X-ray cameras inevitably bring to mind the beautiful in human body in all its glorious nakedness. If that’s what you have in mind, read no further. But if guns and weapons are what you want your x-ray camera to detect ThruVision’s T5000 will delight you.

If the recent news about suicide bombers has scared you out of your wits, T5000 will be your faithful buddy and detect weapons, drugs and of course explosives from as far as 25 meters. The camera detects something called t-rays (natural electromagnetic or Terahertz frequencies) bouncing off of human bodies and uses a software to check for non emitting objects. So that’s the key to finding all those nasty objects that infamous people like to carry under their clothes.

Although metallic things won’t stay out of sight of this geeky goggle, it won’t reveal any details of human anatomy (a euphemism for what’s underneath those clothes). ThruVision would also have us believe that their fancy camera can detect stuff even when people are moving. Also the device doesn’t affect the monitored person at all (that’s also good for not getting your life punched out).

T5000 will debut at the Home-Office sponsored scientific development exhibition, and from there it will make its way to shopping malls, airports, subways, concerts and other such places where security is a bit jumpy. As far as the nudity is concerned, you are left to curse your luck and supplant the geeky imagery with a bit of imagination.

Via

Ever wondered how it would be like to stay in a world as shown in the Matrix, a world where the difference between human beings and machines is almost null. It seems like we are heading towards the best science fiction world of our imagination in approximately 21 years. By 2029, we will have machines implanted in our brains to make us more intelligent, as discussed by a panel of technology experts at American Association for the Advancement of Science, Boston.

Ray Kurzweil, a US inventor, says that machines have always been developed to make our life easier and to help us overcome our physical and mental constraints. He predicts machines getting artificially and emotionally intelligent by the predicted year 2029, when a child would require to insert a chip or a nanobot to his brain to understand a sum. This chip will be inserted via our capillaries and stimulate the biological neurons to understand and see things more precisely and act accordingly. The nanobots will adapt themselves to the virtual world through human nervous system.

While it sounds creepy to me, according to him, the machines we are dealing with at present help us carry out our day to day life with comfort, so why not go steps ahead and live with them. But after being one of the group of 18 avant-garde personalities chosen by US National Academy of Engineering, he can dare see a future of technological expansion.

The other eminent technology thinkers chosen by the academy are Dr Craig Venter, a genome pioneer and Larry Page, who founded Google. These high thinkers have come up with a total of 14 challenges that are facing humanity at the outset of 21st century.

This may not sound like an alien invasion to this team, yes sire, but inserting a chip in my head will mean not an alien but a super machine invasion. Would anyone ask these intelligent people, if we would also have buttons, to set emotional priorities for our daily affairs? Scary, huh!

Source: BBC

Coking and crying almost become synonymous when the dish in question involves onion. This is all about change, albeit in some years to come. Scientists have used the wonders of Genetic modification to create a new race of “tear-free” onions.

Crop and Food, a research institute in New Zealand has used gene silencing to end cooking woes once and for all. Dr Colin Eady, with his collaborators in Japan, is behind this GM onion and he claims that these would not only be tear-free but will also be healthier and tastier.

Unlike the normal genetic modification procedures, this research has undertaken a different approach. The GM has not involved introduction of a foreign gene but one of onion’s gene has been silenced using RNA interference. Onions have a defensive mechanism that’s triggered whenever they are cut or smashed. This involves the release of an enzyme (lachrymatory factor synthase gene) along with amino acid sulphoxides. This enzyme coverts sulphoxides into vapors that on reaching our eyes induce tears.

One of Dr. Eady’s Japanese collaborators had identified this agent in 2002 and after years of testing a prototype has been developed that does not cause tears. However, this does not mean that we’ll have this wonder bio-tech story in our kitchens as yet. Dr Eady says:

If the research progresses well, would like to see them become the household and industry norm within the next decade.

So it is another 10-15 years of this sorry state of affairs. So carry on crying (read cooking) till then. But don’t loose hope. Hopefully, we’ll have the last laugh!

Via

There is some good news for the world of medicinal technology. Korean scientists have come up with a three-dimensional map that depicts a protein that is related to pneumonia. The development of this breakthrough map is expected to be of great help in the discovery of such antibiotics that would be able to fight the viruses that have become resistant to present treatment procedures, more effectively.

The team of scientists, led by Kim Eun-kyung, senior researcher at the biomedical research center of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), have, for the first time ever, been able to develop a three-dimensional map of the FabK protein related to the pneumonia virus, using X-rays.

Dr.Kim has expressed his belief that it would be possible to develop new drugs to combat pneumonia much more quickly, now that the three-dimensional protein map has been discovered. If indeed the protein map lives up to its potential and is of as much utility as expected, fighting pneumonia would certainly become easier.

