15
POPSA Robot that Navigates Like a Person The machine is controlled by algorithms designed to mimic different parts of the human visual system. Rather than capturing and mapping its surroundings over and over in order to plan its route--the way most robots do--the European machine uses a simulated neural network to update its position relative to the environment, continually adjusting to each new input. This mimics human visual processing and movement planning.
19
POPSFirst extra-galactic planet spotted in Andromeda The advantage of microlensing is that it works best for more distant objects so it's ideal for planet hunting in other galaxies. In theory, it should be possible to see Earth-sized objects in this way. The disadvantage is that microlensing is a relatively rapid, one-off event that lasts a few days at most. That makes observations difficult to verify. And today a new analysis from Ingrosso and co shows that this companion has a mass about 6 times that of Jupiter. That's heading into brown dwarf territory but it's also well within planetary territory too.
15
POPSNew theory of aging points the finger at misrepairs But sometimes these repair mechanisms go wrong, leaving small regions of misrepair. The new idea is that aging is the result of the accumulation of these misrepairs over time. This leads to a key prediction about aging. The team says: "Our theory suggests that for extending lifespan all efforts need to focus on the reduction of misrepair." So what should you do if you want to live longer? Avoid damage as far as possible, say Michelitsch and pals, emphasising that "it is especially important to prevent chronic inflammation, which is an important source of misrepair."
14
POPSArtificial Liver Shows Early Promise Toxins in the plasma flow through the fiber membrane, where they are metabolized by the liver cells. The cells also synthesize essential proteins, such as blood-clotting factors, which diffuse back into the plasma. The filtered plasma is then recombined with the cellular components of blood and returned to the patient. A clinical trial in China found that patients treated with the ELAD fared significantly better than those who did not get the treatment. Another study began in the United States in October. Artificial Liver Shows Early Promise
18
POPSA Robomedic for the Battlefield Now researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) are developing technology to give battlefield medics a helping hand--literally. Howie Choset, an associate professor of robotics at CMU, has engineered a snakelike robotic arm equipped with various sensors that can monitor a soldier's condition. The robot can be wirelessly controlled via a joystick, so that a doctor at a remote clinic may move the robot to any point on a soldier's body to assess his injuries as he's being carried to a safe location. The robot's serpentine flexibility allows it to maneuver within tight confines, so that, in case a casualty can't be extracted from the battlefield immediately, the robot can perform an initial medical assessment in the field.
24
POPSDo You Believe in Free Will? it seems that people really are more helpful when they think they are free to choose as compared to when they believe their actions are pre-determined. Baumeister and colleagues argue that the belief that behaviour is pre-determined encourages people to behave automatically, and often automatic behaviour is selfish.
16
POPSChemists edge closer to recreating early life Joyce's experiment was designed to test the 'RNA World' theory, which proposes that DNA-based life evolved from a stage whereby RNA acted as both an information-storage molecule, like DNA, and as a catalyst, like enzymes, and was also capable of self-replication. This work is the biggest injection of support for the RNA world hypothesis in a long time,' says Donna Blackmond, Chair in Catalysis at Imperial College London, UK. 'It's a demonstration of principle that indefinite replication, coupled with selection via mutation, is quite plausible for RNA. The fact that it goes on indefinitely is a big thing for showing that this really could have been how life started,' she adds.
16
POPSApple after Steve # MacBooks and iPods and iPhones aren’t going anywhere. Certainly Steve left his imprint on many things throughout the company, but his departure doesn’t mean that their current line of wildly successful products is going to simply disappear. # The Apple design aesthetic isn’t doled out in person by Steve, and Steve isn’t the only creative visionary at Cupertino. There are lots of bright, passionate, creative people at Apple. Sexy computers will still be made. A strong focus on quality user interfaces will still prevail. Competition doesn’t get a leg up as a result of this. Apple is still strongly in the #2 spot when it comes to computers, behind Microsoft but ahead of Linux. Apple will still maintain an enormous lead in the PMP market with iPods. And the iPhone is still a strong member of the smartphone triumvirate, along with Android and the soon-to-be-released Palm Pre. Apple can now focus on the cult of Apple, and not the cult of Steve.
15
POPSVision Restored to Blind Patients in Gene Therapy Researchers theorized that if they could “upgrade” these photoreceptor cells with the non-defective gene then damage to the photoreceptor cells would cease and any remaining healthy cells would regain their ability to function. A virus was used to inject the functioning gene into the target cells and within a week vision improved and remained so after 90 days — the study’s endpoint. In theory, the younger the patient, the better this therapy will work because the degenerative nature of the disease will have had less time to cause permanent destruction to photoreceptor cells. Trials are now underway with younger patients and the researchers are hopeful that these younger patients will see substantial, perhaps even full recovery of vision.
8
POPSA Review of the Best Robots of 2008 Robot innovation continued its relentless advances during 2008. In this post we would like to showcase some of our favorite robots and robot videos of the last year or so. This review is heavily slanted to consumer robots and research robots.
16
POPSWhy working out may help memory Glucose metabolism naturally slows with age, and memory begins to decline in our 30s, says co-author Scott Small, an associate professor of neurology at Columbia University Medical Center in New York. The new study suggests a possible association between the two, because elevated blood sugar appears to damage the dentate gyrus, Small says. The dentate gyrus's exact function is unknown. But it's one of several circuits in the hippocampus that, if disrupted, impairs memory, such as a person's ability to learn the names of new people or to remember where they parked their car. The possible connection between its dysfunction and poor glucose regulation may explain earlier observations that exercise benefits the dentate gyrus, Small says. Until now, scientists believed that physical activity reduced the risk of age-related memory loss by allowing glucose to be absorbed more quickly into muscle cells, but were not sure why.
1
Clips
Latest Pops
Latest Comments
Most Pops
Tags
Print
Save
Turn on live update