Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphiadeveloped a blood test capable of determining the level of mental impairment likely to be suffered by patients with Parkinson’s disease. The new test, the first of its kind, examines the level of ...
Genetic Links to Autism
Researchers at Oxford University in England have found a non-hereditary genetic link to autism. They have shown that individuals with autism tend to have either missing or extra sectors of DNA segments, a genetic mistake called copy number variants. This ...
Killing Breast Cancer Stem Cells
Researchers at the Broad Institute and Whitehead Institute (both in Cambridge, Massachusetts) have discovered a chemical that kills breast cancer stem cells in mice. These cells are believed to be the cause of the spread of cancer and also of ...
Teaching Computers to Recognize Objects
Researchers of the European “Cognitive-Level Annotation using Latent Statistical Structure” (CLASS) project are developing technologies that could help computers to visually recognize specific objects, such as one’s glasses, and general classes of objects, such as a random car on the ...
Global Hawk Autonomous Aircraft
NASA and the Northrop Grumman Corporation have recently unveiled a new unmanned aircraft system named Global Hawk. It is the world’s first fully autonomous high-altitude, long-endurance aircraft designed for environmental science research and features unprecedented flight time and altitude capabilities. ...
Self Repairing Polymers
Researchers Biswajit Ghosh and Marek Urban at the University of Southern Mississippi are developing self-repairing polymers that will heal themselves upon exposure to sunlight. The new material is composed of scratch-resistant polyurethane, oxetane (OXE), and chitosan (CHI) – as the ...
New Biosensors Will Monitor Physiological Signs
Researchers at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville are testing possible applications of different biosensors – hoping to bring them into use in the health-care industry. The sensors can be applied onto special fabrics with wireless technology, continuously monitoring the ...
A New Robotic Hand
An English company named “Shadow Robot” created a robotic imitation of a human hand, the closest one ever to the real thing. The “Shadow Hand” provides 24 different movements, which allow almost identical functionality capabilities as the real flesh and ...