Industries
Microscopy technique enables more informative biopsies
When trying to use light and conventional optics to image a biological sample at great detail, one eventually encounters the fact that objects smaller than the light’s wavelength cannot be resolved. While technological tricks have been developed to overcome this limitation in some ways, a team of researchers from MIT and Harvard have instead focused on swelling the sample so it is large enough to be examined in detail using light microscopy...
Device may contribute to creating a neuromorphic computer
Of all things that contemporary science is capable of observing in the universe, nothing outperforms the human brain or can even be compared to it in terms of functionality, plasticity and efficiency. The brain is a massively parallel processor of information, consuming an amount of energy on the order of a femtojoules (10-15 J) per synaptic event. As a comparison, an ordinary 100 W bulb consumes one hundred quadrillion times more energy per seco...
One small step for man, one giant leap for RF modules
Developer of Radio-Frequency (RF)-based ultra-miniature wireless modules for integration into microchips, Insight SiP, has announced that its RF ISP130301 module went into space as a key component of the BodyCap e-Tact wearable device used by the European Space Agency (ESA) as part of its health monitoring programme.
This robot took a long walk off a short fountain
A robot security guard tasked with patrolling car parks and buildings in Washington DC appears to have taken its life into its own hands by rolling into a fountain and drowning itself. In a tweet that quickly went viral, Bilal Farooqui said: “Our D.C. office building got a security robot. It drowned itself. We were promised flying cars, instead we got suicidal robots.”
Dolphins inspire trauma treatment
A physiological process used commonly by mammals like seals and dolphins inspired the potentially life-saving method University at Buffalo researchers successfully tested to raise blood pressure in a simulation of trauma victims experiencing blood loss. The pre-hospital intervention is simple—place a bag of ice on the victim's forehead, eyes and cheeks. In a small study, this method was shown to increase and maintain a person's blood p...
Method predicts effectiveness of catheter ablation
In a small proof-of-concept study, researchers at Johns Hopkins report that a complex mathematical method to measure electrical communications within the heart can successfully predict the effectiveness of catheter ablation, the standard of care treatment for atrial fibrillation, the most common irregular heartbeat disorder. This has the potential to let physicians and patients know immediately following treatment whether it was effective, or whe...
Device detects tumour cells in blood
Researchers at the URV’s Department of Physical and Inorganic Chemistry, led by the ICREA researcher, Ramon Álvarez Puebla, and the professor of Applied Physics, Francesc Díaz, and the Department of Clinical Oncology of the HM Torrelodones University Hospital, have patented a portable device that can detect tumour cells in blood. The device counts the number of tumour cells in a blood sample in real time and is thus ...
High speed rail 2 contracts awarded for Manchester and Leeds
The head of Transport and Manufacturing at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Philippa Oldham has expressed her feelings in response to the awarding of High Speed Rail 2 contracts and the expected confirmation of routes to Manchester and Leeds.
Neural stem cells guided by electric fields in rat brain
Electric fields can be used to guide neural stem cells transplanted into the brain towards a specific location. The research, published in the journal Stem Cell Reports, opens possibilities for effectively guiding stem cells to repair brain damage. Professor Min Zhao at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine's Institute for Regenerative Cures studies how electric fields can guide wound healing.
Imaging technique to help study neuro diseases
Researchers have developed a fast and practical molecular-scale imaging technique that could let scientists view never-before-seen dynamics of biological processes involved in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis. The new technique reveals a sample’s chemical makeup as well as the orientation of molecules making up that sample, information that can be used to understand how molecules are b...