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‘Breakthrough Starshot’ aims to reach Alpha Centauri 20 years after launch

$100 million research and engineering program to study concept of using laser light beam to propel gram-scale "nanocraft" to 20 percent of light speed
April 11, 2016

Lightsail and StarChip powered by Light Beamer (credit: Breakthrough Initiatives)

Internet investor and science philanthropist Yuri Milner and physicist Stephen Hawking announced Tuesday a $100 million research and engineering program, Breakthrough Starshot, aiming to demonstrate proof of concept for light-propelled “nanocrafts” that could travel to Alpha Centauri, our nearest star system.

The nanocrafts would fly at 20 percent of light speed and capture images of possible planets and other scientific data, arriving in just over 20 years after their launch.

“Earth is a wonderful… read more

Topics: Electronics | Physics/Cosmology | Space

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Autonomous vehicles might have to be test-driven tens or hundreds of years to demonstrate their safety

Alternative testing methods needed, RAND report finds
April 11, 2016

A Lexus RX450h retrofitted by Google for its driverless car fleet (credit: Steve Jurvetson/CC)

Autonomous vehicles would have to be driven hundreds of millions of miles or even hundreds of billions of miles over tens and even hundreds of years (under some scenarios) to create enough data to statistically demonstrate their safety, when compared to the rate at which injuries and fatalities* occur in human-controlled cars and trucks, according to a new open-access RAND report.**

Although the total number of crashes,… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics

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First transistors made entirely of nanocrystal ‘inks’ in simplified process

Transistors and other electronic components to be built into flexible or wearable applications; 3D printing planned
April 8, 2016

Four-Nanocrystal-Inks-ft

University of Pennsylvania engineers have developed a simplified new approach for making transistors by sequentially depositing their components in the form of liquid nanocrystal “inks.” The new process open the door for transistors and other electronic components to be built into flexible or wearable applications. It also avoids the highly complex current process for creating transistors, which requires high-temperature, high-vacuum equipment. Also, the new lower-temperature process is compatible with a… read more

Topics: Electronics | Nanotech/Materials Science

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Best textile manufacturing methods for creating human tissues with stem cells

Bioengineers determine three best processes for engineering tissues needed for organ and tissue repair
April 8, 2016

All scaffold types exhibited the presence of lipid vacuoles (small red spheres, right), compared to control (left). Electrospun scaffolds exhibited a monolayer of lipid vacuoles in a single focal plane and in multiple planes throughout the fabric thickness for meltblown, spunbond, and carded scaffolds. Scale bars: 100 μm (credit: S. A. Tuin et al./Biomedical Materials)

Elizabeth Loboa, dean of the Missouri University College of Engineering, and her team have tested new tissue- engineering methods (based on textile manufacturing) to find ones that are most cost-effective and can be produced in larger quantities.

Tissue engineering is a process that uses novel biomaterials seeded with stem cells to grow and replace missing tissues. When certain types of materials are used, the “scaffolds” that… read more

Topics: Biotech | Nanotech/Materials Science

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Berkeley Lab captures first high-res 3D images of DNA segments

DNA segments are targeted to be building blocks for molecular computer memory and electronic devices, nanoscale drug-delivery systems, and as markers for biological research and imaging disease-relevant proteins
April 7, 2016

In a Berkeley Lab-led study, flexible double-helix DNA segments connected to gold nanoparticles are revealed from the 3-D density maps (purple and yellow) reconstructed from individual samples using a Berkeley Lab-developed technique called individual-particle electron tomography or IPET. Projections of the structures are shown in the background grid. (credit: Berkeley Lab)

An international research team working at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has captured the first high-resolution 3D images of double-helix DNA segments attached at either end to gold nanoparticles — which could act as building blocks for molecular computer memory and electronic devices (see World’s smallest electronic diode made from single DNA molecule), nanoscale drug-delivery systems, and as markers for biological research and for imaging… read more

Topics: Biotech | Electronics | Nanotech/Materials Science

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MIT AI Lab 3D-prints first mobile robot made of solids and liquids

April 7, 2016

hexapod robot ft

Ever want to just push a button and print out a hydraulically-powered robot that can immediately get to work for you?

MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) researchers have designed a system that does just that: 3D-prints moving robots with solid and liquid materials in a single step and on a commercially available 3D printer. No assembly required.

“All you have to do is stick… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Nanotech/Materials Science

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A stem-cell repair system that can regenerate any kind of human tissue

...including disease and aging; human trials next year
April 6, 2016

The UNSW researchers said the therapy has enormous potential for treating spinal disc injury and joint and muscle degeneration and could also speed up recovery following complex surgeries where bones and joints need to integrate with the body (credit: UNSW TV)

A stem cell therapy system capable of regenerating any human tissue damaged by injury, disease, or aging could be available within a few years, say University of New South Wales (UNSW Australia) researchers.

Their new repair system*, similar to the method used by salamanders to regenerate limbs, could be used to repair everything from spinal discs to bone fractures, and could transform current treatment approaches to regenerative medicine.

