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Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed implantable devices that can activate -- and in theory, block too -- pain signals traveling from the body through the spinal cord before they reach the brain.
Imagine if, instead of driving in the crowded traffic or taking the bus to work, you could just fly, above the street. That's the idea behind skyTran, a self-driving monorail that hopes to revolutionize the way we think about transportation.
Nikola Tesla had it right since 1908.
Seismic tremors around Mount St. Helens hint at a new possible eruption in the area. Geological surveys have revealed the interior structure of the volcanic system, and geologists have been able to correlate seismic activity with the activation of the system
Researchers studied the link between cycling helmet legislation and recorded head injuries in various parts of the country. Their findings put into question the efficacy of helmet legislation, and the researchers suggest that the best way to protect cyclists is for the government to provide infrastructure tailored to their needs.
Let's try again: Imagine you could grow your food at home, year-round, using a futuristic aquarium/garden system!
In a study published Monday in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers from the University of Queensland caution that the surge in scarlet fever cases may pose an unexpected threat.
The study recorded the biological responses (a fancy wording for arousal) of a sample of 345 women who watched videos of nude males and females. And the data is quite surprising: 82% of participants responded sexually to both men and women.
"Any cars that are being made that don’t have full autonomy will have negative value. It will be like owning a horse," Musk said.
Using a newly-developed production method, the Institute of Industrial Science at Tokyo University succeeded in producing a type of glass that rivals steel in hardness. The new material opens huge developmental lanes for any glass and glass-related product, from tableware to bulletproof glass.
A new study from the University of California looks at the link between the bonding hormone oxytocin and the effect of marijuana in social contexts that improve interpersonal bonding. Their findings offer insight into how the hormone could make social interactions more fulfilling and satisfying by enhancing our natural cannabinoid receptors.
Artificial Intelligence. To most of us that brings up images and short clips from movies where AI dominates Earth and enslaves us poor humans. Put away those connotations for a moment. AI in its purest sense, where programs evolve and self-improve has been very interesting. Google recently showcased an interesting program; they plugged it into a game on the PS4, and in a matter of hours, the program had taught itself to play the game, and a few hours later could play it better than any human. Although this is slightly frightening, it shows how powerful technology is getting.
The famous inventor and tech pundit shares a few words on why he thinks humans will soon live forever.
For decades, scientists have been discussing about the possibility of a clean, virtually inexhaustible source of energy – and they still are. But with the work of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, that may soon change, and the way we think of energy might change. After over 1.1 million construction hours, they […]
A new model of a spectrometer was unveiled by Australian national nuclear research and development organisation. But this one is made of LEGOs.
Changes in surface height as measured by satellite altimeters suggest the Antarctic peninsula is experiencing a net gain of ice cover. The analysis suggests Antarctic ice sheet showed a net gain of 112 billion tons of ice a year from 1992 to 2001. However, this net gain slowed to 82 billion tons of ice per year between 2003 and 2008. Some parts the peninsula experienced substantial ice cover gain (East Antarctica), while other parts showed evidence of ice discharge (West Antarctica).
Researchers at MIT have developed a device that can track human silhouettes behind walls using Wi-Fi.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, scientists from the universities of Michigan and Pennsylvania scanned the brains of 50 smokers while they viewed anti-smoking ads. They recorded their neural activity spikes as they watched the sample of 40 images one at a time, looking for increase activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, the area that handles decision making processes.
Ahh, the phallus. In most sexually-reproductive species, half of the individuals lack one, while the other half is constantly trying to share theirs as much as possible with the first group, with varying degrees of success -- bragging, fighting or impressing their way to the continuation of the species. Marvelous!
We're living in the future.
When humans and nature work together, you can build some extraordinary designs. At MIT, living things are integrated using today's most advanced gear - like biological 3D printers - to help solve human needs. In this particular case, a suit that self-regulates in response to humidity (the trigger is sweat) so you can work, dance or explore more comfortably.
