Technology Review : Video

Bendable Magnetic Interface

A sensing surface developed by Microsoft researchers offers new ways to use computers.

Making 3D Maps on the Move

The Remotely Operated and Autonomous Mapping System (ROAMS) creates maps using a rotating laser and camera.

Biodegradable Transistors

Zhenan Bao, an associate professor of chemical engineering, and Christopher Bettinger, a postdoctoral fellow, show off the biodegradable electronics they make in their lab at Stanford University.

Helping Hands

This robotic rehabilitation device from Northeastern University uses electrically responsive fluid in its gears to adjust resistance as a patient performs gripping exercises. A patient who is recovering from a stroke, for example, could use the device to strengthen motor control as she plays a maze game.

A Robotic Gait Corrector

This device, one of several robotic rehabilitation tools from Northeastern University, adjusts a person’s gait as he walks.

Robo-Rehab for MRIs

This robotic rehabilitation device from Northeastern University is designed to let patients exercise hand and forearm muscles while in an MRI machine. Using a stroke-rehabilitation device in an MRI might let a doctor see the effects of the exercise on the brain.

Sequencing Price Drops Even Lower

This time-lapse video shows tightly packed balls of DNA being washed over a sequencing array. The array is designed so that the balls (white spots) stick to specific spots. The concentration of DNA balls that stick to the array increases over time. This tight packing of DNA strands decreases the amount of reagents needed in the sequencing reaction, lowering the cost of sequencing a genome.

Stealthy Nanoparticles Attack Cancer Cells

Jeff Hrkach and Greg Troiano of BIND Biosciences explain how they make drug-delivering nanoparticles.

Testing Cheap Wind Power

A continuously variable transmission could lead to cheaper wind power--if it is rugged enough.

Muscle-Computer Interface Meets Microsoft’s Surface

This clip shows a muscle-computer interface coupled to Microsoft’s Surface touch table.

Muscle-Bound Computer Interface

This video shows how a muscle-sensing computer interface interprets specific hand gestures.

Microsoft's Many Multitouch Mice

Microsoft’s five multitouch mouse prototypes--the Orb, Arty, Side Mouse, FTIR and Cap Mouse--are demonstrated in this video. Each mouse combines traditional functions, such as click and drag, with the ability to use simple gestures to zoom or browse photos.

Micro-vehicle Imitates the Winged Maple Seed

The new "robo-seed" flies using just a single propeller.

Faster Maintenance with Augmented Reality

An augmented-reality headset developed at Columbia University shows virtual arrows, text labels, and warnings, depending on where the user is looking.

Tiny Devices Use Light to Grab Cells

Ken Crozier, associate professor at Harvard University, shows off three optical devices he’s developing in the lab. These devices use laser light to grab onto particles such as biological cells and might be integrated into clinical diagnostics.

A 3D Video of the Embryonic Heartbeat

In this video of a mouse embryo, made 8.5 days after conception and one day after the heart has begun to form, the heartbeat is visible. The video was made using a variation on a technique called optical-coherence tomography. It’s being used by researchers at the University of Houston to take the highest resolution video yet of the developing mammalian heart. Their goal is a better understanding of why one percent of US infants are born with cardiovascular problems.

Redirecting Motion in Augmented Reality

Within this game, software automatically displaces virtual objects so that players will not interfere with one another’s physical space. Called Redirected Motion, the technique could help in other situations where users share an augmented reality space.

Bringing Books to Life

U.K. readers of Templar Publishing’s Drake’s Comprehensive Compendium of Dragonology can use a Web camera with their book to control an on-screen animation of a dragon.

Tracking Multiple Objects in Augmented Reality

Researchers at the University of Oxford have developed an object-recognition system that successfully tracks multiple objects in an indoor space.

Ghosts in the Machine

How my personal experiences prompted "Prescription: Networking."

White Matter

Biomedical editor Emily Singer had a diffusion tensor scan, a variation of MRI that allows scientists to visualize the brain’s white matter, at UCLA. Neuroscientist Andrew Frew used brain imaging software from BrainLab to create these movies, highlighting different sections of white matter.

Brain Imaging and IQ

Richard Haier, a psychologist and emeritus professor at the University of California, Irvine, explains how brain imaging is shedding light on intelligence.

Mining Fool's Gold for Solar

Berkeley researcher Cyrus Wadia talks about his vision for the future of solar energy and demonstrates how to make a solar cell from fool’s gold.

Apollo's Rocket Scientists

What is the legacy of the Apollo program, and what can we learn from it to help us confront the scientific and engineering challenges of our own time? This short film kicked off the "Giant Leaps" Symposium commemorating the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. The symposium was organized by the MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Department, and held at MIT on June 11, 2009.

Tagging the World

This video explains the Bokode concept of embedding small optical tags easily readable by normal cameras.

Robofish

This robofish prototype, less than a foot long, swims via a single motor.

LOLrioKart Tour

A student takes a tour of the Institute in the LOLrioKart.

The LOLrioKart

MIT students test the LOLrioKart.

Falling, Unwinding, Cascading

Kinetic sculptor Arthur Ganson is a former artist in residence at MIT and the inventor of the foam construction toy Toobers and Zots. He led the Friday After Thanksgiving Chain Reaction at the MIT Museum in 2008.

Prescription: Networking

Boston Medical Center is one of a relative few of U.S. hospitals that have managed to break down bureaucratic barriers to exchange electronic medical records with community health centers having different owners—a first step toward statewide and nationwide exchanges to improve health-care quality and reduce waste. Meg Aranow, the hospital’s chief information officer, and Andrew Ulrich, an emergency department physician, describe the rationale for and emerging uses of this electronic-records network now serving many of Boston’s inner-city patients.

Health-Care IT: The Economic Perspective

With Congress locked in a debate over how to reform the United States’ $2.3 trillion health-care industry, Harvard economist and health-care policy expert David Cutler explains how information technology affects the quality and economics of health care.

Demonstrating Health-Care Networking

Dan Newman, chief medical information officer of Boston Medical Center, explains the workings of the hospital’s new electronic-records network connecting BMC with community health centers in the Boston area.

Making Heart Muscle

Scientists grew cardiac muscle cells on a thin polymer film, then tested the cells’ ability to contract. As they contract, the cells distort the shape of the polymer.

The Marcellus Shale Gas Rush

Over the last several years, vast amounts of natural gas have been found in the Marcellus shale that lies underneath vast areas of western New York, western and northern Pennsylvania, and parts of Ohio and West Virginia. If geologists are right, the Marcellus shale could be the world’s second-largest natural-gas field in the world. The natural gas is held tightly trapped in the shale, but advanced drilling techniques have made it economical to drill for the gas. Much of the activity is centered in the counties south of Pittsburgh.

How to (Rapidly) Move a Drilling Rig

This speeded-up video shows how a natural-gas drilling rig, at a Range Resources site, can be quickly moved to drill a series of wells, each only a few feet apart. The specially designed, multi-ton rig “walks” from one well to the next, allowing Range to efficiently drill a half-dozen wells at the site.

Drilling for Shale Gas

Economically recovering natural gas from shale deposits depends on advanced drilling techniques. This video illustrates how horizontal drilling allows gas producers to follow a shale deposit for up to a mile, greatly increasing the productivity of the well. It also illustrates the technique of “fracturing,” in which large volumes of water are used to shatter the shale, allowing the natural gas to flow to the well.

Novel Chip for Monitoring Breast Cancer

This video illustrates how estrogen is extracted from a drop of human blood using a novel microfluidics chip developed at the University of Torotono. The samples are lysed, and then the estrogen is extracted into a polar solvent (methanol), while the unwanted parts of the blood sample are extracted into a non-polar solvent (isooctane).

Light-Switched Drug Delivery

This three-dimensional micrograph shows a living cell (shown in green) with engineered capsules (shown in red) inside. An electric shock was applied to the cell to get the capsules inside. While that approach works well in vitro, the researchers hope to come up with a more acceptable approach for clinical applications.

How to Deliver Online Gaming, Minus the Lag

OnLive CEO Steve Perlman explains how his cloud videogame service deals with real network conditions.

Flexible Robotic Hand Shows Off Dexterity

In this 2007 video, a researcher controls the flexible, soft robotic SDM hand to demonstrate the variety of items it can grasp, even if holding them imprecisely. It can also pick up a glass of wine without spilling it, and remove a CD from a CD stack.

