Europe’s CORNEA project has developed an artificial cornea at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP in Potsdam and the Department of Ophthalmology at the University Hospital of Regensburg have created a device that is "based on a commercially available polymer which absorbs no water and allows no cells to grow on it."

When implanted, it will connect "with the natural part of the cornea, while the center remains free of cells and therefore clear."

Testing on rabbits has been successful so far.

Planetariums and domed movie theaters draw the viewers into the scenery and up until now, it has been an expensive proposition. The scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Architecture and Software Technology (FIRST) have come up with a system which automatically calibrates the projectors to create images on surfaces of any shape.

“The calibration software is firstly provided with data on the geometry of the screen and the number, position and approximate alignment of the projectors,” states Ivo Haulsen of FIRST, explaining the system.

German researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Physical Measurement Techniques IPM and the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Applied Materials Research IFAM, plus a team of research scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen have developed a way of harnessing natural body heat to generate electricity.

“We combined a number of components in a completely new way to create circuits that can operate on 200 millivolts. This has enabled us to build entire electronic systems that do not require an internal battery, but draw their energy from body heat alone.”

It all is based on a thermoelectric generator (TEG) which extracts electrical energy from hot and cold temperatire differentials. Future improvements will allow a temperature difference of only 0.5 degrees to generate electricity.