Dr. José Contreras-Vidal of the University of Houston has designed a pair of bionic legs that respond directly to signals from the brain.
The problem with the current brain-computer interface approach — implanting electrodes into a brain, as in the BrainGate2 system, is that it’s a dangerous procedure and can also lead to infections. It also requires a bulky hardware system.
Contreras-Vidal’s approach gets round these difficulties by… read more
Lyncean Technologies researchers have built a room-sized miniature synchrotron that produces the same quality of x-ray beams as synchrotrons many times larger, offering scientists a new way to perform x-ray experiments in their own labs.
University of Massachusetts Medical School researchers are developing a smartphone-based system called “iHeal” that detects drug cravings and attempts to prevent drug use.
A drug user wears a sensor band around their wrist that measures skin conductance, skin temperature, motion, and pulse — all indicators of arousal or stress. The band wirelessly transmits information to a smartphone, where apps monitor and process the user’s physiological data using… read more
University of Pennsylvania researchers have developed a walking robot constructed from modules that are designed to separate on impact, find each other, and reassemble into a working robot.
Researchers at the National Institute of Aging and Stanford University have used gene arrays to identify genes whose activity changes with age in 16 different mouse tissues.
The study describes how aging affects different tissues in mice, and ultimately could help explain why lifespan is limited to just two years in mice.
Researchers at Stanford University and the National Institute on Aging have generated a database that catalogues how gene expression–a measure of how active a gene is–changes in different parts of the body as the animals age.
The findings suggest that different tissues age very differently, and this could help pinpoint when it is appropriate to use mice as a model of human aging–and when it’s not.
The tooth will probably be the first complex organ to be completely regenerated from stem cell, University of Southern California researchers say.
Groups in Japan and Taiwan and at the University of Michigan are using stem cells to create hard and soft tissue in humans. The idea is to take a tooth about to fall out and reconnect it firmly.
Researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) have invented a microfluidic silicone chip that could make genetic analysis more sensitive, rapid, and cost-effective by allowing individual cells to fall into place like balls in a pinball machine.
The UBC device — about the size of a nine-volt battery — allows scientists to simultaneously analyze 300 cells individually by routing fluid-carrying cells through microscopic tubes… read more
Supercooled, superconducting power cables are being examined as a way to add redundancy in the cramped quarters of Manhattan’s local power grid, potentially protecting against natural disruptions and terrorist attacks.
Sensors that can detect volatile organic compounds present in the breath of lung-cancer patients (and for certain other ailments, such as liver failure), using an array of small, inexpensive gold nanoparticles, have been developed by Israel Institute of Technology researchers.
Clinical trials are expected within two or three years.
Miniature sensors that are able to sense the movement of individual atoms — 100 times more sensitive than any sensor device on the market today — are being developed by Tel Aviv University researchers.
The device uses carbon nanotubes that arrange themselves on a surface of a silicon chip. Small deformities in the crystal structure of the nanotubes generate a piezoelectric voltage that can be used to accurately sense… read more
Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and the University of Rome have found a way to mobilize stem cells to achieve a major regeneration of damaged tissue.
The scientists investigated muscle tissue in mice, discovering that stem cells can travel large distances to reach an injury. They also found a special form of a protein called mIGF-1 induces the muscle to send the distress signal that summons them.… read more
University of Oklahoma researchers have, demonstrated a novel technique for cryptography that offers the potential of unconditional security.
As increasing volumes of data become accessible, transferable and, therefore actionable, information is the treasure companies want to amass.
To protect this wealth, organizations use cryptography, or coded messages, to secure information from “technology robbers.” This group of hackers and malware creators increasingly is becoming more sophisticated at… read more
Gil Alterovitz, a research fellow at Harvard Medical School, is developing a computer program that translates protein and gene expression into music.
In his acoustic translation, harmony represents good health, and discord indicates disease.
Using data collected from a study of protein expression in colon cancer, Alterovitz analyzed more than three thousand related proteins involved in the disease. He found four key networks, using various genetic databases that… read more
People who don’t get much sleep are more likely than those who do to develop calcium deposits in their coronary arteries, possibly raising their risk for heart disease, a new study has found.
The researchers concluded that one hour more of sleep per night was associated with a 33 percent decrease in the odds of calcification.
Possible mechanims include higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol with less… read more