The… read more

Topics: Biotech

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Electrical stimulation of brain pleasure center reduces chronic pain

In testing with rats, electrode implant also triggers pleasure-associated dopamine
April 6, 2016

Image is a representative slice showing the electrode tip location (green arrow) (credit: Ai‑Ling Li et al./ Experimental Brain Research)

Are you in pain, but your doc won’t increase your hydrocodone dosage (or you don’t want to overdose)?

University of Texas at Arlington researchers may have a (future) drug-free fix: electrical stimulation of a deep middle-brain structure that blocks pain signals at the spinal cord level while triggering release of pleasure-associated dopamine to reduce the associated emotional distress.

“This is the first study to use a… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

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World’s smallest electronic diode made from single DNA molecule

Electronic components 1,000 times smaller than with silicon may be possible
April 6, 2016

DNA diode ft

Nanoscale electronic components can be made from single DNA molecules, as researchers at the University of Georgia and at Ben-Gurion University in Israel have demonstrated, using a single molecule of DNA to create the world’s smallest diode.

A diode is a component vital to electronic devices that allows current to flow in one direction but prevents its flow in the other direction.… read more

Topics: Biotech | Electronics | Nanotech/Materials Science

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What happens when drones and people sync their vision?

The future of drone air traffic control?
April 5, 2016

Multiple recon drones in the sky all suddenly aim their cameras at a person of interest on the ground, synced to what persons on the ground see …

That could be a reality soon, thanks to an agreement just announced by the mysterious SICdrone, an unmanned aircraft system manufacturer, and CrowdOptic, an “interactive streaming platform that connects the world through smart devices.”… read more

Topics: Entertainment/New Media | Innovation/Entrepreneurship | Social Networking/Web | VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics

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Hacking life: how to program new functions for living bacteria and yeast

Engineering bacteria to aid digestion or yeast to produce custom beer
April 4, 2016

MIT-Program-Bacteria-ft

MIT biological engineers have created a programming language for bacteria. It allows anyone to rapidly design complex, DNA-encoded circuits that add new functions to living cells — no genetic engineering knowledge required.

For example: design bacterial cells that can produce a cancer drug when they detect a tumor or create yeast cells that can halt their own fermentation process if too many toxic byproducts build up.… read more

Topics: Synthetic Biology

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3D-printing a structure with active chemistry

Forget labs --- now you can simply print objects in your kitchen that create cool chemical reactions (attention: CIA and Homeland Security)
April 4, 2016

Flashforge Creator ft

Researchers at American University have demonstrated the first use of commercial 3D printers to create a structure with active chemistry — in this case, a structure that acts to mitigate pollution.

The researchers added titanium dioxide nanoparticles to standard ABS filament material (used in 3D printers) and extruded a filament that they then used to print a small, sponge-like plastic object on a low-cost Flashforge Creator… read more

Topics: Nanotech/Materials Science

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Largest network of cortical neurons mapped from ~100 terabytes data set

"Functional connectomics" research bridges gap between function and wiring in the brain --- a major step in an IARPA project to create a roadmap for reverse-engineering the brain
April 1, 2016

A network of cortical neurons whose connections were traced from a multi-terabyte 3D data set. The data were created by an electron microscope designed and built at Harvard Medical School to collect millions of images in nanoscopic detail, so that every one of the “wires” could be seen, along with the connections between them. Some of the neurons are color-coded according to their activity patterns in the living brain. This is the newest example of functional connectomics, which combines high-throughput functional imaging, at single-cell resolution, with terascale anatomy of the very same neurons. (credit: Clay Reid, Allen Institute; Wei-Chung Lee, Harvard Medical School; Sam Ingersoll, graphic artist)

The largest network of the connections between neurons in the cortex to date has been published by an international team of researchers from the Allen Institute for Brain Science, Harvard Medical School, and Neuro-Electronics Research Flanders (NERF).

In the process of their study*, the researchers developed new tools that will be useful for “reverse engineering the brain by discovering relationships between circuit wiring… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

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Creating custom drugs on a portable refrigerator-size device

A breakthrough for responding quickly to disease outbreak and producing small quantities of custom drugs needed for clinical trials, treating rare diseases, or use as personalized "orphan drugs"
April 1, 2016

custom drugs ft

MIT researchers have developed a compact, portable pharmaceutical manufacturing system that can be reconfigured to produce a variety of drugs on demand — if you have the right chemicals.

The device could be rapidly deployed to produce drugs needed to handle an unexpected disease outbreak, to prevent a drug shortage caused by a manufacturing plant shutdown, or produce small quantities of drugs needed for clinical trials or… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Innovation/Entrepreneurship

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How to use laser cloaking to hide Earth from remote detection by aliens

NASA's Kepler telescope detects habitable exoplanets by watching for tiny dips in the light from stars. What if aliens have the same idea when observing our Sun?
April 1, 2016

laser for Very Large Telescope-ft

We could use lasers to conceal the Earth from observation by an advanced extraterrestrial civilization by shining massive  laser beams aimed at a specific star where aliens might be located — thus masking our planet during its transit of the Sun, suggest two astronomers at Columbia University in an open-access paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The idea comes from the NASA… read more

Topics: Electronics | Physics/Cosmology

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