KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News

Wikipedia, Meet Knol

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:31:29 GMT

Seven months after Google began testing a service called Knol, a Wikipedia competitor, the company on Wednesday finally rolled it out. On Knol, articles on various topics are penned by individuals, and in many cases, experts -- not anonymously. Knol authors can choose to benefit from the "wisdom of the crowds" by letting others edit or supplement their articles. But those changes make it into Knol entries only with the author's permission. (Source: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/23/wikipedia-meet-knol/?ref=technology)

'Nanonet' circuits closer to making flexible electronics reality

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:29:16 GMT

Researchers at at Purdue University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have overcome a major obstacle in producing transistors from "nanonets" -- networks of carbon nanotubes. The technology could make it possible to print circuits on plastic sheets for applications including flexible displays and an electronic skin to cover an entire aircraft to monitor crack formation. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news136037378.html)

'Universal' allergy therapy a step closer (article preview)

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 03:46:15 GMT

Researchers at Cytos Biotechnology have developed a "universal" allergy therapy that makes the immune system stop reacting to harmless allergens (substances that cause allergies). In trials, the therapy--a series of shots--helped people allergic to house dust mites and cat dander. An overactive immune system is thought to be the cause of most allergic reactions. The new therapy "distracts" the immune system by giving patients a molecular decoy (CYT003-QbG10) that makes the body behave as if it is under attack by bacteria. The increase in the immune system's anti-microbial response reduces its allergic response. Existing immunotherapies (desensitization therapies), which give patients tiny doses of the specific substance to which they are allergic, are time-consuming and cannot be given to all patients. (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19926654.700-universal-allergy-therapy-a-step-closer.html)

An Eye Test for Diabetes

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 03:43:20 GMT

University of Michigan researchers have found that a snapshot of the retina can detect diabetes and other diseases that affect the retina. Diabetes interferes with the body's metabolism, which can result in nerve damage, kidney disease, and vision loss. The researchers' system picks up signs of metabolic stress in the retina by detecting fluorescence given off by oxidized proteins in dying cells. They found diabetics have elevated levels of autofluorescence compared to age-matched control subjects. While the system won't replace blood sugar screening, it could provide an early-warning tool for prediabetes and help monitor diabetic patients. Clinical trials will start in fall 2008. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/21118/?a=f)

Making Genetic Testing Useful

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:16:41 GMT

In a new $31 million project to connect genetic variations with actual health risks, researchers will combine epidemiological studies (detailed long-term health studies) of tens of thousands of people with those participants' genetic data. The study, sponsored by the National Human Genome Research Institute, will provide data that genome-wide association studies (GWAS--comparing genetic variations in groups of people with and without a disease) alone cannot provide. GWAS have identified more than 300 genetic variants that boost risk for illnesses such as diabetes, arthritis, and Crohn's disease, but they do not show how the genetic change causes an illness, or what other factors may have played a role. In contrast, the new study will use four existing epidemiological studies in which scientists have spent years tracking participants' medical information, such as blood pressure, medications, lifestyle, and nutrition. This level of detail will allow researchers to look at gene-environment interactions. For example, some studies link pesticide exposure to Parkinson's disease, but this risk may only be realized in people who possess certain genetic risk factors. See Also Researchers Detect Variations in DNA That Underlie Seven Common Diseases (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/21113/?a=f)

Patients and researchers collaborate to find medical cures

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:23:55 GMT

Patients suffering with the daily pain of medical conditions now have a place to go share information and resources with other patients and researchers. CureTogether, a San Mateo, CA startup, plans to announce Thursday a free health research service to bring together patients and researchers to make discoveries in a new, collaborative way. The first conditions being studied are migraine, endometriosis, and vulvodynia; each affect more than five million Americans. Patients will also be able to share ideas and provide their anonymous medical data to an aggregate database available "open source" to any researcher in the world to study. "We chose these conditions because they are underfunded, involve daily pain, and have personal meaning for us," said co-founder Alexandra Carmichael. "We saw the suffering of our close family and friends with these chronic conditions, and we wanted to do something to help." So they partnered with the Chandran Family Foundation for Healthcare Research and Education and researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "We may expand to other conditions if enough patients come together to request it," she added. CureTogether's service reflects an emerging social networking trend to help patients share and understand their data, pioneered by companies like 23andMe, a web-based service that helps you read and understand your DNA; and PatientsLikeMe, which enables people with various diseases to share information about symptoms and treatments. See also: Social Networking Hits the Genome Science 2.0 -- Is Open Access Science the Future? (Source: )

GM partners with utilities to advance plug-in hybrids

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:39:52 GMT

General Motors is teaming up with 30 utilities in 37 states and with the Electric Power Research Institute to develop a charging infrastructure for electric cars. They aim to fine-tune the technology, safety, and customer experience for car-charging stations by 2010, when the Chevy Volt is due to be produced. (Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-9996348-54.html)

First paper-based transistors

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:36:33 GMT

Portuguese researchers have created the first field effect transistors (FET) with a paper interstrate layer. Possible applications include new disposable electronics devices, such as paper displays, smart labels, bio-applications, and RFID tags. (Source: http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=987)

"Consensus" on Man-Made Warming Shattering

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:22:53 GMT

Physics & Society, The journal of the American Physical Society, has published "Climate Sensitivity Revisited," a debate. "There is a considerable presence within the scientific community of people who do not agree with the IPCC conclusion that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are very probably likely to be primarily responsible for the global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution," the paper notes. "Global mean surface temperature has not risen since 1998 and may have fallen since late 2001. The present analysis suggests that the failure of the IPCC's models to predict this and many other climatic phenomena arises from defects in its evaluation of the three factors whose product is climate sensitivity: radiative forcing delta F; the no-feedbacks climate sensitivity parameter k; and the feedback multiplier f. The American Physical Society itself has issued a statement: It stands by its belief that human-emitted CO2 is "changing the atmosphere in ways that affect the earth's climate" and notes that Physics & Society is not peer-reviewed. (Source: http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/4025)

Tobacco 'could help treat cancer'

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 03:36:05 GMT

Stanford University researchers are using tobacco plants to grow key components of a cancer vaccine, turning the plants into factories for an antibody chemical specific to the cancerous cells that cause follicular B-cell lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Once a patient's cancer cells are isolated in the laboratory, the gene responsible for producing the antibody is extracted and added to a tobacco virus. When the virus infects the tobacco, the gene is added to the plants' cells, which start producing large quantities of the antibody. These antibodies are put back into a patient to "prime" the body's immune system to attack any cell carrying them. (Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7517799.stm)

Human-frog hybrids aid autism investigations

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 03:34:44 GMT

University of California, Irvine researchers have made human-frog hybrid cells that can be used to directly study neurotransmitter signaling of brain-cell membranes from people who had autism, epilepsy, or other neurological disorders. Brain cell membranes (taken from brain tissue samples of deceased patients with a particular disease) contain neurotransmitter receptors and channels to let molecules through the membranes. When the membranes are fused with frog eggs, the receptors and channels function again and react to neurotransmitters, creating a measurable voltage. The combination acts as a surrogate for a living brain with the condition, letting researchers directly observe how human patients' membranes act. The results could help determine if problems with neurotransmitter receptors underlie a disease. (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14374-humanfrog-hybrids-)

