Most Recently Added Most commentedBy Title | A-Z

Page 1 of 1,11012345678910Last

Simple vision-correcting overlay and algorithm could replace reading glasses for viewing devices

July 30, 2014

Researchers placed a printed pinhole array mask on top of an iPod touch as part of their prototype display. Shown above are top-down and side-view images of the setup. (Credit: Fu-Chung Huang)

UC Berkeley and MIT researchers have developed a prototype of a simple vision-correcting display (and associated algorithm) that uses a printed pinhole screen sandwiched between two layers of clear plastic attached to an iPod display to enhance image sharpness.

The tiny pinholes are 75 microns (millionths of a meter) each and spaced 390 microns apart.

The algorithm adjusts the intensity of each direction of light that emanates from… read more

Topics: Computers/Infotech/UI | Electronics

Comments (1)

Beyond GPS: five next-generation technologies

July 30, 2014

DARPA is pioneering the next-generation of PNT capabilities beyond GPS, which includes using miniaturization, pulsed lasers, quantum physics and even lightning strikes for external navigational fixes (credit: DARPA)

Several DARPA programs are exploring innovative technologies and approaches that could supplement GPS to provide reliable, highly accurate real-time positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) data for military and civilian uses and deal with possible loss of GPS accuracy from solar storms or jamming, for example.

DARPA Director Arati Prabhakar  said DARPA currently has five programs that focus on PNT-related technology.

Adaptable Navigation Systems (ANS)… read more

Topics: Electronics | Physics/Cosmology

Comments (1)

Astrocytes — not neurons — found to control the brain’s gamma waves and some forms of memory

Cells thought to play only supporting roles demonstrate surprising effects on object-recognition memory and cognitive behavior
July 30, 2014

Poisoned astrocytes

In a study published July 28 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Salk Institute for Biological Sciences researchers have found that brain cells called astrocytes — not neurons — can control the brain’s gamma waves.

They also found that astrocytes — a type of glial cell traditionally thought to provide more of a support role in the brain —… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

Comments (2)

3D-printing objects containing multiple metals and alloys

July 29, 2014

This is a prototype of a mirror mount that scientists made using a new 3-D printing technique. The part at the top near the glass mirror is made of a metal with low thermal expansion, so that it won't shrink in space as much as most metals do. Using this kind of metal therefore prevents stress in the epoxy adhesive between the mirror and the metal. The bottom part of this mount is stainless steel, and could be connected to a stainless steel component of a spacecraft. (Credit: NASA-JPL/Caltech)

Researchers at NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology, and Pennsylvania State University have developed a 3D printing process that transitions from one metal or alloy to another in a single object.

For example, they created a prototype of an improved telescope mirror mount. The part at the top near the glass mirror is made of a metal with low… read more

Topics: Nanotech/Materials Science

Comments (5)

An alternative to the Turing test: ‘Winograd Schema Challenge’ annual competition announced

Invites researchers and students to design computer programs that simulate human intelligence
July 28, 2014

(credit: iStock)

Nuance Communications, Inc. announced today an annual competition to develop programs that can solve the Winograd Schema Challenge, an alternative to the Turing test that provides a more accurate measure of genuine machine intelligence, according to its developer, Hector Levesque, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, and winner of the 2013 IJCAI Award for Research Excellence.

Nuance is sponsoring the yearly… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics

Comments (12)

Designing nanoparticles that can deliver drugs more easily

July 28, 2014

MIT engineers created simulations of how a gold nanoparticle coated with special molecules can penetrate a membrane. At left, the particle (top) makes contact with the membrane. At right, it has fused to the membrane. (Credit: Reid Van Lehn)

A new study led by MIT materials scientists reveals the reason why gold nanoparticles  can easily slip through cell membranes to deliver drugs directly to target cells.

The nanoparticles enter cells by taking advantage of a route normally used in vesicle-vesicle fusion, a crucial process that allows signal transmission between neurons.

In the July 21 issue of Nature Communications, the researchers describe in detail the mechanism… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Nanotech/Materials Science

Comments (0)

Understanding graphene’s electrical properties at the atomic level

"If you cut it one way, it might behave more like a metal, and, if you cut it another way, it could be more like a semiconductor."
July 28, 2014

An illustration of a graphene nanoribbon shaped by the beam of a transmission electron microscope (credit: Robert Johnson)

University of Pennsylvania researchers have used a cutting-edge microscope to study the relationship between the atomic geometry of a ribbon of graphene and its electrical properties.

A deeper understanding of this relationship will be necessary for the design of graphene-based integrated circuits, computer chips, and other electronic devices.

The study was published in the journal Nano Letters.

The researchers used Brookhaven National Laboratory‘s aberration-corrected… read more

Topics: Electronics | Nanotech/Materials Science

Comments (0)

A cost-effective nanotube-based catalyst for producing hydrogen fuel

July 28, 2014

A new technology based on carbon nanotubes promises commercially viable hydrogen production from water (credit: Tewodros Asefa)

Rutgers researchers have used carbon nanotubes as a catalyst for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen, which could replace expensive platinum for making clean-burning hydrogen fuel — which could one day replace expensive, environmentally harmful fossil fuels.

