A team led by University of Minnesota researchers and undergraduate students is constructing two sets of extremely fast telescopes that will enable more detailed studying of gravitational waves and light created by colliding black holes and neutron stars. The telescopes will be able to scan the sky more than 10 times faster than the average telescope.
An interdisciplinary team of University of Minnesota scientists and engineers has developed a first-of-its-kind, plant-inspired extrusion process that enables synthetic material growth. The new approach will allow researchers to build better soft robots that can navigate hard-to-reach places, complicated terrain and potentially areas within the human body.
According to the Lupus Foundation of America, about 1.5 million Americans have a form of lupus. Light sensitivity is common in people with lupus, and many find that their disease is made worse by exposure to sunlight or even artificial light indoors. The symptoms of these flare ups for patients with lupus include rashes, joint pain and fatigue.
The University of Minnesota Twin Cities is one of only a few select institutions awarded two U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs).
A University of Minnesota Twin Cities-led team has found that electrical stimulation of the body combined with sound activates the brain’s somatosensory or “tactile” cortex, increasing the potential for using the technique to treat chronic pain and other sensory disorders. The researchers tested the non-invasive technique on animals and are planning clinical trials on humans in the near future.