Country, the City Version: Farms in the Sky Gain New Interest

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:14:39 GMT

The "vertical farm," a 30-story skyscraper growing hydroponic vegetables, could feed 50,000 people in a city (at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars), proposes Dickson Despommier, a professor of public health at Columbia University. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/science/15farm.html)

Hoping Two Drugs Carry a Side Effect: Longer Life

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:02:40 GMT

Sirtris, a drug company, has two drugs in clinical trials that it hopes will avert degenerative diseases of aging. One being tested in diabetic patients is a special formulation of resveratrol that delivers a bloodstream dose five times as high as the chemical alone, to reduce glucose levels. The other drug is a small synthetic chemical that is a thousand times as potent as resveratrol in activating sirtuin and can be given at a much smaller dose. The hope is that activating sirtuins in people would, like a calorically restricted diet in mice, avert degenerative diseases of aging like diabetes, heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer's. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/health/research/22long.html?ref=science)

Spinal cord stem cells could be basis of new treatment

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:50:05 GMT

A researcher at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory has pinpointed stem cells within the spinal cord that, if persuaded to differentiate into more healing cells and fewer scarring cells following an injury, may lead to a new, non-surgical treatment for debilitating spinal-cord injuries. MIT news (Source: )

How the Personal Genome Project Could Unlock the Mysteries of Life

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:44:20 GMT

George Church's Personal Genome Project aims to make those correlations between particular genetic sequences and particular physical characteristics, including disease risk and personality, on an unprecedented scale. Begun last year with 10 volunteers, it will soon expand to 100,000 participants and generate a massive database of genomes, phenomes, and even some omes in between. (Source: http://www.wired.com/medtech/stemcells/magazine/16-08/ff_church?currentPage=1)

Video of ReWalk Exoskeleton System

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 04:56:18 GMT

Argo Medical Technologies' ReWalk exoskeleton system allows people with paralyzed legs to walk. ReWalk comprises a light wearable brace support suit with DC motors at the joints, rechargeable batteries, an array of sensors and a computer-based control system. It fits the body snugly to detect upper body movements, which are used to initiate and maintain the walking process. (Source: http://www.medgadget.com/archives/2008/07/video_of_rewalk_exoskeleton_system.html)

Enough Atoms for a Cannonball? Or Just a Small Splash?

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 04:43:47 GMT

Physicists at the University of California, Berkeley have developed a nanomechanical sensor -- a cantilevered carbon nanotube -- that can weigh an atom, replacing a large mass spectrometer. The mass is determined by sending a radio-frequency signal to the nanotube and measuring its resonant frequency, which changes when different atoms are stuck to it. Also see: An atomic-resolution nanomechanical mass sensor, Nature Nanotechnology, July 20, 2008: Unlike traditional mass spectrometers, nanomechanical mass spectrometers do not require the potentially destructive ionization of the test sample, are more sensitive to large molecules, and could eventually be incorporated on a chip. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/science/22obweig.html?ref=science)

'Snow flea antifreeze protein' could help improve organ preservation

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 04:14:09 GMT

University of Chicago and University of Pennsylvania researchers have synthesized an antifreeze protein--snow flea antifreeze protein (sfAFP)--used by Canadian snow fleas to survive sub-freezing winter temperatures. Protein and mirror form (Brad Pentelute) Their results may allow large quantities of the protein to be made, allowing for potential medical and commercial uses, such as extending the storage life of donor organs and preventing ice-crystal formation in ice cream and other foods. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news135863044.html)

A quarter of planet to be online by 2012, and able to understand each's other's language

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:18:34 GMT

25 percent of the planet will be connected to the Internet by 2012, according to a Jupiter Research report, with highest growth rate in areas such as China, Russia, India and Brazil. Many of these users will be able to understand each other's language, says Ray Kurzweil. He cites current developments in the speed and accuracy of statistical translation systems, which have improved exponentially in the past 10 years, such as Language Weaver's automatic language translation software, which can now translate between 2,000 and 5,000 words per minute on a single CPU, using proprietary statistical translation algorithms. He also cites Apptek's hybrid machine translation (HMT) system, which integrates statistical and rule-based processing. As The Economist points out in a current article, IBM already has a program for translating Arabic and Chinese television broadcasts into English. The system is used by Critical Mention, a company that tracks what is said in Arabic and Chinese news broadcasts and sells that information as a service to other companies. Two-way translators are also now available. IBM has provided troops in Iraq with multilingual automatic speech translators that can translate tens of thousands of words between Iraqi Arabic and American English. (Source: )

Low-cost LED lights?

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 04:46:00 GMT

Purdue University researchers have developed a new fabrication process that promises to make LEDs cost-competitive with compact fluorescent lights, which are four times more efficient than conventional incandescent lights, but contain harmful mercury. They replaced the expensive sapphire-based substrate with low-cost, metal-coated silicon wafers using a built-in reflective layer of zirconium nitride, while solving its chemical instability problems. Another advantage of silicon is that it dissipates heat better than sapphire, reducing damage caused by heating, which is likely to improve reliability and increase the lifetime of LED lighting. LEDs also are expected to be far longer lasting than conventional lighting, lasting perhaps as long as 15 years before burning out. Incandescent bulbs are about 10 percent efficient; white LEDs range from 47 percent to 64 percent efficient, but LED lights on the market cost about $100. The researchers expect affordable LED lights to be on the market within two years. Purdue University news release (Source: )

Next big VC market: life extension?

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 04:13:00 GMT

Life extension could be the next significant industry targeted by venture capitalists and private investment, says Silicon Valley hedge fund manager and futurist Melanie Swan. She points out the need for specialist life-extension doctors and suggests a health social network people where patients could share interventions and upload their ongoing bio-marker test data into an aggregated electronic health record. (Source: http://futurememes.blogspot.com/2008/07/next-big-vc-market-life-extension.html)

Super-Resolution X-ray Microscopy unveils the buried secrets of the nanoworld

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 02:58:35 GMT

A novel super-resolution X-ray microscope developed by Paul Scherrer Institut and EPFL researchers combines the high penetration power of x-rays with high spatial resolution with raster scanning, making it possible to non-destructively view the detailed interior composition of sub-hundred-nanometer semiconductor devices or biological samples without requiring a vacuum. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news135523216.html)

A Book With 90,000 Authors

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 02:41:50 GMT

German publisher Bertelsmann plans to publish a book with the most credited individual authors ever--approximately 90,000: "The One-Volume Wikipedia Encyclopedia," containing the 25,000 most popular articles on German Wikipedia. (Source: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/19/a-book-with-90000-authors/)

