1/30/2009 PERMALINK
Regenerative medicine -- growing new body parts
Alan Russell studies regenerative medicine -- a breakthrough way of thinking about disease and injury using a process that can signal the body to rebuild itself. In this fascinating clip from a past TED conference, he talks about the science of growing new body parts ... watch

1/30/2009 PERMALINK
A nano-hologram recorded within the interference patterns of quantum electron waves
Stanford University researchers have encoded an electron wave quantum hologram to display letters. The yellow area is a copper surface. The holes in the copper are molecules of carbon monoxide. Constantly moving electrons on the surface of the copper bounce off the carbon monoxide molecules in predictable ways. With their dual wave/particle properties, the electron waves in the purple area create inference patterns that can store readable information, in this case, the letters S and U. To store the data, the researchers arrange the molecule in specific patterns with a scanning tunneling microscope ... more

1/30/2009 PERMALINK
Breakthrough LED fab technique promises to reduce your lighting bill by 75%
A new way of making LEDs could see household lighting bills reduced by up to 75% in five years time. LEDs use Gallium Nitride (GaN), a man-made semiconductor that emits a brilliant bright light but uses very little electricity. Until now high production costs have made GaN lighting too expensive for widespread use in homes and offices, but the Cambridge University Center for Gallium Nitride has developed a new way of making GaN, which can produce LEDs for 10% of current prices. The new technique grows GaN on silicon wafers instead of the much more expensive material currently used ... more

1/29/2009 PERMALINK
Bot kicked apart, reassembles itself Watch as this modular shape-shifting bot developed by roboticists at the University of Pennsylvania gets kicked apart, and then its parts are able to find each other and reassemble ... watch ... more

1/29/2009 PERMALINK
Understanding breakthrough DNA chip technology
If you haven't previously seen this 17 minute TED clip from a couple of years ago of biochemist Joe DeRisi talking about diagnosing viruses with DNA chips, then you should watch it now. It gives an excellent (and very funny) overview of the DNA chip, an extremely significant breakthrough technology ... watch

1/29/2009 PERMALINK
Can organic photovoltaics (OPV) finally give us practical solar power?
Konarka's Power Plastic is made using low cost organic photovoltaics (OPV). This 3rd generation solar cell material overcomes the technological limitations of the two earlier generations of solar technology, to deliver the first truly cost-effective renewable power solution. The company has developed a series of standard products to serve portable power needs, with sizes including 1/2W, 4W, 8W, and 30W. Each panel will come with integrated connectors to allow easy use for portable, indoor and outdoor applications ... more

1/29/2009 PERMALINK
Digitally imaging the brains of fiction readers, even as fiction goes digital to survive
A brain-imaging study is shedding light on what it means to "get lost" in a good book -- suggesting that readers create vivid mental simulations of the sounds, sights, tastes and movements described in a textual narrative while simultaneously activating brain regions used to process similar experiences in real life ... more

In her living room in Hokkaido, a young woman sits punching the keys of her keitai (cell phone). The voices of those around her don't seem to break her concentration. Like other girls text messaging, surfing the internet and gaming, Kiki is as skilled as she is serious with her keitai. But unlike them, she just happens to be writing a novel. The 24-year-old housekeeper casually entered the competition for the Japan Keitai Novel Award in October 2008 -- and won. Along with the Grand Prize honors came 2 million yen cash and a deal with Tokyo-based Starts Publishing to print her novel, I, Girlfriend, in traditional book form. By starting each sentence on a new line, kiki captured the choppy conversational rhythm of cell phone-using Japanese teens in a way traditional literature has not. Literary critic Genichiro Takahashi calls the work "the first masterpiece of the keitai novel genre." ... more

1/29/2009 PERMALINK
Prof mods term paper plagiarism detector into world's best genome tracer
University of California, Berkeley, researchers have modded methods used to detect plagiarism in books, college papers and computer programs into an improved method for comparing whole genome sequences to construct evolutionary trees, trace disease susceptibility in populations, and even track down people's ancestry. Previous techniques have relied on comparing a limited number of highly conserved genes - no more than a couple dozen. The new method can be used to compare even distantly related organisms or organisms with genomes of vastly different sizes and diversity, and can compare the entire genome, not just a selected small fraction of the gene-containing portion known to code for proteins, which in the human genome is only 1 percent of the DNA. The technique produces groupings of organisms largely consistent with current groupings, but with some interesting discrepancies, according to Sung-Hou Kim, professor of chemistry at UC Berkeley and faculty researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Many of the relative positions of the groups in the family tree - that is, how recently these groups evolved - are quite different from those based on conventional gene alignment methods ... more

1/29/2009 PERMALINK
World's first commercially cloned dog delivered to family
Bioarts International announced that they have delivered the world's first commercially cloned dog, the 10-week old Labrador named Lancey shown above, to Florida residents Edgar and Nina Otto. Lancey's genetic donor, Sir Lancelot, died in January of 2008, and the Ottos had his DNA stored. By October, samples from the original dog were on their way to Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in Seoul, South Korea, which provides cloning services to BioArts and Lancy was born on November 18th, 2008, and brought to the Ottos on January 26th, 2009 after being weaned from his surrogate mother. The dog was cloned under a license of the somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) cloning patents developed at the Roslin Institute for the cloning of Dolly the sheep ... more

1/28/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers study the feasibility of brains made from carbon nanotubes
Researchers at the University of Southern California are taking the first steps to build neurons from carbon nanotubes that emulate human brain function. "It may take decades to realize anything close to the human brain but emulating pieces of the brain, such as a synthetic vision system or synthetic cochlea that interface successfully with a real brain may be available quite soon, and synthetic parts of the brain's cortex within decades," said Alice Parker, professor of electrical engineering ... more

1/28/2009 PERMALINK
Bots becoming smarter and more versatile, meet STAIR
STAIR, the STanford AI Robot, is an effort by researchers to build a bot that is able to carry out a wide range of autonomous tasks in the unstructured environment of a home or workplace, including:

Pick up any object lying in home or office.

