Tech lessons learned from the wisdom of crowds
December 17, 2006
Google, HP Labs, Yahoo, and Microsoft are among companies using “prediction markets” to improve forecasts.
The technique rewards employees for success in making predictions.
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In New Procedure, Artificial Arm Listens to Brain
February 12, 2009
A new new kind of thought-controlled artificial arm that moves more easily than other devices has been developed by Johns Hopkins University researchers.
The technique, called targeted muscle reinnervation, involves taking the nerves that remain after an arm is amputated and connecting them to another muscle in the body, often in the chest. Electrodes are placed over the chest muscles, acting as antennas. When the person wants to move… read more
Biological joints could replace artificial joints
January 6, 2011
University of Missouri and Columbia University researchers have found a way to create biological joints in animals, and they believe biological joint replacements for humans, using a patient’s own cells, aren’t far away.
James Cook, a researcher in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine and Dept of Orthopaedic Surgery participated on a research team that created new cartilage in animals using a biological “scaffold” in the animals’ joints. Cook… read more
Gene-altered mouse produces fish oils
February 5, 2004
Researchers have inserted a gene from a nematode worm into mice that enables them to make omega-3 fatty acids, which can help prevent heart attacks. If the same feat can be achieved in farm animals, meat, milk and eggs could all be directly enriched with the oils.
Through the Looking Glass
September 7, 2007
The post-9/11 era has caught up with William Gibson’s vision. As uncannily as Gibson has sometimes foreseen the future, there are other times when the events of the real world outstrip anything he could conjure up.
Virtual reality shocker
December 28, 2006
Researchers have recreated in a virtual world one of the most extreme social experiments ever performed in the real world, using the Milgram experiment on obedience to authority.
The results suggest that virtual environments could provide a way to explore human nature in ways that ethical concerns could make impossible to do for real.
Sophisticated nano-structures assembled with magnets
February 19, 2009
Magnetic and non-magnetic materials have been coaxed to self-assemble in a “ferrofluid” into intricate permanent nanostructures by researchers at Duke University and the University of Massachusetts, raising the possibility of using these structures as basic building blocks for applications such as advanced optics, cloaking devices, data storage, and bioengineering.
The future of nanoscience
January 13, 2011
Four prominent researchers — David Awschalom, Angela Belcher, Donald Eigler, and Michael Roukes — are sharing their thoughts about the future of nanoscience and nanotechnology. In a special dialogue ahead of a Kavli Futures Symposium on the same topic, the scientists focused on how Feyman’s vision may evolve in the next fifty years, beginning with taking nanoscience in an upward direction.
“We’ve gained some important beachheads… read more
Ageing mechanism linked to X-chromosome
February 16, 2004
University of Leuven scientists narrowed the search for a gene linked to aging on Friday and said it is probably located on the X chromosome, implying that longevity may be a trait inherited from the mother.
The research was based on measurements of the telomere length of white blood cell DNA (elderly people with longer telomeres live five to six years longer than people with shorter ones).
If… read more
Scientists unlock secrets of protein folding
September 18, 2007
A team led by biophysicist Jeremy Smith of the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory has taken a significant step toward unraveling the mystery of how proteins fold into unique, three-dimensional shapes.
The team determined that small hydrophobic areas of the peptide, up to the size of a water molecule, induce different behavior in water than larger hydrophobic areas, and that this difference is crucial for the… read more
Analogy of cochlea as resonator could lead to artificial copies
January 10, 2007
In attempting to construct an artificial cochlea — and faced with limited knowledge of how the living chamber works — scientists might need to look no further than a simple electronic device: a surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonator.
Recently, scientist Andrew Bell suggested that the cochlea exhibits similar structure and electromechanical properties to this circuitry, commonly used in cell phones.
The audacity of nano-hope
February 26, 2009
There has been a flurry of interest in nanobots over the past week, casting quite a wide net that ranges from Nadrian Seeman’s experimental lab work to Ray Kurzweil’s hopeful dreams for the far future, says Foresight Institute president J. Storrs Hall.
Researchers Successfully Force Evolutionary Leap
February 25, 2004
Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Michigan have forced an unprecedented evolutionary leap in E. coli bacteria, and findings from their study could have ramifications on protein production for the biotechnology industry.
The development, reported in the Feb. 20 issue of Science, demonstrated how the bacterium created an entirely new way to make disulfide bonds. These bonds compose a protein’s stiffening struts that… read more
Parallel universes exist — study
September 25, 2007
Parallel universes really do exist, according to a mathematical discovery by Oxford scientists, described by one expert as “one of the most important developments in the history of science.”
The Oxford team, led by Dr. David Deutsch, showed mathematically that the bush-like branching structure created by the universe splitting into parallel versions of itself can explain the probabilistic nature of quantum outcomes.
Google plots e-books coup
January 21, 2007
Google is working on a system that would allow readers to download entire books to their computers in a format that they could read on screen or mobile devices.
Sony recently launched its Reader, a digital book device with an online book store stocking 10,000 titles. Amazon, the world’s largest online book seller, is also planning to launch an e-book service.