A Simpler, Gentler Robotic Grip

In this more recent video, the SDM hand now has sensors embedded in it, so that it can detect and grasp objects with its flexible fingers on its own and figure out the best grasp for an object.

GE's Risky Energy Research

Michael Idelchik, VP of Advanced Technologies, discusses energy research.

Laser-Triggered Chemical Reactions

Nylon microcapsules containing carbon nanotubes heat up and then burst when illuminated with a near-infrared laser. These photo-triggered capsules can release chemicals on demand, allowing for precise control of chemical reactions.

NASA Road-Tests New Moon Rover

A NASA-led team of researchers called the Desert Research and Technology Studies (D-RATS) field test their new lunar rover and human-exploration robotic systems in Black Point Lava Flow, AZ.

Color-Blind Monkeys Get Full Color Vision

Dalton, a squirrel monkey who used to be red-green colorblind, can now see those colors, thanks to a novel gene therapy treatment. Scientists test his color vision by showing him a circle of red dots within a grey-green background. When Dalton touches the correct location of the red spot, he is rewarded with a drop of juice.

The Future of Solar

Emanuel Sachs, 1366 Technologies's chief technology officer and professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, reflects on lessons learned from his earlier startup, Evergreen Solar, and discusses whether breakthroughs are needed for solar power to compete with conventional sources of electricity.

Improving Solar Cell Efficiency

Emanuel Sachs, 1366 Technologies's chief technology officer and a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, explains the physics of solar cells and how to make them more efficient.

Solar Lab Tour

Craig Lund, director of business development at 1366 Technologies, and Emanuel Sachs, the company's chief technology officer, give a behind-the-scenes look at the company's lab and pilot manufacturing line.

A Turing Test for Computer Game Bots

This clip shows a BotPrize judge (identified as player 711) from last year, playing against a bot in Unreal Tournament 2004.

Cleaner Weed Eaters

Bernardo Herzer, the founder and CEO of Lehr, a startup based in Los Angeles, describes the company’s environmentally-friendly lawn equipment and demonstrates two of Lehr's products.

Changing A Cell's Biological Battery

This video shows how researchers at Oregon Health & Science University created a fertile egg through a process they call spindle-chromosomal complex transfer, which allowed for the complete replacement of mitochondrial DNA.

TR35: James Carey

Jim Carey, co-founder of SiOnyx, explains how his company makes “black silicon” and how it could be used to make devices such as inexpensive night-vision equipment.

TR35: Andrea Thomaz

Here, the social robot Simon tests its manipulation abilities to pick up an object and place it in a basket. In a simulation, Simon gives social cues, such as nods and eye movement, to communicate to an instructor. The social instructor gives instructions (typed), which Simon follows to successfully build a toy block house. After a few sessions with the operator, Simon understands that the absolute location of the house is not important, only the relative location of the pieces.

Bone-setting Glue

A video narrated by Russell Stewart shows the sandcastle worm creating its mineral tube and a brief demonstration of synthetic adhesive based on the worm's natural glue.

On Openness

What freedom attracts.

When Buffy Met Her Vampire Match

Video artists Jonathan McIntosh and Julie Levin Russo discuss how open technologies could ease the difficult task of remixing existing television shows and movies.

TR35: Jorge Conde

Jorge Conde, co-founder and CEO of Knome, describes what you can learn from your genome and demonstrates the company’s unique browser for surfing the genome.

TR35: Andrew Perlman

Andrew Perlman describes a process for converting coal into natural gas, as well as other energy-related projects he's working on.

TR35: Jeffrey Bigham

Jeff Bigham of the University of Washington demonstrates WebAnywhere, which allows the visually impaired to use a Web browser on public terminals without the need to install or configure special accessibility software.

TR35: Cody Friesen

Cody Friesen, an associate professor of materials science at Arizona State University, explains his new battery design.

TR35: Pranav Mistry

Pranav Mistry, a graduate student at MIT, explains how his new wearable device, SixthSense, enhances the real world with digital information.

TR35: Michelle Khine

Michelle Khine, a biomedical engineer at University of California, Irvine, explains how she uses children’s toys to make high-tech diagnostic chips.

TR35: Shahram Izadi

Microsoft researcher Shahram Izadi explains the benefits of using touch in computing technology. Here, he discusses--and demonstrates--a new way of interacting with digital information on a touch screen.

The Electric Acid Test

On the Isle of Man, the beginnings of a marketable electric motorcycle.

Making Video as Easy to Edit as Text

Mozilla’s Chris Blizzard and Mark Surman demonstrate a novel insertion of Twitter feeds into real-time video streams and discuss how open-source video tools will make such innovation easy.

TR35: José Gómez-Márquez

Jose Gomez-Marquez, program director for the Innovations in International Health program at MIT, demonstrates some of the medical technologies he is developing for use in countries such as Nicaragua.

TR35: Adrien Treuille

Adrien Treuille, an assistant professor in the computer graphics group at Carnegie Mellon University, describes how better physics simulations could have implications in fields as diverse as architecture, racing, and medicine.

A Touch of Ingenuity

Ken Perlin, a professor of computer science at NYU, and Ilya Rosenberg, an NYU graduate student, show off their pressure-sensitive touch pads.

Digital Info on the Real World

Pranav Mistry, a graduate student at MIT, demos his augmented-reality system, SixthSense, in Cambridge, MA.

TR35: Kevin Fu

Kevin Fu, a software engineer and assistant professor of computer science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, explains how he secures RFID systems from would-be hackers.

Rogue Pharmacies Dominate Bing's Ads

LegitScript and KnujOn released a report documenting the prevalence of ads from illegal Internet pharmacies on Microsoft’s Bing search engine.

Crowdsourcing Closer Government Scrutiny

Watch a video explaining how to use the government's new IT Dashboard.

Looking Back, Hopping Forward

The Talaris vehicle is being tested at 50%, 65%, and 75% throttle, hovering at each level before increasing to the next thrust threshold. The test vehicle will be able to simulate the moon’s gravity by removing 5/6 of its own weight, which will help develop guidance, navigation and control algorithms for the Next Giant Leap team’s lunar hopper.

How to Land Safely Back on the Moon

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory recently tested the LIDAR sensors and algorithms that will translate raw data into a 3-D terrain map of the moon’s surface for future lunar-landing expeditions. This video describes the test and the technology used for autonomous landings and hazard detection.

Q&A: Mark Little, Head of GE Global Research

The head of research at GE discusses the stimulus package and new technologies for addressing climate change.

Brain Surgery Using Sound Waves

This animation shows how InSightec’s high-intensity ultrasound technology, used in conjunction with magnetic resonance imaging, can destroy small pieces of diseased brain tissue without cutting into the skull.

Helping Robots Get a Grip

Research at Columbia University shows a faster, more efficient way to control a complicated robotic hand.

The Big Smart Grid Challenges

GE researchers explain how the key elements of an intelligent grid will work, and what they could mean for consumers.

How to Make UAVs Fully Autonomous

The sense-and-avoid system uses a four-megapixel camera on a pan tilt to detect obstacles from the ground. It puts red boxes around planes and birds, and blue boxes around movement that it determines is not an obstacle (e.g., dust on the lens). The green box shows the actual position of the Piper Archer II airplane being tracked from two to five miles away. Such a visual system will be useful to UAVs trying to avoid obstacles.

NASA’s Launch Abort System

An animation shows how the new launch abort system will work.

Motor Firing

NASA tests the motors for its launch abort system, which will be part of its next launch vehicle.

Robotic Grasping Tool

The researchers settled on a pneumatic grasping hook for a wheeled robot.

Grappling Hook for Spiderman-like Robot

A researcher at the Tokyo Institute of Technology tests an early version of the grappling hook.

A Robot That's Learning to Smile

The UCSD robot watches itself to learn how to pull new facial expressions.

Artificial Knees Made to Order

This video shows how ConforMIS uses a patient's CT and MRI imaging data to create a customized knee implant, as well as a customized instrument that helps guide the surgeon in placing the implant correctly.

Energy Loans

At a recent conference at the United Nations, the person in charge of the Department of Energy's finances told Technology Review how his agency is pushing innovation.

$100 Laptop Becomes a $5 PC

A demonstration video from the Sugar Labs Foundation shows the workings of the educational platform once confined mainly to the so-called $100 laptop, but now available for download to revitalize old computers via a USB drive.

An Electric Car for City Driving

A new electric vehicle uses polymer-electrolyte batteries.

