February 2012
50 posts
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Smart Phones Improve Memory →
A few decades ago, TV got a bad rap for turning brains into mush, and now smart phones are getting the same blame. But a new study published in the journal Neuropsychological Rehabilitation has found evidence that, for the latter device anyway, this may not be true. Researchers found that a smart phone training program specifically designed for people with memory loss can result in great...
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New understanding of DNA repair could eventually... →
A research group in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta is hoping its latest discovery could one day be used to develop new therapies that target certain types of cancers.
The discovery by Mark Glover, his graduate student Zahra Havali-Shahriari and post-doctoral fellow Nicolas Coquelle has shed light on what happens in cells when DNA is damaged. They solved the...
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Paper robots could have a strong, gentle touch →
Paper structures built using the principles of origami could lead to cheap, easy-to-make robots that are very different than their more traditional metal brethren.
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Threshold broken for tiny lasers →
Scientists have shown off the smallest-ever laser that works at the colours of light used in telecommunications and at room temperature.
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Can Treating Your Life As a Game Make You a Better... →
The experiment began at 11 a.m. in my bedroom in Brooklyn. I bought an app from the iTunes store called EpicWin, a fantasy-themed game designed to improve users’ lives by motivating them to accomplish real-world goals with virtual-world rewards. Before starting the game, I had to pick and customize an avatar that would represent me in the digital landscape of EpicWin. I chose a cadaverous...
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Will bubble-powered microrockets zoom through the... →
Scientists have developed a new kind of tiny motor — which they term a “microrocket” — that can propel itself through acidic environments, such as the human stomach, without any external energy source, opening the way to a variety of medical and industrial applications. Their report in the Journal of the American Chemical Society describes the microrockets traveling at virtual warp speed for...
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LARES 'mirror ball' sat will test Einstein's... →
You don’t have to be big to challenge Einstein. A pocked ball just 36 centimetres wide is the latest space probe tasked with measuring general relativity, one of the cornerstones of modern physics.
The Laser Relativity Satellite, or LARES, is a tungsten sphere with reflectors mounted in 92 holes punched into its surface. It is due to launch from Kourou, French Guiana, on a new European...
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Cutting-edge MRI techniques for studying... →
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin, Madison have presented innovative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques that can measure changes in the microstructure of the white matter likely to affect brain function and the ability of different regions of the brain to communicate.
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Sight Seen: Gene Therapy Restores Vision in Both... →
Two doses of gene therapy restore vision to three women who were born nearly blind
Gene therapy has markedly improved vision in both eyes in three women who were born virtually blind. The patients can now avoid obstacles even in dim light, read large print and recognize people’s faces. The operation, researchers predict, should work even better in children and adolescents blinded by the...
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Highways to wirelessly charge moving cars →
A Stanford University research team has designed a high-efficiency charging system that uses magnetic fields to wirelessly transmit large electric currents between metal coils placed several feet apart. The long-term goal of the research is to develop an all-electric highway that wirelessly charges cars and trucks as they drive down the road.
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Implanted biofuel cell converts bug's chemistry... →
An insect’s internal chemicals can be converted to electricity, potentially providing power for sensors, recording devices or to control the bug, a group of researchers at Case Western Reserve University report.
The finding is yet another in a growing list from universities that could bring the creation of insect cyborgs - touted as possible first responders to super spies - out of...
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How to map the 100 billion neurons in the brain →
MIT neuroscientist Sebastian Seung believes mapping of of the human brain’s 100 billion neurons can be done — one cubic millimeter of brain tissue at a time.
Even more than our genome, our connectome shapes who we are, says Seung, who outlines his vision for connectome research in a new book, Connectome. “Clearly genes are very important, but because they don’t change after the moment of...
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A More Better Future →
A review of Abundance: Why The Future Will Be Much Better Than You Think by X Prize guru Peter Diamandis and journalist Steven Kotler.
Woe is us! Our overpopulated and overheated world is running out of water, food, and nonrenewable resources, all the while menaced by natural and bioterror pandemics. As The Limits to Growth famously predicted 40 years ago, exponential growth in population,...
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Neuroscience could mean soldiers controlling... →
Soldiers could have their minds plugged directly into weapons systems, undergo brain scans during recruitment and take courses of neural stimulation to boost their learning, if the armed forces embrace the latest developments in neuroscience to hone the performance of their troops.
These scenarios are described in a report into the military and law enforcement uses of neuroscience, published on...
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Switching off zinc may stop breast cancer →
The body’s control mechanisms for delivering zinc to cells could be key to improving treatment for some types of aggressive breast cancer.
