Most Recently Added Most commentedBy Title | A-Z

Page 18 of 1,025First1014151617181920212223304050Last

A camera that peers around corners

March 22, 2012

mitcamera

MIT Media Lab researchers have developed a camera that can see around corners.

The system can produced recognizable 3-D images of a wooden figurine and of foam cutouts outside their camera’s line of sight.

The research could ultimately lead to imaging systems that allow emergency responders to evaluate dangerous environments or vehicle navigation systems that can negotiate blind turns, among other applications.

The principle behind the… read more

Topics: Electronics | Physics/Cosmology

Comments (1)

A cancer gene therapy activated by a pill

March 18, 2013

ZIOPHARM_Logo

A unique new cancer treatment uses gene therapy to induce a cancer-fighting immune response whose intensity can then be controlled with a pill. The combination could help tailor treatment to a patient’s individual response, MIT Technology Review reports.

The treatment uses the body’s own cells or tumor cells to produce extra copies of a naturally occurring hormone-like molecule called IL-12, which regulates anticancer immune responses. Last week,… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Biotech

Comments (3)

A cardboard bike

October 18, 2012

cardboard-bike

Working from his garden shed, Israeli inventor Izhar Gafni has invented a $20 cardboard bike, says The Telegraph.

The solid tires are made of reconstituted rubber from old car tires and some proprietary materials have been added for water protection and other purposes.

“This is a real game changer,” said Nimrod Elmish, Gafni’s business partner. ”It changes … the way products are manufactured and shipped, it causes factories to… read more

Topics: Innovation/Entrepreneurship | Nanotech/Materials Science

Comments (22)

A case of mistaken identity crisis

June 10, 2005

People afflicted with multiple personalities reveal that the idea of the self is a fiction.

The illusion of self is merely a by-product of the brain’s organizational sophistication.

Benjamin Libet conducted an experiment in which he found that the brain activity began about half a second before the person was aware of deciding to act. The conscious decision came far too late to be the cause of the… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

Comments (0)

A Casimir chip that exploits the vacuum energy

July 31, 2012

Casimir forces on parallel plates (credit: Emok/Wikipedia Commons)

University of Florida researchers have have developed a way to keep objects flat enough to measure the strange Casimir force, which pushes two parallel conducting plates together when they are just a few dozen nanometers apart,  Technology Review Physics arXiv Blog reports.

They carved a single device out of silicon that is capable of measuring the Casimir force between a pair of parallel silicon beams, the first on-chip… read more

Topics: Nanotech/Materials Science | Physics/Cosmology

Comments (5)

A Catalyst for Cheaper Fuel Cells

April 3, 2009

Researchers at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) in Quebec have dramatically increased the performance of an iron-based catalyst.

Their material produces 99 amps per cubic centimeter at 0.8 volts, a key measurement of catalytic activity. That is 35 times better than the best nonprecious metal catalyst so far, and close to the Department of Energy’s goal for fuel-cell catalysts: 130 amps per cubic centimeter.

Topics: Energy

Comments (0)

A Cautionary Tale for a New Age of Surveillance

October 8, 2001

It’s being proposed as a solution for terrorism. But once thousands of cameras from hundreds of separate closed circuit TV systems are able to feed their digital images to a central monitoring station, and the images can be analyzed with face- and behavioral-recognition software to identify unusual patterns, then the possibilities of the Panopticon (see-all surveillance system) will suddenly become very real.
The creation of a surveillance society in Britain,… read more

Topics: Survival/Defense | VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics

Comments (0)

A cell becomes a laser

June 13, 2011

This microscope image shows green laser light shining from a single biological cell (credit: Malte Gather).

The world’s first biological laser has been developed by physicists Malte Gather and Seok-Hyun Yun of Harvard Medical School. Built into a single cell, the laser might one day be used for light-based therapeutics, perhaps killing cancer cells deep inside the body.

The biolaser uses a green fluorescent protein (GFP). The researchers used cells derived from a human kidney, adding the DNA that codes for GFP. The… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Biotech | Physics/Cosmology

Comments (2)

A centenary celebration of the life and work of Alan Turing

June 21, 2012

Google recognizes Alan Turing's 100th birthday: June 23, 2012

June 23, 2012, is the Centenary of Alan Turing’s birth in London.

During his relatively brief life, Turing made a unique impact on the history of computing, computer science, artificial intelligence, developmental biology, and the mathematical theory of computability.

A number of major events are taking place throughout the year in celebration of Turing’s life and scientific impact. Most of these will be linked… read more

Topics: Physics/Cosmology

Comments (2)

A Central Nervous System for Earth: HP’s Ambitious Sensor Network

November 20, 2009

HP Labs has announced a project that aims to be a “Central Nervous System for the Earth” (CeNSE): a R&D program to build a planetwide sensing network, using billions of tiny accelerometers that detect motion and vibrations, and later, ones for light, temperature, barometric pressure, airflow and humidity.

The nodes could be stuck to bridges and buildings to warn of structural strains or weather conditions and along roadsides to… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Computers/Infotech/UI | Electronics | Environment/Climate

Comments (0)

A challenge facing designers of future computer chips

November 8, 2012

The total conductance per unit area is similar for both tungsten (W) and gold (Au). However, by joining the two highly conducting metals, one finds a conductance density that is about 4 times lower of either material individually. (Credit: David J. Olivera et al./PNAS)

To build the computer chips of the future, designers will need to understand how an electrical charge behaves when it is confined to metal wires only a few atom-widths in diameter.

Researchers at at McGill University General Motors R&D, have shown that electrical current could be drastically reduced when wires from two dissimilar metals meet. The surprisingly sharp reduction in current reveals a significant challenge… read more

Topics: Electronics | Nanotech/Materials Science | Physics/Cosmology

Comments (22)

A chance to finish life: UPDATE

August 31, 2012

kim_suozzi

UPDATE 8/31/2012 10:15 a.m. EDT:

This just in from Shannon Vyff: “We have raised $27,000.00 in just a week, we were at $17,000.00 Thursday when a generous $10,000.00 donation from Life Extension Foundation come in. Our minimum goal is $35,000.00 to cover transportation and cryopreservation costs — if additional funds are raised Kim is hoping to be able to cover standby as well. I’m very thankful to our… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity

Comments (68)

A cheap and easy plan to stop global warming

February 8, 2013

Phytoplankton bloom as a form of geoengineering (credit: Wikimedia Media)

Here is the plan. Customize several Gulfstream business jets with military engines and with equipment to produce and disperse fine droplets of sulfuric acid. Fly the jets up around 20 kilometers-significantly higher than the cruising altitude for a commercial jetliner but still well within their range. At that altitude in the tropics, the aircraft are in the lower stratosphere, reports MIT Technology Review.

The planes spray the… read more

Topics: Environment/Climate

Comments (80)

A Cheaper Solar Concentrator

February 20, 2009

Morgan Solar’s solar concentrator design promises to significantly lower the cost of generating electricity from the sun.

Topics: Energy

Comments (0)

A Chemical to Grow Brain Cells

July 9, 2010

BlogNeurons

In research with mice at UT Southwestern Medical Center, a compound dubbed P7C3 enhanced production of new neurons in the hippocampus, a brain area involved in learning and memory.

It could also increase birth and survival of new neurons in older rats, according to statement by UT Southwestern Medical Center. The animals also had improved memory: they could better remember the location of a platform submerged in water,… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

Comments (0)

Page 18 of 1,025First1014151617181920212223304050Last
close and return to Home