Tech

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- Computing
‘Couch potatoes’ tend to be TV-energy hogs
Many government programs urge people to save electricity by using more efficient TVs. Here’s why these programs should target “couch potatoes.”
- Tech
Helping MS patients get a grip on things
An Irish teen has invented a device that helps people with multiple sclerosis address the “clenched fist” symptom that afflicts most such patients.
By Sid Perkins - Tech
Teen offers technology that could help brain surgeons
It can reproduce plastic models of the precise faulty vessels that need fixing. Now doctors can see them, hold them and practice on them long before they pick up a scalpel.
By Sid Perkins - Tech
Where did that turbine blade get smacked?
A new technique can help engineers figure out where a bird or other object collided with a wind turbine or other whirling blade.
By Sid Perkins - Tech
Control a computer with your tongue
Thousands of severely paralyzed people could venture into cyberspace with the use of this new tongue-controlled computer mouse. It was developed by a teen.
By Sid Perkins - Tech
Teens invent way to keep floodwaters out of subways
Two New York teens have designed an inexpensive subway grate to block floodwaters from getting into subway tunnels.
By Sid Perkins - Materials Science
Nanowires could lead to super-long-lived battery
Scientists have long been looking for ways to make rechargeable batteries that last forever. They now may be close. Their solution: gel-dipped nanowires.
By Lela Nargi - Health & Medicine
Teens take home huge awards for their research
Top three prizes — adding up to $175,000 — are a small fraction of the approximately $4 million just handed out at the 2016 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
By Sid Perkins - Health & Medicine
Injured leg? Here’s a built-in footstool
Sometimes doctors advise people to keep a leg elevated, but there’s no footstool to rest it on. A teen designed a brace with a built-in kickstand.
By Sid Perkins - Tech
New device identifies money by its color
Two teens have invented a gadget that can help the blind identify the value of a banknote based on its color.
By Sid Perkins - Computing
DNA can now store images, video and other types of data
Tiny test tubes might one day replace sprawling data-storage centers, thanks to a new way to encode and retrieve information on strands of synthetic DNA.
- Tech
How to make window ‘glass’ from wood
Scientists have come up with a way to make wood transparent. The new material could be used in everything from windows to packaging.
By Sid Perkins