News

 Scientists are starting to open their DNA databases online, creating a network that could pave the way for gene analysis at a new scale.

WHY IT MATTERS: To understand human genes, researchers will need data on millions of people.

A coalition of geneticists and computer programmers calling itself the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health is developing protocols for exchanging DNA information across the Internet. The researchers hope their work could be as important to medical science as…

Die VR-Brille Oculus Rift soll das Trainingsprogramm von Runtastic in eine einladende Szenerie einbetten. Die Ausbildung in einer virtuellen Umgebung könnte somit ein Stück näher rücken.

Virtual Reality soll nicht nur den Aspekt der Unterhaltung bereichern, sondern auch im Fitnessbereich neue Möglichkeiten eröffnen. Davon gehen zumindest die Macher der Fitness-Tracking-App Runtastic aus. In einer Machbarkeitsstudie hat sich der Hersteller aus Österreich mit der VR-Brille Oculus Rift beschäft…

Wissenschaftler am Internationalen Institut für Nanotechnologie der Northwestern University wollen mittels sogenannter Nanoflares im Blutkreislauf befindliches Tumorgewebe ausfindig machen, berichtet Technology Review in seiner Online-Ausgabe.

Mit Hilfe von Nanopartikeln lassen sich Krebszellen aus dem Blut holen. Das haben US-Forscher an Proben gezeigt.

Die kleinen Partikel setzen sich an einzelne Krebszellen und beginnen dann zu fluoreszieren – feines Tumorgewebe lässt sich mit Hilfe eines…

Severe droughts are forcing researchers to rethink how technology can increase the supply of fresh water.

Even in drought-stricken California, San Diego stands out. It gets less rain than parched Los Angeles or Fresno. The region has less groundwater than many other parts of the state. And more than 80 percent of water for homes and businesses is imported from sources that are increasingly stressed.

The Colorado River is so overtaxed that it rarely reaches the sea; water originating in the S…

University of Pittsburgh, Posted by Anita Srikameswaran-Pittsburgh on December 12, 2014

To treat a potentially blinding scar on the cornea, it might be possible to grow stem cells from a tiny biopsy of the patient’s undamaged eye and then place them on the injury site.

"Using the patient's own cells from the uninjured eye for this process could let us bypass rejection concerns," says Sayan Basu. "That could be very helpful, particularly in places that don't have corneal tissue banks for trans…

Rice University, Posted by Jade Boyd-Rice on December 12, 2014

Scientists have assembled the first high-resolution, 3D maps of entire folded genomes and found a structural basis for gene regulation—a kind of “genomic origami” that allows the same genome to produce different types of cells

"Our maps of looping have revealed thousands of hidden switches that scientists didn't know about before. In the case of genes that can cause cancer or other diseases, knowing where these switches are is vit…

In ländlichen Regionen der USA gibt es der Legende nach eine unter nächtlich-übermütigen und nicht an Tierschutz interessierten Jugendlichen verbreitete Freizeitbeschäftigung, die cow tipping genannt wird. Es geht dabei darum, ein auf der Weide stehendes Rind zu mehreren so zu schubsen, dass es auf die Seite fällt.

Warten, aufpassen, im Dunkeln herumstehen: Der Job von Wachpersonal ist oft langweilig. Ein US-Unternehmen hat für solche Zwecke Roboter entwickelt. Das wäre billiger - aber funktion…

In Schweden steuern Lotsen kleinere Flughäfen künftig fern. Virtuelle Realität macht es möglich.

Örnsköldsvik, von Schweden einfach nur "Ö-vik" genannt, liegt ziemlich weitab vom Schuss. Doch gerade deshalb soll der kleine Flughafen an der nordschwedischen Ostseeküste mit der IATA-Kennung "OER" zum ersten ferngesteuerten Flughafen der Welt werden.

South Korean and U.S. researchers have developed a stretchable material that senses touch, pressure, and moisture, and could be used to give artificial limbs feeling.

Some high-tech prosthetic limbs can be controlled by their owners, using nerves, muscles, or even the brain. However, there’s no way for the wearer to tell if an object is scalding hot, or about to slip out of the appendage’s grasp.

This electronics-laden glove is made up of layers of materials with stretchable gold and silicon s…

A microfluidic cell copies some basic functions of life.

WHY IT MATTERS

The combination of semiconductors and synthetic biology could lead to artificial cells.

