Search Results for: Ai

The mad rush of miniaturized health

nanosalute

The efforts that technology has made to improve our health conditions and our life expectancy seem to be preparing for the big leap, causing a substantial transformation in the way we treat ourselves and stay healthy for a long time. Here are the changes we should prepare for, and if they don't arrive quickly we should push for them to happen: Loanable Telemedicine: Telemedicine services, 'lighter' consultations that can be delivered via telephone or internet, now have an excellent propensity to ... Read more

A bionic leg guided by thought and chasing a record.

gambabionics1

Zac Vawter lost a leg in an accident 3 years ago and since then he has been through an ordeal looking for a prosthesis (he calls it a 'fake leg') which for him had satisfactory answers close to those of a real leg. So the thirty-one-year-old software engineer from Washington signed up in 2010 as a volunteer tester in a research program with the aim of creating a thought-guided bionic leg. The Rehabilitation Institute of the Medical Center… Read more

Memoto, first steps for the digitization of memory

memoto xl

Memoto is not a camera like all the others: you can't control it, it has no button to shoot. It takes automatic photos every 30 seconds from the position in which you place it (it is equipped with a clip to place it on a jacket, on a bike, wherever you want) and creates a sort of shareable "photographic memory" with its own search engine . It is the first step towards the digitalisation of our life experiences. It is unlikely that all the images taken… Read more

Connectomics – Building a map of the mind

There are approximately 100 billion neurons in the brain of an adult human, and each of these neurons is connected to hundreds of others for a total of approximately 150 billion connections in total. Neuroscience is discovering that it is the pattern of these connections, the structure of this immense neural network, that is largely responsible for the functionality of the brain, in other words for our mental life: everything we feel, think, experience or do. Our … Read more

After the guinea pigs also the monkeys: the anti-fat drug works

fat burning

Recent tests on obese monkeys show an 11% reduction in body weight after just a few applications. The drug works in totally different ways compared to other discoveries of the kind, which try to replace or substitute the ways in which human beings eat, altering the sense of appetite or metabolic levels: the action is internal and surprising. The principles of the researched substance seek the blood supply that binds to fatty tissues, and apply to these a peptide that kills … Read more

Is it necessary for engineers to also know how to write?

The user writes in a comment on an engineer's blog: Do (electronic) engineers also have to be able to write well in Italian or is it enough that they know how to 'do arithmetic'? Let's start from a comment left on a blog article, with rather harsh and reproachful tones for all the young engineers who, according to the author, would not make appropriate use of the Italian language. Inevitably, a real discussion broke out regarding the skills of those who, as a profession, design and... Read more

The greenest fuel there is? Made with air and water.

clean petrol

AFS (Engineers at Air Fuel Synthesis) based in the north of England claims to have produced 5 liters of synthetic oil in the space of 3 months. It's a little bit, you might say. And give me a break. The technique consists of extracting carbon dioxide from the air and hydrogen from the water, then combining them in a reactor which produces methanol with the help of a catalyst. The methanol is then converted into oil. Now have you understood why it takes 3 months for 5 liters? Not exactly the time that… Read more

You move on to artificial blood

Artificial blood could soon become a reality thanks to the first successful human transfusion. Dr. Luc Douay of the Parisian University 'Pierre et Marie Curie' extracted stem cells from bone marrow and 'encouraged' them to grow and transform into blood cells by administering a cocktail of growth factors: finally he injected 10 billion of these cells (the equivalent of 2 milliliters) in the donor's spinal cord. After 5 days 94% of the cells were still alive and… Read more

To study methods to communicate with patients in a vegetative state

A group of English neuroscientists has discovered that it is possible to establish a two-way 'conversation' with people in a permanent vegetative state, thanks to a device already present everywhere capable of reading their brain activity. Researchers have noticed how some individuals in this state are able to understand what they are told and follow commands to perform certain actions: the project can radically change the way these patients are treated. In the experiment, 16 were asked… Read more

Within 10 years, solar panels in orbit and clean energy on Earth.

solar orbit

Already heard it and does it sound like science fiction to you? According to the results of a 3-year study with 10 nations involved conducted by the International Academy of Astronautics, it could be a reality within 10 years. The biggest disadvantage of today's solar energy is that it doesn't work in the evening or when the sky is cloudy: in space, on the contrary, the Sun is present 24 hours a day, 24 days a week. No storms, no clouds. The obvious solution to the problem, therefore, is to move all PV capacity… Read more

The beauty of landing on a flying airport.

