October 2010
86 posts
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WatchScientists at Arizona State University are working to make robots smarter on the ground, in the air and underwater. Jared Dillingham shows you the braind behind the “Robot Brains.”
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Robots are changing war in profound and disturbing... →
As impressive as today’s robots are, engineers are no further along in their use on the battlefield than the Wright brothers were at Kitty Hawk. And, much like early aviators wouldn’t have been able to predict the way air travel has transformed how we work and live today, the impact of increased robotic warfare will surely lead us in directions we can’t (yet nevertheless must try...
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'100 percent' chance for life on newly found... →
Gliese 581g may be the new Earth.
A team of astronomers from the University of California and the Carnegie Institute of Washington say they’ve found a planet like ours, 20 light years (120 trillion miles) from Earth, where the basic conditions for life are good.
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Washington University gets $18M for nanotechnology →
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis said Wednesday it and four other partner schools snagged $18 million from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to research therapies and diagnostic tools for heart and lung diseases that use nanotechnology.
Nanoparticles are one-billionth to 100-billionths of a meter in size. Scientists custom-engineer these tiny particles to deliver...
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Nanotechnology Stocks; mPhase (OTC.BB:XDSL) Smart... →
mPhase Technologies, Inc. (OTC.BB:XDSL), a leader in the development of Smart Surfaces and advanced battery technologies today announced that its Smart NanoBattery is showcased in the September 2010 issue of Medical Products Manufacturing News.
The magazine’s September issue includes a high resolution image of mPhase’s porous silicon membrane, which is a core technology of the Smart...
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Keep Nanotechnology Out of Organic! →
A major reason why consumers shop for products that are certified organic is to avoid the hazardous and unlabeled Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), toxic chemicals, and now the most recent, and likely most dangerous hi-tech poison of them all: nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is now a multi-billion dollar Frankenstein monster industry churning out a vast menu of untested and unlabeled products...
September 2010
198 posts
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A Big Step for Nanotechnology →
Scientists can now learn how drugs work in clinical trials thanks to an innovative technological advance that makes nanoscale protein measurements.
“We are making progress toward the goal of understanding how drugs work in different individuals,” which Alice C. Fan, M.D., instructor in the division of oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine, was quoted as saying....
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Particle Accelerator Cancer Therapy →
People often associate particle accelerators with projects on the scale of the Hadron Collider. But as doctoral student Suzie Sheehy points out, there are actually 19,000 particle accelerators in the world, ‘and at least half of them are used for medical applications.’ Sheehy, an Australian, did her undergraduate studies in Melbourne in particle physics, then moved to the UK to do a Phd in...
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Enviropig: A Bioengineered Pig That Excretes Fewer... →
This little piggy went to market. This little piggy stayed home. And this little piggy is genetically modified to poop less phosphorus, making it the most environmentally friendly pig in the world. Like all animals, pigs’ cells need phosphorus to make DNA, build cell membranes, and transport energy. But pigs can’t digest phytate, a phosphorus-heavy molecule in grains, so farmers fortify pig...
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Stem Cell Research Will Continue While Obama... →
Encouraging news today: A federal appeals court ruled that stem cell research will be allowed to continue until a final decision can be made on its legality. In late August, a trials judge issued an injunction stopping President Obama’s new stem cell initiative, throwing research across the country into limbo. The injunction was immediately appealed, and on September 9th, it was temporarily...
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New Shanghai Bullet Train Is The Fastest Train in... →
China, already outpacing the U.S., Japan and many European countries in the expansion of their railway system, has now broken the world train speed record, clocking in at 258.86 miles per hour during the trial run of a new high-speed train on Tuesday.
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Tactile Navigation System Lets Drivers Feel Out... →
The most complicated task one used to undertake while driving was changing the eight-track, but now there are more technological bells and whistles in the cabs of our autos than we can possibly pay attention to as. So University of Utah engineers are testing a new tactile system to remove at least one audio-visual distraction from the driving experience, allowing navigation systems to direct...
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Energy transport on the extreme nanoscale →
Conductive polymers hold promise to revolutionize a wide range of products including television displays, solar cells, and biomedical sensors.
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Genetically engineered salmon safe to eat, but a... →
Craig Altier, a member of the Food and Drug Administration’s Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee and an associate professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University, comments on potential FDA approval of the first genetically engineered animal for use as food.
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Transhumanism and Virtue →
Dr. J. chats with Max More, founder of the Extropy Institute and one of the founders of contemporary transhumanism. They discuss the relationship of transhumanism and religion, virtue theory versus utilitarianism and the ethical and political underpinnings of the extropian worldview.