Unload a dishwasher.

Fetch an object from an office, in response to a verbal request.

Prepare simple meals using a normal household kitchen.

Tidy up a living-room after a party, including picking up and throwing away trash, and loading the dishwasher.

Using multiple tools (screwdriver, hammer, pliers, etc.) as needed, assemble a bookshelf.

... more

1/28/2009 PERMALINK
Boeing's Laser Avenger shoots down unmanned aerial vehicle in tests
The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] has successfully demonstrated that a laser system mounted on an Avenger combat vehicle can shoot down a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) like those that increasingly threaten U.S. troops deployed in war zones. During tests last month at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., Laser Avenger achieved its principal test objectives by using its advanced targeting system to acquire and track three small UAVs flying against a complex background of mountains and desert. The laser system also shot down one of the UAVs from an operationally relevant range. These tests mark the first time a combat vehicle has used a laser to shoot down a UAV ... more

1/28/2009 PERMALINK
Smallest ever quantum dots bring real world apps within reach
Single atom quantum dots created by researchers at Canada's National Institute for Nanotechnology and the University of Alberta make possible a new level of control over individual electrons, a development that suddenly brings quantum dot-based devices within reach. The image shows four atomic quantum dots coupled to form a "cell" for containing electrons. The cell is filled with just two electrons. Control charges are placed along a diagonal to direct the two electrons to reside at just two of the four quantum dots comprising the cell. This new level of control of electrons points to new computation schemes that require extremely low power to operate. Such a device is expected to require about 1,000 times less power and will be about 1,000 times smaller than today's smallest transistors ... more

1/28/2009 PERMALINK
Study finds geoengineering offers practical solutions to cool the planet The first comprehensive assessment of the climate cooling potential of different geoengineering schemes funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and carried out by researchers at the University of East Anglia has concluded that:

• Enhancing carbon sinks could bring CO2 back to its pre-industrial level
• Stratospheric aerosol injections and sunshades in space have by far the greatest potential to cool the climate quickly
• Surprisingly, existing activities that add phosphorous to the ocean may have greater long-term carbon sequestration potential than deliberately adding iron or nitrogen
• On land, sequestering carbon in new forests and as 'bio-char' (charcoal added back to the soil) have greater short-term cooling potential than ocean fertilization
  
• Increasing the reflectivity of urban areas could reduce urban heat islands but will have minimal global effect

... more

1/27/2009 PERMALINK
Breakthrough nuclear fusion-fission device destroys nuclear waste
Physicists at The University of Texas at Austin have designed a new system that, when fully developed, would use fusion to eliminate most of the waste produced by nuclear power plants. The scientists propose destroying the waste using a fusion-fission hybrid reactor, the centerpiece of which is a high power Compact Fusion Neutron Source (CFNS) made possible by a crucial invention. The invention could help combat global warming by making nuclear power cleaner and thus a more viable replacement of carbon-heavy energy sources, such as coal. "We have created a way to use fusion to relatively inexpensively destroy the waste from nuclear fission," says Mike Kotschenreuther, senior research scientist with the Institute for Fusion Studies (IFS) and Department of Physics. "Our waste destruction system, we believe, will allow nuclear power - a low carbon source of energy - to take its place in helping us combat global warming." ... more

1/27/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers discover your brain's RAM & hard drive memories
Dr. Don Cooper and colleagues at the UT Southwestern Medical Center have reported that individual nerve cells in the front part of the brain can hold traces of memories on their own for as long as a minute and possibly longer. The researchers identified in mice a specific metabotropic glutamate receptor called mGluR5 that, when turned on, starts a signaling cascade using calcium to hold a memory trace. This fast, short-term memory process happens inside individual cells. Then for longer-term memory storage, additional proteins cause a slow reorganization between cells in a network to establish a permanent memory. Specifically, the excitatory amino acid glutamate activates ion channels on neural cells to reorganize and strengthen the neuronal connections with one another.
The first process serves as your brain's equivalent of RAM [random access memory], while the second process serves as your brain's equivalent of a permanent [flash or hard drive] memory storage device ... more

1/27/2009 PERMALINK
Cleaning out all of the body's excess cholesterol
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center injected a single dose of a cholesterol-binding agent known as CYCLO into 7-day-old mice with the Niemann-Pick mutation that causes excess cholesterol accumulation inside cells. "What we've shown is that very quickly after administration of this compound, the huge pool of cholesterol that has just been accumulating in the cells is suddenly released and metabolized normally," said Dr. John Dietschy, professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern. "With just one dose, you excrete a large portion of this pool of (excess) cholesterol." ... more

1/27/2009 PERMALINK
DNA component can stimulate and suppress the immune response
A component of DNA that can both stimulate and suppress the immune system, depending on the dosage, researchers say. Low levels of CpG increase inflammation, part of the body's way of eliminating invaders. While high doses block inflammation by increasing expression of the enzyme indoleamine 2,3 dioxygenase, or IDO, an immunosuppressor, the research found. "The same therapy can have two different effects," says Rusty Johnson of the Medical College of Georgia. "It was assumed that giving this treatment at higher doses would cause more stimulation, but it has the opposite effect." ... more

1/27/2009 PERMALINK
iP stem cells turned into egg and sperm cells for the first time For the first time, researchers have reprogrammed human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells into the cells that eventually become eggs and sperm. The iPS cells were coaxed into forming germ line precursor cells which include genetic material that may be passed on to a child. "This finding could be important for people who are rendered infertile through disease or injury. We may, one day, be able to replace the germ cells that are lost," said Amander Clark, a UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center scientist and senior author of the study. "And these germ cells would be specific and genetically related to that patient."... more

