Technology

In the last few years, a technique known as Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS) has become popular for analyzing how consumer impressions evolve once they begin to taste a product.  Now, researchers at the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology in Valencia, Spain say they can visualize changes in coldness, creaminess or texture that we experience in the mouth while we are eating an ice cream  on a screen using colored curves, which will  help manufacturers improve product quality. They have used the technique to visualize the 'perceptions' experienced when…

A team led by Gregorio Valdez, an assistant professor at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, have created a search engine called EvoCor that identifies genes that are functionally linked. EvoCor is a portmanteau of "evolution" and "correlation" and connotes the idea that genes with a similar evolutionary history and expression pattern have evolved together to control a specific biological process. The project described in Nucleic Acids Research may help medical scientists find ways to treat diseases that often have a genetic component, such as cancer or Alzheimer's disease.…

To some, it might seem that you can patent anything these days. Last week a weird story appeared in my Facebook newsfeed: Amazon has somehow been able to patent photography against a white background. The story was originally reported on DIY Photography. It has been making the Internet rounds since. The Electronic Freedom Foundation points out that the story made it onto the Colbert Report. But things aren’t always as they appear. Photographer Ken Rockwell has attempted to clear up the confusion: “Amazon didn't patent the white cyc or the white background as the ignorati have claimed; they…

Photographers like Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus, and Martin Schoeller made their reputations with distinctive visual styles that sometimes required the careful control of lighting possible only in the studio. Now you can do it also, thanks to Adobe systems, MIT and the University of Virginia. They have developed an algorithm that could allow you to transfer those distinctive styles to your own cellphone photos.   "Style transfer" is a thriving area of graphics research — and, with Instagram, the basis of at least one billion-dollar company. But standard style-transfer techniques…

Lung cancer is one of the top killers of people. Once patients receive a diagnosis, chemotherapy is common but accurate predictions about whether or not this treatment will help are impossible. New treatments are always in the works but the road from article on Science 2.0 to FDA approval is long. Before anything can incur the costs of a clinical trial, it has to show success in animal models. "Animal models may be the best we have at the moment, but all the same, 75 percent of the drugs deemed beneficial when tested on animals fail when used to treat humans," explains Prof. Dr. Heike…

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) receives comprehensive clinical study data from drug manufacturers and that data form the basis for the decision on the approval of new drugs.  In 2013, EMA issued a draft policy to make clinical study data available to researchers and decision-makers, with extensive data transparency, a move which Science 2.0 applauded. But the latest policy clarification is a puzzle, because it accomplishes almost nothing of any value to the broad community.  Only reading allowed Last week it became known that, as of June 12 2014, EMA plans to let…

Most schools in the United States provide simple vision tests to their students; not to prescribe glasses, but to identify potential problems and recommend a trip to the optometrist. Researchers at Duke University are now on the cusp of providing the same kind of service for autism. They have developed software that tracks and records infants' activity during videotaped autism screening tests.  Their results show that the program is as good at spotting behavioral markers of autism as experts giving the test themselves, and better than non-expert medical clinicians and students in…

We are surrounded with an abundance of clean energy, if we only had a way to harness it it. Most people probably know about solar energy, that we would only need to harness a tiny fraction of it to power the entire world (e.g. the Sahara desert has eighteen times the surface area needed to power the entire world). However, solar power is intermittent, even in deserts, with day night cycles. Wind also is unpredictable. Tidal power is intermittent also. Hydro power on the land is limited - and also often has environmental impact because of the need, usually, to dam a river to get it. The…

Using artificial intelligence, computational geometry and geo/ultrasound techniques, a project begun in 2009 at the Center for Research and Advanced Studies (CINVESTAV) have a success to report - a device to help people with low vision or blindness to navigate more easily. The new navigation device consists of glasses with stereo sound sensors, GPS technology and a tablet, which guides the blind person to a specific point and avoids hitting static or moving obstacles - but it also recognizes currency of various denominations and the color of clothing. No more crazy plaids and stripes, no…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today allowed marketing of the DEKA Arm System, the first prosthetic arm that can perform multiple, simultaneous powered movements controlled by electrical signals from electromyogram (EMG) electrodes. Deka calls it "Luke", after Luke Skywalker of "Star Wars" fame, and the project was funded by DARPA. EMG electrodes detect electrical activity caused by the contraction of muscles close to where the prosthesis is attached. The electrodes send the electrical signals to a computer processor in the prosthesis that translates them to a specific movement…