[TECH NEWS] Many robotic designs take nature as their muse: sticking to walls like geckos, swimming through water like tuna, sprinting across terrain like cheetahs. Such designs borrow properties from nature, using engineered materials and hardware to mimic animals’ behavior. Now, scientists at MIT and the University of Pennsylvania are taking more than inspiration from nature—they’re taking ingredients. The group… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] As a first-year fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital a few years ago, John Kheir treated a nine-month-old girl whose lungs had been damaged by pneumonia and were filled with blood. In the 20 or so minutes it took for Kheir and his colleagues to put her on the heart-lung bypass machine, she suffered severe brain injury from low… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] A revolutionary tool created at the University of Sheffield (UK) has enabled researchers to analyze nanometer-sized devices without destroying them for the first time, opening the door to a new wave of technologies. The nuclear magnetic resonance apparatus – developed by the University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy – will allow for further developments and new applications for… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] Treatment with an agent that blocks the oxidation of an important component of the mitochondrial membrane prevented the secondary damage of severe traumatic brain injury and preserved function that would otherwise have been impaired, according to a research team from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Graduate School of Public Health and Department of Chemistry in a… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] For about a dozen years, synthetic biologists have been working on ways to design genetic circuits to perform novel functions such as manufacturing new drugs, producing fuel or even programming the suicide of cancer cells. Achieving these complex functions requires controlling many genetic and cellular components, including not only genes but also the regulatory proteins that turn them on… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] By blending optical and atomic force microscope technologies, Iowa State University and Ames Laboratory researchers have found a way to complete 3-D measurements of single biological molecules with unprecedented accuracy. Existing technologies allow researchers to measure single molecules on the x and y axes of a 2-D plane. The new technology also allows height measurements (the z axis) down to… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] Researchers at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) have developed a new method of repairing bone using synthetic bone graft substitute material, which combined with gene therapy, can mimic real bone tissue and has potential to regenerate bone in patients who have lost large areas of bone from either disease or trauma. The researchers have developed… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] In a breakthrough effort for computational biology, the world’s first complete computer model of an organism has been completed, Stanford researchers reported last week in the journal Cell. A team led by Markus Covert, assistant professor of bioengineering, used data from more than 900 scientific papers to account for every molecular interaction that takes place in the life cycle of Mycoplasma genitalium, the… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] Millions of people suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s, muscular dystrophy, spinal cord injuries or amputees could soon interact with their computers and surroundings using just their eyes, thanks to a new device that costs less than £40. Composed from off-the-shelf materials, the new device can work out exactly where a person is looking by tracking their eye movements,… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] A study led by Karolinska Institutet (Sweden) and published in Lancet Neurology reports for the first time the positive effects of an active vaccine against Alzheimer’s disease. The new vaccine, CAD106, could prove a breakthrough in the search for a cure for this seriously debilitating disorder. Alzheimer’s is a complex neurological dementia that is the cause of much… Read more »