1/27/2009 PERMALINK
Game playing algorithm makes bots smarter & more capable A newly developed mathematical model that figures out the best strategy to win the popular board game CLUE can also allow bots to solve problems and do much more useful work in unstructured environments. Both activities are governed by exactly the same principles, according to the scientists who developed the new algorithm from Duke University's Laboratory for Intelligent Systems and Controls ... more

1/27/2009 PERMALINK
The political science principle that turns regulators into co-conspirators Having allowed the formation of extremely large financial institutions and having pushed in all their political chips to aid this group of highly insolvent banks, brokers and insurance companies, rather than liquidating them. Our politicos and their regulatory minions are now forced by political circumstances into the role of co-conspirators. Helping these bankrupt banks, brokers and insurance companies fraudulently maintain the illusion of solvency in order to prevent the runs that would immediately occur if their actual financial condition were revealed to the public. Under such economic and political circumstances, regulators are more likely to be working to conceal rather than reveal the rising risk to your money. So it becomes necessary for you to do your own careful scientific evaluation of the financial statements of the banks and brokers you entrust with your money, rather than relying on the probity of regulators to keep your funds safe.

1/26/2009 PERMALINK
Research finds that frightened people develop more brand loyalty Horror movie directors may be about to find lucrative new careers shooting brand promotion commercials for the world's largest corporations. According to a newly released study by Aric Rindfleisch and Nancy Wong of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and James E. Burroughs (University of Virginia), people form the strongest connections to particular product brands when their levels of anxiety are the highest.

"Materialistic consumers with anxiety about their existence are especially in need of the symbolic security that brand connections provide," write the authors. "Given the recent rise in materialistic tendencies along with the media's heightened focus on existential threats, the number of consumers who display this combination of values and motives should increase in the near future."

Their research shows that the effect works for cars, microwaves, jeans, cell phones, MP3 players, and sunglasses. After all, inept politicos have successful used fear tactics to get re-elected for years, so why shouldn't instilling fear into consumers work equally well to strengthen all consumer brands?

1/26/2009 PERMALINK
What happens to your cells as you age revealed
As your cells age, one of the proteins composing nuclear pores becomes damaged and molecules that should be restricted to the cytoplasm invade the nucleus (outline shown in red). In particular, a protein called tubulin (shown in green), which is strictly a cytoplasmic protein, shows up as long filaments that co-opt a large part of the nucleus. "It has been known for some time that the gene expression profile of an aging cell changes and somehow is linked to age-related diseases, but no one really knows why. Our work could provide an explanation for why we observe age-dependent defects in cells," says Martin Hetzer, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Salk's Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory ... more

1/26/2009 PERMALINK
Power management bot boosts practicality of electric cars
Indy Power Systems has developed the Multi-Flex, a highly-scalable hardware and software energy management bot that the company says can revolutionize the management of electrical power in electric vehicles, portable electrical devices, and even on the electric utility power grid. This cognobot system can intelligently control bi-directionally any combinations of fuel cells, ultracapacitors, lithium-ion battery packs or old-fashioned lead-acid batteries, sensing and shifting flows so as to intelligently charge or tap whichever device maximizes efficiency ... more

1/26/2009 PERMALINK
A choice of bots to mow your lawn from the recent CES show
SmartMow from RoboLabs Inc. starts at about $750 and unlike the completion comes with everything you need to get started, including: charging station, charger perimeter wire (100 m), perimeter wire pegs (100 pcs.), remote control blades (3 pcs.), tools (2 pcs.), instructions, security card and a 2 year warranty on everything, including the battery ... more


Automower from Husqvarna is silent, mows up hill, pet safe, theft protected by a four digit pen code, and weatherproof. It starts at around $1,300 and is available now ... more

1/25/2009 PERMALINK
Long-distance teleportation between two atoms achieved For the first time, scientists have successfully teleported information between two separate atoms in unconnected enclosures a meter apart - a significant milestone in the global quest for practical quantum information processing. Teleportation works because of a remarkable quantum phenomenon called entanglement which only occurs on the atomic and subatomic scale. Once two objects are put in an entangled state, their properties are inextricably entwined. Although those properties are inherently unknowable until a measurement is made, measuring either one of the objects instantly determines the characteristics of the other, no matter how far apart they are ... more

1/25/2009 PERMALINK
Breakthrough paves the way for nano-lasers
This plasmonic microcavity consists of a silica interior that is coated with a thin layer of silver. It uses the same principal as a whispering gallery uses to focus sound to improves on the quality of current plasmonic microcavities by better than an order of magnitude and paves the way for plasmonic nanolasers ... more

1/25/2009 PERMALINK
Live your life in hi-RES with the latest location-aware apps
Shown in the image is SafetyNetMobile a RES app that does an amazing job of keeping you safe in the city. RES (Reality Enhancement Systems) are smart, location-aware apps that let you more powerfully, safely and efficiently connect to the surrounding reality.

Simply put, location changes everything. This one input - our coordinates - has the potential to change all the outputs. Where we shop, who we talk to, what we read, what we search for, where we go - they all change once we merge location and the Web ... more

Wired picks the ten best RES apps ... more

1/23/2009 PERMALINK
Caloric restriction may not extend life If you are a mouse on the chubby side, then eating less may help you live longer, but for lean mice and possibly for lean humans, the anti-aging strategy known as caloric restriction may be a pointless and even dangerous exercise. "Today there are a lot of very healthy people who look like skeletons because they bought into this," said Raj Sohal, professor at the University of Southern California's School of Pharmacy. He and Michael Forster, of the University of North Texas Health Science Center, compared the life span and caloric intake of two genetically engineered strains of mice."Our study questions the paradigm that caloric restriction is universally beneficial," Sohal said. "Contrary to what is widely believed, caloric restriction does not extend (the) life span of all strains of mice." For humans of normal weight, Sohal strongly cautions against caloric restriction ... more