Sprocket the cat has been fitted with an improvised 3D printed leg brace which has a good chance of saving his leg from amputation. Sprocket, who is just younger than 1 year old, has had his share of misfortunes. He was lucky to survive being hit by a car, but his leg was shattered. He managed […]
French scientist working on the Hall thrusters -- an advanced type of engine that harnesses a stream of plasma to generate forward momentum -- have recently figured out a way to optimize them, allowing them to run on (wait for it) a staggering 100 million times less fuel than conventional chemical rockets. The research has been published in Applied Physics Letters.
This Wednesday at the Tokyo Motor Show, Honda Motors will unveil its brand new hydrogen car: the FCV (not its real name likely). According to Forbes, the car can run 435 miles on a tank full of hydrogen, which is more than 100 miles than any of Tesla EV. Moreover, a full fill only takes 3 minutes which means you can be back on the road in no time - provided you can find a hydrogen filling station. The biggest innovation, however, is Honda's new fuel cell system which is 10 times cheaper than the one on the FCX Clarity and takes as much space a typical V-6 engine.
Driverless cars are slowly becoming a reality on our streets, but at the mining sites, driverless trucks have already become a reality.
The next time you throw away an aluminium can, picture the can half full of gasoline. That's how much energy goes into making it, and how much energy will have to be spent to produce a new one rather than recycle.
Just in time for Halloween, scientists have developed the blackest material - a material so dark that it absorbs almost all the light that hits its surface.
A team of students in Canada invented a cheap, portable cooling device that doesn't need any electricity.
A preliminary study from Switzerland, published this month in the Annals of Neurology, proved the effectiveness of a new method of non-invasive brain surgery: using a newly-developed operating device that relies on ultrasound, in conjunction with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), allowed neurosurgeons to precisely remove small pieces of brain tissue in nine patients suffering from chronic pain without removing skin or skull bone. Researchers now plan to test it on patients with other disorders, such as Parkinson's. Neal Kassell, neurosurgeon at the University of Virginia, not directly involved in the study.
Cristiano Menezes of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation has discovered farming behaviors in bees, adding them to the list of social insects that practice agriculture.
"Please enter a strong password", is now an ubiquitous greeting whenever we try to register online. Security experts advise we use long passwords at least 12 characters in length, which should include numbers, symbols, capital letters, and lower-case letters. Most websites nowadays force you to enter a password under some or all of these conditions. Moreover, the password shouldn't contain dictionary words and combinations of dictionary words. Common substitution like "h0use" instead of "house" are also not recommended - these naive attempts will fool no automated hacking algorithm. So, what we end up at the end is a very strong password, like the website kindly asked (or forced) us to do. At the same time, it's damn difficult if not impossible to remember. People end up endlessly hitting "recover password" or, far worse, write down their passwords in email or other notes on their computer which can easily be recovered by any novice hacker.
The Yuanmeng (which means “dream”) isn't a work in progress - it's actually flying, taking off for the first time from Xilinhot in Inner Mongolia.
A recent study published Wednesday in the journal Nature shows that there is a strong functional relationship between a region's average recorded temperature and economic productivity -- further warning of the damage climate warming would inflict on our economy.
Bitcoin's blockchain database is shared by all nodes participating in a system - that's more computing power than Google has. This makes the Bitcoin ledger impossible to forge or destroy, since there are millions of other copies distributed across the whole web. Now, this remarkable financial innovation could be used to thwart corruption.
Carbon nanotubes are a class of advanced materials that researchers think will transform electronics someday, but while great effort is expended trying to figure out the best way to make them, it appears that our lungs are already littered with them. American and French researchers collected both biological samples from randomly selected asthma patients and swabs from nearby buildings and busy intersections. Eventually they found carbon nanotubes, leading them to believe that the material is expelled throughout the city. The source? Vehicles, it seems, which act like carbon nanotube factories on wheels. Similar findings were detected in samples from Houston, in spider webs in India and in ice cores, suggesting carbon nanotubes are everywhere where automobiles are on the loose.
A recent U.S. study shows how the upward trend in economic damage from hurricanes correlates very closely to the influence global warming has on the number and intensity of hurricanes. Published in Nature Geoscience, it concludes that the commonly cited reasons for growing hurricane damage -- increases in vulnerability, value, and exposure of property -- don't stand up very well to scrutiny.