Ares I Lifts Off

An animation showing how the Ares I rocket, NASA’s next launch vehicle to carry humans to space, will perform.

Blastoff of Ares V

An animation showing the Ares V rocket, NASA’s next launch vehicle to carry heavy cargo to the moon and beyond, in flight.

Energy-Efficiency Technologies Panel

The panel presented highlights of technologies and approaches to energy-efficient building, featuring John Sterman, Jay W. Forrester Professor of Management and engineering systems director, System Dynamics Group; Nicholas Gayeski, doctoral candidate in Building Technology Program; Walt Henry, Department of Facilities; and Harvey Michaels, Department of Urban Studies and Planning and MITEI. This discussion took place on January 14, 2009, as part of Energy Futures Week.

2009 MIT Energy Conference: Managing Demand

Panel session with Harvey Michaels (MIT, moderator), Tim Healy (EnerNOC), Bernard Neenan (EPRI), and Sue Coakley (Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships).

Leon Glicksman on Sustainability

Sustainability@MIT copresident and Sloan student Adam Siegel interviews Leon Glicksman ’59, PhD ’64, cochair of the MIT Campus Energy Task Force, and gains his input on campus sustainability.

On Answers

Four kinds of search engines.

Building NASA's Future

Engineers at Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, are constructing Ares I-X, a test flight rocket that is part of NASA’s plan to return humans to the moon, and then travel to Mars and beyond.

Building Blocks of a New Interface

David Merrill, inventor of Siftables, interactive electronic building blocks, demonstrates his technology at the 2009 TED conference.

Solar Power Technology

Richard Swanson, founder of SunPower, in San Jose, CA, discusses his company’s solar-panel technology for building efficient solar plants.

Wolfram Demos His "Knowledge Engine”

Stephen Wolfram shows off the best of Wolfram Alpha in action.

Designing for the Cloud

Stephen Cass, senior editor of special projects at TR, interviews Dwight Merriman, CEO and cofounder of 10Gen, a startup that is developing a database designed to cope with the idiosyncrasies of cloud computing.

Fusion Electricity

Ed Moses, director of the National Ignition Facility, explains how the facility works and how it could lead to fusion power.

How to Ignite Fusion

Bruno Van Wonterghem, NIF’s operations manager, shows off areas of the laser fusion facility that will be off-limits to the public.

An Interview with Stephen Wolfram

In an interview with David Talbot, Technology Review’s chief correspondent, Stephen Wolfram describes what motivated him to launch Wolfram Alpha, how the “knowledge engine” works, and where it’s headed.

Open-Source Data Glove

Jack Vice, president and CTO of AnthroTronix, uses the AcceleGlove to control a robotic arm.

Cell Phones That Listen and Learn

SoundSense captures known and new sounds to create a real-time log of a user's activities.

The Future of Human Exploration

A look at NASA’s Constellation Program and its plan to travel to the moon, Mars, and beyond.

Test Driving the Volt

Kevin Bullis, Technology Review’s energy editor, spoke with Frank Weber and Tony Posowatz, GM executives, about GM’s new plug-in hybrid electric car called the Volt, and then took a test version of the vehicle for a rare test drive. (Note: The speed of the car, referenced in the video, is kilometers per hour.)

A Tour of GM’s New Battery Lab

Kevin Bullis, Technology Review’s energy reporter, received a tour of GM’s new battery lab and learned new details about the GM Volt battery pack.

Targeting the Brain with Sound Waves

Low-intensity, low-frequency ultrasound waves can trigger neural activity in brain tissue. Here, acoustically triggered activity, which spreads through the neural circuit, is shown in the warmer colors (red and yellow).

Google Explores "Eyes-Free" Phones

Google engineers, T.V. Raman, and Charles Chen demonstrate the eyes-free capabilities that can be easily programmed into Android-based applications.

Plastic Logic's Touch-Screen E-Reader

Plastic Logic's e-reader features a touch-screen interface that lets users organize and search for files and annotate documents.

What is Watson?

Researchers at IBM have developed a computer system uses natural language techniques to process a question.

Modeling Sneaky Robots

This system, labeled “R” for robot guard, knows to wait behind objects and move in the shadows in order to successfully intercept an intruder (“I”).

Recycling Robot Shows Clutter-Sorting Skills

A new vision system can identify objects within clutter.

Tiny Machine Commands a Swarm of Bacteria

The bacteria propel the machine in different directions.

A Scampering Climber

A new climbing robot quickly makes its way up a telephone pole.

Automated Ice Sculpting

This machine developed by researchers from McGill University, in Canada, makes ice sculptures by carefully laying down deposits of ice. Here it begins to build a snowflake sculpture. (The video is shown at five times normal speed.)

Crash-Test Robots

Researchers at the German Aerospace Center are studying the impact of collisions between wayward robots and crash-test dummies. They hope to develop effective accident-prevention systems.

Detecting Pedestrians

In this video, a camera rests atop an ordinary car. Software developed by researchers at ETH Zurich and Toyota rapidly identifies pedestrians and other vehicles.

Automated Cars in an Automatic City

Robotic cars navigate around a miniature city created by researchers at Boston University while observing traffic rules and avoiding collisions.

Tumbling Around

This robot, Adelopod, was created by researchers at the University of Minnesota. It tumbles over itself--a simple, low-power way to get around.

Precision Control of Micro Machines

Researchers control microscopic magnets individually by manipulating magnetic and electric fields. The magnets could one day be used to assemble microscopic structures or deliver drugs to a cell.

Amazon's Bigger Kindle

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos demonstrates the Kindle DX at Pace University, in New York City.

Teleoperated Design Revealed for Assistant Robots

A system lets users manage a team of robots through cloud computing.

Second Skin Captures Motion

Graduate student Dennis Miaw demonstrates Second Skin. The system tracks his arm’s motion and vibrates to indicate how he should move to correct his position.

Touch Screens with Pop-up Buttons

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon discuss a touch screen that also has morphing buttons.

A New E-Paper Competitor

Tiny reservoirs containing ink sit inside each polymer pixel in a new type of electronic-paper display developed at the University of Cincinnati. A voltage applied across the material quickly draws the ink out and spreads it over the entire pixel area.

Going Green with TR Digital

Jason Pontin discusses the advantages of receiving the digital edition of Technology Review and how to subscribe. Video by Brittany Sauser - Find out more

Personal Medical Monitoring

Keeping tabs on your vitals with Microsoft HealthVault.

Technology and the Economy

Daron Acemoglu, a professor of applied economics at MIT, discusses whether the federal stimulus bill, which includes tens of billions for energy and information technology, can save the economy.

Saving the Economy

The U.S. stimulus bill includes $100 billion to support energy and information technologies, but economists are skeptical it will create jobs and ensure long-term economic growth.

Better Way to Wire Up Cells

This patch of beating heart cells is been positioned over an array of nanowire transistors, one of which is visible at center. The nanowires can make high-resolution recordings of electrical signals in biological cells.

How Tor Works

A video demonstrating how Tor uses a series of relays to protect anonymity online.

Can Technology Save the Economy?

Dale Jorgenson, a professor in the department of economics at Harvard University, talks about the pros and cons of the stimulus package.

Nanotubes Come into Fashion

University of Michigan chemistry professor Nicholas Kotov shows off the smart textiles he makes by coating cotton with carbon nanotubes.

Hunt for Dark Matter

MIT physicist Gabriella Sciolla explains what dark matter is, what physicists believe it might be like, and what technologies are behind the search for dark matter.

Dissent Made Safer

Roger Dingledine, leader of the Tor Project, describes where the anonymity technology came from, who uses it today, and how it will improve--and its usage will expand--in the future.

Manipulating Memory

Karim Nader, a neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal, explains the theory of reconsolidation, and describes how it might be used to treat anxiety disorders.

Innovation During a Recession

A five-member panel of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs describes how to invest and start companies during a recession--and why now might be the best time to bring new technologies to market.

The Silver Lining

Excerpts from a panel discussion on entrepreneurship include discussions of why recessions provide disruptions that are good for startup companies and where government stimulus money fits in.

Business Bots Unleashed

Robotic devices presented at the RoboBusiness 2009 Conference in Boston.

Taking the Segway-GM Puma for a Test-Drive

Kevin Bullis, TR’s energy reporter, gets a ride in a prototype vehicle called Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility (P.U.M.A) at the New York Auto show. The vehicle is meant to transform urban transportation.

