Electronic circuits are usually built on brittle semiconductors or glass, but the next generation will be as flexible as a rubber band. Scientists at the University of Illinois printed lines of silicon 1/500 as thick as a human hair onto a flexible sheet of plastic that can be stretched or compressed like an accordion. Within five years, the elastic circuit board could be used to make electrodes that would be placed directly on the brain to study epilepsy or sensor-lined gloves that would supply doctors with better tactile feedback during surgery.rnNASA will get the closest look ever at the hottest object in our solar system when it launches its Solar Probe mission in 2015. The Solar Probe will collect data on the streams of particles ejected from the sun to better forecast when those radioactive particles might bombard satellites or humans onboard the space station or a future moon base.
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