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Abu Dhabi City Is 23 ft Above Ground, Has Zero... →
The United Arab Emirates have outdone themselves again, this time building a whole new zero-carbon, temperature-reducing, future-experiment settlement. It is like the Disneyland of contemporary urban planning, evidence of the fact that with enough money the cities of the future can be built today.
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Gallery: 10 Best Jobs Of The Future →
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WatchIn 1998, Kevin Warwick, a Professor of Cybernetics at Reading University, became the world’s first cyborg. Well, to be exact, he had a radio frequency ID implanted in his arm. As a result, he can turn on lights by snapping his fingers; once he let his wife’s brain waves take control of his body (she’s also cybernetic).
This isn’t just for fun: Warwick is certain that without upgrading, humans...
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Why Shanghai is THE City of the Future →
By the early years of the next decade, China will become the world’s largest economy, depriving the US of a title it has held for 130 consecutive years. And it is Shanghai, the “head of the dragon”, that is leading China into the future.
It is entering the world stage with tremendous momentum and self-confidence, breathing down the necks of Alpha cities New York, London and Tokyo. Before long,...
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Iris Scanning Set To Secure City in Mexico, Then... →
The million-plus citizens of Leon, Mexico are set to become the first example of a city secured through the power of biometric identification. Iris and face scanning technologies from Global Rainmakers, Inc. will allow people to use their eyes to prove their identify, withdraw money from an ATM, get help at a hospital, and even ride the bus. GRI’s eye scanning systems aren’t more secure than...
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Quantum computing closer than ever: Scientists... →
Ever since audiences heard Goldfinger utter the famous line, “No, Mr. Bond; I expect you to die,” as a laser beam inched its way toward James Bond and threatened to cut him in half, lasers have been thought of as white-hot beams of intensely focused energy capable of burning through anything in their path.
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Future Appliances Think Big by Going Small... →
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Reinventing the Leaf: Artificial Photosynthesis to... →
Like a fire-and-brimstone preacher, Nathan S. Lewis has been giving a lecture on the energy crisis that is both terrifying and exhilarating. To avoid potentially debilitating global warming, the chemist from the California Institute of Technology says civilization must be able to generate more than 10 trillion watts of clean, carbon-free energy by 2050. That level is three times the U.S.’s average...
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WatchA robot that can understand plain English and manage a complicated to-do list could soon be the hero of search and rescue missions. Most robots that can recognise speech only respond to pre-determined instructions. For example, some powered wheelchairs respond to spoken directions, but only when certain words are spoken clearly. In the real world, that’s not how humans communicate. Our...
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Sensor-Equipped Spider Webs to Coat Aircraft →
Aircraft could soon be covered in new technological cobwebs. Inspired by the gossamer strands of spider webs, scientists from Stanford University have created an ultra-fine mesh of strain and temperature sensors.
Wrapped around an aircraft, the sensors could help craft monitor their internal well-being. This added awareness could prevent microscopic cracks from developing into catastrophic...
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WatchPutting clothes away in the closet can be a drag, but there would be added incentive with this space-saving idea designed by Michael Edenius, based in Sweden. Instead of having to wash clothes between wears, just hang them up and your wardrobe will do all the hard work, scanning clothes for dirt and using waterless molecular technology to remove it ready for next time you need to get dressed.
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Magnetic power offers energy-saving alternative →
The U.S. Office of Naval Research Global (ONR Global) is working on the design of a system that controls electrical flow for lighting, a highly efficient platform that may spark a new era of power savings.
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Avatar therapy: From couch to cyberspace →
Psychotherapy in a virtual world has its advantages – particularly if the real world is what you can’t cope with
BY MY fourth interview, I’d developed a checklist to use before each meeting. For starters, I would make sure I had grown some hair. I’d also check that I was fully clothed - I had learned the hard way about that one. Only then would I teleport to the interview,...
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Molecular motors stiffen non-affine semiflexible... →
Reconstituted filamentous actin networks with myosin motor proteins form active gels, in which motor proteins generate forces that drive the network far from equilibrium. This motor activity can also strongly affect the network elasticity; experiments have shown a dramatic stiffening in in vitro networks with molecular motors. Here we study the effects of motor generated forces on the mechanics of...
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“Artificial Intelligence is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it allows us to...”
– Max Bramer, Artificial Intelligence: An International Perspective
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Turning Thoughts into Words →
Brain-computer interfaces could someday provide a lifeline to “locked-in” patients, who are unable to talk or move but are aware and awake. Many of these patients can communicate by blinking their eyes, but turning blinks into words is time-consuming and exhausting.
Scientists in Utah have now demonstrated a way to determine which of 10 distinct words a person is thinking by...