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WatchThe Miraculous NASA Breakthrough That Could Save Millions of Lives
The NASA Biocapsule—made of carbon nanotubes—will be able to “diagnose” and instantly treat an astronaut without him or her even knowing there’s something amiss. It would be like having your own personal Dr. McCoy—implanted under your skin. It represents one of the most significant breakthroughs in the history of...
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DARPA's Crowdsourced UAVs Get Real →
Back in December, we showed you a bunch of concepts from DARPA’s crowdsourced UAVForge competition. The teams involved have just submitted their proof-of-flight videos, and while there are a bunch of quadrotors and hexacopters that won’t surprise you, there are at least a few designs that will.
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UK Reveals Plans for Becoming “Graphene Hub” →
The University of Manchester in the UK has been at the forefront of graphene research ever since Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov fabricated the single atom-thick sheets of carbon back in 2004 and were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010 for it.
Since then researchers across the globe have been exploring the possibilities of this wonder material, especially in the field of...
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Innovation promises expanded roles for... →
Researchers have learned how to improve the performance of sensors that use tiny vibrating microcantilevers to detect chemical and biological agents for applications from national security to food processing.
The microcantilevers - slivers of silicon shaped like small diving boards - vibrate at their natural, or “resonant,” frequency. Analyzing the frequency change when a particle...
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Siri Is Only The Beginning →
For decades, Hollywood has been portraying machines that humans can converse with, delegate tasks to, and command. Remember the HAL 9000, KITT the car, COMPUTER from Star Trek, or even the brilliantly conceived and visualized Apple “Knowledge Navigator” from over 20 years ago? The day is dawning.
Hello Siri.
The response to Siri has exceeded even my own imagination … and I have a rather vast...
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Drones Will Be Admitted to Standard US Airspace By... →
The skies are going to look very different pretty soon, and it’s been a long time coming. Congress finally passed a spending bill for the Federal Aviation Administration, allocating $63.4 billion for modernizing the country’s air traffic control systems and expanding airspace for unmanned planes within three and a half years.
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HUD Google Glasses are real and they are coming... →
They are in late prototype stages of wearable glasses that look similar to thick-rimmed glasses that “normal people” wear. However, these provide a display with a heads up computer interface. There are a few buttons on the arms of the glasses, but otherwise, they could be mistaken for normal glasses. Additionally, we are not sure of the technology being employed here, but it is likely a...
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Physicists 'record' magnetic breakthrough →
An international team of scientists has demonstrated a revolutionary new way of magnetic recording which will allow information to be processed hundreds of times faster than by current hard drive technology.
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83-year old woman gets replacement 3D printed... →
3D printers are continuing to force their way into medical applications and the latest beneficiary is an 83-year old woman. She’s the first patient to receive a titanium jaw crafted by those not-so dimensionally-challenged printers. The method was developed by the BIOMED Research Institute at Hasselt University in Belgium and creates the replacement from layer-upon-layer of titanium dust.
wwwdocstoccomprofilepaulbudds asked: Ok I have a good question. I am pro Singularity so I ask this with lots of respect. Will technologically inspired improvements in individuals psychology mess with free will? And will that be a price worth paying for health?
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Augmented reality promises astronauts instant... →
The Computer Assisted Medical Diagnosis and Surgery System, CAMDASS, is a wearable augmented reality prototype. Augmented reality merges actual and virtual reality by precisely combining computer-generated graphics with the wearer’s view. CAMDASS is focused for now on ultrasound examinations but in principle could guide other procedures.
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NASA Quantum Future Technologies Conference... →
Despite a comprehensive and rapid advance of quantum technologies in recent years with several breakthrough areas emerging there has been no in-depth systematic discussion so far on how the quantum revolution can benefit National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) missions and objectives. This conference aims to bring together NASA scientists with the best quantum technology experts from...
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Four telescope link-up creates world's largest... →
Astronomers have created the world’s largest virtual optical telescope, linking four telescopes in Chile so that they operate as a single device.
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Salmon DNA Embedded with Nanoparticles Leads to a... →
Researchers from Germany and Taiwan have combined expertise to create a “write-once-read-many-times” (WORM) memory device made from embedding silver nanoparticles into a biopolymer film of salmon DNA.
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A Zap of Cold Plasma Reduces Harmful Bacteria on... →
A new study by food safety researchers at Drexel University demonstrates that plasma can be an effective method for killing pathogens on uncooked poultry. The proof-of-concept study was published in the January issue of the Journal of Food Protection.
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Experts Build Crab-Like Robot to Remove Stomach... →
Inspired by Singapore’s famous chili crab dish, researchers have created a miniature robot with a pincer and a hook that can remove early-stage stomach cancers without leaving any scars.
Mounted on an endoscope, it enters the patient’s gut through the mouth. It has a pincer to hold cancerous tissues, and a hook that slices them off and coagulates blood to stop bleeding.