Source: FarEastGizmos

This new development has raised hope among lesbian couples desiring to have their own biological children. However, to develop babies from the method would take years. There will be a number of biological as well as ethical issues in developing babies through unnatural ways. The biological impediment would involve developing healthy humans from this method without any genetic defect. In an earlier experiment, Prof Nayernia had developed sperms from male embryonic stem cells, used them to fertilize egg cells, and developed seven mice pups. Six of these mice survived adulthood but had severe defects.

According to Dr. Robin Lovell-Badge of National Institute of Medical Research, Mill Hill, London this method of developing human embryo is ‘doubly-damned’. Firstly, presence of both X and Y-chromosomes is not possible from this method and secondly, you need Y chromosome genes to undergo meiosis.

Source: Telegraph

For long, animal rights activists had been demanding a ban on animal tests by pharmaceutical companies that they consider unethical. More often, the animal specimens are not exact replicas of the human biological features and drugs tested in labs on animal specimens always do not produce the desired result in humans.

However, animal testing might soon become a matter of past if chips developed by Professor Jonathan Dordick of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Douglas Clark of the University of California are accepted by the researchers. The product developed by the duo consists of two glass slides. The first glass slide is called the MetaChip that contains an array of little blots containing human liver enzymes. The DataChip is the other glass slide, which, depending on the test, contains blots of bladder or liver or kidney, heart, skin, or lung cell cultures. When pressed together the two chips show the human body’s reaction to the testing compound.

The newly developed in-vitro product is believed to be more efficient than animal testing in labs. At last, a new product has come up that will save animals being butchered in laboratories in an effort to save the human species.

Source: Yahoo!

Image Credit: NTNU

If an asthma patient wears the new battery-powered sensor that easily fits in the pockets of a vest, it could help understand the causes of asthma attacks as well — thus avoid them. This is a welcome development, especially when it is not possible to fully understand why certain people get asthma. It is only that, once a person has it, their lungs can overreact to environmental stimuli, leading to chest tightness or breathlessness or asthma attack.

The new sensor system can eventually measure a patient’s airborne exposure to formaldehyde, carbon dioxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, temperature, relative humidity and total volatile organic compounds. A special mesh filter collects the airborne particles, which can be measured later. The new system would surely bring in preventive relief to the chronic asthma patients, if not curative initially.

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Via: theengineer

In the chase to produce a beating heart, experts used decellularization process for washing away existing cells from the hearts of dead rats while leaving the basic collagen structure intact.This gelatin-like scaffold was left in the laboratory to grow after it was injected with nutrient-rich solution; including heart-cells form newborn rats. During this process pacemaker was also used to coordinate the contraction and just eight days after the heart started to pump, leaving all the experts agape.

No doubt, experts are very hopeful regarding their new achievement; still, they are in no hurry to let their findings go haywire due to excessive response that it has got worldwide. And this is the result why they believe that it’s just a small step taken in their way to achieve the final goal - developing a heart that could be replaced with a dying one.This could be marked a major achievement against serious heart problems, including heart attack that kills around 5 million people annually, with 550,000 new cases diagnosed each year in the United States alone.

Source

It has always been a challenge for researchers to develop a material that can be used to bend optical signals around corners that could be used for developing integrated circuits, which can be used in more advanced telecommunication circuits and to produce lasers that are more efficient. The polymers that have so long been worked upon by a number of research groups due to their low-refractive indices have failed to completely trap light beams that fall on them and have not produced the desired result.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign led by materials scientist Paul Braun have developed a 3-D optical wave-guide capable of bending focused laser light. The group has arranged silica beads to form photonic crystals.

This material acts as a reflector at all angles of incidence for any particular beam of light, the angle of reflection being dictated by the size of the silica beads. With channels created inside the material, light entering the material can be trapped and manipulated as desired, depending on the design of the channels. The new 3-D miniature wave-guides will help in developing optical chips sometime in the near future.

Source: technology review

The greatest obstacle of the current available technology is that to activate the brain computer interface device an individual has to rely on external help to turn on and off the EEG-based devices. This means that the physically disabled people are still dependent on external aid that is by no means appealing to their desired independence.

Researchers at Graz University of Technology are working on a BCI device that would use other biological signals to trigger the brain impulses that requires no external help. In a study, the researchers led by Reinhold Scherer tested whether individuals could use voluntary spikes in their hearts to send signals that could turn on a BCI device. The subjects in the trial produced the spikes by breathing rapidly for a short period to activate a BCI, used a prosthetic hand, and then switch it off again.

The results from the trial was quite satisfactory but further study is required before switching over to the new BCI devices that could be activated by manipulating the heart beat.

Source:new scientist
Image:electric wheelchair

Stem cell research received a major boost, when scientists announced a major through. The researchers in Massacheusetts led by Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer at Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Mass announced that they have created colonies of human embryonic stem cells without harming the embryos, from which they were derived! The new technique involves removal of a single cell from a newly formed eight-cell embryo and coaxing that cell to divide repeatedly, until it forms a self-replenishing colony of embryonic stem cells.

