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Earth-like planets are right next door

Life on such a planet would be "much older and more evolved than life on Earth"
February 7, 2013

cfa_exoplanet_art

Six percent of red-dwarf stars have habitable, Earth-sized planets, astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) have found.

Red dwarfs are the most common stars in our galaxy; about 75 percent of the closest stars are red dwarfs. The closest Earth-like planet could be just 13 light-years away, Harvard astronomer and lead author Courtney Dressing calculated.

“We thought we would have to search… read more

Topics: Physics/Cosmology | Space

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Criminals and terrorists can fly drones too

February 6, 2013

uav_drone

Drones are no longer the sole domain of the military, and just as with many new technologies, they can easily fall into the wrong hands,  global security advisor, writer and consultant  reports in Time.

Criminal organizations are early adopters of technology, and some have already used UAVs and other forms of robotics to violate the law… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Survival/Defense

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The threat of silence

Meet the groundbreaking new encryption app set to revolutionize privacy and freak out the feds
February 6, 2013

silent_circle_zimmerman

For the past few months, some of the world’s leading cryptographers have been keeping a closely guarded secret about a pioneering new invention. Today, they’ve decided it’s time to tell all, Slate Future Tense reports.

Back in October, the startup tech firm Silent Circle ruffled governments’ feathers with a “surveillance-proof” smartphone app to allow people to make secure phone calls and send texts… read more

Topics: Internet/Telecom | Social/Ethical/Legal | Survival/Defense

Comments (16)

Creating artificial nanostructures to house living cells

Important for artificially growing biotissue, finding new drugs, and stem cell research
February 6, 2013

A three dimensional grid can be produced, which keeps the cell in place (credit: Aleksandr Ovsianikov et al./Vienna University of Technology)

Using lasers, a research team at the Vienna University of Technology is developing microstructures for embedding living cells.

The process allows living cells to be incorporated into intricate custom structures, similar to biological tissue, in which cells are surrounded by the cell’s normal extracellular matrix.

This technology is particularly important for artificially growing biotissue, for finding new drugs, or for stem cell research.… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Biotech | Nanotech/Materials Science

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3D-printing human embryonic stem cells for drug testing, future replacement of human organs

New 3D printing process is first to print the more delicate (and more useful) hESCs
February 6, 2013

3D printing with embryonic stem cells (credit: )

A new 3D printing process using human stem cells could pave the way to custom replacement organs for patients, eliminating the need for organ donation and immune suppression, and solving the problem of transplant rejection.

The process, developed at Edinburgh-based Heriot-Watt University, in partnership with Roslin Cellab, could also speed up and improve the process of reliable, animal-free drug testing by growing three-dimensional human tissues and structures… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Biotech | Synthetic Biology

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A fiber-optic method of arresting epileptic seizures

February 5, 2013

Blocking a seizure. The vertical green bar indicates online seizure detection, prior to the start of stage 4–5 behaviour (arrow). The yellow bars under the trace highlight the theoretical window for intervention.

 

UC Irvine neuroscientists have developed a way to stop epileptic seizures with fiber-optic light signals, heralding a novel opportunity to treat the most severe manifestations of the brain disorder.

Using a mouse model of temporal lobe epilepsy, Ivan Soltesz, Chancellor’s Professor and chair of anatomy & neurobiology, and colleagues created an EEG-based brain-waves-sensing) computer system that lights up hair-thin fiber optic… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

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How to use Amazon Cloud supercomputers to view molecules in remarkable detail

Cloud computing code speeds processing of data-intensive microscopy data
February 5, 2013

Salk Institute for Biological Studies researchers have shared a how-to secret for biologists: code for Amazon Cloud that significantly reduces the time necessary to process data-intensive microscopic images.

The method promises to speed research into the underlying causes of disease by making single-molecule microscopy of practical use for more laboratories.

