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Ultrasensitive biosensor promising for medical diagnostics

May 16, 2012

This graphic depicts a new ultrasensitive biosensor that could open up new opportunities for early detection of cancer and "personalized medicine" tailored to the specific biochemistry of individual patients. The device, called a flexure-FET biosensor, could be several hundred times more sensitive than other biosensors (credit: Purdue University)

An ultrasensitive biosensor that could allow for early detection of cancer and for personalized medicine tailored to the specific biochemistry of individual patients has been developed by Purdue University researchers.

The Flexure-FET biosensor combines a mechanical sensor, which identifies a biomolecule based on its mass or size, with an electrical sensor that identifies molecules…

Nvidia flaunts Kepler’s GPU power in video demos

May 16, 2012

kepler_realtime_raytracing

Nvidia is flexing its graphics muscle at the 2012 GPU Technology Conference, and the videos below show off Kepler’s new visual tricks:real-time ray tracing, simulation of physical bodies, and cloud gaming powered by its new GeForce Grid system.

Protein synthesis at synapses

May 16, 2012

HCN132_Well03_Cell01_DAPI-Map2-Dlg4mRNA_DN-black_C0_Z000_005

Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Brain Research researchers have used new-generation sequencing to directly identify a very large number (more than 2500) of mRNA molecules present in axons and dendrites. The finding my help explain how proteins establish long-term memories.

During learning, information is stored at the synapses, the junctions connecting nerve cells. Synapses also…

Key genes for schizophrenia identified

May 16, 2012

candidate_genes_schizofrenia

An Indiana University-led research team and collaborators have identified and prioritized a comprehensive group of genes most associated with schizophrenia and that can generate a score indicating whether an individual is at higher or lower risk of developing the disease.

They used a convergent functional genomics approach that incorporates a variety of experimental…

NASA trains astronauts for asteroid mission

May 16, 2012

Armageddon film (credit: Touchstone Pictures)

NASA is training a team of astronauts to land on an asteroid to explore its surface, search for minerals, and even learn the skills they may need to destroy it should one pose a threat to the Earth.

NASA hopes to launch an unmanned spacecraft that will use a robotic arm to collect… [ The Telegraph ]

Gene therapy for aging-associated decline tested

May 16, 2012

telomerase_gene_therapy_mice

Mouse lifespan was extended up to 24 percent with a single gene treatment in research at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), using gene therapy, a strategy never before employed to combat aging.

Mice treated at the age of one lived longer by 24% on average, and those treated at the age…

Single protein controls neurotransmitters

May 16, 2012

Calcium_release

Weill Cornell Medical College scientists have discovered that single protein alpha 2 delta controls the volume of neurotransmitters and other chemicals that flow between the synapses of brain neurons.

The study shows how brain cells talk to each other through these signals, relaying thoughts, feelings and action, and this powerful molecule plays a crucial…

Using light to switch gene expression on and off for testing therapies

May 15, 2012

tfo_gene_blocker

North Carolina State University researchers are using light-activated molecules to turn gene expression on and off. Their method enables greater precision when studying gene function, and could lead to targeted therapies for diseases like cancer.

NC State chemist Dr. Alex Deiters decided to use Triplex-forming oligonucleotides (TFOs), which are molecules that can…

Benefits and risks of direct-to-consumer genetics tests

May 15, 2012

23andme finished sample bag

Patients see potential benefits from direct-to-consumer genetic testing, but are also concerned about how the test results will be used, and are generally unwilling to pay more than $10 or $20 for them, according to focus groups conducted by researchers at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

More than a dozen…

China launches alternatives to Android, Google Drive, iOS, iTunes

May 15, 2012

baidu-phone-official

Baidu, the Chinese answer to Google, has announced details of its soon-to-launch new smartphone and the cloud-centric operating system (OS) that will power it.

