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The graphene temporary tattoo seen here is the thinnest epidermal electronic device ever and according to the University of Texas at Austin researchers who developed it, the device can take some medical measurements as accurately as bulky wearable sensors like EKG monitors. From IEEE Spectrum:

Graphene’s conformity to the skin might be what enables the high-quality measurements. Air gaps between the skin and the relatively large, rigid electrodes used in conventional medical devices degrade these instruments’ signal quality. Newer sensors that stick to the skin and stretch and wrinkle with it have fewer airgaps, but because they’re still a few micrometers thick, and use gold electrodes hundreds of nanometers thick, they can lose contact with the skin when it wrinkles. The graphene in the Texas researchers’ device is 0.3-nm thick. Most of the tattoo’s bulk comes from the 463-nm-thick polymer support.

The next step is to add an antenna to the design so that signals can be beamed off the device to a phone or computer, says (electrical engineer Deji) Akinwande.

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Spinali Design’s line of clothing can be paired with a phone move alerts from the device to your body.

Hoverboards and certain cell phones powered by lithium-ion batteries occasionally go up in flames. Scientists now have a new plan for squelching these fires before they flare out of control: incorporating a flame retardant in the battery that’s released if temperatures get too toasty.

Within lithium-ion batteries, ions travel between positive and negative electrodes through a liquid called an electrolyte. But commonly used electrolytes are highly flammable. And if a short circuit in the battery produces enough heat, the electrolyte can ignite.

Source: New ‘smart’ fibers curb fires in lithium-ion batteries | Science News.

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Electrons might one day identify everything from stress to schizophrenia.

In a mobile-first, cloud-first world, conversing with a computer through your smartphone may be the best way to communicate. Microsoft’s research is heading that way.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 exploding battery fiasco has stirred major concerns whether smartphone batteries are really safe. In an effort to prevent these disasters from happening, a group of Stanford scientists have developed a lithium-ion battery pack, which includes a capsule filled with triphenyl phosphate (TPP). Once the battery’s internal temperature reaches a certain point, the capsule will melt releasing the TPP and extinguishing the fire.

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The team working on the project found out that TPP is a type of chemical-fire retardant. The chemical is capable of extinguishing an exploding battery in just 0.4 seconds, according to 9to5Google. The team also set the temperature threshold at 302 degrees Fahrenheit, at that point, the capsule will melt releasing the TPP chemical.

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It was not so long ago that sequencing even tiny snippets of DNA was a costly, cumbersome process that required access to a state-the-art lab. Today, we are inching close to putting a DNA sequencer in every pocket.

http://aubot.com/

Teleport is a telepresence robot that can be used by people with a disability to attend school or work remotely. It can be controlled using an internet browser, Android phone, and now brain control.

Very cool.

Scientists have developed a new 5D technique for analysing images, an advance that may make it easier to quickly find tell-tale signs of diseases from pictures taken using cell phones. Called “Hyper-Spectral Phasor” analysis, or HySP, it is much faster and far less expensive than current techniques, and may be useful for diagnosing and monitoring diseases by using cell phone images, researchers said.

Through the new imaging technology, researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) in the US have used fluorescent imaging to locate proteins and other molecules in cells and tissues. It works by tagging the molecules with dyes that glow under certain kinds of light – the same principle behind so-called “black light” images.

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