Most Recently Added Most commentedBy Title | A-Z

Page 28 of 1,026First102024252627282930313233405060Last

Soft arrays of miniature electrodes for improved Parkinson’s treatment

February 19, 2013

Microelectode_Enhanced_Probe

Miniature, ultra-flexible electrodes could be the answer to more successful treatment for Parkinson’s diseases, according to Professor Philippe Renaud of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland.

He has developed soft arrays of miniature electrodes in his Microsystems Laboratory that open new possibilities for more accurate and local deep brain stimulation (DBS).

Some 90,000 patients per year are treated for Parkinson’s disease, a number that… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

Comments (1)

Disruptions: on the fast track to routine 3D printing

February 19, 2013

makerbot

Hod Lipson, an associate professor and the director of the Creative Machines Lab at Cornell, said “3D printing is worming its way into almost every industry, from entertainment, to food, to bio- and medical-applications,” The New York Times reports.

Dr. Lipson, the co-author of “Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing,” said… read more

Topics: Nanotech/Materials Science

Comments (23)

New therapy uses alternating current to cancel out Parkinson tremors

February 19, 2013

corticol stimulation

A new therapy could help suppress tremors in people with Parkinson’s disease, an Oxford University study suggests.

The technique — called transcranial alternating current stimulation (TACS) — cancels out the brain signal causing the tremors by applying a small, safe electric current across electrodes on the outside of a patient’s head.

In a preliminary study, conducted with 15 people with Parkinson’s disease at Oxford‘s John Radcliffe… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Cognitive Science/Neuroscience | Electronics

Comments (0)

Obama seeking to boost study of human brain

February 18, 2013

brain-rays

The Obama administration is planning a decade-long scientific effort to examine the workings of the human brain and build a comprehensive map of its activity, seeking to do for the brain what the Human Genome Project did for genetics, The New York Times reports.

The project, which the administration has been looking to… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

Comments (53)

Quantum cryptography to protect electric grid security

February 18, 2013

The miniature transmitter communicates with a trusted authority to generate random cryptographic keys to encode and decode information (credit: Los Alamos National Laboratory)

Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists have completed the first-ever demonstration of using quantum cryptography to make control data for electric grids secure  .

Controllers for the electric distribution grid tend to be  vulnerable to intrusion.

The electric grid also needs to accommodate new renewable energy sources, such as solar panels and wind generators, because their availability can fluctuate on short time scales.

Control… read more

Topics: Electronics | Energy | Physics/Cosmology | Quantum

Comments (8)

How the brain quickly rebounds from injuries

It quickly switches to secondary backup areas, scientists find
February 18, 2013

TMS stimulation

Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University‘s Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging (CCBI) have used a new combination of neural imaging methods to discover exactly how the human brain adapts to injury.

When one brain area loses functionality, a “back-up” team of secondary brain areas immediately activates, replacing not only the unavailable area but also its confederates (connected areas), the research shows.

For the study,… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

Comments (2)

Tongue-tingling interface lets you taste data

Meet Tongueduino, a new augmented-reality channel
February 18, 2013

tongueduino

Gershon Dublon of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has devised the Tongueduino — a small pad containing electrodes in a 5 × 5 grid,  New Scientist reports.

When hooked up to an electronic sensor, the pad converts signals from the sensor into small pulses of electric current across the grid, which the tongue “reads” as a pattern of tingles.

If Tongueduino (tongue + Arduino) is attached… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience | Human Enhancement | VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics

Comments (4)

Do we live inside a mathematical equation?

February 18, 2013

(Credit: iStockphoto)

Reality is a mathematical structure, says MIT physicist Max Tegmark — his “mathematical universe hypothesis,” reports Science Now.

“If the mathematical universe hypothesis is false, that means that the future of physics is ultimately doomed,” says Tegmark. However, “if the mathematical universe hypothesis is true, we can actually learn things about the parts of our universe we can’t see or visit. … The road ahead… read more

Topics: Physics/Cosmology

Comments (95)

How much is an asteroid worth?