What exactly makes you thirsty? Dehydration, obviously, but how does your brain know that your body needs water? And how does that grey, squishy lump resting in your cool and comfortable cranium, know when your body needs to heat up or cool off? Scientists at the McGill University Health Centre Research Institute (RI-MUHC) and Duke University have asked themselves just that, and being scientists, went ahead to find out.
A research effort at Winship Cancer Institute recently identified a substance in orange lichen and rhubarb that has the potential to be used as a new anti-cancer drug. The substance, an orange pigment known as parietin or physcion, slows the growth and can even kill leukemia cells harvested from patients, without obvious toxic effects on human cells, the study authors report.
Used to make almost everything from skyscraper girders, automobiles, and appliances to thumb tacks and paper clips, steel is one of the world's most vital materials. While there's been a great amount of research invested into steel, most of it has concentrated on making various grades of steel, with little focus on the surface itself. Understanding that there's a great interest and need for steel surfaces that can stay clean and don't corrode under harsh biological conditions, a group of material scientists at Harvard have come up with a squeaky clean coating that does just that.
Researchers have discovered a new species of banana christened "nanensis", belonging to the Musa genus, sharing a place in the family Musaceae with more than 70 other species of bananas and plantains. It's scientific name honors the province of Nan where the type specimens were collected.
The world's oceans are sadly full of pollution, but now, you can help make a difference - while also looking dashing at the beach. A team of US researchers developed a very 3D printed chic bikini that helps clean up pollution from the water, while posing no risk to yourself.
Prosthetics has come a long way from its humble beginnings – the crude wooden legs of yore are a far cry from the technological marvels we can create to replace our limbs today. However, there is one thing that, with all our know-how, we haven’t yet been able to incorporate in them: a sense of touch. A research team from Stanford University aims to fix this shortcoming, and has developed technology that can “feel” when force is exerted upon it, then transmit the sensory data to brain cells – in essence, they’ve created an artificial skin.
Recent fossils unearthed in the Chinese province of Daoxian come to unravel the story of humanity’s spread as we know it today. The find consists of 47 teeth, belonging to modern humans, but what’s really important is their age – they have been dated to 80,000 years ago. This number doesn’t fit with the “Out of Africa” migration theory, holding that humans originate and have spread from the horn of the continent all around the world. The theory as we know it can’t explain human presence in the area for another 20,000 years.
Solar energy could be turned up a notch not by some exotic material or chip, but surprisingly by viruses. A team at MIT published a paper demonstrating how a genetically modified virus was used in a quantum system to transfer energy at double the speed and over a greater distance than even the best solar cells.
The greenest cars of the year... but why are there no Teslas?
Sometimes, it’s not just about the functionality of a prosthetic, but the hope and morale it brings. With this in mind, Open Bionics, a startup working to provide affordable, 3D printed prosthetic hands for amputees has revealed prosthetic arms for kids inspired from Iron Man, Frozen or Star Wars. Based in Bristol, UK, Open Bionics first began […]
Thor’s hammer was so magically heavy that only the worthy could lift it – and only Thor was worthy enough (or maybe … I don’t know, I haven’t watched the new Marvel movies). Electrical engineer Allen Pan, aka Sufficiently Advanced on YouTube,decided to replicate in his very own take on a “working” Mjolnir. The best way […]
Meet Napz - a biohacking device that improves your sleep quality and can even simulate lucid dreams.
A couple of days back we wrote that Tesla's new model S will be featuring an autopilot mode. The first reactions are amazing.
Combining machine learning and data analytics, Siri - the personal assistant for millions of Apple users - is a very powerful tool. Simply by voicing commands, Siri listens and obeys, whether you want to know how many calories are in your soda can or how many planes are flying above your head this very instant. But what if someone commanded Siri without your permission? A group of ethical French hackers recently showed it's possible to hijack Siri from up to 16 feet away using hardware that can fit in a backpack and satisfy any whim.