Energy from Waves

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 01:50:32 GMT

A new device being developed by U.K.-based Checkmate SeaEnergy could help tap a portion of the two trillion watts of electricity that the ocean's waves could generate. (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK) The "Anaconda" device would be a 200-meters long, water-filled rubber tube closed at both ends that transmits wave energy to a turbine, capable of generating one megawatt of power at about 12 cents a kilowatt-hour. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/21072/?a=f)

Babies use grown-up memory tricks

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 01:48:44 GMT

Johns Hopkins University researchers have found that babies use the same technique as adults to overcome limits in their working memory (memory overload): grouping things into hierarchical categories. The 14-month-old babies could only remember three things at a time, but those things could include both individual items or groups. The babies used natural groups (two cats or two cars), and would also learn to group items if the researchers presented unfamiliar toys as a group (a shrimp and a tank shown together became a group). (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19926655.700-babies-use-)

Human blood vessels grown in mice

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 01:47:15 GMT

Harvard Medical School researchers used human progenitor cells (taken from blood or bone marrow, and able to form different cell types) to grow a network of new blood vessels (capillaries) in a mouse. The harvested cells were mixed with growth-promoting chemicals and then implanted in mice. Within seven days the human cells grew into fully functional blood vessels that joined up with the host animal's blood vessels and started transporting blood. The research could help treat conditions that involve damage to a tissue's blood supply, such as the damage to the heart after a heart attack. It could also help lab-grown organs to be implanted successfully. (Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7514317.stm)

Texas Approves a $4.93 Billion Wind-Power Project

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 01:43:36 GMT

Texas regulators have approved a $4.93 billion wind-power transmission project, providing a major lift to the development of wind energy in the state. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/19/business/19wind.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)

Chemical breakthrough turns sawdust into biofuel

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 01:39:26 GMT

Peking University have developed a lignin breakdown reaction, using near-critical (hot, pressurised) water, that more reliably produces the alkanes and alcohols needed for biofuels. (Source: http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn14360-chemical-breakthrough-turns-sawdust-into-biofuel.html)

Invisible nanotube cable could support a human

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 01:19:13 GMT

A nanotube cable one centimeter in diameter with nanotubes separated by 5 microns (more than one wavelength of light) could hold a human while remaining invisible, Nicola Pugno of the Polytechnic of Turin in Italy has calculated. (Source: http://technology.newscientist.com/article/mg19926656.300-invisible-nanotube-cable-could-support-a-human.html)

The Bubble Bursts

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 23:40:32 GMT

A Purdue University nuclear engineer who claimed to have carried out tabletop nuclear fusion is responsible for two instances of scientific misconduct, a report made public today concludes. Both cases centered on efforts by physicist Rusi Taleyarkhan to make experiments carried out by members of his lab appear as independent verification of his work. Also see: Sound waves produce nuclear fusion (Source: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/718/1)

Emotional robot has empathy, understands your frustration

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:58:06 GMT

The Feelix Growing project uses software that allows robots to adjust to how a person is feeling based on feedback from cameras and sensors. The bots look at a human's facial expression and key in on their voice and proximity to determine what kind of mood they're in. (Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/18/emotional-robot-has-empathy-understands-your-frustration/)

Google and the Real Search for Meaning on the Web

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:45:26 GMT

Google has been publishing a series of posts about how its search engine works with meaning, going beyond page rank. (Source: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/google-and-the-real-search-for-meaning-on-the-web/index.html)

Losing the lasers turns CDs into memory sticks

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:30:16 GMT

A future generation of ultra-dense flash memory chips could be based on a new Phase Change Memory (PCM) technology, according to Numonyx, an Intel spinoff. Flash memory transistors (currently 65 nanometers wide) will face limited lifetime (write/erase cycles) when dimensions get below 20 nanometers, due to the retention of electric charge in the flash transistor. PCM would use use GST (an alloy of tellurium, antimony and germanium), switching between disordered and crystalline states, as in a CD or DVD. It would allow for stable use down to 5 nanometers or below, the company says. (Source: http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn14330-losing-the-lasers-turns-cds-into-memory-sticks.html)

Gore Calls for Carbon-Free Electric Power

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:09:59 GMT

Al Gore said on Thursday that Americans must abandon electricity generated by fossil fuels within a decade and rely on the sun, the winds and other environmentally friendly sources of power, or risk losing their national security as well as their creature comforts. He cited military-intelligence studies warning of "dangerous national security implications" tied to climate change, including the possibility of "hundreds of millions of climate refugees" causing instability around the world, and said the United States is dangerously vulnerable because of its reliance on foreign oil. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/washington/18gorecnd.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin)

Say goodbye to the computer mouse

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:03:59 GMT

A Gartner analyst predicts the demise of the computer mouse in the next three to five years for home entertainment or working on a notebook. Taking over will be gestural computer mechanisms like Nintendo's Wii, multitouch screens like the iPhone, and facial recognition devices such as products from Sony, Canon and other video and photographic manufacturer. Also see: Super-sensitive controller opens Wii to music (Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7508842.stm)

Strongest Material Ever Tested

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 07:38:21 GMT

In a strain measurement using perfect samples of graphene, Columbia University researchers have confirmed that is the strongest material ever tested. Illustration showning the one-atom-thick atomic structure of graphene (Jeffrey Kysar, Columbia University) The finding provides evidence that graphene transistors could be the most effective material to withstand heat in future ultrafast microprocessors. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/21098/?a=f)

A Musical Score for Disease

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 07:08:12 GMT

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 catalog relationships between genes and proteins. He then assigned a note to each network, and together, these notes formed a harmonic chord. He compared the "music" of normal, healthy human data sets to that of the colon-cancer samples and found that, according to his model, colon cancer sounded "inharmonious." (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/21094/page2/)

Quantum Leap

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:58:51 GMT

An international team of researchers has shown that it can control the quantum state of a single electron in a silicon transistor--even putting the electron in two places at once. Their discovery could help pave the way toward a practical quantum computer. The electronc could be in one of three states. At low electric fields, the electron remained bound to an arsenic atom. At high electric fields, the electron was pulled away from the atom. But when the electric field was at just the right level, the electron would be in both places at once. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/21086/?a=f)

Arthritis drugs help with other inflammatory diseases

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:49:41 GMT

The Imperial College London researchers who developed effective rheumatoid arthritis drugs through targeting cytokines (immune system signaling proteins) have found that similar anti-cytokine therapies may help with atherosclerosis and other medical conditions. The researchers previously discovered that in autoimmune diseases (such as arthritis), the body makes excess cytokines, causing the immune system to fight itself. This results in inflammation and tissue destruction. Blocking just one cytokine--Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) alpha--blocked all the cytokines involved in rheumatoid arthritis inflammation. Atherosclerosis is caused by a chronic inflammatory response in arterial walls from an excessive immune response to cholesterol. University of Manchester News Release (Source: )

