Source: Dailytech
“Using these cells could help define the milestones of how cells are reprogrammed and screen for drug-like molecules that replace the potentially cancer-causing viruses used for reprogramming,”
Source: ubergizmo
iRiver goes underwater this time round with its Aquabeat MP3 player which targets swimmers who want to enjoy some of their favorite tunes while getting their daily dose of exercise in. It measures a relatively small 61mm x 46mm x 20mm and doesn’t look as though it will get in your way as you attempt to outdo your previous lap record. 1GB of storage space ought to be sufficient, unless you’re preparing for the Olympics and get in more than 9 hours of practice time each day – that’s exactly how long the battery will last. The Aquabeat will hit Japan this July 4th for approximately $145.
Source: crunchgear
Today Olympus Japan announced [JP] the development of a 360° lens and camera prototype. The technology is a world first.
The company started working on the prototype last year. The camera covers a vertical angle of 180° now, while the old version only covered 45°. A special kind of glass is used for the lens, which has a diameter of 3cm.
Source: Dailytech
Quasiparticle based circuits could break down the electro-optical communication barrier.
One of the bottlenecks in current electro-optical communication systems is the need to convert electrons into photons. While optical interconnects maybe be amazingly fast and efficient, the conversion process still chews up precious time.
This May, Harvard researchers showed a new technology that could be used to build LEDs directly into an integrated circuit. Last week, University of California at San Diego scientists published work in the journal Science using a more direct approach at converting electricity to light on the fly.
Excitons are an interesting type of particle. They are created when photons enter a semiconductor, exciting the electrons it contains. An excited electron forms an electron-hole pair, which in this case, is called an exciton. What makes excitons useful for optical ICs is that when the electron-hole pair recombines, they emit a flash of light.
The key to creating an electro-optical IC in this case is the ability to control the exciton, preventing it from recombining too early. To accomplish this, the UCSD scientists used a special semiconductor made of gallium arsenide, very low temperatures (less than 40 degrees Kelvin), and a special type of exciton that separates the electron and hole pair by several nanometers, confining them to their own quantum wells.
Source: Dailytech
Light-powered microscopic mechanical switches could act as artificial muscle.
Research being done by collaboration between Penn State University and Rice University scientists may pave the way for switching state molecules. They could be used for anything from molecular driver units to artificial muscles or molecular electronics.
Though the function of the molecular switches is similar to that of memory metal, like the kind used to control the tiny mirrors that comprise the surface of a DLP (digital light processing) chip, they function without electrical stimulus. Rather than using an on-off state powered by charge, they react to ultraviolet and visible spectrum light.
These types of molecules, molecules that react and switch states of configurations to light, are not uncommon. The process is called photoisomerization. The molecules can either be in a trans or cis state. For their results, the trans state, which represented the “on” state of the switch, was the default state under normal visible light. The molecules, composed of two benzene rings joined by double bonded nitrogen atoms, “flipped” to a cis or “off” state when exposed to ultraviolet light instead.
Source: Dailytech
The first of the two new plants will be located in District No. 7-3, an industrial waste district. When completed, it will pump out 10 MW of power to the region. The second power plant is dubbed the “Sakai complex solar power generation facility”. A location has yet to be decided but it will produce 18 MW, bringing the plants combined production to 28 MW.
The plants will produce enough electricity to power much of the city and will help cut its CO2 emissions by 10,000 tons per year. Production on the first plant will start soon, and both plants are expected to be online by 2010.
Source: Dailytech
Scientists gleefully report that the Martian soil is able to support life
NASA scientists working the Phoenix Mars Lander mission believe the soil in Mars could support life, but will continue to gather evidence to be entirely sure.
Using the lander, scientists discovered the Martian soil is more alkaline than they initially expected before landing on the Red Planet. The discovery made them “flabbergasted,” with findings made after a wet chemistry experiment was made by Phoenix on Wednesday.Phoenix’s robotic arm collected a cubic centimeter of Martian soil just one inch below the surface. Once inside of Phoenix, it was mixed with Earth water and heated in an oven.
“We basically have found what appears to be the requirements, the nutrients, to support life whether past present or future,” said Sam Kounaves, project lead chemist who works at the University of Arizona.
The soil is “very friendly” and “it is the type of soil you would probably have in your back yard, you know, alkaline,” Kounaves said. “You might be able to grow asparagus in it really well … It is very exciting for us.”
The preliminary results show the alkaline soil has a pH level of between eight and nine. They reported magnesium, potassium, chloride and sodium were also found, with each mineral also found in soil here on Earth. The soil could grow asparagus beans or turnips, but is too acidic for strawberries or blueberries.
Scientists now wonder what they’ll be able to find even further nutrients once they begin to dig deeper below the surface.
Source: Dailytech
New laser probe will enable surgeons to zap away cancer and other dangerous cells, leaving the healthy completely unharmed.
Femtosecond lasers are a relatively recent advance in laser technology, but they are advancing quickly. The University of Missouri’s UUL, or ultra-fast, ultra-intense laser is a femtosecond pulse laser. Some of the medical purposes the creators envisioned were zapping cancer cells without harming healthy tissue and treating tooth decay with the same type of results.
Adela Ben-Yakar at the University of Texas at Austin has taken the track seriously. Her work on a new probe-based laser system has been published in the June 23 issue of Optics Express. To get away from large, bulky lasers that are difficult to use in delicate situations, Ben-Yakar developed a flexible probe to deliver the femtosecond pulses her laser produces.
The probe itself is presently about 15mm in diameter, but Ben-Yakar hopes to further reduce the size to 5mm, allowing the laser to be used like endoscopes in laproscopic surgeries.
The magic in the probe is the specially developed fiber optic cable that carries the infrared pulses from the laser unit to its target. The cable itself is responsible for condensing slightly longer and weaker pulses into more powerful bursts at the emission end. This helps protect the fiber cable from the power of the laser’s full potential while letting the full potential reach the target. The laser focuses light so keenly that it is able to pinpoint cancer cells, destroy them, and leave the surrounding cells completely unharmed.
Source: Dailytech
Advances in regenerative medicine and stem cell research will help wounded soldiers and civilians alike.
The goal of the Army-led organization is to help and heal our wounded fighting men and women, allowing them to return to the productive lives they gave to their country. Some of the current goals, limb regeneration especially, may seem lofty, but such things rarely stand in the way of human determination for long.
Some of the stem cell research done by AFIRM members is already showing promising results. Stephen Badylak, a pathologist at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh’s announcement last year that a magical “pixie dust,” created from pig bladders, regrew the severed fingertips of two patients left a mark in the medical community. The dust contains molecules that signal growth factors, overriding the typical scar tissue response when a limb is severed. In just six weeks, the fingertips grew back completely, fingernails included. Badylak is presently doing further research into regrowing more complicated extremities such as arms and legs.
Source: Gizmodo
This is NASA’s hyperwall-2, the world’s highest resolution visualization system. At 23 by 10 feet wide, hyperwall-2 uses 128 screens driven by 128 graphic processing units with a total of 1,024 processor cores capable of displaying quarter billion-pixel graphics. That’s 74 teraflops of power—the number-crunching capacity of six hundred last-generation consoles— accessing 475 terabytes of data
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