“This is an extremely cost-effective way for labs to process super-resolution images,” says … read more

Topics: Biotech | Computers/Infotech/UI

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Defect-free graphene discovery could led to large-scale manufacturing of graphene-based devices

New method could open the way to large-scale manufacturing of graphene-based devices with applications in fields such as electronics, energy, and healthcare
February 5, 2013

Scanning Electron Microscope image of well-aligned hexagonal graphene domains (credit:

A team led by Oxford University scientists has overcome a key problem of growing graphene — a one atom-thick layer of carbon — without the defects that weaken it and prevent electrons from flowing freely within it when using chemical vapor deposition.

With the previous methods, tiny flakes of graphene form with random orientations, leaving defects or seams between flakes that grow together.… read more

Topics: Electronics | Nanotech/Materials Science

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Dramatic improvements in quantum-dot performance

New production method could enable everything from more efficient computer displays to enhanced biomedical testing
February 5, 2013

An MIT  research team has developed a major new process for producing quantum dots with four important qualities:

  • uniform sizes and shapes;
  • bright emissions, producing close to 100 percent emission efficiency;
  • a very narrow peak of emissions, meaning that the colors emitted by the particles can be precisely controlled;
  • elimination of a tendency to blink on and off, which

… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Electronics | Nanotech/Materials Science

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British Army deploys tiny helicopters

February 4, 2013

MINIATURE SURVEILLANCE HELICOPTERS HELP PROTECT FRONTLINE TROOPS

A tiny remote-control helicopter is being used for surveillance on the front line to detect enemy threats to British troops.

British troops are using a nano drone just 10cm long and weighing 16 grams on the front line in Afghanistan to provide vital information on the ground, Sky News reports.

They are the first to use the state-of-the-art handheld tiny surveillance helicopters, which relay reliable full… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Survival/Defense

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If you give people virtual superpowers, will they use those abilities for good or evil?

February 4, 2013

superman

Researchers at Stanford recently investigated the subject by giving people the ability of Superman-like flight in the university’s Virtual Human Interaction Laboratory (VHIL).

While several studies have shown that playing violent videogames can encourage aggressive behavior, the new research suggests that games could be designed to train people to be more empathetic in the real world.

To test this hypothesis, the group — which… read more

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

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Mind-meld brain power is best for steering spaceships

February 4, 2013

bci_essex

Researchers are discovering that they get better results in some tasks by combining the signals from multiple brain-computer interface (BCI) users.

Until now, this “collaborative BCI” technique has been used in simple pattern-recognition tasks, but a team at the University of Essex in the UK wanted to test it more rigorously, New Scientist reports.

So they developed a simulator in which pairs of BCI… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience | Human Enhancement | Space

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Software predicts tomorrow’s news by analyzing today’s and yesterday’s

February 4, 2013

800px-World_newspapers_

Prototype software can give early warnings of disease or violence outbreaks by spotting clues in news reports.

Researchers have created software that predicts when and where disease outbreaks might occur, based on two decades of New York Times articles and other online data. The research comes from Microsoft and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, MIT Technology Review reports.

The system could someday help aid organizations and… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics

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Meta’s AR headset lets you play with virtual objects in 3D space

February 4, 2013

meta_ar_concept_2

A new augmented reality headset from Meta puts a full twin-display digital environment — controlled by two-hand 3D tracking — in front of the user, Slashgear reports.

The prototype headset uses Epson Moverio BT-100 see-through glasses with a low-latency 3D camera mounted on top.

Both components reportedly feed into custom electronics in a separate wearable computer, which can track individual fingertips and… read more

Topics: VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics

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Could stem cells repair damaged cones in retinas, allowing for daylight color vision?

Yet another awesome zebrafish story.
February 4, 2013

Zebrafish cone photoreceptor mosaic (credit: Brittany Fraser et al./PLOS ONE

University of Alberta (UA) researchers have discovered that a zebrafish’s stem cells can selectively regenerate its damaged photoreceptor cells.

UA lead researcher Ted Allison says that for some time geneticists have known that stem cells in zebrafish can replace damaged vision cells.

Rods and cones are the most important photoreceptors. In humans, rods provide us with night vision while cones give us… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Biotech

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