1/23/2009 PERMALINK
Boosting BAFF hormone levels prevents transplant rejection
Stacey Walters, an immunology researcher at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, has found that by greatly boosting the levels of the hormone BAFF in mice, it is possible to alter their immune systems so that they will accept tissue transplants without the need for any immunosuppression. The image shows immune cells in dark purple clustering around the fringes of transplanted cells - which they would normally invade ... more

1/23/2009 PERMALINK
Stretchable electronics that can be wrapped around complex shapes
Jizhou Song, a professor in the University of Miami College of Engineering and his collaborators Professor John Rogers, at the University of Illinois and Professor Yonggang Huang, at Northwestern University have developed a new design for stretchable electronics that can be wrapped around complex shapes, without a reduction in electronic function. The secret of the design is in the silicon (Si) islands on which the active devices or circuits are fabricated. The islands form a chemically bonded, pre-strained elastomeric substrate. ... more

1/22/2009 PERMALINK
Bionic woman Lindsay Block puts her amazing new Luke Skywalker hand through its paces
Lindsay Block was born missing the lower part of her left arm as the result of a birth defect, but now at age 26 she has become one of the first to be fitted with the breakthrough i-LIMB hand from Touch Bionics, which can be used with or without amazingly realistic skin-like cosmetic gloves. "When I'm wearing the i-LIMB Hand," says Lindsay. "I'm pretty sure that someone who doesn't know me wouldn't even guess that it wasn't my own hand." ... more

1/22/2009 PERMALINK
Nanotubes & cubes create world's most precise biosensors
Researchers have created a precise biosensor for detecting blood glucose and potentially many other biological molecules by using single-wall carbon nanotubes anchored to gold-coated nanocubes. The sensor resembles a tiny cube-shaped tether ball and is anchored to electronic circuitry by a nanotube that acts as both a tether and ultra thin wire to conduct electrical signals, said Timothy Fisher, a Purdue University professor of mechanical engineering. The nanosensor, which detects glucose more precisely than any biosensors in development, could also be used to detect other types of biological molecules in medicine and scientific research ... more

1/22/2009 PERMALINK
Antibody found in patient offers potential cure for most autoimmune disorders & transplant rejection Dr. Edward Goetzl of the UCSF Medical Center has discovered a patient with the ability to make a unique antibody to her own T cells, the cells that mediate much of autoimmunity. Acting on the surface of T cells via a novel mechanism, this newly discovered antibody reduced the number of T cells in her blood stream, a result that usually requires a combination of many immunosuppressive and possibly toxic drugs. This unique antibody could lead to entirely new therapies for a wide range of autoimmune disorders, such as colitis, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and multiple sclerosis, as well as new ways to prevent transplant rejection. "The possibility that these antibodies can be used to treat diverse autoimmune diseases with minimal risk of infections represents a new horizon for reversing these disabling and often fatal conditions," said Dr. Goetzl.
The antibodies produced by this patient are able to block the sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) receptor on T cells. The S1P receptor is a cell-surface antenna that receives signals telling T cells to leave the lymph nodes and patrol the body. When this antenna was disabled, the T cells failed to leave the lymph nodes (chemotaxis), reducing their numbers in the bloodstream.
Taking this discovery one step further, the researchers created more of the patient's antibodies in the laboratory and gave them to mice with colitis (an autoimmune disorder). After receiving the antibodies, symptoms of colitis were reduced ... more

1/22/2009 PERMALINK
Ribbon 4x stronger than kevlar makes space elevator tether appear feasible
Professor Alan Windle's team at Cambridge University has created the world's strongest ribbon from carbon nanotubes. Their ribbon is four times stronger than Kevlar, which brings the concept of a space elevator closer to reality. The team plans to enter their ribbon in the space elevator tether competition in late April, 2009. Competition tethers must be 2 meters long with a maximum weight of 2 grams ... more ... more

1/22/2009 PERMALINK
More on how FDA kills thousands annually The Longevity Meme takes a look at how FDA bureaucrats likely kill a thousand people by delaying good drugs with their ridiculously long approval process for every one they save by keeping bad drugs off the market. And how they manage to muzzle anyone in the industry that would like to speak out about this bureaucratic holocaust.

An interview with the Osiris Therapeutics president is as revealing of the way in which the FDA constrains progress as it is of the work being done. Broadly promising scientific applications are held back for years and squashed down to minor, narrowly approved uses - and everyone involved has to speak as though this is wonderful and the best of all possible worlds lest they are targeted for retribution. It's a sorry state of affairs ... more

1/22/2009 PERMALINK
RNAi can block the replication of herpes viruses Professor Judy Lieberman, a senior investigator at the Harvard Medical School Immune Disease Institute, has overseen the development of a topical treatment that, in mice, disables key genes necessary for herpesvirus transmission. Using a laboratory method called RNA interference, or RNAi, the treatment cripples the virus in a molecular two-punch knockout, simultaneously disabling its ability to replicate, as well as the host cell's ability to take up the virus ... more

1/22/2009 PERMALINK
Viruses can be modded to support nerve cell growth Genetically engineered viruses, which have the advantage of being self-replicating and self-assembling, can be designed to express cell-friendly proteins on their surfaces and, with a little coaxing, be made into complex tissue-like structures. Preliminary studies show that scaffolds made using a type of virus called a bacteriophage (or phage) that infects bacteria but cannot invade animal cells can support the growth and organization of nerve cells ... more

1/21/2009 PERMALINK
Just tell the system what you want and it will understand you The automated speech recognition you face when you call a company today is only able to offer customers a series of options to slowly and fitfully narrow down the issue that prompted the call, before any solution can be supplied. But soon, thanks to the work of a European-wide effort to dramatically advance the power and intelligence of speech recognition called the Luna Project, you will be able to just tell the system what you want and it will understand you ... more

