HERB (Home-Exploring Robot Butler) is new class of robot developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University‘s Robotics Institute that can discover objects in its surroundings by using more than just computer vision.
The Lifelong Robotic Object Discovery (LROD) process developed by the research team enabled HERB, a two-armed, mobile robot, to use color video, a Kinect depth camera, and non-visual information to discover more than 100… read more
Patient-specific bone substitutes from skin cells for repair of large bone defects are now possible, thanks to research by a team of New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute scientists.
The study represents a major advance in personalized reconstructive treatments for patients with bone defects resulting from disease or trauma. It promises to lead to customizable, three-dimensional bone grafts on-demand, matched to fit the exact… read more
Columbia Engineering researchers have developed a technique to encapsulate a single water molecule inside a buckyball (C60) molecular structure.
Using computer modeling, they discovered that the resulting structure responds in a surprising way to an electric field: the whole structure can be driven in either direction through a narrow channel, with adjustable transport velocity
The researchers believe their discovery could have practical applications, such… read more
UCLA life scientists have identified a gene previously implicated in Parkinson’s disease that can delay the onset of aging and extend the healthy life span of fruit flies. The research, they say, could have important implications for aging and disease in humans.
The gene, called parkin, serves at least two vital functions: it marks damaged proteins so that cells can discard them before they become… read more
In a promising development for type 1 diabetes treatment, researchers have developed a network of nanoscale particles that can be injected into the body and release insulin when blood-sugar levels rise, maintaining normal blood sugar levels for more than a week in animal-based laboratory tests.
The work was done by researchers at North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Massachusetts Institute… read more
North Dakota State University. researchers have developed a new way of embedding traceable chips within “smart” paper — raising the possibility of banks and governments guarding against counterfeiting and even tracking the usage of paper money, IEEE Spectrum reports.
The new method of embedding radio frequency identification chips (RFID) in paper uses a patent-pending technology called Laser Enabled Advanced Packaging (LEAP) to transfer and assemble… read more
Jaron Lanier’s new tech manifesto, Who owns the future? “delivers “Olympian, contrarian fighting words about the Internet’s exploitative powers” and big Web entities and their business models, The New York Times reports.
The book reiteraties ideas from Lanier’s previous book — Web businesses exploit a peasant class, users of social media may not realize how entrapped they are, a thriving middle class is essential… read more
Two new portable diagnostic devices for rapid, accurate diagnosis of tuberculosis and other bacterial infections have been developed by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, and the Broad Institute.
A microfluidic device for diagnosing TB, other infectious bacteria
A handheld diagnostic device that MGH investigators first developed to diagnose cancer has been adapted to rapidly diagnose tuberculosis… read more
A record-setting blast of gamma rays from a dying star in a galaxy about 3.6 billion light-years away has wowed astronomers around the world — the highest-energy light ever detected from such an event.
At 3:47 a.m. EDT, April 27, Fermi’s Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) triggered on an eruption, designated GRB 130427A, of high-energy light in the constellation Leo.
The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) recorded one gamma ray… read more
Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson has test-fired the world’s first fully 3D-printed gun — “the Liberator.”
The CAD file is downloadable* at DEFCAD, operated by Defense Distributed — a “makeshift response to Makerbot Industries’ decision to censor files uploaded in good faith at Thingiverse, specifically firearms-related files.”
More
Meet The ‘Liberator’: Test-Firing The World’s First Fully 3D-Printed Gun… read more
By using light, researchers at UC Santa Barbara have manipulated the quantum state of a single atomic-sized defect in diamond — the nitrogen-vacancy center — in a method that allows for more unified control than conventional processes.
The method is also more versatile, and opens up the possibility of exploring new solid-state quantum systems.
“In contrast to conventional electronics, we developed an all-optical scheme… read more
Scientists from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research have led a study team that has manipulated human stem cells into producing types of brain cells known to play important roles in neurodevelopmental disorders such as epilepsy, schizophrenia and autism.
The new model cell system allows neuroscientists to investigate normal brain development, as well as to identify specific disruptions in biological signals… read more
Whitehead Institute Founding Member Rudolf Jaenisch, who helped transform the study of genetics by creating the first transgenic mouse in 1974, is again revolutionizing how genetically altered animal models are created and perhaps even redefining what species may serve as models.
“This new method is a game changer,” says Jaenisch, who is also a professor of biology at MIT. “We can now make a… read more
A quantum internet capable of sending perfectly secure messages has been running at Los Alamos National Labs for the last two and a half years, MIT Technology Review reports.
One of the dreams for security experts is the creation of a quantum internet using quantum cryptography that allows perfectly secure communication based on the powerful laws of quantum mechanics.
The researchers created a quantum network based around… read more
Two separate teams of researchers working on DARPA’s Quantum-Assisted Sensing and Readout (QuASAR) program, led by the University of Stuttgart in Germany and IBM’s Almaden Research Center, have developed a nanoscale magnetometer that enables magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with sufficient resolution to measure as few as 10,000 protons in a volume of only 125 cubic nanometers, which approaches the level of individual protein molecules. … read more