How you represent yourself in the virtual world of video games may affect how you behave toward others in the real world, new University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign research published in Psychological Science suggests.
“Our results indicate that just five minutes of role-play in virtual environments as either a hero or villain can easily cause people to reward or punish anonymous strangers,” says lead researcher Gunwoo Yoon.
The… read more
A new low-power signal-processing chip that could lead to a cochlear implant that does not require external devices has been developed by researchers at MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratory (MTL), together with physicians from Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI).
The chip uses the natural microphone of the middle ear rather than a skull-mounted microphone. The implant would be… read more
USC neuroscientists have systematically created the first map of the core white-matter “scaffold” (connections) of the human brain — the critical communications network that supports brain function.
Their work, published Feb. 11 in the open-access journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, has major implications for understanding brain injury and disease, the researchers say.
By detailing the connections that have the greatest influence over all other connections, the researchers offer… read more
University of Illinois researchers have developed new self-healing materials that do not require extra chemicals or catalysts.
“The key advantage of using this material is that it’s catalyst-free and low-temperature, and can be healed multiple times,” said U. of I. materials science and engineering professor Jianjun Cheng. “This can heal the crack before it causes major problems by propagating.”
Other self-healing material… read more
Optogenetics is a technique that allows scientists to control neurons’ electrical activity with light by engineering them to express light-sensitive proteins. It’s a powerful tool for discovering the functions of different types of cells in the brain.
Most of these light-sensitive proteins, known as opsins, respond to light in the blue-green range.
Now, a team led by MIT has discovered an opsin that is sensitive to… read more
A new microscopy method could enable scientists to generate images of dozens of different biomolecules in a human cell simultaneously, a team from the Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University reported in Nature Methods.
Such images could shed light on complex cellular pathways and potentially lead to new ways to diagnose disease, track its prognosis, or monitor the effectiveness of therapies at a cellular… read more
A new way to print living cells onto any surface and in almost any shape has been developed by researchers led by Houston Methodist Research Institute nanomedicine faculty member Lidong Qin.
Unlike a similar inkjet printing process, almost all cells survive.
The new process, called Block-Cell-Printing (BloC-Printing), produces 2-D cell arrays in half an hour, prints the cells as close together as 5 microns (most animal cells… read more
Penn State University chemists and engineers have, for the first time, placed tiny synthetic motors inside live human cells in a lab, propelled them with ultrasonic waves, and steered them magnetically.
KurzweilAI has covered a number of designs for microbots studies in laboratories (and one that uses a pill that is swallowed) that could one day be passively or actively propelled through the… read more
Keio University scientists have developed a “neurocam” — a wearable camera system that detects emotions, based on an analysis of the user’s brainwaves.
The hardware is a combination of Neurosky’s Mind Wave Mobile and a customized brainwave sensor.
The algorithm is based on measures of “interest” and “like” developed by Professor Mitsukura and the neurowear team.
The users interests are quantified… read more
Goddard Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory scientists have applied advanced technology to inspect extremely small meteorite samples for the components of life.
“We found amino acids in a 360 microgram sample of the Murchison meteorite,” said Callahan. “This sample size is 1,000 times smaller than the typical sample size used.
“We got the same results looking at a very small fragment as we did a much larger fragment… read more
Michigan Technological University researchers have developed a method of achieving transmission electron microscopy (TEM) atomic-resolution images and nanometer-resolution spectroscopy of biological samples by encapsulating them between two layers of graphene.
The method overcomes the limitations* of TEM imaging of biological samples, and uses a low-dose-rate X-ray imaging technique, so electron beam radiation damage can be reduced to hydrogen-bond-breakage level.
The researchers tried their technique on a biochemical… read more
A team of researchers led by scientists at Case Western Reserve University has developed a multifunctional nanoparticle that enables magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to pinpoint blood vessel plaques caused by atherosclerosis.
The technology is a step toward creating a non-invasive method of identifying plaques vulnerable to rupture — the cause of heart attack and stroke — in time for treatment.
Currently, doctors can identify only blood vessels that… read more
Georgia Institute of Technology scientists have engineered a microchip coated with blood vessel cells. The objective: learn more about the conditions under which nanoparticles accumulate in the plaque-filled arteries of patients with atherosclerosis, the underlying cause of myocardial infarction and stroke.
They coated microchips with a thin layer of endothelial cells, which make up the interior surface of blood vessels.
In healthy blood vessels, endothelial cells act as… read more
IBM has launched a 10-year initiative to bring Watson and other cognitive systems to Africa to fuel development and spur business opportunities across the world’s fastest growing continent. Dubbed “Project Lucy” after the earliest known human ancestor, IBM will invest US$100 million in the initiative, giving scientists and partners access to the world’s most advanced cognitive computing technologies for use in key… read more
To visualize how cancer cells invade specific organs, researchers from MIT, Italy, and South Korea have developed a three-dimensional microfluidic platform (microchip) that mimics the spread of breast cancer cells into a bonelike environment.
(Nearly 70 percent of patients with advanced breast cancer experience skeletal metastasis, in which cancer cells migrate from a primary tumor into bone — a painful development that can cause fractures and spinal… read more