A simple artificial cell has circular chambers etched into silicon. These contain DNA, and are connected by microfluidic channels to a bath of cellular enzymes. In a step toward sophisticated artificial cells, scientists have engineered a silicon chip that can produce proteins from DNA, the most basic function of life.

The system, thou…

The first commercial power plant to use carbon capture and sequestration shows the potential of a crucial technology.

Boundary dam, a power plant in Estevan, Saskatchewan, is the first commercial coal-fired plant to capture carbon dioxide from its emissions, compress the gas, and bury it underground. The plant demonstrates that so-called carbon capture and storage (CCS) can work at a large scale—a crucial achievement given that CCS could play a significant role worldwide in reducing the greenho…

The design studio Nervous System has created a novel process that allows a 3-D printed dress to move and sway like real fabric. The bespoke software behind it, called Kinematics, combines origami techniques with novel approaches to 3-D printing, pushing the technology's limits.

Instead of pinning fabric to a dress form, a Kinematics garment starts as a 3-D model in a CAD program. Kinematics breaks the model down into tessellated, triangular segments of varying sizes. Designers can control the s…

Austria-based Livin Studio has created a process to cultivate edible fungi that digests plastic as it grows.

The aim of Livin Studio's project is to use commonly uneaten parts of fungi to break down plastic while simultaneously producing a novelty food product.

University of Rochester

Posted by Monique Patenaude-U. Rochester on December 11, 2014

Scientists used a new imaging technique to learn how the human brain heals itself in just a few weeks after a tumor was removed. People with pituitary tumors suffer vision loss as the tumor grows. When the tumor is removed, they sometimes regain vision. The images showed the integrity of myelin in the optic nerves can predict vision recovery.

This image shows a large pituitary tumor (in red) that compressed …

Die US-Raumfahrtbehörde erforscht nicht nur das Universum, sondern arbeitet auch intensiv an der Entwicklung der zivilen Luftfahrt – sie soll sicherer, schneller und effizienter werden. Hier siehst du die neusten und coolsten Konzepte der Nasa.

1. Zusammen mit dem US-Rüstungshersteller Lockheed Martin arbeitet die Nasa an einem Hyperschall-Passagierflugzeug,...

2. ...dessen Lautstärke so stark gedämpft werden soll, dass auch Flugreisen über Land möglich werden. Die Concorde durfte aufgrund…

At MAKR SHAKR we are on a mission: Building accessible and user friendly robotic experiences to empower individual and social creativity.

Launched in 2014, the Makr Shakr Company aims to empower people with new robotic interactions, especially in the food and beverage sector. The company is dedicated to three core values: creativity, simplicity, enjoyment. The Makr Shakr bar system was designed by award-winning practice

Carlo Ratti Associati, combining future robotics with Italian design root…

Less than a year after commencing technology development of a new airborne jamming system for the U.S. Navy, Raytheon RTN +0.4% has proven the potential of its design in flights above California’s Mojave Desert. In a series of October flights at the Navy’s China Lake test range, the jammer performed flawlessly against threats mimicking the features of advanced Russian and Chinese radars.

This was the first time a fully integrated version of the jammer has been tested in airborne configuration, …

A computer mouse that wraps around your finger is nice for a while, but it’s much too awkward.

When I first heard about the Mycestro, a little computer mouse you wear on your index finger and control by wagging your digits like a symphony conductor, I laughed. It seemed very awkward.

Then I started thinking about how much time I spend using a traditional computer mouse each day, and got to thinking that it might not be such a bad idea to mix up my mouse routine. Maybe it would make some tasks…

A computer mouse that wraps around your finger is nice for a while, but it’s much too awkward.

Transparent films containing carbon nanobuds—molecular tubes of carbon with ball-like appendages—could turn just about any surface, regardless of its shape, into a touch sensor.

The films were developed by a Finnish startup, Canatu, and could be used to add touch controls to curved automobile consoles and dashboards, for example. The films are rugged and can be repeatedly bent around something as thin…

People shop mostly on their desktop computers—but they live on their smartphones. For marketers, effectively reaching their target audiences requires making a connection between those two worlds.

Marketers want to know how effective their ads are on mobile devices. They would also love to be able to retarget a mobile shopper who began making a purchase on that device, and then gave up before providing payment information and a delivery address.

Cross-device tracking is challenging, but technolo…