A humanoid robot

Today, one in 88 children is being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder or ASD. For them, mastering simple social skills that come naturally to most proves difficult. At Vanderbilt University, engineers and autism experts have teamed up to help. The NSF-funded team designed an interactive room including a very special robot that is helping ASD children, like 3-year-old Aiden. 

To develop, these children need to learn to focus their attention and master new skills. The study found that autistic children spent far more time looking at the robot than a typically developed child did and that humanoid robots can be almost as effective as human therapists in drilling young children with ASD in simple social skills that they have trouble mastering. ROBOT: Aiden, look. AIDEN: It's crazy! ROBOT: Good job. NILANJAN SARKAR: We demonstrated that if the children were really more interested towards the robot than human therapists then the robot might be able to use this engagement to some beneficial activities.

DENA HEADLEE: Capturing attention is critical for early intervention treatment for young children with ASD. The team hopes that Aiden's little robot buddy, Nao, will become an important new tool for therapists to utilize. Their findings have been published in the IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. Researchers at the University of Michigan have found a way to bring x-ray technology into the 21st century by harnessing low-energy terahertz radiation. This technology could potentially enable doctors to see deep into tissues without the damaging effects of x-rays.

The NSF-funded team developed a laser-powered terahertz source and detector system that transmits 50 times more power and receives 30 times more sensitivity than existing technologies. The team believes the system's ability to provide 1500 times more detailed imaging and sensing, will result in safer, more efficient medical screenings as well as airport security and other applications. 

Researchers at Rice University have discovered that rocks in the earth's mantle beneath the ocean floor melt much deeper than previously thought. Happening as deep as 250 kilometers, the team says this process of deep melting magma helps shed light about life on earth.

Lead researcher Rajdeep Dasgupta explains. RAJDEEP DASGUPTA: What we are interested in is this process called partial melting in the mantle. This is the process by which magma in the interior of our planet forms and it is this key ingredient that eventually percolates upward to the surface of our planet bringing water, bringing carbon dioxide to the near surface environment. 

So if we understand how this magmas form in the interior, we understand how our life and other mineral resources come into being on the surface of our planet. DENA HEADLEE: Using high-powered hydraulic presses, the team reproduces high pressures and temperatures similar to what they believe is happening in the mantle, and subject small amounts of rock samples to these conditions to see what happens. Powerful hydraulic presses squeeze and melt the rocks, producing magma. 

The NSF-ARRA funded team believes the production and extent of this deep magma could affect geophysical and geochemical properties of the planet as a whole. It's official, Blue Waters, one of the world's most powerful supercomputers is now available for use nationwide at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign.

Its unparalleled processing power enables researchers to perform large-scale scientific applications at the cutting edge of computational science. THOMAS DUNNING: It's really a very balanced computing system. It's a computing system that could provide scientists and engineers with the computing resources that they need right now. Whether it's compute intensive, whether it's memory intensive, whether it's data intensive, Blue Waters can handle all of that type of computing requirements. It also has, however, new computing technologies built into it that will allow the scientists and engineers to prepare for the future. DENA HEADLEE: From tracking disease to tornadoes to climate change, Blue Waters is already providing unprecedented insights into our planet and our universe. For more information about these stories, visit us at NSF.gov. This is NSF Science Now, I'm Dena Headlee.

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