TECH SPACE - AFRICA DAILY

MIT chemists characterize a chemical state thought to be unobservable

Dec 14, 2015 (SPX)

For the first time, MIT chemists have measured the energy of the transition state of a chemical reaction - a fleeting, unstable state that is a reaction's point...

A sticky breakthrough makes for practical underwater glue

Dec 12, 2015 (SPX)

In an important step toward creating a practical underwater glue, researchers at UC Santa Barbara have designed a synthetic material that combines the key funct...

NASA tests ICESat-2's laser aim

Dec 11, 2015 (SPX)

Close enough doesn't cut it in the spacecraft assembly cleanroom at NASA Goddard's Space Flight Center, where engineers are building an elevation-measuring inst...

'Al dente' fibers could make bulletproof vests stronger and 'greener'

Dec 11, 2015 (SPX)

Bulletproof vests and other super-strong materials could soon become even tougher and more environmentally friendly at the same time with the help of extra firm...

On-the-go ultrahigh vacuum storage systems

Dec 11, 2015 (SPX)

The train to Tsukuba, Japan often carries workers with briefcases and travelers with overnight bags, but recently a group of scientists took an unusual bit of l...

Colombian eco-designer finds beauty in trash

Dec 11, 2015 (AFP)

Adriana Restrepo has a lot of experience searching for silver linings. The Colombian fashion designer and environmentalist was a pregnant 18-year-old when drug ...

New understanding of how shape and form develop in nature

Dec 11, 2015 (SPX)

Researchers have developed a new method for generating complex shapes, and have found that the development of form in nature can be driven by the physical prope...

EDRS-A and its laser are ready to fly

Dec 10, 2015 (ESA)

After a year-long wait in storage for a Proton rocket to become available, the EDRS-A laser communications payload and its Eutelsat host satellite are finally a...

Raytheon's ANY/TPY-2 radar supports SM-3 in intercept test

Dec 10, 2015 (UPI)

A Raytheon-built Standard Missile-3 Block IB with support by AN/TPY-2 radar was used to destroy a ballistic missile target in a test by the Missile Defense Agen...

Penn researchers make thinnest plates that can be picked up by hand

Dec 09, 2015 (SPX)

Scientists and engineers are engaged in a global race to make new materials that are as thin, light and strong as possible. These properties can be achieved by ...

Russia's Kanopus-ST Research Satellite Deorbited, Heading to Earth

Dec 08, 2015 (Sputnik)

The deorbiting of the Russian Kanopus-ST remote sensing satellite for ocean and weather research is currently underway, a space industries source said Monday. T...

Space Debris - A Growth Industry?

Dec 08, 2015 (SPX)

Early in 2015, an expired military weather satellite, Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Flight 13, exploded in a sun synchronous orbit. The offici...

Conductor turned insulator amid disorder

Dec 08, 2015 (SPX)

Some materials that are inherently disordered display unusual conductivity, sometimes behaving like insulators and sometimes like conductors. Physicists have no...

Cambridge Pixel provides Korean air bases with radar trackers

Dec 08, 2015 (UPI)

Cambridge Pixel has supplied Hanwha Thales Corporation with radar trackers to be used at air force bases for the Republic of Korea. The trackers will enhance th...

In-Space Manufacturing Prototype

Dec 07, 2015 (SPX)

Magna Parva has produced a prototype in-orbit manufacturing system that should provide a method of producing huge carbon composite 3D structures in space. A pro...

World's tiniest temperature sensor can track movement from inside cement

Dec 07, 2015 (UPI)

Researchers in the Netherlands have developed a tiny wireless temperature sensor powered by radio waves. The technology, still in its infancy, could one day pow...

Researchers discover mother of pearl production process

Dec 07, 2015 (UPI)

Researchers at Cornell University have uncovered the process by which mollusks make nacre, also known as "mother of pearl." Materials scientists say they can us...

Seeking a new generation of light-based sensing systems

Dec 06, 2015 (SPX)

Find a way to replace a large, heavy and expensive technology with an equivalent one that's a lot smaller, lighter and cheaper and you have a shot at turning a ...

Tiny octopods catalyze bright ideas

Dec 04, 2015 (SPX)

Nanoscale octopods that do double duty as catalysts and plasmonic sensors are lighting a path toward more efficient industrial processes, according to a Rice Un...

Liquid foam: Plastic, elastic and fluid

Dec 04, 2015 (SPX)

What differentiates complex fluids from mere fluids? What makes them unique is that they are neither solid nor liquid. Among such complex fluids are foams. They...