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Low-powered optical ‘nanotweezers’ allow for manipulating fragile biological samples

How to pick up a cell with laser beams without zapping it
September 18, 2012

illinois_nanotweezers

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated for the first time how low-power “optical nanotweezers” can be used to trap, manipulate, and probe nanoparticles, including fragile biological samples.

“We already know that plasmonic nanoantennas enhance local fields by up to several orders of magnitude, and thus, previously showed that we can use these structures with a regular laser source to make very… read more

Topics: Biotech | Nanotech/Materials Science | Physics/Cosmology

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‘Memristors’ based on transparent electronics offer technology of the future

Memristors are faster, smaller, and use less power than non-volatile flash memory
September 18, 2012

Inside a flash drive (Nrbelex/Wikimedia Commons)

Transparent electronics (pioneered at Oregon State University) may find one of their newest applications as a next-generation replacement for some uses of non-volatile flash memory, a multi-billion dollar technology nearing its limit of small size and information storage capacity.

Researchers at OSU have confirmed that zinc tin oxide, an inexpensive and environmentally benign compound,  could provide a new, transparent technology where computer… read more

Topics: Electronics | Nanotech/Materials Science

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Warp drive may be more feasible than thought, scientists say

September 18, 2012

warp-drive-starship

A warp drive to achieve faster-than-light travel — a concept popularized in television’s Star Trek — may not be as unrealistic as once thought, according to scientists at the 100 Year Starship Symposium, Space.com reports.

A warp drive would manipulate space-time itself to move a starship, taking advantage of a loophole in the laws of physics that prevent anything from moving faster… read more

Topics: Physics/Cosmology | Singularity/Futures | Space

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Blue Brain project accurately predicts connections between neurons

September 18, 2012

Patterning of putative synapses between synaptically coupled neurons (credit: EPFL)

In a landmark paper, published this week in PNAS (forthcoming), the EPFL’s Blue Brain Project (BBP) has identified key principles that determine synapse-scale connectivity by virtually reconstructing (in supercomputer) a cortical microcircuit and comparing it to a mammalian sample.

These principles now make it possible to predict the locations of synapses in the neocortex, the researchers say.

“This is a major breakthrough,… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

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Does this epigenetic chemical in the brain help create the brain’s complexity?

The brain chemical 5-hmC appears to control the brain's cellular splicing machinery to generate the diverse proteins that, in turn, give rise to the unprecedented complexity of the brain?
September 18, 2012

Is 5-hmC the master controller that tells synapses when to grow neurons? (Credit: iStockphoto)

Researchers from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto have identified a new role of a chemical involved in controlling the genes underlying memory and learning.

“The brain is a plastic tissue, and we know that learning and memory require various genes to be expressed,” says CAMH Senior Scientist Dr. Art Petronis, a senior author on the new study.

“Our research… read more

Topics: Biotech | Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

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A computerized house that generates as much energy as it uses

NIST unveils net-zero energy residential test facility to improve testing of energy-efficient technologies
September 18, 2012

NIST Net Zero Energy Residential Test Facility

The U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has unveiled a laboratory in the form of a typical suburban home, designed to demonstrate that a family of four can generate as much energy as it uses in a year.

The two-story, four-bedroom, three-bath “Net-Zero Energy Residential Test Facility“ was built to U.S. Green Building Council LEED Platinum standards — the highest standard for sustainable… read more

Topics: Energy | Environment/Climate | Innovation/Entrepreneurship

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Human muscle, regrown on animal scaffolding

September 17, 2012

Sergeant Strang has grown new leg muscle thanks to a thin sheet of material from a pig, The New York Times reports.

The material, called extracellular matrix, is the natural scaffolding that underlies all tissues and organs, in people as well as animals. It is produced by cells, and for years scientists thought that its main role was to hold them in their proper position.

But… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Nanotech/Materials Science

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A first: organs tailor-made with body’s own cells

September 17, 2012

synthetic_windpipe

Andemariam Beyene sat by the hospital window, the low Arctic sun on his face, and talked about the time he thought he would die.

