Synopsis: Domenii:

#Implantable device hits targeted brain cells with light and drugs when triggered remotely The field of optogenetics where individual brains cells are made to behave differently

when exposed to light has wide-ranging potential. It may one day be used to reverse acquired blindness,

alter pain thresholds and even hit the rest button on our biological clocks. With one eye on this emerging area of neuroscience, scientists have developed a device the width of a human hair that can be planted in the brain to deliver light

or drugs only where needed, offering better targeted treatments and reduced side effects. The tiny device features microfluid channels and microscale pumps

and is made to be soft like brain tissue so as not to cause inflammation and neural damage.

It also houses four separate chambers for carrying drugs directly to the brain and cellular-scale inorganic light-emitting diode(-ILED) arrays, allowing it to shine light on targeted cells.

And critically, its functions can be triggered remotely.""Now, we literally can deliver drug therapy with the press of a button,

"says Jordan Mccall, a graduate student at Washington University in St louis and member of the research team."

"Wee designed it to exploit infrared technology, similar to that used in a TV remote. If we want to influence an animal behavior with light or with a particular drug,

we can simply point the remote at the animal and press a button.""The animals Mccall refers to are mice, in

which he and his team successfully demonstrated the device's capabilities for the first time. One part of the study saw the researchers deliver drugs only to one side the brain.

which prompted the mouse to begin moving in circles. In another experiment, the scientists shone light directly onto specific brain cells.

because they expressed light-sensitive proteins that trigger the release of dopamine. The resulting good feelings led the mice to return to the same point in the maze where they had received the treatment.

The scientists say the technology could be used to one day treat pain, epilepsy, depression and other neurological disorders.

The success of their latest experiments has them hopeful that the device could be adapted to work in other areas of the body,

and produce something more like a printer's ink cartridge, so that drugs can be drip-fed to targeted cells as needed over a long time."

and demonstrated an implantable, cellular-scale microfluidic and micro-optical interface to biology, with application opportunities not only in the brain but in other parts of the nervous system and other organs as well,"says the study co-author John Rogers,

professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois. The research was published in the journal Cell l

#Smart low-carbon Solcer House generates more electricity that it uses A Welsh university claims to have built the UK first low-cost, low-carbon, energy-positive house.

The Solcer House was built by Cardiff University Solcer Project, part of the LCRI Program (Low Carbon Research Institute.

The house is located in Pyle near Bridgend and follows the"Buildings as Power stations"concept developed by the SPECIFIC Innovation and Knowledge Centre.

Energy-positive status is achieved by way of reduced energy demand, renewable energy supply and storing energy for later use.

Electricity is imported also from the grid when required and exported to the grid when there is a surplus.

Low-carbon cement was used for the construction of the Solcer House. To reduce its demand for energy

the house has high levels of thermal insulation, structural insulated panels (SIPS), external insulation and low-emissivity double-glazed aluminum-clad timber frame windows and doors.

Transpired solar collectors (TSC) are employed also. These comprise a perforated skin on the exterior of the house that draws air into the cavity

and warms it via the sun's rays. It is drawn then into the house as a low-cost means of heating via ventilation.

Electricity is generated by way of a 4. 3 kwp glazed photovoltaic solar panel array. This is fully integrated into the south-facing roof of the house

eliminating the need to have bolted it on. Energy that is not immediately required is stored in the house's 6. 9-kwh battery.

Electricity generated and stored is used to power the heating, ventilation, hot water system and household appliances. The Solcer House took 16 weeks to build

and was completed in February this year. The video below shows the construction of the Solcer House e

#Laser device may soon non-invasively monitor diabetics'glucose levels In order to monitor their blood glucose levels, diabetics typically have to perform painful and inconvenient finger-prick blood tests in some cases, several times a day.

Using an implantable glucose-monitoring sensor is one alternative, although it must be installed surgically and subsequently removed for replacement.

Another option may be on the way, however, in the form of a device that simply shines a laser on the user's finger.

Known as Glucosense, the system was developed by Prof. Gin Jose and his team at the University of Leeds. To use it

patients simply place the pad of their finger against a small glass window on the device.

A low-powered laser beam is projected then through that window, and into their finger. Some of that light is absorbed by glucose in the bloodstream,

and some is reflected back down onto the window. Ions on the window glass surface subsequently fluorescence in infrared

when exposed to that reflected light the more light that hits them, the longer they glow. By measuring the duration of that fluorescence,

a processor in the device is able to determine how much of the original laser light was absorbed by glucose,

and can thus deduce the amount of glucose in the bloodstream. The whole process takes less than 30 seconds.