Fixing Lungs Outside the Body

A pair of lungs breathes outside the body with the aid of a device codeveloped by the Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network, and Vitrolife. Prior to transplant, lungs can be preserved, assessed, and genetically repaired for up to 12 hours using the XVIVO system, according to researchers.

Energy and Climate Bill Advances

As legislators discuss major new legislation for moving the United States away from its dependence on fossil fuels, Daniel Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, reflects on lessons that can be learned from previous shifts in energy use. Yergin recently released a new edition of his Pulitzer Prize–winning book, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power.

Harnessing Direct Solar Power for Propulsion

A UC Berkeley researcher uses a magnifying glass to focus sunlight onto a small plastic boat. Nanotubes at one end of the boat absorb the sun’s heat, propelling the boat through the water. The second video shows a rotor that works on the same principle. A similar design could be used to make simple solar-powered pumps.

Monitoring Muscle

Seward Rutkove explains how a technique called electrical impedance myography (EIM) can be used to measure the health of muscles. He demonstrates a handheld device that can now perform EIM measurements much more quickly than before.

Why Chrysler Chose A123 Batteries

An animation shows the components of a new modular battery system for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.

Mixing Real and Virtual Controls

This video demonstrates people using a combination of multitouch surface controls and physical controls to edit audio tracks.

Brain Cells' Long Migration

A real-time video of neurons navigating the brain using blood vessels as paths. Neurons are labeled in green, and the blood vessels in red.

Google Voice on G1

A demonstration of Google Voice on G1.

Robot Scientist Designs Its Own Experiments

A robot scientist called Adam performs yeast experiments autonomously.

Google Voice on the iPhone

A demonstration of Google Voice on the iPhone.

Mapping Disasters in 3-D

A demonstration of a software program called RubbleViewer that maps rubble in disaster-rescue situations and builds a 3-D map that rescue personnel can navigate and annotate.

Presented By:

A Disappearing Heart Stent

A bioabsorbable drug-eluting stent developed by Abbott treats coronary artery disease and is absorbed into the walls of treated arteries within two years. It leaves behind blood vessels that appeared to move and function similar to normal arteries.

A Better, Cheaper Multitouch Interface

In this video, the researchers demonstrate a few applications that could be incorporated with their pressure-sensitive touch pad, dubbed the UnMousePad. The researchers connect the pad to a computer and display to create a map of the intensity and location of pressure points. The pad can also be used to draw with fingers, write with a stylus, sculpt virtual globes, and control electronic musical equipment.

3-D View of HIV Infection

A rotating three-dimensional view of an HIV infected T cell (green) forming virological synapses with three healthy CD4+ cells (red). The viral structural protein, shown in green, accumulates in button-shaped structures at the contact sites.

HIV Transmission Between Cells

This movie shows high speed imaging of HIV transfer across a virological synapse. The video begins with a still view of two T cells with transmitted light and an outline of a spot where a synaptic button has formed between them. The movie then shows the movement of fluorescent viral protein into the synaptic button, followed by transfer of material from the button into the target cells. Note the movie focuses on the movement of the viral protein without indicating the outlines of the recipient cell.

Infected HIV Cells

The video shows a cell that has engaged in a synapse becoming infected days later. Infection was captured by continuous long term imaging over 3 days. The HIV green fluorescence image is presented on the left while an overlay of green fluorescence and bright field image is shown on the right. Images were acquired every 10 minutes over 67 hours.

Fixing a Genetic Flaw

A treatment helps restore muscle function to dogs with a form of muscular dystrophy.

Light-as-Air, Heatproof Nanotube Muscles

A two-millimeter-wide strip of an airy carbon-nanotube material expands to more than three times its width when a five-kilovolt voltage is applied to it.

A Heatstroke-Sensing Helmet

Hothead Technologies has developed a system that can sense and warn a user of heatstroke. In this video, an RFID transmitter is fitted in a headband and a white temperature-sensing patch touches the wearer's forehead. Readings are beamed to a PDA (not shown). When the wearer's temperature hits 102.5 and stays there for 20 seconds, an alarm sounds on the PDA.

A Better Biofuel Bug

Scott Laughlin, CEO of Zymetis, discusses his company’s work to genetically modify bacteria that efficiently converts biomass to sugar.

Presented By:

Gravity Satellite Blasts Off on Climate Mission

The Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) is a new satellite developed by the European Space Agency to measure the earth’s gravity field. Here, researchers discuss the mission and how it will impact climate-change research.

How the Experts Quantify Sports

Experts on a panel called “Basketball Analytics” at MIT Sloan School of Management’s Sports Analytics Conference 2009 discussed ways to quantify sports.

Mapping a City's Rhythm

The New York startup, Sense Networks, has developed algorithms that can identify distinct types of behaviors of people in a city, and group them into so-called tribes. The first animation shows the changing whereabouts of these tribes over the course of an evening in San Francisco and the second animation depicts the process of identifying the primary tribes visiting the top 200 nightlife destinations during a certain period of the night.

Cash-Strapped Green Tech Changes Strategy

Watch Andrew Perlman, president and CEO of Great Point Energy, explain his company’s technology for converting coal into natural gas.

Energy-Saving Helicopter Blades

NASA researchers are using smart materials to improve helicopter performance.

Tune In to Radio Twitter

A student project sorts tweets by sentiment and puts them on a radio.

Technology and Optimism

Why technologists are so confident.

TR10: Software-Defined Networking

Nick McKeown believes that remotely controlling network hardware with software can bring the Internet up to speed.

TR10: Traveling-Wave Reactor

A traveling-wave reactor could use widely available depleted uranium and operate for 60 years without refueling.

TR10: $100 Genome

BioNanomatrix cofounder Han Cao explains how his company’s nanofluidic chip could dramatically decrease the cost of genome sequencing.

TR10: Liquid Battery

Donald Sadoway describes why we need a better battery and how his new battery works.

TR10: Racetrack Memory

Stuart Parkin, a research fellow at IBM’s Almaden Research Center, describes racetrack memory, a new concept for storing data. Parkin and his team believe that racetrack memory could match the capacity of magnetic hard drives and the ruggedness of flash memory, making it a possible replacement for both.

TR10: HashCache

Vivek Pai explains how broadband access alone cannot bridge the digital divide.

TR10: Intelligent Software Assistant

Siri cofounders Adam Cheyer, Dag Kittlaus, and Tom Gruber describe how an intelligent software assistant would work, and how their product's technology is rooted in highly ambitious artificial-intelligence research, funded by the U.S. military.

TR10: Biological Machines

Michel Maharbiz and his colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, are developing implants for giant beetles that allow scientists to control the insects’ flight. Researchers hope that the beetles can one day be used for search and rescue or reconnaissance in areas inaccessible to people or other robots.

Making Paper Diagnostic Tests

The paper diagnostic chips are made in a few steps, shown here by graduate student Andres Martinez, a member of the Whitesides Research Group.

TR10: Paper Diagnostics

George Whitesides explains how diagnostic paper chips could revolutionize health care in disparate places.

TR10: Nanopiezoelectronics

Zhong Lin Wang, a professor of materials science at Georgia Tech, describes his work on nanoscale devices that convert mechanical energy into power for the nano world.

A Zero-Emissions City in the Desert

A solar test field in Masdar City will help determine what zero-emissions technologies will work best in the heat and dust of the desert.

Saving Energy in Masdar City

Gerard Evenden, the senior partner at the U.K.-based firm Foster and Partners, who developed the master plan for Masdar City, explains how he will save energy.

Harnessing Hamster Power with a Nanogenerator

The hamster in this video is wearing a generator that turns mechanical energy into electrical current when the hamster runs or scratches. The two graphs on the device show current and voltage.

Laser Show in the Surgical Suite

Lasers and a century-old dye could supplant needles and thread.

A Lifelike Prosthetic Arm

A new surgical technique, developed by scientists at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, allows patients who have lost arms to use residual nerve signals to control a prosthetic limb. This video shows three patients testing a prototype limb being developed by DARPA. The patients can perform complex tasks, including picking up a cup, grasping a cracker without breaking it, and putting a spoon in a cup.

The Master Plan

An animated fly-through shows the major components of a new zero-emissions, zero-waste city being built in the Middle East.