New Targets for Treating Huntington's Disease Discovered

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:44:15 GMT

Researchers at University College London have discovered early blood markers (excess cytokines--signaling proteins--a sign of an overly aggressive immune system) in people with the gene for Huntington's disease, a neurodegenerative disorder . These markers show that the neurodegeneration may start more than 15 years before neurological symptoms are apparent. People with the Huntington's mutation typically first experience symptoms in their 30s or 40s, and live an average of 15 to 20 years after that. Researchers speculate that the cytokines (released by immune cells in the brain called microglia) may be killing--or contributing to the death of--healthy neurons. If cells that release excessive cytokines could be kept at bay, the progression of the disease could be slowed down. Measured cytokine levels could be a way to test the effectiveness of new treatments for Huntington's. (Source: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=new-targets-for-treating)

Obsessed Brains May Be Sluggish

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:31:28 GMT

University of Cambridge researchers have found that patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have reduced activity in the orbitofrontal cortex, the region that helps people make decisions and keep compulsive behaviors in check. Orbitofrontal cortex activity (Paul Wicks) The researchers took fMRI scans as participants engaged in a task (changing a habit--learning new pattern-matching rules) intended to stimulate the orbitofrontal cortex. Normal participants exhibited the expected activity, but those with OCD did not, even though their performance on the task was normal. Unaffected relatives of OCD patients also had this reduced activity, suggesting that genes (not yet identified) may trigger OCD. Brain scans could identity those who are at risk for OCD but have not yet developed symptoms, allowing them to get early treatment. (Source: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/717/3)

'Ten Commandments' of race and genetics issued

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:28:46 GMT

A multidisciplinary group focused on contentious issues related to race, genetic markers and medicine has released a set of 10 guiding principles for the scientific community. The group--ranging from geneticists and psychologists to historians and philosophers--was led by anthropologist Sandra Soo-Jin Lee of Stanford University. The guidelines include "members of the same race may have different underlying genetics," and "oversimplified science feeds popular misconceptions." (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14345-ten-commandments-of-race-and-genetics-issued.html)

Quantum Rod System May Safely 'Sneak' Drugs, Diagnostics into Brain

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:05:14 GMT

A nanoparticle system developed by University at Buffalo scientists takes advantage of the versatility of bioconjugated quantum rods to ferry novel diagnostic and therapeutic agents across the blood-brain barrier. The findings could lead to better treatment of neuronal disorders. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news135443055.html)

Study: Low-carb diet best for weight, cholesterol

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:59:26 GMT

A low-carb diet and a Mediterranean-style regimen helped people lose more weight than a traditional low-fat diet in one of the longest and largest studies to compare the dueling weight-loss techniques. The study was conducted by researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and will be published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine. The low-fat diet -- no more than 30 percent of calories from fat -- restricted calories and cholesterol and focused on low-fat grains, vegetables and fruits as options. The Mediterranean diet had similar calorie, fat and cholesterol restrictions, emphasizing poultry, fish, olive oil and nuts. The low-carb approach seemed to trigger the most improvement in several cholesterol measures, including the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL, the "good" cholesterol. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news135484776.html)

The Secrets of Anti-Aging Genes

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:47:39 GMT

An ambitious plan to sequence 100 genes in 1,000 healthy old people could shed light on genetic variations that insulate some people from the ailments of aging, including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, allowing them to live a healthy life into their eighties and beyond. Eric Topol, a cardiologist and head of the Genomic Medicine Program at the Scripps Translational Science Institute, is leading the project. Researchers are collecting blood samples from 1,000 people age 80 or older who have never suffered any serious illnesses and do not take medication. They plan to sequence 100 genes, known from animal research and other studies to influence health and aging, especially major housekeeping, master-control genes like those involved in DNA repair or insulin growth factor-1, a protein hormone involved in cell growth. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/21092/)

Interior Dept. Opens 2.6 Million Alaskan Acres for Oil Exploration

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:31:36 GMT

The Interior Department on Wednesday made 2.6 million acres of potentially oil-rich territory in northern Alaska available for energy exploration, holding an estimated 3.7 billion barrels of oil. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/us/17alaska.html?adxnnl=1&ref=science&adxnnlx=1216289977-nN0GEaPhP/yfqTNu/sllBw)

In Sync to Pierce the Cloud

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:26:50 GMT

Apple's new MobileMe cloud-computing service is meant to keep the e-mail, calendars, address books and Web bookmarks on all of your computers --Macs, Windows PCs, iPhones and iPod Touches -- synchronized in real time. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/technology/personaltech/17pogue.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)

Growing Neural Implants

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:29:33 GMT

University of Michigan are developing methods of preventing damage to neurons caused my implanted electrodes. They are using an electrically conductive polymer coating that increases the surface area of the metal-biological interface, which in turn boosts performance of the electrode and lowers both electrochemical reactions and needed battery capacity. Their ultimate goal is to get the electrodes to fully integrate with tissue by growing the coating after the electrode is implanted. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/21087/?a=f)

Stress-generated cortisol found to cause premature aging of immune system

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:12:23 GMT

A new UCLA study suggests cortisol is the culprit behind premature aging of the immune system in stressed-out people. Immune cells (stained blue) end in protective caps called telomeres (stained yellow) that are shorter in the elderly -- and in persons suffering chronic stress. A new UCLA study suggests cortisol is the culprit behind premature aging of the immune system in stressed-out people. (UCLA/Effros lab) UCLA scientists found that the stress hormone cortisol suppresses immune cells' ability to activate their telomerase, an enzyme within the cell that keeps immune cells young by preserving their telomere length and ability to continue dividing. This may explain why the cells of persons under chronic stress have shorter telomeres, which are linked to a range of human diseases, including HIV, osteoporosis, heart disease and aging. If cortisol remains elevated in the bloodstream for long periods of time, it wears down the immune system. UCLA researchers are testing therapeutic ways of enhancing telomerase levels to help the immune system ward off cortisol's effect. University of California - Los Angeles news release (Source: )

Japanese boffins develop long-life Flash

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:40:00 GMT

Flash memory chips with a potential lifetime of hundreds of years and a lower rewriting voltage have been developed by University of Tokyo scientists. Current Flash chips are estimated to have a useful lifetime of around a decade or less for most applications. (Source: http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2221522/flash-chip-long-life-created)

UT pathologists believe they have pinpointed Achilles heel of HIV

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:19:04 GMT

Researchers at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston believe they have uncovered the Achilles heel in the HIV virus: the HIV envelope protein gp120. They have engineered antibodies with enzymatic activity ("abzymes"), which can attack the Achilles heel of the virus in a precise way. The next step is to confirm the theory in human clinical trials. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news135360794.html)

Passive learning imprints on the brain just like active learning

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:52:52 GMT

Dartmouth researchers determined that people can acquire motor skills through the "seeing" as well as the "doing" form of learning. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news135253078.html)

Self-Assembling Tissues

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:42:52 GMT

MIT and Harvard Medical School bioengineers have created "living Legos" -- building blocks of biofriendly gels of various shapes studded with cells that can self-assemble into complex structures resembling those found in tissues. (Ali Khademhosseini) They are currently working on making more-complex self-assembling structures that resemble the repeating units of the liver, the pancreas, and heart muscle. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/21080/?a=f)

Exercise Amps Up Alzheimer's Brain?