1/21/2009 PERMALINK
'Holy grail' breakthrough claimed for semiconducting nanotubes
After announcing last April a method for growing exceptionally long, straight, numerous and well-aligned carbon cylinders only a few atoms thick, a Duke University-led team of chemists has now modified that process to create exclusively semiconducting versions of these single-walled carbon nanotubes. The achievement "paves the way for manufacturing reliable electronic nanocircuits at the ultra-small billionths of a meter scale," said Jie Liu, Duke's Jerry G. and Patricia Crawford Hubbard Professor of Chemistry, who headed the effort. "I think it's the holy grail for the field. Every piece is now there, including the control of location, orientation and electronic properties all together. We are positioned to make large numbers of electronic devices such as high-current field-effect transistors and sensors." ... more

1/21/2009 PERMALINK
Language comes from your culture, not your genes
Language in humans has evolved culturally rather than genetically, according to a study by UCL (University College London) and US researchers. By modeling the ways in which genes for language might have evolved alongside language itself, the study showed that genetic adaptation to language would be highly unlikely, as cultural conventions change much more rapidly than genes. Thus, the biological machinery upon which human language is built appears to predate the emergence of language ... more

1/21/2009 PERMALINK
MIT's semi-autonomous forklift bot
Researchers in MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) are moving us closer to fully automated warehousing and shipping with their work on a semi-autonomous forklift. The forklift is designed to operate autonomously with high-level direction from a human supervisor who could be physically nearby or in a remote location ... more

1/21/2009 PERMALINK
Tuning double graphene sheets into forming semiconductor circuits
Researchers at Rensselaer have developed a new method for controlling the conductive nature of graphene. Pictured is a rendering of two sheets of graphene, each with the thickness of just a single carbon atom, resting on top of a silicon dioxide substrate. "Depending on the chemistry of the surface, we can control the nature of the graphene to be metallic or semiconductor," Nayak said. "Essentially, we are 'tuning' the electrical properties of material to suit our needs." ... more

1/21/2009 PERMALINK
Those with warrior gene (MAOA-L) respond more aggressively to provocation Individuals with the so-called warrior gene (MAOA-L) display higher levels of aggression in response to provocation, according to new research co-authored by Rose McDermott, professor of political science at Brown University. Monoamine oxidase A is an enzyme that breaks down important neurotransmitters in the brain, including dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. The enzyme is regulated by monoamine oxidase A gene (MAOA). Humans have various forms of this gene, resulting in different levels of enzymatic activity. People with the low-activity form (MAOA-L) produce less of the enzyme, while the high-activity form (MAOA-H) produces more of the enzyme. Studies show a correlation between the low-activity form of MAOA and aggression ... more

1/20/2009 PERMALINK
Ability of stem cells to fix damaged brains put to the test A major trial to assess whether stem cells can be used to treat stroke patients is underway in Glasgow. Cells made from a human foetus will be injected into patients' brains. It is hoped the cells will regenerate areas damaged by stroke, and increase patients' movements and mental abilities ... more

1/20/2009 PERMALINK
Cloud computing still lacks necessary level of resilience Cloud computing represents a technical strategy that's the very opposite of resilient, dangerously so. Current cloud computing sites fall short in terms of decentralization, graceful failure, flexibility, redundancy, transparency and openness ... more

1/20/2009 PERMALINK
Bot swims through your bloodstream
A range of complex surgical operations necessary to treat stroke victims, confront hardened arteries or address blockages in the bloodstream are about to be made safer as researchers from the Micro/Nanophysics Research Laboratory at Australia's Monash University put the final touches to the design of micro-motors small enough to be injected into the human bloodstream ... watch ... more

1/20/2009 PERMALINK
Plants genetically altered to produce any compound
MIT chemists have, for the first time, genetically altered a plant to produce entirely new compounds, some of which could be used as drugs against cancer and other diseases. The researchers, led by Sarah O'Connor of the Department of Chemistry, produced the new compounds by manipulating the complex biosynthetic pathways of the periwinkle plant ... more

1/19/2009 PERMALINK
Orbital boosters propelled by heat from a ground-based laser array Researchers believe that a computer-controlled ground-based laser array would be able to track a booster into orbit, providing the heat necessary to expand gas to launch payloads at a fraction of the cost required for today's chemical combustion rockets ... more

1/18/2009 PERMALINK
Can aging be reversed by cleaning out the body just like it was a toxic waste dump? One theory of aging is that, as the molecular junk collects in our bodies through the years, it causes the onset of disease. A research team at Arizona State's Biodesign Institute is working to discover if aging can be reversed using the same principles that they have successfully applied to remove harmful contaminants from the environment can be used to clean out the gunk that collects inside your body as you age ... more

1/17/2009 PERMALINK
Methane detection on Mars could mean life
The image shows concentrations of Methane detected on Mars by NASA researchers. "We observed and mapped multiple plumes of methane on Mars, one of which released about 19,000 metric tons of methane," said Dr. Geronimo Villanueva, a scientist at NASA's Goddard research center. "The plumes were emitted during the warmer seasons -- spring and summer -- perhaps because the permafrost blocking cracks and fissures vaporized, allowing methane to seep into the Martian air. Curiously, some plumes had water vapor while others did not." ... more

1/17/2009 PERMALINK
High oestradiol levels in women correlate with opportunistic mating Women with high levels of the sex hormone oestradiol may engage in opportunistic mating, according to a new study by psychology researchers at The University of Texas at Austin. "Our findings show that highly fertile women are not easily satisfied by their long-term partners and are motivated to seek out more desirable partners," researcher Kristina Durante explained ... more

1/17/2009 PERMALINK
Nanobots that find & target any defective protein in your body "Our lab is creating biological nano-machines," says Dr. Dan Peer of the Tel Aviv University, Department of Cell Research and Immunology. "These machines can target specific cells. In fact, we can target any protein that might be causing disease or disorder in the human body. This new invention treats the source, not the symptoms." ... more

