Scientists believe they have found a wholly new species of mammal deep in the heart of one of the richest, least studied and most endangered wildlife areas on Earth. The discovery of an apparently new kind of fox in the dense forests of central Borneo is an extremely rare event. Only a handful of new mammals have been discovered in the whole world over the past 70 years
Researchers from the University of California and the Doheny Eye Institute have successfully implanted a tiny electronic eye implant with a video camera mounted on a pair of sunglasses into 6 patients, allowing them to detect light and motion. The implant is a 4-by-4 grid of electrodes which connects to damaged photoreceptors (rods and cones) on the patient’s retina. It works by stimulating the photoreceptors, transmitting signals through the optic nerve to the brain. The implant only works on patients with degenerated rods and cones, and is named after Argus, the Greek god who had 100 eyes. If the implants continue to be a success, the artificial retinas could be available to the public within the next three years — via Slashdot
Morse Code is actually faster than text messaging. 93 year old Gordon Hill transmitted a message faster than 13 year old Brittany Devlin, despite Devlin’s liberal use of texting slang
. And the fabulous quote they were they sending: Hey, girlfriend, you can text all your best pals to tell them where you are going and what you are wearing
— via textually
Scientists from University of Michigan have developed a new type of fibre-reinforced bendable concrete. The new concrete looks like regular concrete, but is 500 times more resistant to cracking and 40% lighter in weight. Tiny fibres that comprise about 2% of the mixture’s volume partly account for its performance. Also, the materials in the concrete itself are designed for maximum flexibility. Because of its long life, the Engineered Cement Composites (ECC) are expected to cost less in the long run, as well
Scientists at Princeton University successfully programmed bacteria to behave like computers, assembling themselves into complex shapes based on instructions stuffed into their genes
. Though applications may not come for a while, in the future this technology may be used in devices to detect bioterrorism chemicals
Researchers at Melbourne University have grown diamond particles 1/1000 of a millimetre on optical fibres which they can use to transmit single photons of light at a time. The diamonds are grown on the optical fibre by raining carbon molecules onto the tip of the fibre. They claim that by transmitting information in single photons, any interception of transmitted photons will be useless to the interceptor, and thus the message will be completely unhackable. Transmission speeds are currently slow — 120km/h — but are expected to speed up
Scientists have built a small nuclear fusion device triggered by changes in temperature. In a surprising feat of miniaturisation, scientists are reporting today that they have produced nuclear fusion — the same process that powers the sun — in a footlong cylinder just five inches in diameter. And they say they will soon be able to make the device even smaller. While the technique is unlikely to lead to power generation, such a device could act as a portable source of neutrons for analysing materials and medical imaging, and perhaps even spacecraft propulsion — via Bruce Sterling
After more than sixty-years, a rare bird believed to have been extinct has been spotted in the Big Woods of Arkansas. A kayaker first reported seeing the ivory-billed woodpecker last year. Scientists have since spotted the bird several times and even caught it briefly on video — via BoingBoing
Thousands of the amphibians have died in recent days in a pond in Hamburg’s Altona district, with their bodies swelling to bursting point. The toads’ entrails are propelled for up to a metre, in scenes that have been likened to science fiction — via meta-roj blog
What someone sees can be detected by remotely measuring their brain activity — even extracting information that people are not aware they possessed. The newly-demonstrated technique may lead to breakthroughs in measuring consciousness, helping doctors assess coma patients
Suspended animation is poised to move from science fiction to reality: scientists from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle have successfully used hydrogen sulphide gas to induce a state of reversible hibernation in mammals for the first time, using methods that could eventually be applied to human beings. The breakthrough promises to allow doctors to slow human metabolism almost to a standstill, protecting critically ill patients from damage to the brain and other organs that would normally be inflicted by oxygen deprivation
Picture a flower that opens when facing the sunlight. In work that mimics that sensitivity to light, MIT Engineer Robert Langer and his German colleagues have created the first plastics that can be deformed and temporarily fixed into shape by light. This material could one day lead to medical devices that build themselves inside a patient’s body, or door latches that can be opened with a flashlight — via Science Blog
Scientists at Harvard University have shown how ultra-cold atoms can be used to freeze and control light to form the core
— or central processing unit — of an optical computer. Optical computers would transport information ten times faster than traditional electronic devices, smashing the intrinsic speed limit of silicon technology. This new research could be a major breakthrough in the quest to create super-fast computers that use light instead of electrons to process information. Professor Lene Hau is one of the world’s foremost authorities on slow light
. Her research group became famous for slowing down light, which normally travels at 186,000 miles per second, to less than the speed of a bicycle
For the first time ever, those who have been blind since birth will have a chance to see the world. It’s still in the early stages, but this is a giant leap forward in medical science. The bionic eye comprises a computer chip that sits in the back of the individual’s eye, linked up to a mini video camera built into glasses that they wear. Images captured by the camera are beamed to the chip, which translates them into impulses that the brain can interpret
Professor Jaak Panksepp says that animals other than humans exhibit play sounds that resemble human laughs. These include the panting sounds made by chimps and dogs when they play and chirping sounds observed in rats. This suggests that the capacity for laughter may be a very ancient emotional response that predates the evolution of humankind. Research suggests the capacity for human laughter preceded the capacity for speech — via BoingBoing
A report from the University of Pennsylvania claims that psychological therapy and counselling can be just as effective as drugs in the early stages of treating moderate to severe depression. The findings run counter to current practice in the United States
John Gillatt of Bolton, Manchester, managed to get lost in the Malaysian rain forest for five days without a map or compass, or any other basic survival material. To cap it all he said that he did not realise there were leopards in the jungle, poisonous snakes and tarantulas
. Not bad for someone describes as an English biologist
— via Improbable Research
An Australian mosquito-borne virus has become the basis of a possible vaccine for cancer and HIV. The Queensland Institute of Medical Research, the University of Queensland and the Department of Health have launched a company that hopes to one day market the vaccines. QIMR laboratory head Andreas Suhrbier says the Kunjin virus, which is found in northern Australia, has been modified to cure cancerous cells in mice. The Scots are also working on a vaccine
Toshiba has developed prototype batteries that can be recharged about 60 times faster than conventional lithium ion batteries, and the technology could be commercialised for portable electronics products in about three years
Young Belyaev foxes, or kits, scamper in a cage in Siberia, Russia, where they are part of a 45-year research project to domesticate foxes. Each generation has been selectively bred for tameness—fearlessness and nonaggression toward humans. By now the foxes in the project behave like pet dogs, barking and wagging their tails at humans.
Also like pet dogs, the domesticated foxes can read
human cues much better than their wild cousins or even tame chimpanzees. The study authors call such behaviour social intelligence. They say its appearance in domesticated foxes may help us better understand how intelligence developed in humans and other animals — via boingboing
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