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 05:09:13 GMT

A University of Kansas School of Medicine study links cardiorespiratory fitness to less brain shrinkage in people with early Alzheimer's disease. (Source: http://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/news/20080714/exercise-amps-up-alzheimers-brain)

Schwarzenegger tours NASA/Ames to tout agency's fire-fighting technology

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:32:21 GMT

NASA/Ames Research Center researchers are taking data from a remotely controlled airplane and delivering real-time infrared images of hot spots and flare-ups to fire commanders on the ground. The $6 million Ikhana aircraft has an onboard sensor that can look through the smoke and detect temperatures ranging from one-half degree to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Ikhana sends images through a communications satellite to NASA/Ames, where the imagery is superimposed over Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth maps. The information is relayed to fire commanders on the ground, sometimes in as little as 10 minutes, helping them differentiate between the fire front and hot spots that may be burning outside their perimeters. (Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_9879684)

Sequencing a Single Molecule of DNA

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:00:43 GMT

Helicos BioSciences has developed the HeliScope, the first commercial instrument that can directly read the sequence of a single DNA strand, making it the world's fastest DNA sequencer, the company claims. The high-throughput machine, a complex configuration of tubes, lasers, and chemicals, contains two plates, each with 25 microfluidic channels etched into it. Each channel is capable of holding and sequencing a separate DNA sample. The HeliScope, introduced earlier this year, is joining an intense race for faster and cheaper sequencing technologies. The price of sequencing a human genome has dropped in recent years, from the $300 million the Human Genome Project spent on its first draft to less than $100,000. The applications of cheap sequencing are almost limitless, from disease diagnostics to research that could yield microbes engineered to produce biofuels or medicines. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/20947/?a=f)

2008 State of the Future report proposes 15 global challenges

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:35:01 GMT

The future continues to get better for most of the world, but a series of tipping points could drastically alter global prospects, according to the 2008 State of the Future, a report due to be published late this month, and obtained by KurzweilAI.net Sunday. Half the world is vulnerable to social instability and violence due to rising food and energy prices, failing states, falling water tables, climate change, decreasing water-food-energy supply per person, desertification, and increasing migrations due to political, environmental, and economic conditions, says this report published by the Millennium Project, a global participatory futures research think tank affiliated with the World Federation of UN Associations. However, it notes that "Ours is the first generation with the means for many to know the world as a whole, identify global improvement systems, and seek to improve such systems. We are the first people to act via Internet with like-minded individuals around the world. We have the ability to connect the right ideas to resources and people to help address our global and local challenges." The report is a "global overview of our technological, environmental, social, economic future prospects, strategies to address them -- what the educated person should know about the world and what to do to improve it," co-author and Millennium Project Director Jerome C. Glenn told KurzweilAI.net. The report identifies 15 global challenges, ranging from "How can everyone have sufficient clean water without conflict?" and "How can the global convergence of information and communications technologies work for everyone?" to "How can scientific and technological breakthroughs be accelerated to improve the human condition?" The 2008 State of the Future (paper and CD ROM with about 6,300 pages of research) will be available for $49.95 later this month. It is the 12th annual report of the Millennium Project. Also see: We've seen the future ... and we may not be doomed (Source: )

A good night's sleep really does improve the brain

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 07:45:17 GMT

Sleep improves performance in skill tasks, University of Geneva scientists have found, based on fMRI measurements. The results revealed that a period of sleep following a new experience can consolidate and improve subsequent effects of learning from the experience, they suggest. (Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/07/14/easleep114.xml)

'Cross fire' from the brain makes patients tremble

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 07:36:34 GMT

Scientists from Forschungszentrum Julich have demonstrated that the 5-Hz Parkinson's disease tremor results from synchronous signals from the thalamus and the basal ganglia transmitted in loop-like neuron pathways of the brain and spinal cord, not only via proprioceptive nerve signals from the muscles (the current theory). The finding supports the use of a Jülich-developed deep brain pacemaker, which uses two electrodes to deliver mild, targeted, and desynchronized stimuli to interfere with synchronized neural signals. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news134987390.html)

Japanese team developing palm-held 3D display

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 07:05:01 GMT

Researchers at Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology are developing the gCubik, which could enable people to hold a three-dimensional image of someone in the palm of their hand. Unlike conventional 3D displays, which are viewed only from the front, the gCubik can be seen from three sides, giving different images from various angles, and users will not need glasses. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news135226542.html)

A hands-on approach to Third World aid

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 07:01:25 GMT

About 60 people from 20 nations will descend on the MIT campus today to begin the International Development Design Summit, an intensive month-long process of creating technological solutions for the needs of people in the world's developing nations. The goal of the program is to develop simple, inexpensive devices that in some cases can be produced locally and make a real difference for people and communities. Several of the technologies that were developed during last year's summit, including transparent containers for transporting and sterilizing water, devices for reducing the smoke from cooking fires, and low-cost refrigeration systems, are on their way to being produced in various countries around the world. More info: http://www.iddsummit.org/. MIT news release (Source: )

When Human Rights Extend to Nonhumans

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 06:48:15 GMT

The environment committee of the Spanish Parliament last month voted to grant limited rights to our closest biological relatives, the great apes --chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans. The committee would bind Spain to the principles of the Great Ape Project, which points to apes' human qualities, including the ability to feel fear and happiness, create tools, use languages, remember the past and plan the future. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/weekinreview/13mcneil.html?ref=science)

High Cost of Driving Ignites Online Classes Boom

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 06:40:51 GMT

Thousands of students nationwide have suddenly decided to take one or more college classes over the Internet, as fuel for commuting to campus now costs some students half of what they pay for tuition, in some cases more. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/education/11colleges.html)

Tiny fishing reel gets DNA researchers out of a tangle

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 06:07:53 GMT

Kyoto University researchers have developed the world's smallest fishing reel to wind up DNA strands without damaging them. (K Terao/Kyoto University) The microdevice lets geneticists more precisely locate specific genes and identify genetic disorders. The researhers developed minuscule hooks and bobbins that mimic the way a fishing reel winds line onto a spool as a safer way to manipulate DNA. These are fabricated from a polymer called SU-8 photoresist that doesn't bind to and damage the DNA. To manipulate the microdevices, a tightly focused laser beam was used as a pair of optical tweezers. (Source: http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn14304-tiny-fishing-reel-gets-dna-researchers-out-of-a-tangle.html?feedId=online-news_rss20)

Sneeze-sensing software gives avatars a good laugh

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 05:50:09 GMT

Software that can automatically recognize "non-linguistic" sounds such as laughter and generate an appropriate facial animation sequence, could improve the quality of web-based avatars or computer-animated movies. University of Bath and University of Cardiff scientists used optical motion capture to record the facial expressions of four participants as they performed a number of laughs, sobs, sneezes and yawns. The researchers also recorded the participants' voices during their performances. They then developed software that correlates the key audio features of each non-linguistic vocalization with the relevant facial motion-capture data. (Source: http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn14299-sneezesensing-software-gives-avatars-a-good-laugh.html?feedId=online-news_rss20)

