New Atlas

Electronics Audio available

Pocket scanner blasts food with infrared light to determine its freshness

David Szondy January 3, 2019

Every year, millions of tonnes of perfectly good food are wasted around the world because people aren't sure it's still fresh. To cut down on this, researchers at Fraunhofer are developing an infrared pocket scanner that will let food handlers determine if a food item has gone bad.

A pocket scanner under development at Fraunhofer relies infrared light to determine the freshness of food

Medical

Flexible device measures blood oxygen levels on any body part

Ben Coxworth November 8, 2018

Currently, if you want to measure someone's blood oxygen levels, you have to use an oximeter that clips onto their finger. An experimental new system, however, is able to check those levels anywhere on the body – and that could mean big things for the field of medicine.

The new oximeter flexes to conform to the contours of the patient's body

Environment Audio available

The Ocean Cleanup picks out marine plastics using infrared from air

Nick Lavars September 25, 2018

The Ocean Cleanup project has been experimenting with a new technique to fill in some of the blanks and has, what it says, is the first proof of concept for using a form of infrared imagery to quantify marine plastic pollution.

The Ocean Cleanup carried out an aerial survey of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 2016

Around The Home

PanPerfect keeps an infrared eye on hot pans

Ben Coxworth September 12, 2018

When it comes to cooking in your oven, you simply set the temperature to the exact number required. For stove-top cooking, though, you have to estimate if the saucepan is at more or less the right temperature. PanPerfect offers a way of knowing exactly how hot it is.

PanPerfect can reportedly read pan temperatures up to 300 ºC (572 ºF)

Space

Water discovered hidden deep beneath Jupiter's Great Red Spot

Anthony Wood September 5, 2018

Scientists may have discovered large amounts of water hidden deep beneath the surface of Jupiter’s famous Great Red Spot. The discovery, which was made using ground-based telescopes, opens up the possibility that extremophile lifeforms could exist in the atmosphere of the enigmatic gas giant.

Space

VISTA gazes through the Carina Nebula's dusty veil

Anthony Wood August 29, 2018

The ESO's VISTA telescope has captured a breath-taking view of the Carina Nebula – one of the Milky Way’s largest star-forming regions. The image reveals the complexity of the nebula hidden behind its dusty shroud, and showcases some of the most massive and brightest stars in our galaxy.

The Carina Nebula captured in infrared light by the ESO's VISTA telescope

Space

Infrared images peek through the clouds of Saturn's mysterious moon Titan

Michael Irving July 19, 2018

Saturn’s moon Titan is one of the most interesting bodies in the solar system – but at a glance it looks like a dull yellow ball, thanks to a soupy atmosphere. Now, using 13 years’ worth of infrared data from Cassini, astronomers have stitched together the clearest images yet of Titan’s surface.

NASA has released six new infrared images of Saturn's moon Titan, which show off some of ...

Around The Home

Brava countertop oven cooks with visible and infrared light

Michael Irving July 10, 2018

A company called Brava is launching a countertop oven that cooks food quickly and thoroughly using visible and infrared light, and if you cut through the marketing faff it looks like there might just be a useful product hiding under there.

Brava also offers a premium subscription service where users can order ingredients, meal kits and recipes ...

Science

Thermal camouflage material will hide your heat

Ben Coxworth June 27, 2018

In the movie "Predator," Arnold Schwarzenegger hid from an alien's night vision system by covering himself in mud. He might have found things much easier, however, if he'd had access to a newly-developed thermal camouflage material.

A piece of the material (blue square) masks the thermal signature of a human hand

Materials

Ultrathin "stealth sheet" can hide and fake heat signatures

Michael Irving June 25, 2018

Metamaterials that cloak people and objects from radar, visible light or infrared are usually thick and heavy, but now engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed an ultrathin, lightweight sheet that absorbs heat signatures and can even present false ones.

Engineers have developed an ultrathin, lightweight "stealth sheet" that can effectively hide objects and people from ...