While the researchers are excited over the new development, as they expect the breakthrough to receive funding from the U.S government, critics are rising question on the embryos’ safety. This can be confirmed only when embryos are implanted again in women’s womb and the resulting babies are found healthy.

But, such an experiment would be unethical and there is no other way to prove that the embryos are not harmed. Opponents of stem cell research were up against using embryos for research, finding it unethical as the embryos are eventually destroyed. This research, if accepted, could speed the development of stem cell-based treatments for a variety of diseases.

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Via:sun-sentinel

Genetic Engineering can reverse evolutionary history of species. This has been proved recently in a work by US scientists who produced hybrids of blind cave fish with partial vision. Blind cavefish are descendents of surface fish with sight. They were isolated from the surface fish and took refuge inside dark caves for nearly one million years and their evolutionary trait made them loose their capacity for vision.

In their study, published in the current issue of the journal Current Biology, researchers crossbred four species of the blind fish living in the northeast Mexican caves. To the delight of the scientists, they found that the hybrids were not only capable of developing their capacity of vision, but could also connect to the brain for proper information processing!

This study, if carried further ahead, will hold good possibility in eliminating hereditary diseases by eliminating bad mutants from the gene pool.

Image: practical fishkeeping

Source: cba

The scientists have, in the past, expressed grave concern over the possibilities of Avian flu outbreaks leading to epidemics. Researches are conducted to determine the cause for this virus getting transferred from birds to humans. Many theories are proposed in this direction; with the latest theory falsifying the previous ones.

Flu viruses come in many strains. Of these, the H5 strain of virus is known to be found only in birds. However, those affected by the Avian flu showed the virus H5N1, a modified form of the H5 virus. This virus, when found in humans, is said to have very high fatality rates. It is known that a virus can attack and infect any individual only when it attaches itself to the receptor cells of the body. It is recently, a team of MIT researchers have come up with spotting a difference between flu viruses, which infect birds and humans.

But previously, is was found to be only possible when the hemagglutinin, a protein found on the surface of the virus, can bind itself to the glycan found on the receptors of the respiratory tract. The receptors found in the respiratory tract of humans are classified as alpha 2-6 whereas those found in the respiratory tracts of birds are classified as alpha 2-3.

Since, the virus could attach itself to the receptors of birds, it was becoming incomprehensible for the scientists as to how could the same virus attach itself to two different receptors. As an answer to this, they concluded that the virus might be mutating itself according to the receptor thus affecting both birds and humans. However, in stark contrast was a study by Sasisekharan, which says that the virus has the ability to attach itself to a particular shape, of particular alpha 2-6 glycan receptor. It determines whether or not it can affect humans.

These receptors come in two shapes of umbrella and cones and the avian virus is suspected to link itself to the umbrella-shaped ones. This research will largely help in further developments and studies related to Avian flu. According to Proffessor Ram Sasisekharan,

Now that we know what to look for, this could help us not only monitor the bird flu virus, but it can aid in the development of potentially improved therapeutic interventions for both avian and seasonal flu.

Via: Sciencedaily

The scientists combined light emitting genes of jellyfish with grains of gold and injected the combination into the seahorse egg cells. The outcome was seahorses with sparkling gold on the body.

This is a great achievement in the world of luxury. Now aquariums will flaunt gold seahorses – a new designer item. Soon other creatures will be genetically modified to incorporate gold in their bodies and we will have golden pets and who knows if the craze of designer babies picks up we will have humans born with gold on the body – requirements for gold jewelries might cease after all.

Source & image:trendhunter

People with scars on the face and other exposed parts of the body will no longer face any embarrassment from those ugly marks and they will no longer need to undergo painful skin grafting, where a slice of the thigh skin is removed to cover the scars. Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology in Leipzig and the euroderm GmbH have been granted license to grow dermal tissue for grafting on chronic wounds.

The most interesting portion of the new therapy is perhaps the source of the dermal tissue – hair follicles. We are used to seeing the hairs growing out of the skin but from now, skin will grow from hair. The hair roots will be the source of the stem cells to be precise. The new technique is known as EpiDex.

Adult stem cells are extracted from the hair roots and the cells grow for about two weeks, after which the nutrient solution — in which the growing cells are immersed — are reduced to expose the upper sides of the cells to the surrounding air. The increase in oxygen pressure at this point on the surface of the cells helps them differentiate into skin cells.

This new technique is definitely a marvelous breakthrough. However, I am not sure whether people with not a single strand of hair on their head can cover their scars through this method, as the technique extracts hairs from the back of the person’s head to extract the stem cells.

Image: flickr

Source: science daily