(Eurekalert) Imagine being able to control genetic expression by flipping a light switch. Researchers at North Carolina State University are using light-activated molecules to turn gene expression on and off. Their method enables greater precision when studying gene function, and could lead to targeted therapies for diseases like cancer.
Triplex-forming oligonucleotides (TFOs) are commonly used molecules [...]
(Eurekalert) A detailed description of development of the first practical artificial leaf — a milestone in the drive for sustainable energy that mimics the process, photosynthesis, that green plants use to convert water and sunlight into energy — appears in the ACS journal Accounts of Chemical Research. The article notes that unlike earlier devices, which [...]
(Human Media Lab)
Professor Roel Vertegaal’s Star Trek-like 3D cylindrical display is probably as close to teleportation as we will ever get.
A Queen’s University researcher has created a Star Trek-like human-scale 3D videoconferencing pod that allows people in different locations to video conference as if they are standing in front of each other. “Why Skype when [...]
(CNN) Wind turbines have long produced renewable energy but a French engineering firm has discovered another eco-purpose for the towering structures.
Eole Water claims to have successfully modified the traditional wind turbine design to create the WMS1000, an appliance that can manufacture drinking water from humid air.
The company aims to start rolling out the giant products [...]
(CBS News) Swiss scientists have demonstrated how a partially paralyzed person can control a robot by thought alone, a step they hope will one day allow immobile people to interact with their surroundings through so-called avatars.
Similar experiments have taken place in the United States and Germany, but they involved either able-bodied patients or invasive brain [...]
(Discovery News) When every ounce on the trail counts, outdoor adventurers dream about ditching batteries. They might not have to wait. Designers at Colorado State University are developing solar-powered clothes from natural fibers that can charge a number of devices, including phones, tablets and GPS units.
Professor Eulanda Sanders and associate professor Ajoy Sarkar in CSU’s [...]
(The Guardian) The ancient empires of the world are remembered for their impressive large-scale feats of engineering: Macchu Picchu in Peru; the pyramids in Egypt; and the Parthenon in Greece to name a few. But the craftsmen of those eras were also skilled at engineering at the opposite end of the spectrum at the nanoscale.
The [...]
(Reuters) Dr. Peter Jansen, a PhD graduate of the Cognitive Science Laboratory at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, has developed a scientific measurement device based on the tricorders used by Captain Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy and other space adventurers on the classic TV series that has spawned numerous spin-offs in more than 45 years.
“Star [...]
(Discovery) Look closely at these solar panels. They aren’t the flat panels commonly seen on rooftops, but arrays of tubular components.
These tubes, developed by Naked Energy, in Guildford, England, are a kind of hybrid solar-energy contraption that make more efficient use of the sun’s energy to produce both electricity and hot water.
They’re hybrid because they [...]
(PopSci) Silicon semiconductors have taken us a dazzling distance along the computing road. But even if they continue unabated to get faster and more powerful (and it’s growing more difficult to make that happen) there’s a limit to what classical computing can do.
The next real game-change in computing is quantum–tapping the quantum mechanical properties of [...]
(Wired) For more than a decade, physicists have been developing quantum mechanical methods to pass secret messages without fear that they could be intercepted. But they still haven’t created a true quantum network — the fully quantum-mechanical analog to an ordinary telecommunications network in which an uncrackable connection can be forged between any two stations [...]
(The Telegraph) The ultra-thin film consists of electrodes on a plastic foil and measures only 1.9 micrometres in thickness – a tenth of the thinnest solar cells currently available, according to researchers in Austria and Japan.
The fact it is extremely thin, light and flexible paves the way for a number of new future uses, including [...]
(LA Times) Google’s self-driving car has fascinated our minds with its technological promise since being introduced in 2010. But yesterday, the self-driving car touched our hearts.
Google posted a video of the self-driving car taking a legally blind man for a spin, showing one of the possibilities and benefits that could come from the technology.
“Where this [...]
(Good) The future of urban farming is under construction in Sweden as agricultural design firm Plantagon works to bring a 12-year-old vision to life: The city of Linköping will soon be home to a 17-story “vertical greenhouse.”
The greenhouse will serve as a regenerating food bank, tackling urban sprawl while making the city self-sufficient. Plantagon predicts [...]
Damien Gayle
Daily Mail
In Star Trek: The Next Generation, their congenitally blind engineer, Jordy LaForge, is able to see thanks to a visor worn across his eyes.
Now, thanks to an Israeli team, real-life technology has taken one more step to catching up with science fiction.
They have shown that an amazing device can use sound to hack [...]
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