The Rutgers technology is also far more efficient than other low-cost catalysts investigated to date for electrolysis reactions, which use electric currents to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen,… read more

Topics: Energy | Environment/Climate | Nanotech/Materials Science

Comments (8)

Curiosity’s images show Earth-like soils on Mars, suggest microbial life

July 26, 2014

Rover image from Gale Crater reveals soil features similar to paleosols on Earth (credit: NASA)

Ancient fossilized soils potentially found deep inside an impact crater suggest microbial life.

Soil deep in a crater dating to some 3.7 billion years ago contains evidence that Mars was once much warmer and wetter, says University of Oregon geologist Gregory Retallack, based on recent images from Curiosity.

The images from the impact Gale Crater, Retallack said, reveal Earth-like soil profiles with cracked surfaces… read more

Topics: Biotech | Space

Comments (2)

Study suggests probiotics could prevent obesity and insulin resistance

A pill that prevents obesity (even with a high-fat diet) could be on the horizon
July 25, 2014

Obese vs. normal mouse (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Vanderbilt University researchers have discovered that engineered probiotic bacteria (“friendly” bacteria like those in yogurt) in the gut produce a therapeutic compound that inhibits weight gain, insulin resistance, and other adverse effects of a high-fat diet in mice.

“Of course it’s hard to speculate from mouse to human,” said senior investigator Sean Davies, Ph.D., assistant professor of Pharmacology. “But essentially, we’ve prevented most… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity

Comments (2)

New clues to how synapses in the brain are programmed

July 25, 2014

Cerebellar granule cells, parallel fibers, and flattened dendritic trees of Purkinje cells (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Washington University School of Medicine researchers have identified a group of proteins that program synapses in the brain, controlling neural development and learning, with implications for conditions such as autism.

In a study of the cerebellum (which plays a central role in controlling the coordination of movement and is essential for “procedural motor learning”) of mice, published in the journal Neuron, they found that a complex of… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

Comments (0)

A fly-inspired miniature microphone

Hypersensitive 2-millimeter-wide device could lead to a new generation of miniaturized low-power hearing aids
July 25, 2014

This is a photograph of the biologically-inspired microphone taken under a microscope, providing a top-side view. The tiny structure rotates and flaps about the pivots (labeled), producing an electric potential across the electrodes (labeled). (Credit: N. Hall/UT Austin)

University of Texas Austin researchers have developed a tiny prototype microphone device that mimics the Ormia ochraceafly’s hearing mechanism. The design may be useful for a new generation of hypersensitive, millimeter-sized, low-power hearing aids.

The yellow-colored Ormia ochracea fly, the inspiration for the design, can pinpoint the location of a chirping cricket with remarkable accuracy because of its freakishly acute hearing, which relies upon a sophisticated sound processing… read more

Topics: Electronics

Comments (1)

New Google X Project to look for disease and health patterns in collected data

July 25, 2014

Smart contact lens (credit: Google)

Google X has launched a new Moonshot project called Baseline Study to “collect anonymous genetic and molecular information from 175 people—and later thousands more—to create what the company hopes will be the fullest picture of what a healthy human being should be,” says The Wall Street Journal.

Specifically, Google will collect samples and look for disease and health biomarkers, or patterns.

The project is run by… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity

Comments (1)

How to prevent diseases of aging

July 24, 2014

By 2050, the number of people aged over 60 years is projected to be five times that in 1950 (credit: Luigi Fontana, Brian K. Kennedy, and and Valter D. Longo/Nature)

By 2050, the number of people over the age of 80 will triple globally, which could come at great cost to individuals and economies.

Unfortunately, medicine focuses almost entirely on fighting chronic diseases in a piecemeal fashion as symptoms develop, researchers writing in the journal Nature say. Instead, more efforts should be directed to promoting interventions that have the potential to prevent multiple chronic diseases and extend healthy lifespans.… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity

Comments (19)

A new approach to SETI: targeting alien polluters

July 24, 2014

In this artist's conception, the atmosphere of an Earth-like planet displays a brownish haze - the result of widespread pollution. New research shows that the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope potentially could detect certain pollutants, specifically CFCs, in the atmospheres of Earth-sized planets orbiting white dwarf stars. (Credit: Christine Pulliam (CfA))

We might be able to spot extraterrestrial civilizations if we assume they spew industrial pollution into the atmosphere, say theorists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA).

Conversely, ET could spot us.

The team suggests that under ideal conditions, the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) should be able to detect two kinds of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) — aerosols and ozone-destroying chemicals used in solvents.… read more

Topics: Environment/Climate | Physics/Cosmology

Comments (4)

Page 1 of 1,11012345678910Last
close and return to Home