Communicating With Light

Visible Light Communication (VLC) is emerging as a potential broadband transmission technology that may offer an unlimited bandwidth spectrum for high-quality wireless services. The Center for Lighting Enabled Systems & Applications at Rensselaer has developed the world’s first high-speed visible-light transmission link with a fully integrated microchip receiver.  

Jefferson Project — Nature By Numbers

Zooplankton, the smallest animals in the food chain, are critical to the ecology of lakes like Lake George. But studying them in the wild – by measuring biomass, species composition, behavior, and diet – is a challenge. How do you track a borderline microscopic animal in the vast volume of water (an estimated 550 billion […]

Nano-Decoy Lures Human Influenza A Virus to its Doom

To infect its victims, influenza A heads for the lungs, where it latches onto sialic acid on the surface of cells. So researchers created the perfect decoy: A carefully constructed spherical nanoparticle coated in sialic acid lures the influenza A virus to its doom.

Addressing Complex Global Challenges Through Multidisciplinary Collaboration: School of Engineering Reflects on NASA Juno Mission and Role of Research Center in the Modern Rensselaer Experience

This summer, on July 4, all eyes were up in space as Juno successfully entered into orbit around Jupiter, where it was scheduled to perform measurements and transmit the data back to Earth. The environment there has very high levels of radiation, and thus the instruments on Jupiter were designed to withstand these radiation levels, […]

Measuring the Forces of Biology

Biology, at the nitty-gritty level of motor proteins, DNA, and microtubules, takes its cue from physics. But while much is known about the biological components that form such cellular stuctures, researchers like Scott Forth are only beginning to explore the physical forces between those components. 

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