1/17/2009 PERMALINK
Finally an effective way to get rid of deadly prions
Misfolded proteins called prions are believed to cause chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer and moose, mad cow in cattle, scrapie in sheep and Creutzfeldt-Jacob in humans. Anything infected with these prions, which leave infected brains full of holes as shown in the image, is nearly impossible to disinfection. Fire, ionizing radiation, chemical disinfectants and autoclaving can all fail to destroy all of the misfolded prions, making their removal extremely problematic. Now, a team of Wisconsin researchers has found that a common soil mineral, an oxidized from of manganese known as birnessite, can penetrate the prion's armor and degrade this deadly rouge protein ... more

1/16/2009 PERMALINK
Bots the size of a dust speck able to grab & remove living cells from your body
In experiments that pave the way for tiny mobile surgical tools activated by heat or chemicals, Johns Hopkins researchers have invented dust-particle-size devices that can be used to grab and remove living cells from hard-to-reach places without the need for electrical wires, tubes or batteries. Instead, the devices are actuated by thermal or biochemical signals. The mass-producible microgrippers each measure approximately one-tenth of a millimeter in diameter. In lab tests, they have been used to perform a biopsy-like procedure on animal tissue placed at the end of a narrow tube ... more

1/16/2009 PERMALINK
Major breakthrough in slowing brain aging A research team from the Universite de Montreal, Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has taken a giant step towards slowing brain aging and preventing neurodegenerative diseases by identifying a gene that controls the normal and pathological aging of neurons in the central nervous system: Bmi1. "Overall, we have now established that the Bmi1 gene is a direct regulator of cell aging in brain and retinal neurons of mammals through its action on the defense mechanisms against free radicals," says Dr. Gilbert Bernier ... more

1/15/2009 PERMALINK
Clear graphene film breakthrough promises thin bendable displays
In a breakthrough for thin film displays, researchers from the Sungkyunkwan University and the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, in Suwon, Korea, have made centimeters-wide graphene films that are 80 percent transparent and can be bent and stretched without breaking or losing their electrical properties. ... more

1/15/2009 PERMALINK
Far more powerful computers based on spintronics closer to reality Spintronics holds the promise of delivering computers than can run far faster than is possible with traditional electronic computers. But, in order to be able to manipulate the spins for information processing, it is necessary to inject the electrons singly with predefined spin into a semiconductor structure. Now, this has now been achieved by researchers of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Braunschweig and the University of Latvia in Riga ... more

1/15/2009 PERMALINK
Environmentalists seem eager to destroy all coastal cities
First they stopped nuclear power plant construction, causing hundreds of carbon dioxide spewing coal-fired plants to be built instead. Now environmentalists have succeed in blocking the most promising research into soaking up enough carbon dioxide using algae blooms, to prevent all the planet's coastal cities from winding up under 100 meters of water. Unless more rational heads can prevail, environmentalist-inspired Luddite policies are going to cause death and destruction on a massive scale. I've spoken to environmentalists who could care less about this. Indeed, they have as their goal reducing the human population as fast as possible by 90%. In their minds, the teaming masses of humans in all those coastal cities are nothing more than a parasitic infestation destroying their precious planet that needs to be exterminated. Map (creative commons) shows effects of 100 meter rise on North America, for more maps go here. What they fail to understand is that the natural life they see in today's wilderness areas will be naturally exterminated one day, unless there exists a powerful enough human civilization to save it, see the memes of The Humods Project ... more

1/15/2009 PERMALINK
Bot human interaction capabilities hit new highs
Watch this fascinating movie where a MIT Personal Robotics Group's MDS (mobile-dextrous-social) bot demonstrate just how expressive a bot can be using its verbal and non-verbal human interaction capabilities. This bot can now actually be purchased through the MIT spin-off company Xitome Design ... watch ... more

1/15/2009 PERMALINK
Injectable substance attracts & supports tissue repair cells Smart scaffolds developed by Erik Suuronen and his colleagues from the University of Ottawa and the Ottawa Heart Research Institute contain a protein that allows progenitor cells to adhere to the damaged tissue and survive long enough to promote healing. These cells emit homing signals that summon other cells to join in the process and give off chemical signals that order cells to grow blood vessels necessary for healing to occur. "Ultimately, we envision a scaffold material that can be taken off the shelf and injected into the hearts of patients suffering from blocked arteries," said Suuronen. "he scaffold materials would direct the repair process, and restore blood flow and function to the heart."... more

1/15/2009 PERMALINK
Nanoprobes that can recognize & target diseased tissue Angiogenesis, or the formation of new blood vessels, plays an important role in many human diseases. Now researchers have designed a nanoprobe with increased selectivity for cells that express a specific integrin receptor that serves as a biological marker for angiogenesis that is small enough to circulate, biodegradable and can be decorated with targeting groups in a novel way so that it can recognize diseased tissue ... more

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1/15/2009 PERMALINK
Human beta cells can be easily induced to replicate "Most scientists thought that these important pancreatic cells could not be induced to regenerate, or could only replicate very slowly," explained senior author Andrew F. Stewart, M.D., professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "This work provides proof-of-principle that the production of human beta cells can be stimulated, and that the newly generated cells function effectively both in the lab and in a living animal." ... more

1/14/2009 PERMALINK
Nano sensors 1,000 times more sensitive than existing sensors
NIST researchers have developed a new technique to form nanotubes into gas sensors 100 to 1,000 times more sensitive than existing sensors. The design uses a sheet of aluminum oxide about the thickness of a human hair and perforated with millions of holes about 200 nanometers wide. With the nanoscale pores serving as a mold, the researchers dipped the aluminum oxide sheet in a solution of tungsten ions, coating the interior of the pores and casting the nanotubes in place. After the nanotubes were formed, the team deposited thin layers of gold on the top and bottom of the aluminum oxide membrane to act as electrical contacts. Their device could be used to study biological cell stress and cell communication. ... more