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iRobot Goes to the Hospital →
iRobot Corp., makers of the beloved Roomba (and a lot more), announced that it would be investing $6 million in InTouch Health, a telemedicine company operating in 80 hospitals around the world. Though $6 million represents just a minority stake in the company, it’s—needless to say—a substantial investment, and a strong expansion of a joint development and licensing agreement the two...
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New super-Earth detected within the habitable zone... →
An international team of scientists has discovered a potentially habitable super-Earth orbiting a nearby star. With an orbital period of about 28 days and a minimum mass 4.5 times that of the Earth, the planet orbits within the star’s “habitable zone,” where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on the planet’s surface. The researchers...
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The Coming Tech-led Boom →
In January 1912, the United States emerged from a two-year recession. Nineteen more followed—along with a century of phenomenal economic growth. Americans in real terms are 700% wealthier today.
In hindsight it seems obvious that emerging technologies circa 1912—electrification, telephony, the dawn of the automobile age, the invention of stainless steel and the radio amplifier—would foster such...
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Why Viewers Could Soon Control Super Bowl Ads →
During this Sunday’s Super Bowl, a record five million viewers are expected to tweet or make other social media comments—not just about the game, but also about the many beer, snack, and car ads that are integral to the annual sports and entertainment ritual.
This activity—up from 900,000 people making Super Bowl posts during last year’s game—is now happening at such a vast scale...
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Use liquid lasers to find cancer genes →
A new technique could offer a better way to detect the slight genetic mutations that might predispose a person to a particular type of cancer or other diseases.
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UT biosolar breakthrough promises cheap, easy... →
Barry D. Bruce, professor of biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology, at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is turning the term “power plant” on its head. The biochemist and a team of researchers have developed a system that taps into photosynthetic processes to produce efficient and inexpensive energy.
Bruce collaborated with researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of...
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Report Identifies 16 Highest Priorities to Guide... →
During the next five years, NASA technology development efforts should focus on 16 high-priority technologies and their associated top technical challenges, says a new report from the National Research Council. In addition, the report recommends emphasis on flight demonstrations for technologies that are nearly ready and a 10 percent allocation from the existing program budget to advance and...
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DARPA researchers design eye-enhancing virtual... →
Currently being developed by DARPA researchers at Washington-based Innovega iOptiks are contact lenses that enhance normal vision by allowing a wearer to view virtual and augmented reality images without the need for bulky apparatus. Instead of oversized virtual reality helmets, digital images are projected onto tiny full-color displays that are very near the eye. These novel contact lenses...
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Polarization imaging for super vision →
Scientists at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) and ITN Energy Systems have developed a new circular polarization filter with the potential to aid in early cancer detection, enhance vision through dust and clouds, and even improve a moviegoer’s 3D experience.
Polarization is the process by which rays of light exhibit different properties in different directions, but especially the state in...
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Engineers build first sub-10-nm carbon nanotube... →
Engineers have built the first carbon nanotube (CNT) transistor with a channel length below 10 nm, a size that is considered a requirement for computing technology in the next decade. Not only can the tiny transistor sufficiently control current, it does so significantly better than predicted by theory. It even outperforms the best competing silicon transistors at this scale, demonstrating a...
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Nanotube Paint Can Spot Structural Defects and... →
A new paint made of power plant waste and carbon nanotubes can automatically detect structural faults, alerting authorities before damage occurs. It could be a cheaper, easier way to monitor facilities like bridges, mines and even wind turbines.
It’s made from aligned carbon nanotubes, which can carry an electric current, and fly ash, which is a byproduct of coal burning. The paint can be...
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Swarm of Tiny Quadcopters Do a Delicate Dance →
The GRASP Lab at the University of Pennsylvania is a perennial PopSci favorite. Yeah, yeah, we’ve all seen robotic quadcopter drones before. But these tiny, so-called “nano quadrotors” are kind of blowing my mind right now. Dial the video below up to about 0:40 and you’ll see why.
We’ve written extensively about “swarming” robots before, but this is a serious swarm if we’ve ever seen...
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The Dilemma of Being a Cyborg →
This kind of thing happens all the time now, but three or four years ago it still seemed momentous and thrilling: a sudden argument at a dinner party (something about Tom Selleck and Burt Reynolds and iconic mustaches of the ’70s) was quickly put to rest when half the people present picked up their phones and started to Google. Observing this, a friend of mine made what struck me as a very clever...
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Scientists turn skin cells into neural precursors,... →
Mouse skin cells can be converted directly into cells that become the three main parts of the nervous system, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The finding is an extension of a previous study by the same group showing that mouse and human skin cells can be directly converted into functional neurons.
The multiple successes of the direct conversion method...