The document contains summaries of four different articles on topics in mechanical engineering: 1) McGill researchers developed instrumentation using electron diffraction experiments to examine chemical reactions and protein function at the atomic level. 2) Researchers developed an anti-turbulence system inspired by feathers that could reduce turbulence on flights. 3) NASA aims to align two spacecraft to act as a single "virtual" telescope and make scientific observations. 4) NYU researchers created the first protein microfibers through self-assembly, bringing protein fiber development to a larger scale.

1. ISSUES IN MECHANICAL
ENGINEERING

2. ELECTRON
DIFFRACTION
EXPERIMENTS
The measurements were achieved thanks
to the McGill team's development of
instrumentation that could be used by
scientists in a variety of disciplines: to
examine the fleeting but crucial
transformations during chemical
reactions, for example, or to enable
biologists to obtain an atomic-level
understanding of protein function.

3. ANTI-TURBULENCE
TECHNOLOGY
Inspired by nature's own
anti-turbulence devices
feathers researchers have
developed an innovative
system that could spell the
end of turbulence on
flights.

4. NASA CREATING A
VIRTUAL TELESCOPE
Although scientists have flown two
spacecraft in formation, no one
ever has aligned the spacecraft with
a specific astronomical target and
then held that configuration to
make a scientific observation --
creating, in effect, a single or
"virtual" telescope with two
distinctly different satellites

5. FIRST PROTEIN
MICROFIBER
Researchers at the New York University
Polytechnic School of Engineering have
broken new ground in the development
of proteins that form specialized fibers
used in medicine and nanotechnology.
For as long as scientists have been able
to create new proteins that are capable
of self-assembling into fibers, their work
has taken place on the nanoscale