McAlpine at the University of Minnesota thinks we can do better. He and his colleagues want to print electronics directly

Human or Hologram?

August 13, 2018 Jessie Yaros

Help Me, Obi-Wan Kenobi — you’re my only hope! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. In Sci-fi films, communicating via 3-D holograms is all the rage. Here on earth, our two dimensional video conference calls? Not nearly as exciting. No longer, says Roel Vertegaal of

Graphene Chips

May 4, 2018 Ted Yoo

Microchips as tasty as…potato chips? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. You may have heard of graphene. It’s pure carbon arranged in a one atom thick honeycomb pattern. In this form, carbon becomes stronger than steel, and makes better wires than copper. While potentially useful

Fantastic Voyage

May 3, 2018 Loh Down Staff

Do you remember the classic movie, Fantastic Voyage? If not that, then at least Raquel Welch’s jumpsuit? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. It’s fun to think about how 21st century science has actually caught up with 1960s science fiction. In this case, think mini-submarines