The Foxconn-built Changhong H5018 will be the first device powered by Baidu’s “Cloud Smart Terminal” platform, marking ”the arrival of a new era” of sub $150 (1,000 RMB)… [ The Next Web ]

Italian quadruped robot goes for a walk

May 15, 2012

hyq robot outdoor test

Researchers from the Italian Institute of Technology took their quadruped robot HyQ for a test run outside the lab for the first time to test new tricks HyQ has learned, including the ability to trot over obstacles without falling, IEET Spectrum Automaton reports

The robot is still a strange headless creature, and…

Android payback: Apple to cut Google out of stunning new 3D maps app in iOS6

May 15, 2012

New Apple maps image based on C3 3D technology (credit: Apple)

It was widely reported yesterday that Apple will likely announce at its WWDC in June that the new version of the built-in maps app in iOS6 will not be fed by Google maps. Instead, Apple has developed its own, in-house 3-D mapping database, based… [ Forbes ]

Generating electricity from viruses as you walk

May 15, 2012

berkeley_electricity_from_viruses

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a way to generate power using harmless viruses that convert mechanical energy into electricity.

The generator produces enough current to operate a small liquid-crystal display. It works by tapping a finger on a postage stamp-sized electrode coated…

Wearing a computer is good for you

May 15, 2012

(credit: iBGStar)

Fitness trends and health-care problems are creating demand for tiny computers we won’t even notice we’re carrying.

What if your doctor had already received the information from a tiny device built into your cell phone, wallet, or undershirt? Sonny Vu, a cofounder of the medical-device company AgaMatrix, believes a device like this could fundamentally change… [ Technology Review ]

New type of retinal prosthesis could restore sight to blind

May 14, 2012

A photovoltaic retinal prosthesis --- a flexible sheet of silicon pixels that convert light into electrical signals that can be picked up by neurons in the eye. A scanning-electron micrograph shows the implant in a pig’s eye. (Credit: Nature Photonics/Stanford)

Scientists tested the photovoltaic stimulation using the prosthetic device’s diode arrays in rat retinas in vitro and how they elicited electric responses, which are widely accepted indicators of visual activity, from retinal cells . The scientists are now testing the system in live rats, taking both physiological and behavioral measurements, and are hoping to find…

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Looking to the future of A New Kind of Science

May 15, 2012 by Stephen Wolfram

wolfram

Today ten years have passed since A New Kind of Science (”the NKS book”) was published. But in many ways the development that started with the book is still only just beginning. And over the next several decades I think its effects will inexorably become ever more obvious and important.

Indeed, even at an…

Swarms of tiny intelligent drones with cameras — what could go wrong?

May 10, 2012 by Amara D. Angelica

flying_3d_eyebots

Are you ready for Eye-Bots — flying smarms of intelligent drones that zoom in and track everything going on?

Yo boy, this one’s gonna make them spyder bots in Minority Report and Big-Brother TV sets in 1984 look positively user-friendly.

A flock of flying robots rises slowly into the air with

Are you a Facebook addict?

May 8, 2012 by Amara D. Angelica

(Credit: iStockphoto)

Are you a Facebook addict? Take the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale test, developed in Norway, and find out.

Do you (1) Very rarely, (2) Rarely, (3) Sometimes, (4) Often, or (5) Very often:

  • Spend a lot of time thinking about Facebook or plan use of Facebook.
  • Feel an urge to use Facebook

Cellphones that can see through walls and detect cancer

April 23, 2012 by Amara D. Angelica

Terahertz imager

University of Texas at Dallas researchers have designed an imager chip that could one day turn mobile phones into devices that can see through walls, wood, plastics, paper and other objects.

The UT Dallas imager chip technology being explored by UT Dallas researchers is designed for imaging in the terahertz frequency range, specifically from 280 GHz…

Black boxes to be required in all new cars from 2015

April 23, 2012 by Amara D. Angelica

1984-Big-Brother

A new bill (Senate Bill 1813, known as MAP-21) passed by the U.S. Senate in March calls for “mandatory event data recorders” to be installed in all new passenger motor vehicles sold in the U.S. for recording data before, during, or after a crash.

As stated in Section 31406 of the

Is there a Japanese plan to evacuate 40 million people?

April 16, 2012 by Amara D. Angelica

Chinese ghost city

[Note: according to a knowledgeable intel source, this report from What Does It Mean blog is based on Russian disinformation, with the intention of neutralizing what the Russians see as a Japanese threat.]

