Sweat: We all do it. It plays an essential role in controlling body temperature by cooling the skin through evaporation. But it can also carry salts and other molecules out of the body in the pro...
The race for Mars is on. NASA hopes to land the first Martian in the next decade, and the agency’s not alone: The China National Space Administration, Indian Space Research Organization, and Ru...
This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore. A tiny sensor could one day be placed next to tumors to monitor patients’ responses to cancer...
The potential use cases for smart contacts are compelling and varied. Pop a lens on your eye and monitor health metrics like glucose levels; receive targeted drug delivery for ocular diseases; e...
A wireless, chipless prototype biosensor offers the prospect of simple, wearable tech that can continuously monitor blood-sugar levels and other biochemical and physiological markers. The system ...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/biosensors-chipless-batteryless-wireless
To gain a better understanding of the brain, why not draw inspiration from it? At least, that’s what researchers at Brown University did, by building a wireless communications system that mimic...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/brain-machine-interface-2667619198
Nearly all implantable medical devices, such as pacemakers and neurostimulators , are limited by the capacity of their onboard batteries. To avoid the need for invasive surgery to replace these ...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical-implants-battery-oxygen
For many, an inability to speak is a significant issue: A 2014 study of vocal disorders in the U.S. found that nearly 18 million adults had difficulty using their vocal tracts to speak, while ov...
Exosuits—worn assistive frames that help users move their bodies—represent a promising technology that still has big challenges ahead. Not least of which is the fatigue problem. Specifically,...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/functional-electrical-stimulation-exosuit-project
On 21 March, an advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave its unanimous blessing to a piece of wearable technology that alleviates symptoms of the progressive eye disease glauc...
Although recent finding s have poured cold water on quantum computing hype, don’t count the technology out yet. On 4 March, Google and XPrize announced a US $5 million prize to anyone who co...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/what-are-quantum-computers-used-for
Applying electricity for a few seconds to a soft material, such as a slice of raw tomato or chicken, can strongly bond it to a hard object, such as a graphite slab, without any tape or glue, a ne...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/electroadhesion-for-better-implants
Newly developed intrinsically stretchable circuits are thousands of times as fast as and possess 20 times as many transistors as previous intrinsically stretchable electronics. The researchers at...
A STARTLING CHANGE IN medical ultrasound is working its way through hospitals and physicians’ offices. The long-standing, state-of-the-art ultrasound machine that’s pushed around on a cart, ...
When 11 University of Chicago researchers reported that they had installed and tested their laser-driven pacemaker in a live animal, their Nature paper laid claim only to “the first minimally ...
Scientists in China have developed a thin, flexible sticker that can turn subtle hand, finger, and mouth motions into words or commands. The new wearable sensor, developed by researchers at the G...
This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore. Around the world, many pets and working animals are microchipped. It’s a simple process: A t...
A new ultra-energy-efficient tiny laser on a chip could enable powerful medical sensors to fit within a phone, new research finds. The new device is a kind of frequency comb —a specialized la...
A flicker of light and a buzz of sound may hold the key to combating Alzheimer’s disease—and a new study in mice offers insights into how this unconventional therapy might work in humans. T...
HOW MUCH THOUGHT DO you give to where you keep your bits? Every day we produce more data, including emails, texts, photos, and social media posts. Though much of this content is forgettable, eve...
Feeling warmth or its brisk absence on the fingertips or hand can all too easily be taken for granted. Of course, most upper-limb-amputee wearers of prosthetic arms and hands cannot access those...
In neuroscience—as in geography, genomics, and plenty else—it’s hard to navigate without a good map. Recent advances in brain mapping technologies have enabled scientists to create larger ...
ELIZA STRICKLAND: Hi, I’m Eliza Strickland for IEEE Spectrum‘s Fixing the Future podcast. Before we start, I want to tell you that you can get the latest coverage from some of Spectrum‘s ...
DNA, as a data-storage medium, is useful only when read, copied, and sent out elsewhere. The medium for conveying genetic information out of a cell’s nuclei is RNA —transcribed from DNA, whic...
Gone are the days of humdrum fibers that do nothing beyond holding together the clothes we wear and bags we carry. In a paper published on 3 January in Science Advances, researchers from Purdue ...
This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore. As climate change causes many regions of the world to dry up, smart agriculture is one means to...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/smart-agriculture-crop-moisture-sensor
Until recently, there were only two operational U.S. particle accelerators capable of producing electron beams with energies of 10 billion electron volts or more, machines that are both roughly ...
As health care wearables for various medical conditions and situations proliferate, patients inevitably want their wearable tech as inconspicuous and worry free as possible. As a case in point, c...
To build a better battery, you might start by improving the materials inside. Researchers often do that by first inspecting new materials and chemicals with high-powered X-rays from a synchrotr...
Rebecca Richards-Kortum has spent most of her 30-year career developing technology to help improve medical care in underserved communities worldwide. Among her achievements: She invented an ine...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/rice-university-cancer-detection-technology