Nanotubes bring artificial photosynthesis a step nearer

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 07:26:50 GMT

Carbon nanotubes are the crucial chemical ingredient that could make artificial photosynthesis possible, say Chinese researchers. Artificial photosynthesis could efficiently produce hydrogen that could be used as a clean fuel and also mop up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. By covalently bonding a large number of phthalocyanine molecules to a carbon nanotube, they could create a multiple electron system activated by visible light. The extra electrons stored in the nanotubes could be used to convert a chloroplast chemical called NADP into NADPH, which could then reduce carbon dioxide to carbohydrates. (Source: http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn14297-nanotubes-bring-artificial-photosynthesis-a-step-nearer.html)

Toxic Key To Alzheimer's Disease Memory Loss Identified

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 04:53:55 GMT

International researchers have found that a specific amyloid protein--amyloid-beta--appears to be the pathogenic (disease-causing) agent for Alzheimer's disease, and is not just a side-effect of the disease. Soluable amyloid-beta taken from the brains of Alzheimer's patients and given to rats caused multiple disease symptoms, including reduced dendritic spine density. Alzheimer's disease affects some 29.8 million people worldwide. See also Amyloid-beta protein dimers isolated directly from Alzheimer's brains impair synaptic plasticity and memory (Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080626092740.htm)

Scientists Prevent Brain-Cell Suicide to Keep Birds Singing

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 04:46:29 GMT

University of Washington researchers have learned how to temporarily stop seasonal (natural) cell-death processes in birds by inhibiting enzymes called capases. Neurons used for singing during the mating season die off after the season is over. When the researchers used hormones to inhibit the capases, the song-control regions of the bird's brains were preserved. Since cell-death mechanisms are similar across species, the research could lead to new methods to help with degenerative and age-related diseases like Alzheimer's. The inhibitors could also be used to stabilize people who have suffered a stroke. (Source: http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/07/scientists-stop.html)

Blood pressure 'link to dementia'

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 04:44:42 GMT

Two studies have linked high blood pressure and dementia risk. Imperial College London researchers found that reducing blood pressure with drugs reduced dementia by 13%. Alzheimer's Society researchers found that one type of dementia (vascular dementia) was six times more likely to develop in people who had high blood pressure in their 40s and 50s, probably caused by restricted bloodflow. (Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7492959.stm)

New Generation Of Home Robots Have Gentle Touch

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 03:42:16 GMT

An advanced household service robot, the "Care-O-bot," has been developed by scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA in Stuttgart. (Fraunhofer) Stereo color cameras, laser scanners and a 3-D range camera enable the robot to register its surroundings in three dimensions in real time. It has a highly flexible arm with seven degrees of freedom and a hand with three fingers, allowing it to pick up bottles, cups and similar objects and operate machines. It can be taught, for example, what a cup looks like and where to find it in the kitchen. The user simply places the unfamiliar object in the robot's hand so that it can gain a three-dimensional impression of the item. (Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080710113026.htm)

Wikipedia hosts human gene repository

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 03:25:52 GMT

U.S. scientists from several organizations are developing a "Gene Wiki" with the aim of fostering a flexible, organic archive of human genetic information. The researchers developed a computer program that downloads information from existing databases, formats it, and posts the information as a "stub" article on Wikipedia. The stub articles are expected to seed the posting of more detailed information by Wikipedia users. Ultimately, the researchers hope to create a network of articles that will describe the relationship and functions of all human genes. (Source: http://www.itnews.com.au/News/80128,wikipedia-hosts-human-gene-repository.aspx)

Organic dye lets window panes harvest the Sun

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 03:21:20 GMT

MIT electrical engineer Marc Baldo had developed a method to turn up to 20% of incident light into electricity at a fraction of the cost of conventional photovoltaic cells. Exotic organic dyes are coated onto an ordinary sheet of glass, trapping light inside the glass and allowing it to be channelled to photovoltaic cells placed along the edges of the sheet. The dyes can absorb light across the visible spectrum and emit it at the longer frequencies needed for optimal conversion. (Source: http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn14293-organic-dye-lets-window-panes-harvest-the-sun.html)

Seagate's Latest Desktop HDD Has 1.5TB Capacity

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 03:09:38 GMT

Seagate announced Thursday three new consumer-level hard drives today, which it claims are the "industry's first 1.5-terabyte desktop and half-terabyte notebook hard drives." The company claims that it is able to greatly increase the areal density of its drive substrates by using perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology. (Source: http://www.hothardware.com/News/Seagates_Latest_Desktop_HDD_Has_15TB_Capacity/)

Controlling the Size of Nanoclusters: First Step in Making New Catalysts

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 05:18:01 GMT

Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook University have developed a new instrument that allows them to control the size of nanoclusters -- groups of 10 to 100 atoms -- with atomic precision. The device could allow for making nanoclusters with predetermined size, structure and chemical composition, all which are important for the design of new, more reactive catalysts. They created a model nanocatalyst of molybdenum sulfide, the first step in developing the next generation of materials to be used in hydrodesulfurization, a process that removes sulfur from natural gas and petroleum products to reduce pollution. See also: U.S. Department of Energy News release (Source: )

Nanotubes Hold Promise for Next-Generation Computing

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 05:03:21 GMT

Two groups of researchers have recently published papers demonstrating advances in creating, sorting and organizing carbon nanotubes so they can be used in electronics. Stanford electrical engineers addressed the problem of getting nanotubes straightened out so they could be put to work in chips, by growing the nanotubes on crystalline quartz, where they grow in orderly rows, then transferring them to a silicon wafer. Samsung chemical engineers used a substrate of aminosilanes. The resulting nanotubes were almost entirely semiconducting, while substrates of aromatic compounds (such as phenyls) produced metallic nanotubes. (Source: http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/07/nanoelectronics)

Robots aim to top humans at air hockey

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 03:42:30 GMT

An upgraded robot developed by General Electric Fanuc and Nuvation Research can beat most human air hockey players, its developers claim. A video system that tracks the puck's position sends coordinates to a special PC board every 10 milliseconds. So far, the robot has defeated every human opponent when running in 32-bit mode, averaging three times as many goals as human players. The algorithm's success resulted from revising its strategy whenever a goal was scored against it. (Source: http://eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208803140&printable=true&printable=true)

Smart contact lens feels the pressure of glaucoma

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:45:23 GMT

University of California, Davis researchers have made a contact lens with a built-in pressure sensor that could help monitor conditions such as glaucoma and ocular hypertension. Prototype lenses with pressure sensors (Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co) PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane, the organic polymer traditionally used for contact lenses) usually cannot conduct electricity or have complicated features, so they developed new techniques to embed conducting circuits with circuit features of 10 micrometers. A transparent sensor could be worn continuously, sending data out using a small RFID chip. (Source: http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn14285-smart-contact-lens-feels-the-pressure-of-glaucoma.html)

