For the past few years, scientists around the world have been studying ways to use miniature robots to better treat a variety of diseases. The robots are designed to enter the human body, where they can deliver drugs at specific locations or perform precise operations like clearing clogged-up arteries. By replacing invasive, often complicated surgery, they could optimize medicine. EPFL scientist Selman Sakar teamed up with Hen-Wei […]
The death of King Albert I of Belgium in 1934 — officially a climbing accident — still fuels speculation. Forensic geneticist Maarten Larmuseau and his colleagues at KU Leuven (University of Leuven, Belgium), have now compared DNA from blood found on the scene in 1934 to that of two distant relatives. Their analysis confirms that the blood really is that of Albert I. This conclusion is at […]
Centipedes move quickly. And when one is coming directly at you, you might not care to spend a moment pondering its agility. So perhaps our lack of understanding about just why centipedes move with such dexterity, even over obstacles, has been related to fear. But undeterred, researchers at Kyoto University have asked precisely this question, and have turned to computer simulations and ultimately robotics to find an […]
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer delivers her keynote address at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada in this January 7, 2014, file photo. Reuters/Robert Galbraith/Files SAN FRANCISCO Former Yahoo executive Dan Rosensweig has not worked at the pioneering internet company in nearly a decade. But last week, as Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) prepared to sell its core internet business, he was sporting a Yahoo T-shirt […]
Well that didn’t take long. Just two years after its debut as a standalone app, Facebook is reporting that Messenger has reached more than 1 billion active monthly users. That’s in addition to the more than 1 billion users on WhatsApp, the company’s other popular messaging app. Facebook’s main app, with 1.5 billion active monthly active users, is believed to be the single most popular iOS app […]
Data centers are notorious for how much energy they require. Now, however, Google thinks it has found a way to mitigate that problem. Over the last few months, the tech giant has been using an artificial intelligence (AI) system built by DeepMind to control certain parts of its data centers to make its vast server farms more environmentally friendly. DeepMind is the British AI company that Google […]
UAE. JLL, the world’s leading real estate investment and advisory firm, today has released its Q2 2016 Dubai Real Estate Q2 Overview report that evaluates the impact of Britain’s exit from the European Union on the Dubai Real Estate Market across office, residential, retail and hotel sectors. Dubai caters to the most open real estate market within the region and as a result is more susceptible to […]
Researchers have combined tissues from a sea slug with flexible 3-D printed components to build ‘biohybrid’ robots to manage different tasks than an animal or purely humanmade robot could. (via WSJ Blogs)
INTERNATIONAL. Stock markets received a welcome boost during trading on Thursday following the Bank of England’s decision not to change interest rates which eased the ongoing Brexit fears, consequently lifting risk sentiment. Asian markets were elevated in the early sessions of Thursday after China’s better than expected GDP results alleviated concerns over slowing economic growth in the world’s second largest economy. Although European markets initially tumbled after […]
UAE. Implementing change strategies to reinvent the value proposition of the Islamic financial services industry is high on the agenda of industry leaders, according to Deloitte’s new whitepaper entitled “The catalysts for change: Strategic priorities in governance and regulation in Islamic Finance practice.” This necessity is fueled by recent global economic downturn coupled with geopolitical risks that have put more pressure on industry strategists and policymakers. The […]
Efforts to upgrade U.S. communications infrastructure to 5G technology got a big boost from the federal government today. The Obama Administration just announced the launch of a $400 million Advanced Wireless Research Initiative, led by the National Science Foundation (NSF), designed to accelerate the deployment of next-generation wireless technology. The program will invest in efforts by researchers experimenting with and testing novel technologies, applications and services capable […]
A new hypothesis on the extinction of dinosaurs and ammonites at the end of the Cretaceous Period has been proposed by a research team from Tohoku University and the Japan Meteorological Agency’s Meteorological Research Institute. The researchers believe that massive amounts of stratospheric soot ejected from rocks following the famous Chicxulub asteroid impact, caused global cooling, drought and limited cessation of photosynthesis in oceans. This, they say, […]
Food chemists at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) have found that garlic aroma is evident in the breast milk of women who have consumed garlic. This is caused by allyl methyl sulfide (AMS) — a metabolite which is first formed in a strong concentration during breastfeeding. Whether the aroma has an impact on which food preferences children develop and whether they like garlic in later life needs to be […]
Scientists at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) have made an object disappear by using a composite material with nano-size particles that can enhance specific properties on the object’s surface. Researchers from QMUL’s School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, worked with UK industry to demonstrate for the first time a practical cloaking device that allows curved surfaces to appear flat to electromagnetic waves. While the research […]
The vast majority of cases of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are idiopathic — the cause is unknown. In a paper published this month in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, with colleagues across the nation and world, have created a “mini-brain” model, derived from persons with a particular form of idiopathic ASD characterized by over-sized brains, revealing a […]
A researcher at Arizona State University has discovered how to control multiple robotic drones using the human brain. A controller wears a skull cap outfitted with 128 electrodes wired to a computer. The device records electrical brain activity. If the controller moves a hand or thinks of something, certain areas light up. “I can see that activity from outside,” said Panagiotis Artemiadis (pictured above), director of the […]
In a startling discovery that raises fundamental questions about human behavior, researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have determined that the immune system directly affects — and even controls — creatures’ social behavior, such as their desire to interact with others. So could immune system problems contribute to an inability to have normal social interactions? The answer appears to be yes, and that finding […]
Using folded DNA to precisely place glowing molecules within microscopic light resonators, researchers at Caltech have created one of the world’s smallest reproductions of Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night. The reproduction and the technique used to create it are described in a paper published in the advance online edition of the journal Nature on July 11. The monochrome image — just the width of a dime […]
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside are bringing their idea for a ‘Window to the Brain’ transparent skull implant closer to reality through the findings of two studies that are forthcoming in the journals Lasers in Surgery and Medicine and Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine. The implant under development, which literally provides a ‘window to the brain,’ will allow doctors to deliver minimally invasive, laser-based treatments […]
Imagine rolling your eyes to help you see more clearly. Although it wouldn’t work for humans, new research published today in Nature Communications has shown mantis shrimp use eye rotations to enhance their polarization vision. PhD student Ilse Daly, from the Ecology of Vision research group in the from the University of Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences, found the eye-rolling behaviour of mantis shrimp helps them see […]
Graphene, a two-dimensional wonder-material composed of a single layer of carbon atoms linked in a hexagonal chicken-wire pattern, has attracted intense interest for its phenomenal ability to conduct electricity. Now researchers have used rod-shaped bacteria — precisely aligned in an electric field, then vacuum-shrunk under a graphene sheet — to introduce nanoscale ripples in the material, causing it to conduct electrons differently in perpendicular directions. (via WSJ […]
A new temporary ‘electronic tattoo’ that can measure the activity of muscle and nerve cells researchers is poised to revolutionize medicine, rehabilitation, and even business and marketing research. (via WSJ Blogs)
Negotiators had been talking for hours with the hunkered-down killer of five police officers in downtown Dallas when the man suddenly resumed firing with an assault rifle. Fearing additional casualties, the officers deployed a small, remote-controlled robot to carry an explosive device near shooter Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, which they then detonated, killing him. “We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place […]
Typing PIN numbers and passwords into a smartwatch or similar wearable can leave you vulnerable to hackers, according to researchers from Binghamton University and the Stevens Institute of Technology. The researchers found that it’s possible for attackers to figure out secret access codes by tracking and measuring “fine-grained” hand movements used when inputting security information into wearable devices. In 5,000 key-entry tests for three different security systems […]