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Personal Exoskeletons for Paraplegics →
Exoskeletons—wearable, motorized machines that can assist a person’s movements—have largely been confined to movies or military use, but recent advances might soon bring the devices to the homes of people with paralysis.
So far, exoskeletons have been used to augment the strength of soldiers or to help hospitalized stroke patients relearn how to walk. Now researchers at the...
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Brain Coprocessors →
The last few decades have seen a surge of invention of technologies that enable the observation or perturbation of information in the brain. Functional MRI, which measures blood flow changes associated with brain activity, is being explored for purposes as diverse as lie detection, prediction of human decision making, and assessment of language recovery after stroke. Implanted electrical...
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New computer-tomography method visualizes... →
A novel nano-tomography method developed by a team of researchers from the Technische Universitaet Muenchen, the Paul Scherrer Institute and the ETH-Zurich opens the door to computed tomography examinations of minute structures at nanometer resolutions. Three-dimensional detailed imaging of fragile bone structures becomes possible. Their first nano-CT images will be published in Nature on Sept....
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Power to the Paper: Researchers Turn Paper into... →
Batteries are the bane of all portable electronics. Bigger, heavier batteries make devices less portable, while smaller batteries lead to low performance or short battery life – or both. But while Stanford’s new lithium-ion batteries don’t necessarily cut down on footprint, they certainly cut down on mass; the new ultra-thin, rechargeable battery has been fabricated on a single sheet of paper,...
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Stuxnet malware is 'weapon' out to destroy ...... →
Cyber security experts say they have identified the world’s first known cyber super weapon designed specifically to destroy a real-world target – a factory, a refinery, or just maybe a nuclear power plant.
The cyber worm, called Stuxnet, has been the object of intense study since its detection in June. As more has become known about it, alarm about its capabilities and purpose have grown....
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Future Advertising Has Its Eye On You →
The advertising billboards of the future will not simply promote a product, but analyze the audience and display items that the viewer is more likely to buy.
It may sound like something out of the future, but Japanese firms have already developed the technology to deliver a more focused message. And that, they hope, will lead to better sales.
Electronics giant NEC Corp. recently unveiled...
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A new approach to high-performance catalysts →
Over 80% of all products manufactured today in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries require the use of catalysts.
Catalysts are materials which themselves are not consumed within chemical reactions, but which serve to accelerate those reactions and set them on course to create the desired products. To date, the search for the optimal catalyst has been akin to hunting for a needle in a...
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“Technology feeds on itself. Technology makes more technology possible.”
– Alvin Toffler
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Researchers tap into cell power to create building... →
Engineers, design architects and cell biologists from the University of Pennsylvania will use a National Science Foundation grant to utilize the flexibility and sensitivity of human cells as the models for next-generation building “skins” that will adapt to changes in the environment and increase building energy efficiency.
Based upon the dynamic responses that human cells generate,...
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Genomic 'haircut' makes world's tiniest genome... →
The world’s tiniest nuclear genome appears to have “snipped off the ends” of its chromosomes and evolved into a lean, mean, genome machine that infects human cells, according to research published September 21 by University of British Columbia scientists.
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Divided Minds, Specious Souls →
There is a common idea: because the mind seems unified, it really is. Many go only a bit further and call that unified mind a “soul.” This step, from self to soul, is an ancient assumption which now forms a bedrock in many religions: a basis for life after death, for religious morality, and a little god within us, a support for a bigger God outside us.
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WatchYou would baulk at getting an iPad wet, but a tablet computer has now been designed to work deep under the sea – not to allow divers to check email, but so that they can communicate with underwater robots working in hard-to-reach or dangerous locations, such as the inside of shipwrecks or caves in coral reefs.
(via Robots on TV: ‘AquaPad’ controls robot dive buddy)
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Rice growers turn to computer for advice,... →
Figuring out how a rice crop was faring used to be a head-scratching exercise with predictably unpredictable results.
But now a few punches on a keyboard can yield a pretty close forecast for a rice crop and tell a farmer what changes could improve the outcome at harvest.
The program, Rice Development Advisory, stems from extensive data collected over the years by researchers at the Texas...
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Spray-on tech could power consumer devices →
A new spray-on polymer could lead to the development of e-readers that display not in black and white, but in every color of the rainbow. When combined with solar technology, the new treatment could power portable electronics and even homes and businesses.
Developed by scientists at the University of Florida, the new spray-on polymers can reflect or transmit any color of light. With a simple...
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Swedish biofuels do have major benefits for the... →
For the first time, researchers have taken an overall look at Swedish biofuels and analysed what impact they have on the environment, both in relation to one another and to the fossil fuel alternatives petrol and diesel. The results show that they produce between 65 and 140 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions than petrol and diesel, even when direct and indirect land use changes are taken into...