Size matters, even when it comes to aircraft: the bulkier the aircraft, the better they fly, with more stability and efficiency (think of the recent, enormous Airbus A380). Nothing prevents us from imagining, therefore, a timeline in which we will aim to create increasingly larger aircraft, to the point of launching real flying airports, capable of hosting and landing other planes on top of them. This is the underlying reason for the 'Airborne Metro' concept: it is, in fact, ... Read more

Lumineyes: in 20 seconds the eyes change color (forever).

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Have you always dreamed of having a beautiful pair of blue eyes, but were you born with dark eyes? A Californian doctor has patented and developed a method capable of changing dark eyes to blue (forever) in just 20 seconds. How does Lumineyes work? Dr. Gregg Homer is an optical specialist at the Stroma Medical Institute in California. He has patented and uses a technique called Lumineyes to remove the brown pigment (melanin) from the top layer of the iris using a unique laser. … Read more

5 skills to survive the future

5ability

What skills need to be developed? Surviving is a relative concept: you can do without a lot, but beyond easy philosophy, an immersive world like ours characterized by an enormous amount of information is a jungle that is difficult to cross without having strong shoulders. Here are 5 skills to focus on for society in the coming years: 1 – Knowing how to manage communications According to Nielsen, in the first quarter of 2010 European teenagers sent and received… Read more

When Thomas Edison wanted to build houses

edison

Yesterday's dreams are today's reality: we live in the age of mechanical, electrical, chemical and psychic wonders. In every field of knowledge the human mind is solving the problems it finds in nature: the dreamer dreams, the businessman has the duty to transform and sell these new ideas. What will be the point of view of those who are able to do both, to imagine and realize what the world needs? The article refers again, between… Read more

Smart steering wheel controls vital signs while driving

We have already said a lot about devices that check if you are too drunk to drive, but today a group of German researchers want to take this concept a little further: their 'intelligent steering' constantly monitors the driver's vital functions and changes behavior of the vehicle in their operation. Developed by the Munich Technical University in collaboration with BMW, this steering is equipped with numerous sensors capable of measuring heart rate, oxygenation levels and blood pressure: if … Read more

Extraterrestrial life: the radio bubble hypothesis

where are they

The question was referring to the fact that it seemed strange to him that we were not receiving any extraterrestrial transmissions from space. If it is true that there are millions of planets similar to ours out there and if at least a small percentage of them have developed intelligent life, why don't we receive any radio transmissions? This inconsistency was later called the “Fermi Paradox”. It is clear that if intelligent life develops on a remote planet, once technological development has been reached, it will necessarily have to... Read more

Vertical bed, relaxation becomes urban

verticalbed2

New York inventor Jamie O'Shea will not be remembered for giving the world civil flight, nor electricity: he probably won't be remembered at all. His creation, the Vertical Bed, is exactly what can be deduced from his bare name: a bed that allows you to sleep... while standing. The brilliant invention can support the weight of an individual's body simply by attaching its bases to a manhole. Let's be honest, I have no idea who I might find comforting... Read more

The robotic arm of DARPA ready in 4 years.

darpaARM

When over the last 5 years we reported news on DARPA's robotic arm (if you feel like it, the old site is available), we talked about advanced prototypes: today we can talk, with satisfaction, about clinical tests: it is the future. No later than two weeks ago, American health bodies approved the protocol that will allow volunteers to obtain the implant of a bionic arm: on the front line, once again, soldiers wounded in war. They will be the ones to experiment… Read more

Mars500, astronauts return from 'Mars' today after 520 days.

mars500

Technically they never moved, in fact they only opened the doors of this bunker after 1 and a half years: nothing like Big Brother. Last February the simulator recorded the 'landing on Mars' with related spacewalks: the mission had the aim of testing the effects of stress and isolation that a long space journey can cause in the brains of astronauts. Good news: Patrick Sunblad, the ESA specialist who oversaw the mission, says “The team has… Read more

Because politics will do without politicians.

In difficult times like these, popular demands persist: in the last 3 and a half years the only positive developments for our country have come from referendums. To the ever greater surprise of politicians and scholars of social flows, political protest movements are organizing themselves and are preparing to be, thanks to the Internet, increasingly structured and 'intelligent'. A typical and important phenomenon in the structure of increasingly present popular movements (from peaceful protest ones to 'revolutionary' ones... Read more

Blood nanorobot to treat infections and tumors

Nanorobotics

This is the case of "nanobots" or microscopic machines (about 50 nanometers in size) that science fiction had imagined in the Star Trek series and which, injected into a patient's circulation, went there to rebuild damaged tissues, eliminate pathogens such as viruses and resistant bacteria or even eradicate a cancer. Unfortunately, the economic factor often stops the ideas and drive towards innovation of motivated researchers: no one puts in the money and the research remains on paper. … Read more

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