New Technique Harvests Stem Cells at Earlier Stage

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:39:02 GMT

Researchers at Vrije Universiteit Brussel have derived human embryonic stem cells (hESC) earlier in the development stage of a blastomere (when it only has four cells), so the whole embryo is not destroyed. Previously, scientists were able to derive hESC lines at the 8-cell stage, but that method had variable success rates and required the cells to be cultured with established hESCs. The new method doesn't require a co-culture. The development could make stem cell research easier to conduct by not raising as many ethical concerns. It could also change pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), by enabling the biopsy of one cell from a 4-cell stage embryo. This would let the remaining three cells grow into a blastocyst (five-day embryo) that could be implanted into the uterus and develop into a healthy baby. Currently GPD is performed at the 8-cell stage. See Also Stem cell breakthrough leaves embryos unharmed (Source: http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2008/07/09/new-technique-harvests-stem-cells-at-earlier-stage.html)

Common drugs may combat aging disease

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:37:50 GMT

University of Oviedo (Spain) researchers have found that two common drugs--statins (used to reduce cholesterol) and bisphosphonates (used to curb osteoporosis)--have reversed the effects in mice of progeria, a rare genetic disease that causes premature aging. Progeria accelerates aging from early childhood and is usually fatal before puberty. It is caused by gene mutations that disrupt production of the protein prelamin A, found inside the nuclei of cells. The damaged protein binds to molecular fragments called farnesyls, and those bind to the nuclear membrane, causing the build-up of protein that underlies the disease. The two drugs reduce farnesyl levels, and when given to progeroid mice, the combination reduced aging symptoms. Previous attempts to stop farnesylation involved inhibiting the enzyme that attaches farnesyls to prelamin A. (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19926635.500-common-drugs-may-combat-ageing-disease.html)

Assembling Nanotubes

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:24:13 GMT

Stanford University and Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology researchers have developed a new method for sorting single-walled carbon nanotubes by electronic type and arranging them over a large area; it could be useful for manufacturing high-performance displays and other electronic devices. (Melburne LeMieux / Stanford University) (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/21059/?a=f)

"Plug and Play" Hospitals

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 05:14:32 GMT

Massachusetts General Hospital doctors have developed two demonstration projects that illustrate the idea of a "plug and play" operating room, based on the idea that device interoperability in hospitals could make hospitals safer and more efficient. Estimates of the number of preventable deaths caused each year by medical errors in American hospitals range from 98,000 to 195,000. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/21052/?a=f)

Zapping Individual Cancer Cells

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 05:06:03 GMT

Engineers at the University of Texas at Austin have patented a laser microscalpel that allows a surgeon to operate on tissue one cell at a time, precisely targeting disease while leaving healthy surrounding cells alive. The device combines two technologies--a femtosecond laser and two-photon fluorescence microscopy--into a single miniaturized, flexible probe. The probe can target single cells in three-dimensional space, penetrating up to 250 micrometers into tissue. The probe could be a significant advance for endoscopic surgery that requires high precision, such as destroying cancer cells scattered throughout brain tissue or operating on delicate tissue like vocal cords without damaging them. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/21053/?a=f)

Check Yourself for Genetic Abnormalities

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 05:02:46 GMT

Wired has assembled a wiki with ways to check yourself for inherited traits associated with some sort of health condition, grouped under three options: visit a genetic counselor, scan your whole genome, and perform lab tests at home. (Source: http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Check_Yourself_for_Genetic_Abnormalities)

Internet cable-laying boom

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:56:22 GMT

At least 25 new undersea Internet cables are set to be laid over the next couple of years, providing a huge boost to worldwide capacity. (Source: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/210999/internet-cablelaying-boom.html)

50MP CCD Image Sensor unveiled by Kodak

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:50:14 GMT

Eastman Kodak Company unveiled the world's first 50 million pixel CCD image sensor for professional photography. The sensor captures digital images with unprecedented resolution and detail. For instance, with a 50 megapixel camera, in an aerial photo of a field 1 1/2 miles across, you could detect an object about the size of a small notebook computer (1 foot by 1 foot). (Source: http://www.i4u.com/article18807.html)

Google Introduces a Cartoonlike Method for Talking in Chat Rooms

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:39:24 GMT

Google has introduced Lively, an online tool that allows people to embody a cartoonish online avatar and have text-based conversations with friends and other Internet users in virtual chat rooms that can be added to any blog or Web site. Vivaty, a virtual-world start-up, has introduced a similar 3-D chat room that runs on Facebook and through AOL Instant Messenger. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/technology/09google.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)

Dopamine shown to induce both desire and dread

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:35:17 GMT

University of Michigan researchers have found that dopamine, the neurotransmitter associated with motivation and positive rewards, can also promote negative feeling like fear and dread. The researchers had previously found that desire and dread functions were anatomically close together in the nucleus accumbens (a tiny section of the brain--one-fifth of an inch long--associated with desire and reward). In their new research, they found that the effect of dopamine depended on where it was concentrated in the nucleus accumbens. Injections to the front of the nucleus accumbens caused rats to eat three times as much food as normal, but injections to the back caused them to display fearful behavior normally shown in response to a predator. It was previously assumed that fear and desire came from different neurotransmitters, but the new study shows that anatomy alone can determine a single neurotransmitter's role. The finding may help explain why dopamine dysfunction is implicated not only in drug addiction, which involves excessive desire, but in schizophrenia and some phobias, which involve excessive fear. Society for Neuroscience News Release (Source: )

World Wide Wellness: Online Database Keeps Tabs on Emerging Health Threats

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:32:26 GMT

Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School have developed "HealthMap," an automated data-mining project that searches web-accessible information sources to track emerging health threats worldwide. HealthMap can often detect potential disease outbreaks in local pockets before health agencies such as the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) realize they're threats. It collects an average of 300 reports per day (using sources in five languages), and extracts disease and location information. It groups articles to provide collective information on any given outbreak, and calculates a "meta alert" activity score based on reliability of the data and the diversity of types of sources to reduce false positives. See Also Get Your Daily Plague Forecast Mapping Infectious Diseases Journal Article: Surveillance Sans Frontières: Internet-Based Emerging Infectious Disease Intelligence and the HealthMap Project (Source: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=world-wide-wellness)

AI beats human poker champions

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:49:58 GMT

An artificial intelligence program called Polaris 2.0 defeated human champions in the second Man-Machine Poker Competition, in Las Vegas, July 3-6. Deveoped at the University of Alberta, Polaris 2 had learning built into its programming, thereby countering the learning ability of the humans by switching strategies whenever they did. (Source: http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=TUMO0MDJH0GJEQSNDLSCKHA?articleID=208802992)

Gold, DNA Combination May Lead To Nano-Sensor

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:29:45 GMT

Duke University scientists have developed intracellular biological sensors based on gold nanostructures with tethered DNA recognition molecules that can create signals from subtle changes in light reflecting off their nanoscale surfaces. By measuring color changes, researchers can tell what is happening at the molecular level, and the nanoparticles are small enough to pass through cell membranes. Duke University news release (Source: )

