Technology

Medical care for athletes competing at the Beijing Olympics involves more than just basic emergency care during the events. Pre-treatment and a thorough understanding of sports trauma, physiology, cardiology and biochemistry are all a requisite to ensure that the world’s top athletes are able to compete, safely and at the highest levels. A new journal, SMARTT (Sports Medicine, Arthroscopy, Rehabilitation, Therapy and Technology) has been established to facilitate the rapid transmission of knowledge amongst the multidisciplinary community who support the health of athletes. This peer reviewed…

Biologists and biochemists are now able to access 3-D images of biomacromolecules underlying biological functions and disease, thanks to a collaborative website called Proteopedia which provides a new resource by linking written information and three-dimensional structural information. Rather than relying just on text to provide the understanding of biomacromolecule structures, this wiki web resource, first described in Genome Biology, displays protein structures and other biomacromolecules in interactive format. These interactive images are surrounded by descriptive text containing…

It's no secret that the heat and humidity throughout Olympic venues can be sweltering but the Swiss Equestrian Federation tournament horses have an advantage - special cooling blankets to ward off the Hong Kong heat. And after the their event is over, “sweat blankets” will help them to dry off as quickly as possible – one to cover them as they return to the stables, and another to wear in their air conditioned quarters. These special garments have been designed to support these sensitive (and valuable) champion horses in their own bodily efforts to regulate their temperature and prevent the…

The next generation of digital audio broadcasting has arrived: ROCK ANTENNE at the Fraunhofer stand (TWF 5.3, Stand 15) at IFA in Berlin will be the world's first radio station to broadcast its program in DAB Surround and mp3 Surround Internet radio. DAB Surround will lend new quality to digital radio thanks to developments by the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen. Researchers there have devised the necessary techniques for processing and compressing the audio data. The special feature of DAB Surround is that it doesn't require a higher data rate than stereo DAB to…

The easy answer to whether or not Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) can cause mesothelioma similiar to asbestos exposure is a quick "maybe." The truth is there have been some studies that have shown that the longer, thin nanotubes can cause lesions and scars in the lungs of throats, similiar to what happens from asbestos exposure. With other types of CNTs, no such affect is applicable.  Asbestos exposure of course has led to thousands of deaths from exposure, especially for those people who are military veterans (especially those in Navy) and people in the construction industry. To avoid another…

Researchers from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and the University of Lovaina (UCL) in Belgium, have presented a technique that, using two video cameras to capture human movement, makes it possible to recognize body movements and display them in three dimension on a computer, according to the journal Multimedia Tools & Applications. The method can be applied to the development of interactive video games in which gestures are made with the hands and feet. Engineer Pedro Correa, from the UCL Telecommunications and Teledetection Laboratory, told SINC that, together with…

Computing pundits claim that we are moving into a world of ubiquitous computing, a brave new world where your refrigerator and cupboards will be connected to your internet shopping accounts so that you never run out of milk or sugar again. Sensors around your home and workplace will respond to workloads, weather and even your mood by adjusting heating, lighting, and sound levels. Diagnostic devices built into door handles or the bathroom might alert your doctor or the emergency services to changes in your health. But doing that means getting rid of your iPhone and anything else you learned…

Fingerprints don't get a lot of respect on television shows like CSI these days - but they are about to make a comeback. A new technology developed at Purdue University can detect trace amounts of explosives, drugs or other materials left behind in fingerprints and can even distinguish between overlapping fingerprints left by different individuals - a difficult task for current optical forensic methods. A team led by R. Graham Cooks, Purdue's Henry Bohn Hass Distinguished Professor of Analytical Chemistry, has created a tool that reads and provides an image of a fingerprint's chemical…

You no longer need a snooty wine expert to identify a ’74 Pinot Noir from Burgundy – a handheld “electronic tongue” devised by European scientists will tell you the grape variety and vintage at the press of a button. Designed for quality control in the field, the device is made up of six sensors which detect substances characteristic of a certain wine variety. Components such as acid, sugar and alcohol can be measured by this detection, and from these parameters it can determine the age and variety of the wine. The tongue was invented by Cecilia Jiménez-Jorquera and colleagues from the…

It is well-known that Vincent van Gogh often painted over his older works. Experts estimate that about one third of his early paintings conceal other compositions under them. Using a new technique based on synchrotron radiation induced X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, an international research team, including members from Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands) and the University of Antwerp (Belgium), has successfully applied this technique for the first time to the painting entitled Patch of Grass by Vincent van Gogh. Behind this painting is a portrait of a woman. The analysis of…