Next up for Watson: a stint as a medical student at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, New York Times Bits reports.
The collaboration includes a bit of controlled crowdsourcing, with the Cleveland clinicians and medical school students answering Watson’s questions and correcting its mistakes.
“Hopefully, we can contribute to the training of… read more
The first power has been produced at the London Array Offshore Wind Farm, DONG Energy, E.ON and Masdar have announced .
The 630MW scheme, located in the Thames Estuary, will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm, with construction on schedule to be finished by the end of the year.
The 175 turbines will produce enough power to supply over 470,000 UK homes with electricity.
London… read more
Imec, a world-leading research institution in nanoelectronics, and Nantero, Inc., a nanotechnology company using carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for the development of next-generation semiconductor devices, have announced a joint development program.
The collaboration will focus on the carbon-nanotube-based memory developed by Nantero, NRAM, and its application in high-density next-generation memories with a size under 20nm.
Carbon nanotubes… read more
Astronomers using data from NASA‘s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have made the most accurate measurement of starlight in the universe and used it to establish the total amount of light from all of the stars that have ever shone, accomplishing a primary mission goal.
“The optical and ultraviolet light from stars continues to travel throughout the universe even after the stars cease to… read more
This week, the European Journal of Human Genetics published an article showing that Myriad Genetics, providers of the BRCA1/2 genetic test, has amassed vast quantities of clinical data without sharing it, Professor Martina Cornel, chair of the European Society of Human Genetics‘ Professional and Public Policy committee, said:
“We are very concerned that such important data is being withheld from those who most need it. Interpreting the… read more
What if a tablet screen were a paper-thin plastic that rolled like a window shade?
University of Cincinnati researchers have now announced experiment verification that such “electrofluidic imaging film” works. The breakthrough is a white, porous film coated with a thin layer of reflective electrodes and spacers that are then subjected to unique and sophisticated fluid mechanics in order to electrically transport the colored ink and clear-oil… read more
The damage to the electrical grid from Superstorm Sandy is just a taste of what could happen from a major cyberattack, says Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano, CSO Security and Risk reports.
And a DHS task force said this week that one way to minimize that kind of risk is to recruit a “Cyber Reserve” of computer security pros that could be… read more
Education is about to change dramatically, says Anant Agarwal, who heads edX, a $60 million MIT-Harvard effort to stream a college education over the Web, free, with plans to teach a billion students, Technology Review reports.
“Massive open online courses,” or MOOCs, offered by new education ventures like edX, Coursera, and Udacity, to name the most prominent (see “The Crisis in Higher Education”) will affect markets… read more
Researchers have surgically implanted small glass windows (similar to ship port holes) into the abdomen of living mice to watch cancer spread over the course of 14 days, as reported in Science Translational Medicine.
“Visualization of the formation of metastasis [spread of cancer cells] has been hampered by the lack of long-term imaging windows for metastasis-prone organs, such as the the spleen, kidney, small intestine, pancreas, and liver,”… read more
After a skyscraper in Caracas was abandoned, it quickly became home to 750 families. As cities develop, will slums build up instead of out? Fast Company Co.EXIST explores.
The 45-story Torre David office tower in Caracas, Venezuela, was nearly complete in the early 1990s when a pair of events changed the building’s trajectory forever: First, the project’s developer, David Brillembourg, died in 1993.
Then, the next year,… read more
How far would you go to modify yourself using the latest medical technology?
In a New York Times article Saturday, author and broadcaster David Ewing Duncan offers a partial checklist of cutting-edge medical-technology therapies now under way or in an experimental phase that might lead to future enhancements, including:
Present:
The China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) proposed on Nov. 2 a joint collaboration for a space solar power mission with India and met with former Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam.
“Kalam assured, certainly he will take up this interest to the Government of India and ISRO [Indian Space Research Organization], so that a hard cooperation and collaboration between ISRO, DRDO [Defence Research & Development Organisation of India] and CAST is… read more
European regulators have approved the first therapy in the western world that can correct errors in a person’s genetic code, according to Amsterdam-based uniQure (formerly Amsterdam Molecular Therapeutics),
Europe has approved Glybera for treatment of Lipoprotein Lipase Deficiency (LPLD), a very rare, inherited disease. Patients with LPLD are unable to metabolize the fat particles carried in their blood, which leads to inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis).… read more
New Scientist asked readers to take part in an online project designed to give a more fine-grained view of the public’s reactions to politics.
About 80 readers watched clips from the third and final presidential debate while face-reading software recorded subtle emotional cues via webcams. Developed by Affectiva of Waltham, Massachusetts, the software tracked six categories of expression: smiles, surprise,… read more
Can you generate new algorithms to spot dark matter in Hubble images?
Observing Dark Worlds aims to capitalize on the ever-growing field of citizen science, where non-experts are asked to sift through data to help make discoveries, Wired Science reports.
Dark matter is thought to be a strange form of matter that doesn’t interact with electromagnetism and light, accounting for roughly 85 percent of… read more