The Large Hadron Collider, a steely pinnacle of physics and engineering, doesn’t generally bring soft, snuggly thoughts to mind. But that may change for people who see Kate Findlay’s quilts. For four years, she has been making fabric-based artwork inspired by the accelerator and its experiments. I’ve been living and dreaming and sleeping and eating hadron colliders,
she says — via symmetry
A replacement limb that moves, feels and responds just like flesh and blood. It’s the holy grail of prosthetics research. The Pentagon’s invested millions to make it happen. But it’s been elusive — until, quite possibly, now.
The body’s own nerves are arguably the biggest barrier towards turning the dream of lifelike replacements into a reality. Peripheral nerves, severed by amputation, can no longer transmit or receive any of the myriad sensory signals we rely on every day. Trying to fuse them with robot limbs, to create a direct neural-prosthetic interface, is no easy task.
But now a team of scientists believe they’ve overcome that massive barrier. Their research is still in the early stages. But if successful, it’d yield artificial arms and legs that can move with agility; discern hot from lukewarm from freezing; and restore even the subtlest sensations of touch — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Marine biologists are starting to get a good idea now of how squid hear and how they react to sounds in the ocean.
It is only recently that scientists have come to accept that cephalopods have any auditory capability at all.
But new experiments show noises of varying loudness and frequency will elicit a range of behaviours in the animals — such as jetting or inking, and even a change of colour.
The research has been featured at the biennial Ocean Sciences Meeting.
It was presented by Aran Mooney from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) of Massachusetts, US — via redwolf.newsvine.com
We often worry about lying awake in the middle of the night — but it could be good for you. A growing body of evidence from both science and history suggests that the eight-hour sleep may be unnatural
Scientists say they may have found a new weapon against pancreatic cancer after promising early trial results of an experimental drug combination.
Giving the chemotherapy agent gemcitabine with an experimental drug called MRK003 sets off a chain of events that ultimately kills cancer cells, studies in mice show.
Patients are now testing the treatment to see if it will work for them.
The Cancer Research UK-funded trials are being carried out in Cambridge — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Researchers from King’s College, London, have proven that tiger stripes are formed because of morphogens — a substance secreted by group of cells.
In 1950, Alan Turing, a famous code-breaker and mathematician suggested that repetitive patterns in biological systems were generated by a pair of morphogens that worked together as an activator
and inhibitor
, of each cell.
Turing suggested the combined activity of these two morphogens were the reasons why some animals had stripes… and some spots.
The researchers sought to test theory on lab mice — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A breast cancer survivor says she is challenging a patent claim on cancer genes because she does not want biotech companies to own human material.
A landmark case challenging the ownership of breast and ovarian cancer genes is being heard in the Federal Court in Sydney today.
Law firm Maurice Blackburn claims four biotech companies do not have the right to patent a set of human cancer genes — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Sydney scientists have built the world’s tiniest transistor by precisely positioning a single phosphorus atom in a silicon crystal.
The nano device is an important step in the development of quantum computers — super-powerful devices that will use the weird quantum properties of atoms to perform calculations billions of times faster than today’s computers.
Michelle Simmons, of the University of NSW, said single atom devices had only been made before by chance and their margin of error for placement of the atom was about 10 nanometres, which affected performance.
Her team was the first to be able to manipulate individual atoms with exquisite precision
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
Students at the University of Twente have stolen thirty laptops from various members of the university’s staff. They were not prosecuted for this, so they could just get on with their studies. Indeed, these students even received ECTS credits for these thefts. UT researcher Trajce Dimkov asked the students to steal the machines as part of a scientific experiment. Stealing these laptops turned out to be a pretty simple matter — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The public are going to get the chance to see live creatures pulled up from the deep ocean in a permanent display.
Normally when organisms are raised from kilometres below the sea surface, they quickly die because of the huge change in pressure.
But scientists have now developed the Abyss Box, which can maintain animals in the extreme environment they need.
The vessel, containing deep-sea crab and shrimp, will go on show at the Oceanopolis aquarium in Brest, France.
The volume of the box is quite small (16 litres) but researchers believe the technology could eventually be scaled up to house larger animals, such as fish — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A new form of microscope developed in Scotland could revolutionise viewing cells and organisms, researchers have announced.
The three-dimensional images can be produced within seconds, rather than hours, which could speed up developments of new medicines, said scientists at the University of Strathclyde.
The Mesolens — the only such device in the world — can offer a detailed glimpse of organisms too big for traditional microscopes, as well as allowing imaging of cancerous tissues and the cortex of the brain.
The lens can produce resolution of more than 150 megapixels, equivalent to ten modern digital cameras combined — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Broken bones can mean weeks of having to wear a cast and the muscle atrophy that comes with that. More severe breaks can take months to mend, result in restricted movement, or in the worst cases the possible loss of a limb. There’s also the chance of re-fracture due to the amount of time some breaks take to heal if a patient isn’t extremely careful.
Speeding up the time it takes to heal a broken bone is highly desirable, and a solution may be on the horizon. Research being carried out at the University of Georgia Regenerative Bioscience Centre has helped create a new gel being referred to as Fracture Putty. It’s major benefit to those suffering broken bones is its ability to heal them in just a few days, or in the case of severe breaks, cut the healing time to weeks instead of months.
