Fresh Science

We have surprisingly little understanding of how much our sense of touch contributes to our everyday lives, but Sydney biomedical engineer Dr Heba Khamis has discovered a way to interpret the language of touch. “We can pick a grape without squashing it or hold an egg without crushing it and we can use heavy tools,…

Airlines and their passengers may both breathe a little easier thanks to a Sydney scientist’s discovery of how to increase cabin airflow without increasing cost. Chaofan Wu, a PhD student at the University of NSW, has developed a ventilation system that improves airflow in airplane cabins by 10 per cent without consuming more fuel and…

A Sydney scientist has created the world’s smallest metallic wire, which is 100,000 times shorter than the width of a hair. Dr Alex Donald, of the University of New South Wales, manipulated five silver atoms into a zigzag-shaped metal wire, overcoming previous difficulties of creating anything smaller than one-billionth of a metre. “Scientists can already…

A new method may improve the safety inspection techniques for structures such as buildings, aeroplanes, bridges and ships, a Sydney mechanical engineer says. Ummul Baneen, of the University of New South Wales, has found a way to suppress the noise associated with damage detection techniques, allowing for better identification of unknown edge cracks and delaminations.…