Lighting Up Cells in 3-D

A new microscopy technique called iPALM has been used to reveal structures within cells. Fluorescent labels have been attached to integrins, proteins that cells use to attach to surfaces. The yellow and red regions depict areas where the cell has used integrins to attach to a glass surface. The blue and purple regions are networks of integrins inside a cell.

Augmenting Mucus to Keep Out Infection

A treatment that shrinks gaps in the mucus membrane might protect caregivers during an influenza outbreak.

NASA's New Planetary-Exploring Robot

NASA's newest exploration rover, dubbed Axel for its design, can climb steep and rocky terrain and explore deep craters on planets like Mars. It uses only three actuators to operate upside down, right side up, turn in place, and follow illogical paths. Axel can maneuver autonomously using cameras, sensors, and wireless communication, or be tethered to a larger spacecraft.

Yahoo Adds a Notepad to Search

A new tool could help people organize information from Web searches.

Presented By:

A Robomedic for the Battlefield

Scientists at Carnegie Mellon have engineered a snakelike robotic arm that can monitor health signs and potentially administer treatments. The robot is equipped with sensors and a small camera, which wirelessly relays video to a laptop. A researcher watches the video onscreen and wirelessly controls the robot’s movements with a joystick. The robot can move anywhere along the length of the body, and can lower itself to administer oxygen or monitor a person’s breathing.

Google Earth Plumbs the Ocean Depths

The software now lets users dive miles beneath the ocean waves.

The Army's Remote-Controlled Beetle

A scientist sends a wireless signal from the laptop to the beetle to start and then stop flight. The beetle, seen in the upper part of the frame, is tethered for practical purposes. The insect is attached to a clear plate, so that its flight pattern can be better observed. An oscilloscope shows the electrical signals as they are delivered: a short oscillating pulse triggers the animal to flap its wings, and it continues flapping until a short single pulse tells it to stop.

The Adventures of Spirit

NASA’s mars exploration rover, Spirit, has explored the Red Planet for half a decade, overcoming technical challenges and making significant discoveries.

The Life of Opportunity

NASA’s mars exploration rover, Opportunity, has trekked the surface of the Red Planet for five years. It discovered the first signs of ancient ice and is helping to answer the question: Is there life on Mars?

Modeling Malware Over Wi-Fi

Researchers at Indiana University lead by Alessandro Vespignani have created a mathematical model that shows how people using a Wi-Fi wireless internet connection are targets for infection.

Building Safer, Superior Stents

Researchers at MIT have developed a computer model that simulates the dynamics of blood flowing around a drug-eluting stent. This allows them to evaluate how the drug is released and distributed over time in the arterial wall.

The Glucose-Monitoring Tattoo

Shown here are heart-muscle cells grown in a dish. Sodium rushing into the cells coincides with contraction (as happens during a normal heartbeat) and modulates the sensors’ fluorescence.

FDA Clears First Embryonic-Stem-Cell Therapy Trials

This video illustrates Geron’s, a California based cell therapy company, embryonic stem cell therapy for spinal cord injury in rats. The company has received clearance from the US FDA to begin clinical trials.

A Ball-Bearing Drum Machine

A prototype electronic musical instrument called “BeatBearing” makes drum patterns using ball bearings.

Beetle Boat Runs on Surface Tension

A tiny bioinspired boat is powered by the surface tension of water as seen in this video. The second half of the video shows the rudder capability.

Cheaper Robot Rehabilitation

A modified 3-D game controller helps improve fine motor control.

Presented By:

MRI for Viruses

An MRI imager that is 100 million times more powerful could create 3-D images of viruses.

A Helping Microhand for Surgeons

Researchers use magnets to navigate a microgripping “hand” through a coiled tube and to guide it to a dyed bead and a cell mass. The grippers can be actuated to close like a fist around an object by biochemical cues or by an increase in temperature, the means used to make the hand grip the blue bead and the cell mass in these videos.

Sign-Language Translator

In a video of a native signer signing words from a classic American Sign Language dictionary, researchers have marked the start and end of each sign.

New E-Paper Technology Speeds Up

A simple prototype device, made from the Toronto researchers’ new material, changes color as it displays a sequence of digits.

Europe's Re-Entry Vehicle In Action

ESA is building a spacecraft that can safely reenter earth's atmosphere.

Cleaning Up Shaky Home Video

A series of split-screen videos illustrate how MotionDSP's new software improves video quality.

Tidal-Power System Hits Record Output

Marine Current Turbines' SeaGen system quadruples the world tidal-turbine power record.

Ford's New Car Parks Itself

A new parking system takes the hard work out of parallel parking.

Broadband on Rails

Two antenna feeds move freely around the outside of this compact lens, which is intended to provide broadband Internet access to trains that have to go through narrow tunnels. Each feed is capable of sending and receiving a different satellite signal.

"Very Stunning, Very Space, and Very Cool"

An oral history of the launch of space tourism.

The Geological Strata of Things

Old technologies seldom die; they get upgraded.

Parallel Universe

Robert X. Cringely, a writer, broadcaster, and computer guru, explains a computer’s components--microprocessors, parallel processing, and multicore architecture--and how they work together.

Interpreting the Genome

Stanley N. Lapidus, founder and chairman of Helicos Biosciences, talks about his decision to have his genome sequenced and the results made public as part of George Church’s Personal Genome Project.

Spinning Silk into Sensors

Fiorenzo Omenetto, associate professor of biomedical engineering and physics at Tufts University School of Engineering, explains his work in silk optics.

Lifeline for Renewable Power

General Electric’s Juan de Bedout demonstrates the company’s software system to improve the electric grid.

The Democrats' New Weapon

Watch Mark Sullivan, cofounder of Voter Activation Network, demonstrate a new voter database mapping interface called turf-cutter, which helps campaigns quickly divide territory before sending canvassers to knock on doors.

Keeping Tabs on Tools

Ravi Pappu, cofounder of Cambridge-based ThingMagic, demonstrates a truck-based RFID system at the company’s lab in Woburn, MA. The system, called Tool Link, takes inventory of the items packed in a truck bed and alerts the user if any are missing.

Enhancing Video for the Visually Impaired

Researchers are using algorithms that can better the picture quality for people with macular degeneration.

What's Next for Computer Interfaces?

A user demonstrates a nanoTouch device.

The Best Photon Detector Yet

Mario Paniccia, director of Intel's Photonics Technology Lab, describes the company’s new silicon-based avalanche photodetector and explains the technical challenges involved in making it.

The Extensible Obama

Watch Tom Daschle, the incoming secretary of health and human services, and Lauren Aronson, a member of Obama’s health-policy team, respond to online comments in this video made by the Obama transition team.

Back-Button to the Future

Mira Dontcheva, a researcher at Adobe Systems, explains how Zoetrope can be used to browse back through a Web page’s history. She demonstrates a few advanced techniques for looking at historic data and shows how to compare several Web pages over time.

A New Twist on Hydropower

Michael Bernitsas of the University of Michigan's department of marine engineering explains how his VIVACE generation system captures the energy in vortex-induced vibrations as water flows past a cylindrical bar. The system, he says, can work in slow currents where turbine and water-mill technologies are ineffective.

A Design for Cheaper Wind Power

A design that draws on jet engine technology could halve the cost of generating electricity from wind.

Modeling Brain Blasts

A computer simulation reveals how blast waves reverberate around a soldier's helmet.

Memristors Make Chips Cheaper

The first hybrid memristor-transistor chip could be cheaper and more energy efficient.

Astronauts Lose $100,000 Tool Kit

Important pieces of hardware float away as the astronauts watch in dismay.

Tongue Control

This video shows a person using the University of Wisconsin Brain-Computer Interface system with tongue stimulation.

Less-Invasive Brain Interfaces

This movie shows the thin-film micro-ECoG device being pressed down on the surface of water in a petri dish. The ultraflexible nature of the implant means that it cannot exert enough force to break the surface tension of the water. And the properties of polymer used allow it to stick and grab on to the water’s surface. The same thing happens when it is placed on the hydrated surface of the brain, allowing the implant to float with the brain as it moves within the skull without losing contact with the cortical surface.

Augmented Reality on Mobile Phones

A look at some of the newest developments.

Opening the Space Frontier

NASA’s Constellation Program plans to build spacecraft and vehicles to return astronauts to the Moon and possibly Mars.

The Shuttle Maneuvering in Space

The Space Shuttle Atlantis conducts a rendezvous pitch maneuver--a backflip to reach the same orbital velocity as another spacecraft--before docking with the International Space Station. Atlantis is traveling at an orbital velocity of 17,500 miles per hour and is rotating three-quarters of a degree per second.