Nanoscale lithographic tech to enable 25 nm chip features

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:07:03 GMT

MIT researchers have achieved a significant advance in nanoscale lithographic technology, creating lines about 25 nanometers wide separated by 25 nm spaces. The most advanced commercially available computer chips today have a minimum feature size of 65 nm. Intel recently announced that it will start manufacturing at the 32 nm minimum line-width scale in 2009, and the industry roadmap calls for 25 nm features in the 2013-2015 time frame. The MIT technique could also be economically attractive because it works without the chemically amplified resists, immersion lithography techniques and expensive lithography tools that are widely considered essential to work at this scale with optical lithography. The researchers used a technique known as interference lithography (IL) to generate the patterns, using scanning-beam interference lithography, or SBIL. This recently developed technique uses 100 MHz sound waves, controlled by custom high-speed electronics, to diffract and frequency-shift the laser light, resulting in rapid patterning of large areas with unprecedented control over feature geometry. MIT news release (Source: )

Miniaturised scanner zooms in on disease

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:52:04 GMT

Harvard Medical School scientists have developed a miniaturized handheld nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) scanner that can diagnose diseases and identify pathogens, and is 800 times more sensitive than standard NMR scanners used in many laboratories -- enough to detect just 10 bacteria in a given sample. The trick is the use of magnetic nanoparticles, which generate a much larger signal than single nuclei, and coating these nanoparticles with molecules that bind to specific biomolecules, bacteria, and viruses. (Source: http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn14274-miniaturised-scanner-zooms-in-on-disease.html)

Nanosensors for Medical Monitoring

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:33:34 GMT

Vista Therapeutics is developing sensitive devices for continuous bedside monitoring of blood biomarkers for detecting organ failure and other problems in seriously injured or ill patients, such as those in the ICU after suffering a heart attack or traumatic injuries from a car accident. The devices use silicon nanowires developed by Harvard University chemist Charles Lieber. When a single protein binds to an antibody along the wire, the current flowing through the wire changes. Arrays of hundreds of nanowires, each designed to detect a different molecule in the same sample, can be arranged on tiny, inexpensive chips. The changes can be monitored continuously as molecules bind and unbind, making it possible to detect subtle trends over time, without requiring multiple blood draws. Because nanowires are so sensitive and inexpensive, they could also find their way into home tests for cancer. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/21047/?a=f)

A Picowatt Processor

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:24:49 GMT

University of Michigan have made a processor (the Phoenix) that measures just one millimeter square with a power consumption so low (2.8 picojoules of energy per computing cycle) that emerging thin-film batteries of the same size could power it for 10 years or more. At this scale, it could be feasible to build the chip into a thick contact lens and use it to monitor pressure in the eye, which would be useful for glaucoma detection. It could also be implanted under the skin to sense glucose levels in subcutaneous fluid. It could also be used in environmental sensors that monitor pollution, or structural health sensors, for instance. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/21046/?a=f)

Microwave ray gun controls crowds with noise

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:02:36 GMT

Sierra Nevada Corporation plans to build a microwave ray gun, dubbed MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio), able to beam sounds directly into people's heads. The device exploits the microwave audio effect, in which short microwave pulses rapidly heat tissue, causing a shockwave inside the skull that can be detected by the ears. A series of pulses can be transmitted to produce recognizable sounds. The device is aimed at military or crowd-control applications. (Source: http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn14250-microwave-ray-gun-controls-crowds-with-noise.html)

For Future of Mind Control, Robot-Monkey Trials Are Just a Start

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 05:46:56 GMT

A two-way mind-machine interface with a remote device might some day begin to redefine how we perceive and interact with our environment. A monkey at Duke University in Durham, N.C. made this 5-ft. robot in Kyoto, Japan walk on a treadmill (Masafumi Yamamoto/The New York Times/Redux) "One day, you could be sitting in an office and controlling a device from across the room -- or in another building," says Miguel Nicolelis, a professor of neuroscience at Duke University Medical Center. "And it's not just flicking a switch. It could be a nanotool that's moving through a tiny environment, and you can control it and see what it sees." (Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/4272246.html)

Scientists Find Way to Dim Cancer Switch

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:53:27 GMT

Stanford University researchers have found a "dimmer switch" that stops a gene from sending protein signals that promote cancer. When the Myc gene makes too much of the protein Myc, cells lose the ability to kill themselves when they're damaged, and instead keep growing. The researchers found that by turning down the Myc switch, they could shrink tumor cells to normal sizes and restore their ability to die. Previously, it had been thought that the Myc gene had to be turned off entirely to stop cancer. Since low levels of Myc are needed for normal cell functions, Myc couldn't be a target for cancer treatment. The research now means that Myc and similar cellular signals can be a target for therapy. Problems with Myc contributed to the cancer-related deaths of as many as 70,000 Americans each year. (Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/01/AR2008070101536.html)

Herculean Device for Molecular Mysteries

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:49:08 GMT

Researchers at ~~Columbia University and~~ D.E. Shaw Research are developing a special-purpose supercomputer that can achieve a thousandfold increase in throughtput for complex molecular simulations. The supercomputer can simulate biological processes that take place over a millisecond or longer, 1000 times longer than current molecular simulations (like those done on BlueGene/L), which may last less than a microsecond. These more detailed simulations promise to advance science and drug development. See also Incorporating Flexibility in Anton, a Specialized Machine for Molecular Dynamics simulation (PDF 850 KB) (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/science/08comp.html?ref=science)

'Smart bomb' nanoparticle strategy to stop metastasis

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:43:58 GMT

Researchers at University of California, San Diego have developed a nanoparticles/anti-cancer-drug combination that acts as a "smart bomb" to target metastasis (spreading) in mouse pancreatic and kidney cancer. The 100-nm. nanoparticle comprises (unnamed) lipid polymers that deliver the drug doxorubcin, selectively targeting blood vessels that feed cancerous lesions by homing in on the protein marker integrin alpha-nu-beta-3 found on the surface of those blood vessels. It has a strong anti-cancer effect, using 15 times less chemotherapy drug than would be used during systemic (flooding the whole body with chemotherapy) cancer treatment. Cancer metastasis is traditionally much more difficult to treat than the primary tumor, and is what usually leads to the patient's death. University of California San Diego News Release (Source: )

Are We in the Peak of an Oil Bubble?

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 03:09:27 GMT

Since 2003, worldwide oil prices have quadrupled and according to a new study, the price of oil is rising at a faster-than-exponential rate, and cannot be sustained. In other words, we're in the midst of an oil bubble, say researchers at ETH Zurich in Switzerland and East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai, China. Since it appears that the supply-demand balance has only a small effect on the price of oil, the researchers suggest that a major effect lies elsewhere. They point out several reasons why speculation, fed on rumors of rising oil scarcity, may be the positive feedback causing high oil prices. In addition, investors could be searching for a new high-return investment following the collapse of three recent economic bubbles in the US. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news134646313.html)