1/14/2009 PERMALINK
Do-it-yourself biotech: building a better microbe Using engineering principles, researchers and students in MIT's Department of Biological Engineering are building a set of "off-the shelf parts" for cells, cataloging and assembling bacterial DNA sequences to produce microbes tailored for a specific task. Such bacteria could have numerous applications in medicine, energy and environmental cleanup. "If you could really program a cell to do your bidding, you could have it spit out drugs really quickly, or spit out biofuels," biological engineering instructor Natalie Kuldell. "It would be wonderful to replace refineries with small microbial factories." ... more

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1/14/2009 PERMALINK
DARPA's breakthrough humods tech restoring lost limbs
This month's issue of IEEE Spectrum has a fascinating cover story on DARPA's Revolutionizing Prosthetics program, a Manhattan Project for prosthetic limbs ... more

1/14/2009 PERMALINK
The nPower personal energy generator
Never lose battery power again with the nPower PEG (Personal Energy Generator). The nPower PEG is an environmentally friendly, portable way to recharge your handheld electronic devices including your cell phone, MP3 player, PDA, digital camera, and GPS. nPower provides you never-ending security, communication, and entertainment when you need it most; while you are on the go. The power is in you! ... more

1/14/2009 PERMALINK
A simple, cheap way to turn nanotubes into semiconductors Carbon nanotubes hold promise as a material for making thin, flexible electronics like displays and solar cells. But one stumbling block to making transistors out of them has been achieving the right combination of electrical properties in the nanotubes. Now a simple chemical processing method developed by researchers at Cornell University and DuPont overcomes this obstacle and provides a path toward low-cost, commercially viable electronic inks. The addition of fluorine molecules to the metallic nanotubes converts them into semiconducting nanotubes ... more

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1/14/2009 PERMALINK
Genetically Engineered Nanofiber-Like Viruses For Tissue Regenerating We have genetically engineered M13 bacteriophage (phage), naturally occurring nanofiber-like viruses, to display a high density of cell-signaling peptides on their major coat proteins ... more

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1/13/2009 PERMALINK
Nanoscale MRI offers 3D images of viruses and even molecules Researchers at IBM Almaden Research Center have developed an MRI scanner with resolution 100 million times better than previously achieved. Good enough to image individual viral particles and with further refinements, the technique could potentially generate 3-D images of individual molecules. "The dream of imaging a single molecule is something that keeps chemists up at night," says John Marohn, an associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell University. "If you had this tool, there's no end of things that you could do with it, and there's no end to the good that would come of it." ... more ... more

1/13/2009 PERMALINK
World's first mass-produced plug-in hybrid electric mobile pod
China's BYD Auto is showing off the world's first mass-produced plug-in hybrid electric vehicle at the Detroit auto show. The five-year-old automaker, which is a subsidiary of the No. 1 supplier of lithium-ion batteries for cell phones, began selling the dual-mode hybrid in China last month. At least a full year before rivals General Motors and Toyota bring electric-powered vehicles to market. The F3DM can travel 62 miles using only batteries. Then a 1.0-liter all-aluminum gasoline engine comes on to generate electricity for the vehicle's battery pack, which in turn powers the vehicle's 75-kilowatt electric motor. The company plans to bring the car to America in the next couple of years at about half the price of GM's Volt ... more

1/12/2009 PERMALINK
Breakthrough in fabbing complex atomic structures An international team of scientists, including researchers from the Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics department at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, have developed a new method for the manipulation of atoms based on the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), which makes it possible to build stable atomic structures at room temperature and drastically reduces the time necessary to realize complex atomic structures ... more

1/12/2009 PERMALINK
Gorge all day long without adding an ounce of fat "We have discovered a new enzyme within fat cells that is a key regulator of fat metabolism and body weight, making it a promising target in the search for a treatment for human obesity," said Hei Sook Sul, UC Berkeley professor of nutritional sciences and toxicology and principal investigator of the research. The enzyme in the spotlight, adipose-specific phospholipase A2 (AdPLA), is found in abundance only in fat tissue. AdPLA sets off a chain of events that increases levels of a signaling molecule called prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), which suppresses the breakdown of fat. Mice that have no AdPLA have lower PGE2 levels and a higher rate of fat metabolism. "When levels of PGE2 are decreased because of the lack of AdPLA, fat breakdown proceeds unchecked, resulting in leanness even in animals that eat all day long," said co-lead author Robin Duncan ... more

1/12/2009 PERMALINK
Common mechanism may underlie many neurodegenerative diseases Molecules, vesicles and organelles within a cell are constantly carried via a network of crisscrossing microtubules that act like the tracks of an elaborate railroad system. Disruptions in this railroad system have been seen in many neuro-degenerative diseases, but regarded as byproducts, but new research lead by Matthew J. Farrer, PhD, a professor of neuroscience at Mayo Clinic, shows that mutations in a subunit of the dynactin complex (DCTN1; p150glued), which is essential to the movement of molecular cargo inside neurons could actually be a cause of various types of neuro-degenerative diseases ... more

1/12/2009 PERMALINK
An implant that fine tunes your immune cells Implants that sit in the body and reprogram a person's immune cells could be used to treat a range of infectious diseases and even cancer. In a trial on mice with an aggressive melanoma that usually kills within 25 days, the new treatment saved 90% of the group. Their breakthrough involves implanting cylinders of an FDA-approved biodegradable polymer into the body. The implants release a particular variety of the cell-signalling molecules called cytokines - a sort of molecular perfume that is irresistible to a certain kind of immune-system messenger cell ... more

1/12/2009 PERMALINK
You may soon be talking to a real Artificial Intelligence SmartAction claims to be commercializing a true Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) system that functions as a call center operator developed by their parent company A2i2.