Test Driving Google Voice Search

The new application only occasionally thinks that I want flying pizza.

Presented By:

Expedition Week Continues Tonight

Seven nights of one great discovery after another continues tonight at 9P e/p only on National Geographic Channel. From the ancient pyramids to the ocean depths, from lost cities to outer space, travel with the latest generation of intrepid explorers as they make one great discovery after another. Expedition Week, only on National Geographic Channel.
www.natgeotv.com/expedition

Ads by Pheedo

The Future of Healthcare

The technologies that are sure to better the industry.

Backpacks for Cells

In the first part of this time-lapse video, an immune cell equipped with a tiny polymer backpack gambols across a microscope slide for some six hours before getting stuck. In the second part of the video, cells with backpacks full of magnetic nanoparticles are tugged toward a magnet, while cells without backpacks stay put.

Tracking Traffic with Cell Phones

A new project collects traffic data from GPS-enabled cell phones.

Engineering Edible Bacteria

Synthetic biology could yield microbes that fight cavities and produce vitamins.

Firefox on Your Cell Phone

Madhava Enros, Mozilla’s user-experience designer, demonstrates the alpha release of Fennec, a Web browser for mobile devices.

Repairing Hubble

NASA's next servicing mission for the telescope will be one of its most challenging.

Sticky Space Spider

A robotic insect is designed to explore rough, alien terrain.

Obama's Web Future

Jascha Franklin-Hodge--cofounder of Blue State Digital, which built Obama’s online social-networking tools--describes how the president-elect’s social-networking strategy made for a well-oiled Election Day effort. Franklin-Hodge also discusses the future of Obama’s e-mail database of "millions and millions" of supporters.

The Healthy Skinny Pill

In 2007, researchers in Europe studied the health effects of resveratrol, a compound found in red wine. Part of the study included testing mice’s endurance by having them run on a treadmill. Here, the mouse on the right was fed resveratrol, while the mouse on the left was untreated. The treated mouse ran longer and harder than its running mate. This year, researchers conducted a study using a new compound, SRT1720, which targets the same pathway as resveratrol. Again, they tested the mice on the treadmill and found that mice fed this compound showed a similar improvement in performance.

Patching Hearts

This video shows a patch of engineered heart tissue "beating" in response to electrical field stimulation. Rat heart cells are embedded in a scaffold that mimics the properties of the heart.

Voyage of the Bacteria Bots

Bacteria (fast white spots) swim through human blood in a microfluidic substrate with guidance from an MRI machine. The bacteria swim against the current, past red blood cells (slower white spots).

A Robot Music Instructor

A clever flute-playing robot offers an impressive rendition of Flight of the Bumblebee. Its “lungs” consist of a bellow that moves air in and out, and its “tongue” can block air in two places to transition between notes. Its “vocal cords” are a vibrato device that can change vibrations according to the air flow, and it even has elastic “lips” that can control its airstream, changing in width, thickness, and angle as it plays.

Rich Miner Speaks

Following a packed keynote at last week's Mobile Internet World conference, Google's group manager of open platforms, Rich Miner, sat down to take questions from the audience. Here, he comments on the process that Google used to develop Android and on the pressures of an open platform.

Biomedical Robots Galore

At the BioRob 2008 Conference, in Arizona, researchers from around the world gathered to present robots with a wide range of abilities--from mimicking the strange properties of living systems to aiding health outside and inside the human body.

How NASA's Next Mars Rover Will Land

Watch this video to learn how the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), scheduled to launch in 2009, will land on the Martian surface. It is a completely new approach that, while being technically sophisticated, is also just plain cool.

Robot Mimics a Canine Helper

An assistive robot at Georgia Institute of Technology, called El-E, can open drawers, doors and even a microwave by grasping affixed towels, much in the same way a service dog would. El-E can also follow verbal commands, such as “tug it” or “tug it down.” An assistive robot like this could benefit those with disabilities or the elderly living at home.

Untangling Web Information

The Semantic Web organizer Twine offers bookmarking with built-in AI.

iTube

Why 23,201 people care that Justine Ezarik just ate a cookie.

Nuclear Deterrence in the Age of Nuclear Terrorism

Graham Allison, a professor of government at Harvard University and the director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government, talks about the threat of nuclear terrorism.

Fuel-Cell Power-Up

MIT professor of chemical engineering Paula Hammond explains the difference between fuel cells and batteries, how a fuel cell works, and why a methanol fuel cell in particular is useful. Through her work, she brings methanol fuel cells closer to use in practical applications, such as powering cell phones and laptops.

Linda Avey and Anne Wojcicki

Anne Wojcicki and Linda Avey, founders of the personal-genomics company 23andMe, talk about their goals for the company and the drive to personalize medicine.

The Brain Unveiled

This video combines different types of brain imaging to visualize a brain tumor in a female patient. Superimposed on a picture of the patient’s head are black and white images generated from traditional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) presented sequentially in three different axes: side to side, front to back, and top to bottom. The tumor is then shown in yellow in the left hemisphere of the brain. Scientists further analyzed the data collected from the MRI to map the network of nerve fibers in the brain, seen here as red, green, and purple fibers. Neurosurgeons use these maps during surgery to remove the tumor to avoid damaging fiber tracts that are linked to important brain functions.

Upwardly Mobile

India is the fastest-growing mobile communications market in the world. The rural poor are rapidly adopting phones, so the technology could become a platform for providing banking services. Sanjay Swamy, CEO of the mobile-payment platform mChek, talks about the potential.

A VC's Perspective on Mobile Banking in India

Mohanjit Jolly, executive director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, in India, describes how the country’s rural poor could improve their lives thanks to credit and banking services obtained via increasingly cheap mobile-phone services.

Dear Mr. President

Telescopes See Farther

This animation shows the Thirty Meter Observatory and telescope design, which will use advanced optics to peer deep into the early universe.

An Easier Upgrade to Holographic Storage

Watch Brian Lawrence, manager of GE’s Integrated Polymer Systems Lab, in Niskayuna, NY, discuss the history of recording media. He also explains how holographic storage discs are made and how data is written to them.

Sticky Nanotape

An adhesive made out of carbon nanotubes is structured like the surface of a gecko foot. It’s 10 times more adhesive, but still reusable, as demonstrated in this video.

Simpler Flexible Displays

This animated cartoon is projected by a 635-nanometer scanning laser at eight kilohertz onto a flexible plastic screen. Screens that fluoresce blue, green, and yellow-red could eventually be combined to create a full-color display.

Teaching Robots New Tricks

An autonomous helicopter performs a slew of tricks using a flight path based on video analysis of the maneuvers. The helicopter automatically adjusts its course during flight to account for changes in wind speed.

Craig Mundie's Cloud Vision

Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer discusses ways to transform personal computing.

Building a Self-Assembling Stomach-Bot

The team at ETH Zurich tested a single and double magnet setup to see which works better for robotic capsule self-assembly. The hope is to eventually construct a self-assembling, surgical robot that can investigate the intestines.

Stomach-Bot in Action

The modules stay securely linked by the magnets at the ends of the capsules.

A Helping Hand for Surgery

A tiny gripper that responds to chemical triggers could be a new tool for surgery.

Flybot Takes Wing

In its first flight, Robert Wood’s robotic fly mimics the wing motion of real insects to successfully take off. The tiny, flexible robotic parts are created with a novel fabrication technique.

How-To Hits the Web

Instructables CEO Eric Wilhelm discusses the philosophy behind the website, which allows people to describe their do-it-yourself projects step by step.

Presented By:

Electric Avenue

JB Straubel shows off the Roadster, Tesla Motors’ high-performance electric sports car, and discusses the future of electric vehicles.

Protecting the Heart

Surgical resident and bioengineer Bilal Shafi talks about heart failure and demonstrates how his new technology prevents it.

Making Graphene

Kostya Novoselov, a fellow at the University of Manchester, demonstrates his low-tech technique for making graphene in the lab.

Shared Searching

This brief demo highlights the features of SearchTogether that allow groups of people to more effectively share the work and the results of online information hunts.

Projector Tracking

In work that built on his doctoral dissertation, Johnny Lee, along with colleagues at Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, prototyped a projector system that could keep an image framed on a moving handheld screen.

