Technology
This not-so-distant "Internet of Things" will extend connectivity to billions of devices. Sensors could be embedded in everyday objects to help monitor and track everything from the structural safety of bridges to the health of your heart.
But having a way to cheaply power and connect these devices to the Internet has kept this from taking off. People are sick of batteries. They are sick of having to change them and they are irritated when they can't change them. In a world of information, there will need to be battery-free sensors.
University of Washington engineers have designed a new…
There's a little bit of MacGyver in all of us so even if it's unlikely to come up in our day-to-day lives, it would be nice to know how to do an artificial heart transplant in case it becomes really, really necessary, like you need to save a third world dictator or his second-in-command will launch a nuclear bomb.
The Journal of Visual Experiments is here to help. They have made it possible to watch the implantation of the SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart as you read their journal article. The paper and video both describe the case of a 60-year-old male with hypertrophic…
Hank |
If you read politics on Twitter, you would have recently seen that Republicans in the U.S. Congress are going to impeach President Obama if they get enough seats in November, so it is vital that Democrats win elections.
Or you can read that living near a farm will give your child autism and DDT exposure 50 years ago may have made women fat today. Studies said so.
The connected world has numerous benefits but it also has pitfalls - Democrats can manipulate their voters by claiming an impeachment will happen if they don't win in 2014, Republicans can claim climate change is another…
Security researchers at the Georgia Tech Information Security Center (GTISC) have discovered a way to jailbreak current generation Apple iOS devices (e.g., iPhones and iPads) running the latest iOS software. The jailbreak, which enables circumvention of Apple's closed platform, was discovered by analyzing previously patched vulnerabilities with incomplete fixes.
It shows that quick workarounds mitigating only a subset of a multi-step attack leave these devices vulnerable to exploitation. Patching all vulnerabilities for a modern, complex software system (i.e., Windows and iOS) is often…
Researchers from the University of Bradford say they have devised a simple blood test that will enable doctors to rule out cancer in patients presenting with certain symptoms, saving time and preventing costly and unnecessary invasive procedures such as colonoscopies and biopsies being carried out. Alternatively, it could be a useful aid for investigating patients who are suspected of having a cancer that is currently hard to diagnose.
Early results have shown the method gives a high degree of accuracy diagnosing cancer and pre-cancerous conditions from the blood of patients with…
Facebook, Google and just about everyone except Science 2.0 use global distributed computers to mine your web history and learn everything about you to generate revenue. Big data is being led by marketing, like many things are, but early adopters who make money at things create tools that everyone can then use, and that will be a big help for Science 2.0
New technologies for monitoring brain activity are generating unprecedented quantities of information. If it can ever be interpreted, that data may hold new insights into how the brain works. To help make sense of cranial Big Data,…
Magnetic random access memory (MRAM) is intriguing because of demand for fast, low-cost, nonvolatile, low-consumption, secure memory devices.
MRAM relies on manipulating the magnetization of materials for data storage rather than electronic charges, boasts all of these advantages as an emerging technology, but so far it hasn't been able to match flash memory in terms of storage density.
Increasing the density of memory devices is highly desirable and can be accomplished via a variety of methods. One way is by reducing the patterning dimensions, which leads to an increased number of memory…
At various times, Alan Turing was hailed as a brilliant cryptologist, leading a team of code breakers at Bletchley Park which cracked the German Enigma machine cypher during World War II, and then later as a gay martyr. Now, due to popular media accounts of computers seeming 'human' over and over, he is known for The Turing Test and is getting a biopic, "The Imitation Game", starring Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role.
In a 1950, Turing propose The Turing Test, where he outlined a standard for a computer being considered human and proposed that the solution to artificial intelligence would…
Scientists have developed a scalable, next-generation platelet bioreactor to generate fully functional human platelets in vitro.
According to the researchers, more than 2.17 million platelet units from donors are transfused yearly in the United States to treat patients undergoing chemotherapy, organ transplantation and surgery, as well as for those needing blood transfusions following a major trauma. However, increasing demand; a limited five-day shelf-life; and risk of contamination, rejection and infection have made blood platelet shortages common.
Blood cells, such as platelets, are…
A new single-cell technique can help investigate how the environment affects our development and the traits we inherit from our parents. It can be used to map all of the 'epigenetic marks' on the DNA within a single cell,which will boost understanding of embryonic development, enhance clinical applications like cancer therapy and even reduce the number of mice used in research.
'Epigenetic marks' are chemical tags or proteins that mark DNA and act as a kind of cellular memory. They do not change the DNA sequence but record a cell's experiences onto the DNA, which allows cells to remember an…