Our LiveAGI Brain takes it far beyond simple keyword recognition with the capability to ask open-ended natural language questions like what can we do for you today?, understand the caller's free-form answers, and respond with prompt, personalized, context-relevant, clear, accurate answers. Callers can also barge in at will, use their own words to describe their reason for calling, and even change the topic ... more

From the A2i2 web site:

AGIs do not need to be programmed to do new tasks. Instead, they are simply instructed and taught by humans. Additionally, these systems can learn by themselves both implicitly 'on-the-job', and explicitly by reading and practicing. Furthermore, just like humans, they resiliently adapt to changing circumstances. Recent advances in computer technology combined with insights from fields as varied as psychology, philosophy, evolution, brain physiology, and information theory allow us to finally solve the previously intractable problems of creating real AI. The long-promised power of truly intelligent machines will soon be available to help us solve the many problems facing mankind ... more

1/11/2009 PERMALINK
100 high-def movies on a stamp-sized chip within 5 years Expect within 5 years to be able to store 100 movies in glorious high-definition on a card the size of a postage stamp for viewing on your cellphone whenever and wherever you like. This prediction was made by the SD Association, a trade group of more than 1,100 technology companies that sets interoperable memory card standards, at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show ... more

1/11/2009 PERMALINK
Spinning nano-scaffolds for growing replacement body parts Researchers from the University of British Columbia, believe that their new electrospinning process for creating scaffolding materials for the growth of human cells into organs could soon be generating a variety of replacement parts for the human body. The key to Professor Frank Ko's work is his unique technology for making scaffolds from millions of tiny fibers, each acting as a site for tissue growth. He accomplishes this using a novel technique known as electrospinning, which can be used to fabricate fibers that are 10,000 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair. These nano-fibers, when piled on top of one another, provide a perfect scaffold for new tissue growth. ... more

1/11/2009 PERMALINK
Gold nanoparticles array used to detect neuron activity Hippocampal (brain) neural cells were grown onto a plasmonic gold nanoparticles template and cellular level individual transient signals were detected optically when the chemically triggered neurons switched their potential. ... more

1/10/2009 PERMALINK
How life began - RNA enzymes that can replicate themselves
How did life begin on Earth? Molecules that have the ability to make copies of themselves like living systems are thought to be crucial link to the beginning of life. Now, in what appears to be a major breakthrough in understanding how life began, a pair of Scripps Research Institute scientists have synthesized for the first time RNA enzymes that can replicate themselves without the help of any proteins or other cellular components, and the process proceeds indefinitely. "This is the only case outside biology where molecular information has been immortalized," says Professor Gerald Joyce, who conducted the research with Kellogg School graduate student Tracey Lincoln.
The replicating system actually involves two enzymes, each composed of two subunits and each functioning as a catalyst that assembles the other. The replication process is cyclic, in that the first enzyme binds the two subunits that comprise the second enzyme and joins them to make a new copy of the second enzyme; while the second enzyme similarly binds and joins the two subunits that comprise the first enzyme. In this way the two enzymes assemble each other -- what is termed cross-replication. To make the process proceed indefinitely requires only a small starting amount of the two enzymes and a steady supply of the subunits. ... more

1/09/2009 PERMALINK
Breakthrough metal-plastic hybrid composite
Researchers at IFAM in Bremen have created a plastic-metal hybrid where the different materials are not merely slotted together or bonded, but mixed in a special process to form a single material. This process produces a homogeneous and fine-meshed network that combines the chemical stability and low weight of plastics with the electrical and thermal conductivity of metals ... more

1/09/2009 PERMALINK
Liquid wood can replace petro-based plastic in toys
Toys and other items that have to put up with a lot of rough treatment are typically made from plastics based on petroleum. But now researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology are making these items from liquid wood, a bio-plastic known as ARBOFORM that is made of one hundred percent renewable raw materials and is not reliant on petroleum ... more

1/09/2009 PERMALINK
Tiny implantable blood pressure sensor
High blood pressure often must be monitored over a long time before it can be properly regulated. This will now be made easier by an implantable pressure sensor. "A doctor introduces the pressure sensor directly into the femoral artery in the groin," explains head of department Dr. Hoc Khiem Trieu of the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems. "The sensor, which has a diameter of about one millimeter including its casing, measures the patient's blood pressure 30 times per second." ... more

1/09/2009 PERMALINK
Cheaper than ever electronic devices fabbed by ink jet printers
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute of Integrated Systems and Device Technology IISB in Erlangen have now commissioned a process line in which electron devices can be printed from inorganic materials using an ink jet similar to those in any office printer. "We use ink made of nanoparticles and add a stabilizer so that the particles can be easily processed and do not clump together," says IISB group manager Dr. Michael Jank ... more

1/09/2009 PERMALINK
Creating super batteries from thin films of carbon nanotubes Researchers at MIT have made pure, dense, thin films of carbon nanotubes that show promise as electrodes for higher-capacity batteries and supercapacitors. Dispensing with the additives previously used to hold such films together improved their electrical properties, including the ability to carry and store a large amount of charge ... more

1/09/2009 PERMALINK
Nanohoop dream - new era of efficient carbon nanotube production
The shortest segment of a carbon nanotube has been synthesized for the first time. The newly synthesized compound, called cycloparaphenylene, could usher in a new era of more efficient carbon nanotube production. As the shortest possible segment of a carbon nanotube, scientists can use the segment to grow much longer carbon nanotubes in a controlled way, with each nanotube identical to the next ... more

1/08/2009 PERMALINK
Can eTEN's new web technologies dramatically boost participation in local politics?
The eTEN project to bring politics to the people set itself a well-defined target of increasing by 25% the total physical attendance in a council chamber and online viewing of public proceedings. The results exceeded the project’s wildest expectations. Afterits web services deployed in ten local authorities across Europe, chambers of participating local authorities were standing room only, heralding the potential for a complete renewal of the local political process ... more