Wii-mote for Whiteboards

Johnny Lee demonstrates how to build a low-cost digital whiteboard using the Nintendo Wii remote and an infrared-light emitter.

Simple Stem Cells

Konrad Hochedlinger describes the benefits of induced pluripotent stem cells and explains how he has improved their production.

Improving Imaging

Nicholas Fang explains how superlenses can enable scientists to use standard microscopes to view individual molecules inside living cells.

jack: presenting Twitter

CEO Jack Dorsey recounts the origins of his obsession with status updates and how it led to the birth of Twitter—and to original uses for microblogging.

Faster Flow

A comparison of the performance of an animated simulation of fluid flow on different processors highlights how much faster RapidMind can make programs run on both multicore processors and specialized processors, such as graphics chips.

People-aware computing

Tanzeem Choudhury demonstrates her wearable sensor platform and describes how software can analyze the data to provide valuable information about users’ activity patterns, social networks, and even health.

Dropping In

Drupal founder Dries Buytaert discusses how his vision and the open-source nature of the project benefit the content-management system.

Presented By:

An Intelligent Electric Grid

Peter L. Corsell, founder and CEO of GridPoint, talks about the problems inherent in today’s electric grid and describes how GridPoint’s technology improves the system’s efficiency, flexibility, and reliability.

A Growing Repertoire

Chen founded Thatgamecompany to create and market Zen game. Its first original title, Flower, will be released for Sony PlayStation 3 later this year.

Flight of Fancy

As a graduate student in interactive media at the University of Southern California, Chen used flow theory to create Cloud, an award-winning game that allows players to experience relaxing, meditative flight from a child’s perspective.

In-Box Revisited

A brief “tour” of Xobni highlights the features that make the Outlook plug-in so helpful.

Bomb Buster

Aimée Rose demonstrates one of the ultrasensitive, handheld explosives detectors that she helped to develop, first as a graduate student at MIT and then as a research scientist at ICx Technologies.

Doing the Dishes

In order to unload a dishwasher, STAIR determines on the fly how best to grasp unfamiliar objects.

Fetching Objects

Cued by a verbal command, the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Robot (STAIR) retrieves a stapler from an unfamiliar room.

Robotic Assistance

Stanford’s Andrew Ng explains his work to build a general-purpose household robot and demonstrates some of the prototype’s unique abilities.

How Obama Really Did It

Jascha Franklin-Hodge, cofounder and chief technology officer of Blue State Digital, describes how the company helped create and manage Barack Obama's highly successful online social network.

Does the U.S. Need a CTO?

Mitch Kapor explains why the country needs a CTO.

Intensifying the Sun

Jon Mapel, cofounder of Covalent Solar, explains how the solar-power company got its start and how its technology works.

Tesla Roadster

Tesla's chief technology officer, JB Straubel, discusses the technology behind the electric Roadster as he drives through San Carlos, CA.

Authenticity in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility

Do social technologies make us less sincere?

35 Innovators under 35

Jason Pontin, TR’s Editor in Chief, talks about selecting this year's winners and highlights a few.

A Secret Tool for the U.S. Swim Team

Swimmer Ariana Kukors presses her fingers into a device built to measure the force she generates with her freestyle kick. (She doesn't hold on to anything.) The red vertical line shows the amount of force at a point in time. Kukors's kick is strong and consistent, which is why the wave signal generally has the same amplitude throughout the recording.

Drawing Circuits with Nano Pens

Each white square is a polymer nano pen. When the pen tips make contact with a surface, the amount of light that they reflect increases, allowing for easy monitoring of the writing process.

The Brain Unmasked

This animation was generated from a normal human subject. It shows only the fibers that originate in a particular cross section of the brain. The blue arc in the middle of the brain is part of the cingulum bundle. Radiologists at Massachusetts General Hospital are beginning to use this method to examine their patients’ brain: it provides a quick way to scan through the entire set of data for abnormalities.

Sun + Water = Fuel

With catalysts created by an MIT chemist, sunlight can turn water into hydrogen. If the process can scale up, it could make solar power a dominant source of energy.

Controlling a Gut Bot's Position

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have made a swallowable capsule robot that they can anchor to specific spots in the gut. In the center of the capsule robot rests a leg; the transparent polymer elastomer footpad is visible. The footpads are covered with oil-coated micropillars that stick to tissue without damaging it.

Solar Sailing in Space

NASA’s Dean Alhorn, lead engineer for the NanoSail-D satellite, demonstrates how the spacecraft will deploy its solar sail in space.

A Musical Score for Disease

Gil Alterovitz, a research fellow at Harvard Medical School, translated populations of genes into musical notes. Each constellation (green) represents a key network of interrelated genes (blue). Each network is represented by a musical note. In healthy cells, the notes form music in harmony, indicating a healthy state. In cancer cells, the soundtrack veers out of harmony, signaling a transition from a healthy to a diseased state.

A Better Solar Collector

Jonathan Mapel, cofounder of Covalent Solar, based in Cambridge, MA, uses commonly available plastic sheets to illustrate how a new solar concentrator works. He then shows a prototype of the new solar concentrator, which features advanced dyes that make it highly efficient.

Digging a Smarter Crowd

Digg's new recommendation system relies on the wisdom of crowds.

Who Owns Your Friends?

Social-networking sites are fighting over control of users' personal information.

Your Medical Data Online

Google and Microsoft are offering rival programs that let people manage their own health information.

Stephen Quake on Sequencing

The bioengineer at Stanford University who cofounded HeliScope Biosciences talks about the company’s novel machine for sequencing and its implications.

Brain Games

Do new controllers that purport to interpret brain activity really work?

Single Molecule Sequencing

A look at how HeliScope Biosciences sequences a single molecule of DNA.

A Messy Art

A neurosurgeon explains how she manages to cope with the newest technologies for brain surgery.

Home Tweet Home

A look at Twitter's offices days before they prepared for a move to a more grown-up space.

The Next Bubble

Are Web 2.0 companies the unlucky beneficiaries of a speculative mania?

More-Powerful Fuel Cells

A cheap polymer material increases the power output of methanol fuel cells by 50 percent.

Jennifer Chayes

The director of the new Massachusetts-based Microsoft Research lab wants to use mathematics to design better search engines, recommendation systems, and online auctions.

The Making of a New Collider

The biggest physics experiment ever, CERN's new particle accelerator, goes live this summer.

Taking Apart the Livescribe Pulse

See the inner workings of the Livescribe Pulse, a computerized pen that gives handwritten notes audio support.

An Electrifying Startup

A new lithium-ion battery from A123 Systems could help electric cars and hybrids come to dominate the roads.

Brain Trauma in Iraq

Thousands of U.S. soldiers have survived powerful explosions in Iraq. Many are returning home with brain injuries that could result in long-term disabilities.

Creating a Heart

An ingenious method for making new organs could one day revolutionize medical transplants.

Una Laptop por Niño

The philanthropic effort dubbed the $100 Laptop has not met its grand initial goals. But its first deployment, in Peru, may turn skeptics into believers.

The Heroic Age

On the natural philosophy of elementary particles.

Expandable Silicon

A new chip design could lead to far cheaper large-area electronics.

Microsoft's Shiny New Toy

Photosynth is still a work in progress. It is dazzling, but what is it for?

Art Games

Digital artists are using game technologies to create bold new works.

TR10: Modeling Surprise

Combining massive quantities of data, insights into human psychology, and machine learning can help manage surprising events, says Eric Horvitz.

TR10: Probabilistic Chips

Krishna Palem thinks a little uncertainty in chips could extend battery life in mobile devices--and maybe the duration of Moore's Law, too.

TR10: Offline Web Applications

Adobe's Kevin Lynch believes that computing applications will become more powerful when they take advantage of the browser and the desktop.

Amazon Kindle

The online giant hopes it's created the ipod of digital books.

TR10: Reality Mining

Sandy Pentland is using data gathered by cell phones to learn about human behavior.

TR10: NanoRadio

Alex Zettl's tiny radios, built from nanotubes, could improve everything from cell phones to medical diagnostics.

Ethanol from Garbage and Old Tires

A versatile new process for making biofuels could slash their cost.

TR10: Cellulolytic Enzymes

Frances Arnold is designing better enzymes for making biofuels from cellulose.

TR10: NanoRadio

Alex Zettl's tiny radios, built from nanotubes, could improve everything from cell phones to medical diagnostics.

