Melanie Martella

Earlier this month, I sat listening to the Dr. Hugh Herr of the MIT Media Lab as he delivered his Sensors Expo keynote, "The New Era of Human 2.0: New Minds, New Bodies, New Identities," talking about the ways in which we are merging bodies and machines. I found his talk amazing and inspiring and...more >>

Another Sensors Expo, which means another raft of intriguing and amazing new products. This year's Best of Sensors Expo Awards involved a host of new-to-us companies and introduced us to some great new products that met our judging criteria: is it unique, or at least markedly different from what's...more >>

A wireless radiation sensor network, a 3D Hall sensor, chemical sensors that can be embedded, and amazing DA systems: Meet the winners of this year's awards!

June is upon us! This month's intriguing research and development stories include a fully functional lab in a can for ocean and water quality research, stretchy pressure sensors, and a solar-powered nanosensor for pollution research.

On Wednesday NASA announced that they're stopping their efforts to contact the now-silent Mars rover Spirit and declaring that the plucky little rover's mission is completed. But what a wild and amazing trip its been;...more >>

In 2008, the Freedonia Group evaluated the chemical sensors market and predicted that US demand would top $5 billion in 2012. A more recent study from BCC Research predicts that the global sensor and biosensor market is expected to be worth $13 billion in 2011 and $21 billion in 2016. In other...more >>

This month we've got a wireless sensor network that monitors the health and stability of shelving systems in warehouses, sensors that can detect a smoker's motions to track how often they're smoking, and terahertz wave detectors developed for astronomical research but that could be used for a range...more >>

I don't know what's happening with the weather where you are, but up here in the woods of Southern NH, Spring has been…quirky, shall we say. On Saturday we had enough snow to make driving exciting in all kinds of bad ways and then on Wednesday we had temperatures in the 70s. But I can't really...more >>

Was it really only a year ago that the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig went boom? Amazingly, it is. But the lessons learned, and the technologies deployed during the oil spill persist, giving us a better understanding of how the oceans function and better tools to predict how future spills may...more >>

Although my commute typically consists of a trip down the stairs and through the kitchen, I am continually fascinated by the tools that exist to help commuters make their daily slog to the office even a smidge less painful. Easing traffic congestion decreases gas consumption and pollution and I'd...more >>