Engineering New Technology, November 2009

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are continuing work on “arrays of transistors made on thin films of silk.”

The advantage is that these “flexible silicon electronics on silk substrates” can conform with biological tissue. The group summarizes, it is “developing silk-silicon LEDs that might act as photonic tatoos that can show blood-sugar readings, as well as arrays of conformable electrodes that might interface with he nervous system.”
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Accelerators, small devices that measure motion, are very common in today’s cell phones and computers. Researchers at Caltech would like to use data from the accelerators to “give seismic experts a better picture of earthquakes and the faults that cause them.”

The National Science Foundation has awarded a grant to the researchers to create a program from data that would be collected. The ‘test accelerometers’ are quarter-sized and could help engineers measure earthquakes block-by-block and in buildings. Read full article

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Refrigerated display cases have long been a challenge for designers trying to maximize food temperature and minimize energy costs.

A researcher at Kettering University has discovered a way to do both. By reducing the velocity of air circulating in display units, Homayun Navaz has “reduced infiltration by 12 percent and reduced the power required by 13 percent.”

Navaz predicts more improvements in energy efficiency to come. Read more

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