TR10: Graphene Transistors

A new form of carbon being pioneered by Walter de Heer of Georgia Tech could lead to speedy, compact computer processors.

TR10: Connectomics

Jeff Lichtman hopes to elucidate brain development and disease with new technologies that illuminate the web of neural circuits.

TR10: Atomic Magnetometers

John Kitching's tiny magnetic-field sensors will take MRI where it's never gone before.

TR10: Wireless Power

Physicist Marin Soljacic is working toward a world of wireless electricity.

TR10: Graphene Transistors

A new form of carbon being pioneered by Walter de Heer of Georgia Tech could lead to speedy, compact computer processors.

TR10: Modeling Surprise

Combining massive quantities of data, insights into human psychology, and machine learning can help manage surprising events, says Eric Horvitz.

TR10: Probabilistic Chips

Krishna Palem thinks a little uncertainty in chips could extend battery life in mobile devices--and maybe the duration of Moore's Law, too.

TR10: NanoRadio

Alex Zettl's tiny radios, built from nanotubes, could improve everything from cell phones to medical diagnostics.

TR10: Wireless Power

Physicist Marin Soljacic is working toward a world of wireless electricity.

TR10: Atomic Magnetometers

John Kitching's tiny magnetic-field sensors will take MRI where it's never gone before.

TR10: Offline Web Applications

Adobe's Kevin Lynch believes that computing applications will become more powerful when they take advantage of the browser and the desktop.

TR10: Graphene Transistors

A new form of carbon being pioneered by Walter de Heer of Georgia Tech could lead to speedy, compact computer processors.

TR10: Connectomics

Jeff Lichtman hopes to elucidate brain development and disease with new technologies that illuminate the web of neural circuits.

TR10: Reality Mining

Sandy Pentland is using data gathered by cell phones to learn about human behavior.

TR10: Cellulolytic Enzymes

Frances Arnold is designing better enzymes for making biofuels from cellulose.

How to Stay Young

The easy part is understanding a new technology; what's harder is to think creatively about it.

The Next Generation of iPhone Hacks

Apple's plan to release a software kit that lets people create legitimate add-ons for the iPhone could make the device appeal to an even wider audience.

Knee Power

A new human-powered generator tries to capture walking energy.

Large-Scale Rewritable Holograms

A new material allows researchers to write and erase 3-D images for displays.

Electromagnetic Railgun Blasts Off

A supersonic bullet is fired with a record-breaking 10 megajoules of muzzle energy.

Growing New Hearts from Old

Donor hearts could make good scaffolding for new organs.

The Building, Digitally Remastered

In this era, the rectilinear glass box has become a quaint relic of the predigital past.

The Geography of Innovation

The global culture of valuable, fresh thinking.

No More Thumbprints

New chemistry and microsurfaces have led to super oil-repellent materials that are self-cleaning.

Superstrong Carbon-Nanotube Fibers

A new process could make nanotube fibers that are strong enough to stop bullets.

A Wiring Diagram of the Brain

The emerging field of connectomics could help researchers decode the brain's approach to information processing.

Twitter and Ambient Intimacy

How Evan Williams helped create the new social medium of microblogging.

Glue That Sticks to Nearly Everything

For an easy-to-make adhesive inspired by mussels, possible applications abound.

Oppenheimer's Ghost

Can we control the evolution and uses of technology?

Intelligent, Chatty Machines

A startup hopes to help computers have meaningful conversations with people.

A New Perspective on the Virtual World

A startup hopes to compete with Google Earth by building a more natural world.

A New Type of Molecular Switch

IBM researchers report a potential breakthrough in molecular electronics.

Harvesting Power from the Ocean

A new technology could generate electricity from waves.

2007 TR35: Innovator of the Year

David Berry at Flagship Ventures is creating genetically engineered organisms that make biofuels.

Body Parts, New and Improved

Amputee athletes are getting faster and stronger.

Whom Should We Reward?

Innovations in technology and science have many authors, although only a few are recognized.

Lithium-Ion Motorcycles

Better batteries are making electric motorcycles possible, providing a cleaner alternative to pollution-spewing gas-powered bikes.

Making Colors with Magnets

A new nanomaterial could lead to novel types of displays.

A Virtually New Web

The collision of virtual reality and mapping brings excitement to cyberspace.

New Batteries Readied for GM's Electric Vehicle

The technologies behind the battery packs for the GM Volt are being tested and could be ready within a year.

Soul of a New Mobile Machine

From conception to buzz, from three-way spring to soft-touch paint: inside the design of a multimedia communications gadget.

Soul of a New Mobile Machine

From conception to buzz, from three-way spring to soft-touch paint: inside the design of a multimedia communications gadget.

On Beautiful Machines

Well-designed technologies are minimally complicated.

A Smarter Web

New technologies will make online search more intelligent--and may even lead to a "Web 3.0."

On Science Fiction

How it influences the imaginations of technologists.

Printing without Ink

Startup ZINK Imaging is giving inkless printing a new look.

Touch Screens for Many Fingers

Researchers have bigger plans for multi-touch screens than the novel interface on Apple's iPhone.

The Alchemist

A chef in Chicago wants to blow your mind

On Rules

Strict and simple conventions favor the useful expression of ideas

Philanthropy's New Prototype

The cofounder of MIT's Media Lab, Nicholas Negroponte, wants to make $100 laptops available to poor children throughout the world. The next few months will be critical in determining whether the One Laptop per Child project succeeds.

In Praise of Print

Where traditional magazines are better than the web.

The Art of the Possible

Can Eric Bonabeau's Hunch Engine expand your mind?

10 Ways to Think about Innovation

What successful young technologists know

It's Not Too Late

The Alternative

Catastrophic climate change is not inevitable. We possess the technologies that could forestall global warming. Why can't we use them?

Stem Cells Reborn

In the wake of scientific fraud in South Korea, researchers are renewing their race to clone stem cells.

Technology Review : Video

Bendable Magnetic Interface

Making 3D Maps on the Move

Biodegradable Transistors

Helping Hands

A Robotic Gait Corrector

Robo-Rehab for MRIs

Sequencing Price Drops Even Lower

Stealthy Nanoparticles Attack Cancer Cells

Testing Cheap Wind Power

Muscle-Computer Interface Meets Microsoft’s Surface

Muscle-Bound Computer Interface

Microsoft's Many Multitouch Mice

Micro-vehicle Imitates the Winged Maple Seed

Faster Maintenance with Augmented Reality

Tiny Devices Use Light to Grab Cells

A 3D Video of the Embryonic Heartbeat

Redirecting Motion in Augmented Reality

Bringing Books to Life

Tracking Multiple Objects in Augmented Reality

Ghosts in the Machine

White Matter

Brain Imaging and IQ

Mining Fool's Gold for Solar

Apollo's Rocket Scientists

Tagging the World

Robofish

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LOLrioKart Tour

The LOLrioKart

Falling, Unwinding, Cascading

Prescription: Networking

Health-Care IT: The Economic Perspective

Demonstrating Health-Care Networking

Making Heart Muscle

The Marcellus Shale Gas Rush

How to (Rapidly) Move a Drilling Rig

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Drilling for Shale Gas

Novel Chip for Monitoring Breast Cancer

Light-Switched Drug Delivery

How to Deliver Online Gaming, Minus the Lag

Flexible Robotic Hand Shows Off Dexterity

A Simpler, Gentler Robotic Grip

GE's Risky Energy Research

Laser-Triggered Chemical Reactions

NASA Road-Tests New Moon Rover

Color-Blind Monkeys Get Full Color Vision

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The Future of Solar

Improving Solar Cell Efficiency

Solar Lab Tour

A Turing Test for Computer Game Bots

Cleaner Weed Eaters

Changing A Cell's Biological Battery

TR35: James Carey

TR35: Andrea Thomaz

Bone-setting Glue

On Openness

When Buffy Met Her Vampire Match

TR35: Jorge Conde

TR35: Andrew Perlman

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TR35: Jeffrey Bigham

TR35: Cody Friesen

TR35: Pranav Mistry

TR35: Michelle Khine

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TR35: Shahram Izadi

The Electric Acid Test

Making Video as Easy to Edit as Text

TR35: José Gómez-Márquez

TR35: Adrien Treuille

A Touch of Ingenuity

Digital Info on the Real World

TR35: Kevin Fu

Rogue Pharmacies Dominate Bing's Ads

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Crowdsourcing Closer Government Scrutiny

Looking Back, Hopping Forward