In the George Lucas classic Star Wars, hero Luke Skywalker’s arm is severed and amputated during a lightsaber fight and consequently fitted with a bionic arm that he can use as if it were his own limb. At the time ...
Mind Controlled Bionic Limbs
Disciplined and observational study of the natural world including, but not limited to: Biology, Physics, Chemistry, and Earth Science.
Zeroing in on the Machinery of Neuronal Firing
Two separate American research groups have been performing similar experiments on ion channels, which are pores in our nerve cells, to identify the channels’ key functional parts. The progress made in this field may lead to development of new drugs ...
Making T-cells Fight Tumors
A new research from Rockefeller University shows that our immune system cells can detect and destroy cancerous tumor cells in breasts and ovaries. The protein that detects the cancerous cells was identified and can be used in future immunity-based therapeutic ...
First Low-Intensity MRI Scan of a Human Brain
A research group at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has developed a device for ultra-low field Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The device captured its first, blurry shots of a human brain, revealing brain activity and structure. The ...
Last Retinal Movement-Detecting Cell Discovered
In collaboration between high-energy physicists from the University of California in Santa Cruz, and neuroscientists from the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, a ganglion cell in the retina of primates was found to react to movement. The cell was ...
Heavy Metals
A team of physicists recently found that an atomic nucleus can hold many more neutrons than what was previously considered possible. In experiments conducted earlier this year, researchers created and detected one new ultra-heavy isotope of magnesium – magnesium-40 – ...
HeartLander – Stays Right on Your Heart
A new robot developed by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburg is able to reach distant locations on the surface of a beating heart, and to carry out several operations on the heart’s surface. The HeartLander ...
Cell Rolling to Neutralize Spreading Cancer Cells
Researchers from MIT and the University of Rochester have made significant progress towards developing a device that capable of capturing and treating specific cells as they flow through the blood stream. Among other applications, such a device could be used ...
Helping the Blind See Electronic Images
The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been developing (and licensing) two novel technologies that may help bring to the market affordable graphic reading systems for the blind and visually impaired. The two systems bring electronic images ...
NASA to Test Lunar Habitat
NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF) are about to test an inflatable habitat in Antarctica starting January 2008. Its new architecture is supposedly strong enough to withstand the conditions on the moon; to test that, Antarctica’s frigid, harsh, isolated ...