As much as $20 trillion, says one expert; others skeptical
February 15, 2013

Asteroid fuel mining concept (credit: Deep Space Industries)

When asteroid 2012 DA14 flies by Earth today, we could be watching a fortune fly over our heads and disappear into the void.

DA14 could be worth up to $195 billion in metals and propellant, Deep Space Industries (DSI) said in a statement —  if it were in a different orbit … and  if we had a space-based asteroid mining operation.

Which we don’t. Problem is, explains… read more

Topics: Nanotech/Materials Science | Space | Survival/Defense

Comments (70)

Solve for X: celebrating moonshot thinking

February 15, 2013

solve_for_x

Last week, Google hosted its 2013 Solve for X event, where they gathered 50 experienced entrepreneurs, innovators and scientists from around the world who are taking on moonshots — proposals that address a huge problem, suggest a radical solution that could work, and use some form of breakthrough technology to make it happen, Megan Smith and Astro Teller, co-hosts/creators of… read more

Topics: Innovation/Entrepreneurship | Social Networking/Web/Education

Comments (11)

How unconscious processing improves decision-making

February 15, 2013

New brain imaging research from Carnegie Mellon University provides some of the first evidence showing how the brain unconsciously processes decision information in ways that lead to improved decision making. Published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, the study found that the brain regions responsible for making decisions continue to be active even when the conscious brain is distracted with a different task. This image shows unconscious activity in two parts of the brain, the left visual cortex and right prefrontal cortex. (Credit: Carnegie Mellon University)

New brain imaging research from Carnegie Mellon University finds that the brain regions responsible for making decisions continue to be active even when the conscious brain is distracted with a different task.

The research provides some of the first evidence showing how the brain unconsciously processes decision information in ways that lead to improved decision-making.

“This research begins to chip away at the mystery… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

Comments (21)

Kinect-based system dramatically cuts cost of telemedicine

February 15, 2013

Kinect Console

A Kinect game controller and Microsoft software could cut the U.S. healthcare bill by up to $30 billion by allowing physicians and other medics to interact with patients remotely, reducing the number of hospital visits and the associated risk of infection.

It could also bring medical services to underserved areas around the world.

Janet Bailey of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Bradley Jensen of… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Innovation/Entrepreneurship

Comments (11)

Artificial retina receives FDA approval

Argus II is first approved prosthesis to restore limited vision to those blinded by retinitis pigmentosa
February 15, 2013

2sight_argus_ii

In an historic move, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted market approval to an artificial retina technology, the first bionic eye to be approved for patients in the U.S.

The device, called the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System, from Second Sight Medical Products, transmits images from a small, eye-glass-mounted camera wirelessly to a microelectrode array implanted on a patient’s damaged retina. The… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Human Enhancement | Social/Ethical/Legal

Comments (11)

Black hole discovered 26,000 light years away, says NASA

Something to worry about more than an asteroid?
February 14, 2013

Supernova Remnant W49B (credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/MIT/L.Lopez et al; Infrared: Palomar; Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA)

A supernova remnant called W49B 26,000 light-years away may contain the most recent black hole formed in the Milky Way galaxy, new data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory suggests.

The remnant, about a thousand years old as seen from Earth, appears to be the product of a rare explosion in which matter is ejected at high speeds along the poles of a rotating star.

(One newspaper suggested,… read more

Topics: Physics/Cosmology | Space | Survival/Defense

Comments (9)

A cure for type 1 diabetes

February 14, 2013

Diabetic dog cured from the disease

Researchers at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) have succeeded in completely curing type 1 diabetes in dogs with a single session of gene therapy by introducing a “glucose sensor” into muscle.

This is the first time the disease has been cured in large animals, a fundamental step towards applying the therapy in humans. The dogs recovered their health and no longer show symptoms of the… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Biotech

Comments (39)

Page 28 of 1,026First102024252627282930313233405060Last
close and return to Home