Fracture Putty has yet to be tested on humans, but it has already been proven to work in animals. The putty takes the form of a gel that gets injected into the broken bones. It then goes to work rapidly generating bone much faster than a body can achieve on its own — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A skin cancer drug may rapidly reverse pathological, cognitive and memory deterioration associated with Alzheimer’s disease, according to new research published on Thursday.
Bexarotene, a drug that is currently used to combat T cell lymphoma, appeared to reverse plaque buildup and improve memory in the brains of mice with Alzheimer’s disease by reducing levels of beta-amyloid plaques in the brain that cause mental deficits in Alzheimer’s disease.
Researchers said the findings were particularly promising because the drug worked with unprecedented speed
by reducing soluble amyloid by 25 percent and its build-up in the brain by 50 percent in three days — via redwolf.newsvine.com
For the first time, researchers have designed an electrochemical cell that can desalinate seawater (Nano Lett., DOI: 10.1021/nl203889e). They think that its cost and efficiency eventually could improve on standard techniques of purifying seawater.
Worldwide demand for freshwater is skyrocketing as the population increases. Many of today’s desalination plants use reverse osmosis or evaporation, both of which require enormous amounts of energy to supply heaters or high-pressure pumps. To find cheaper, room-temperature, energy-efficient solutions, many researchers are looking to nanomaterials and electrochemistry.
The new system uses both. It first draws ions from seawater into a pair of electrodes. As the researchers pass current through the electrodes, electrochemical reactions drive chloride ions into a silver electrode and sodium ions to an electrode made from manganese oxide nanorods. Next, the researchers remove the desalinated water and release the trapped ions into a separate stream of waste seawater by reversing the direction of the electrical current. Although the pilot experiments were not automated, the researchers say that a pump could automate the process — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Who wouldn’t want to own a nuclear bomb-proof earth station and a piece of space history?
The Jamesburg Earth Station, which transmitted some of the first images of the Apollo 11 moon landing, is on the market.
The one-of-a-kind securely fenced 160-acre property comes with a three-bedroom house, a 20,000-square-foot building, a helicopter landing pad and a 10-story satellite dish and antenna. It’s in Cachaua Valley, not far from Carmel Valley and about 20 miles southeast of Monterey, a bit off the beaten track and offbeat, period.
The unusual selling point of this picturesque property situated among rolling hills and wine vineyards: Built at the height of the nuclear arms race with the former Soviet Union, the 20,000-square-foot earth station can withstand a five-megaton nuclear blast.
The dish used to transmit satellite communications between the U.S. and other Pacific Rim countries. It was shut down in 2002 by owner AT&T and put up for sale. Some ham radio operators restored and fired up the dish in 2007 and bounced 20 radio signals off the moon — via latimes.com
A 3D printer-created lower jaw has been fitted to an 83-year-old woman’s face in what doctors say is the first operation of its kind.
The transplant was carried out in June in the Netherlands, but is only now being publicised.
The implant was made out of titanium powder — heated and fused together by a laser, one layer at a time.
Technicians say the operation’s success paves the way for the use of more 3D-printed patient-specific parts.
The surgery follows research carried out at the Biomedical Research Institute at Hasselt University in Belgium, and the implant was built by LayerWise — a specialised metal-parts manufacturer based in the same country
Two legally blind women appeared to gain some vision after receiving an experimental treatment using embryonic stem cells, scientists have reported.
Last year, each patient was injected in one eye with cells derived from embryonic stem cells at the University of California, Los Angeles. One patient had the dry
form of age-related macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness. The other had a rare disorder known as Stargardt disease that causes serious vision loss. There’s no cure for either eye problem.
After four months, both showed some improvement in reading progressively smaller letters on an eye chart. The Stargardt patient, a graphic artist in Los Angeles, went from seeing no letters at all to being able to read five of the largest letters — via redwolf.newsvine.com
This unusual blackbird is attracting bird watchers to a Nottinghamshire country park.
The bird is leucistic, which is a genetic mutation that prevents pigments from being deposited normally in its feathers.
It has been residing for the last four years in the woodland of Rufford Abbey Country Park.
Each year, observers say, it has steadily shed its black feathers for white feathers.
Park rangers took this picture of the blackbird — which is now completely white with no visible pigmented feathers — in the summer of 2011.
Leucistic birds are often very vulnerable to predators, because of their bright white plumage. So the park’s managers are urging birdwatchers to keep an eye out for this unusual blackbird — via redwolf.newsvine.com
No less than twice a week, Professor John Mainstone fields an inquiry from someone around the world about his pet project.
Provocatively, you could say that he has gained worldwide interest over an experiment that in some respects resembles watching grass grow.
But that would be selling the University of Queensland’s Pitch Drop Experiment very short.
The experiment, which features tar pitch slowly dripping through a funnel, began in 1930 as a way for the late Professor Thomas Parnell to prove the liquid nature of the material at room temperature.
Having dripped just nine drops in 81 years, it is recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running experiment in the world.
Having won Professors Mainstone and Parnell a Ig Nobel Prize in 2005, it currently sits proudly in the lobby of the Physics Department, needing no special attention apart from being kept at room temperature — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Equipped with tiny sensors, insects could scout out buildings filled with noxious chemicals, check under rubble after an earthquake and go places no human spy ever could. In a first step toward making these technologically enhanced insects a reality, scientists have devised a way to power bug-robot hybrids by tapping into their own metabolism.
The secret: an implantable biofuel cell powered by a sugar the cockroaches make from their food — via redwolf.newsvine.com
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