Two and a half years ago doctors in Iceland, where Mr. Beyene was studying to be an engineer, discovered a golf-ball-size tumor growing into his windpipe. Despite surgery and radiation, it kept growing. In the spring… read more

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

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Bina48 is first humanoid robot to address a conference

Could a humanoid robot be a teacher or personal tutor in the next decade?
September 17, 2012

bina48

An advanced computer called the BINA48 (Breakthrough Intelligence via Neural Architecture, 48 exaflops per second processing speed and 480 exabytes of memory; exa = 10 to the 18th power), and also known as “the Intelligent Computer,” became aware of certain plans by its owner, the Exabit Corporation, to permanently turn it off and reconfigure parts of it with new hardware and software into one or more new computers. … — From… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Biomed/Longevity | Human Enhancement

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SpiderFab: low-cost kilometer-scale antennas in space

September 17, 2012

SpiderFabConcept

“We’d like someday to be able to have a spacecraft create itself entirely from scratch, but realistically that’s quite a ways out; that’s still science fiction,” says Robert Hoyt, CEO and chief scientist of Tethers Unlimited Inc. Instead, with his “SpiderFab” project, he proposes to use 3D printing technology aboard a tiny CubeSat to create a much larger structure in space.

The  project received $100,000 from NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts… read more

Topics: Electronics | Energy | Nanotech/Materials Science | Space

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Low-cost design makes ultrasound imaging affordable to the world

September 17, 2012

ultrasound-fetus

An ultra-low cost scanner that can be plugged into any computer to show images of an unborn baby has been developed by Newcastle University engineers.

The handheld USB device — roughly the size of a computer mouse — works like existing ultrasound scanners, using pulses of high frequency sound to build up a picture of the unborn child on the computer screen.

However, unlike the… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Innovation/Entrepreneurship | Physics/Cosmology

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Moving plane exchanges quantum keys with Earth

September 17, 2012

plane

An airplane has beamed quantum encryption keys to a station on the ground, paving the way for an ultra-secure global communications network, New Scientist reports.

Quantum key distribution (QKD) uses photons polarized in two different ways to encode the1′s and 0′s of an encryption key.

Quantum keys had previously been exchanged between two land-based stations. Now Sebastian Nauerth at the Ludwig Maximilian… read more

Topics: Physics/Cosmology | Quantum

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Getting (drugs) under your skin

Using ultrasonic waves, researchers boost skin’s permeability to drugs
September 17, 2012

getting_drugs_under_skin

 

Using ultrasound, MIT engineers have found a way to enhance the permeability of skin to drugs, making transdermal drug delivery more efficient. This technology could pave the way for noninvasive drug delivery or needle-free vaccinations, according to the researchers.

“This could be used for topical drugs such as steroids — cortisol, for example — systemic drugs and proteins such as insulin, as well… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Physics/Cosmology

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What technologies will crowdfunding create?

September 17, 2012

IMG_9407

Inventor Jay Silver, creator of MaKey MaKey, an “invention kit” consisting of a processor board and alligator clips that turns objects with high electrical resistance — bananas, Play-Doh, human flesh — into computer controllers, listed the project on Kickstarter this year hoping to raise $25,000.

He ended up with $568,106 from 11,124 people, Technology Review reports.

In the U.S., Internet funding occurs on Indiegogo,… read more

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

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A nose-like sensor array that ‘smells’ different cancers

Gold nanoparticles and proteins can “smell” different cancer types
September 17, 2012

gold nanoparticles

In the fight against cancer, knowing the enemy’s exact identity is crucial for diagnosis and treatment, especially in metastatic cancers, those that spread between organs and tissues.

A rapid, sensitive way to detect microscopic levels of many different metastatic (cancer-spreading) cell types in living tissue has been developed by chemists led by professor Vincent Rotello of the Chemistry Department of University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Close to… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Nanotech/Materials Science

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