According to What Does It Mean, a new report circulating in the Kremlin prepared by the Foreign Ministry on the planned re-opening of talks with…

Will a Dutch discovery lead to understanding dark matter and a real quantum computer? UPDATE APR 17

April 16, 2012 by Amara D. Angelica

Indium Antemonide

UPDATE APR 17, 2012: “One, however, has to be cautious because while this experiment from Delft has provided the likely necessary evidence for the existence of the Majorana, the sufficient conditions are more difficult to achieve and may take more time.” — Sankar Das Sarma, University of Maryland (press release). Also see: “Zero bias

When creative machines overtake man

March 31, 2012 by Jürgen Schmidhuber

robohorsegm1

Machine intelligence is improving rapidly, to the point that the scientist of the future may not even be human! In fact, in more and more fields, learning machines are already outperforming humans. As noted in this transcript of a talk at TEDxLausanne on Jan. 20, 2012, artificial intelligence expert Jürgen Schmidhuber isn’t able to predict the

Russia 2045: will the Singularity be launched in Russia?

March 29, 2012 by Ben Goertzel

gf2045robotarms

For 3 days in late February, Russian businessman Dmitry Itskov gathered 500+ futurists in Moscow for a “Global Future 2045 Congress” — the latest manifestation of his “Russia 2045” movement.

The Congress featured an impressive roster of Russian scientists, engineers and visionaries, along with American and West European futurist leaders like Ray…

A universe of self-replicating code

March 27, 2012 by John Brockman

georgedyson

What we’re missing now, on another level, is not just biology, but cosmology. People treat the digital universe as some sort of metaphor, just a cute word for all these products. The universe of Apple, the universe of Google, the universe of Facebook, that these collectively constitute the digital universe, and we can only see

Let’s bring back apprenticeships!

March 23, 2012 by Dale J. Stephens

UnCollege

Dale J. Stephens, age 20, is a Thiel Fellow and leads UnCollege, the social movement changing the notion that college is the only path to success. His first book, Hacking Your Education, will be published by Penguin in 2013.

The idea that the world is constantly changing — and faster than ever before — is nothing…

Will corporations prevent the Singularity?

March 16, 2012 by Ben Goertzel

Singapore_skyscrapers

It occurred to me recently that the world possesses some very powerful intelligent organisms that are directly and clearly opposed to the Singularity — corporations.

Human beings are confused and confusing creatures. We don’t have very clear goal systems, and are quite willing and able to adapt our top-level goals to the circumstances. I…

Crowdfunded science projects

March 14, 2012 by Amara D. Angelica

Exomoon project (Harvard)

Got a cool idea for a research project, but need funding? Check out Petridish.org, which has just launched crowdfunded science and research projects. I think this is a really great idea that could open up funding for some amazing research ideas.

On Petridish.org, researchers post materials about themselves and their research, and…

Welcome to your future android clone

March 12, 2012 by Amara D. Angelica

Bina48 android (credit:

This is the most interesting event at SXSW I’ve heard of so far: “Robot panelists, AI and the future of identity.”

It’s a session Monday at SXSW (3:30PM  – 4:30PM), where Bruce Duncan, Managing Director of the Terasem Movement Foundation, will bring us up to date on Terasem’s amazing LifeNaut project.

The new iPad: awesome

March 7, 2012 by Amara D. Angelica

the-new-ipad

The new iPad, introduced today, has a 264 pixels/inch “retina” display with 2048 x 1536 pixels (3.1 million), compared to 1920 x 1080 with HDTV; 5 megapixels camera with 1080P HD video (and new version of iMovie) with autofocus and face detection in still images; new A5X quad-core processor that is “four…

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Latest essays

Singularity Q&A

December 9, 2011 by Ray Kurzweil

techno human

Originally published in 2005 with the launch of The Singularity is Near.

Questions and Answers

So what is the Singularity?

Within a quarter century, nonbiological intelligence will match the range and subtlety of human intelligence. It will then soar past it because of the continuing acceleration of information-based technologies, as well as…

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