After a period of clinical trials and commercial development by spinoff company Glucosense Diagnostics, it is hoped that two versions of the device will be commercially available a computer mouse-sized tabletop unit,

and a wearable device that measures glucose levels continuously.""As well as being a replacement for finger-prick testing,

this technology opens up the potential for people with diabetes to receive continuous readings, meaning they are alerted instantly

when intervention is needed, "says Jose.""This will allow people to self-regulate and minimize emergency hospital treatment.

This wearable device would then be just one step from a product which sends alerts to smart phones

or readings directly to doctors, allowing them to profile how a person is managing their diabetes over time."

"Scientists at Princeton university are currently exploring similar technology, while researchers at Google, Fraunhofer and Microsoft are developing noninvasive sensors that measure glucose content in tears or sweat.

Source: University of Leed o

#New molecular transistor can control single electrons Researchers from Germany, Japan and the United states have managed to create a tiny,

reliable transistor assembled from a single molecule and a dozen additional atoms. The transistor reportedly operates so precisely that it can control the flow of single electrons,

paving the way for the next generation of nanomaterials and miniaturized electronics. For our electronics to become more powerful it's vital that the transistors,

the tiny switches that make them up, keep getting smaller and smaller. However, there is a limit to just how much the silicon-based transistors as we currently use can shrink.

A single silicon atom is about half a nanometer in size meaning that, in the current generation of electronics,

the terminals of the switch are separated only by around 30 atoms. Once that number drops to single digits these transistors will become inoperable as quantum mechanics starts getting in the way,

with electrons spontaneously jumping from one end of the switch to the other whether the switch is closed open

or. Tiny molecular transistors much smaller than the ones inside our computers (as small as two nanometers) have already been built,

but the issue that researchers now face is to find a way to control them in a reliable way.

This is not an easy feat as molecular transistors are often so small that their on/off state depends on the location of a single electron.

Now, an international team from Paul-Drude-Institut für Festkörperelektronik (PDI), the Freie Universität Berlin (FUB), the NTT Basic Research Laboratories (NTT-BRL),

and the U s. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has built a molecular transistor that can reportedly be controlled precisely, in

what could mark an important step toward the advancement of miniaturized electronics. The transistors of today are built using a top-down approach where bulk silicon is gradually etched into the desired pattern.

A molecular transistor however, must be built from the bottom up, by assembling atoms one by one in a chemistry lab.

Although this may sound highly unusual and extremely laborious, it's also a very precise and reproducible process that has the potential to make the transistors of tomorrow highly reliable despite their incredibly small size.

Researchers Stefan Fölsch and team built their transistor using a highly stable scanning tunneling microscope (STM.

The device was assembled by taking a crystal of indium arsenide and placing 12 indium atoms laid out in a hexagonal shape on top of it, with a phthalocyanine molecule in the middle.

As the researchers explain, the central molecule is only weakly bound to the crystal surface beneath it,

and this means that, when the tip of the microscope is very close to the molecule

and a voltage is applied, single electrons can tunnel between the surface of the crystal and the tip of the microscope.

The positively charged atoms around the molecule act as the gate of the transistor regulating the electron's flow and leading to a functioning and reliable molecular transistor.

One unusual fact observed was that the molecule orients itself in a different direction depending on its charge state and, in turn,

the orientation of the molecule has a strong effect on how the electron flows across the molecule.

The researchers are now working on trying to better understand this phenomenon and the link between molecular orientation and conductivity.

If exploited, this knowledge could help us build molecular nanostructures with a very precise control over single electrons, leading to new types of high-performance semiconductors and nanomaterials r

#Pill on a string pulls early signs of cancer As with every form of the deadly disease,

early detection of oesophageal cancer is critical to recovery. The current approach of detecting the cancer through biopsy can be a little hit and miss,

so the University of Cambridge's Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald and her team have developed what they claim to be a more accurate tool for early-diagnosis. Billed as"a pill on a string,

"the Cytosponge is designed to scrape off cells from the length of the oesophagus as it is yanked out after swallowing,

offering up a much larger sample for inspection of cancer cells. According to Fitzgerald, the five-year survival rate for oesophageal cancer is only 13 percent, a fact

which has led researchers to hunt for signs of a condition that precedes the disease, known as Barrett's oesophagus.

This sees the cells located in the lining of the oesophagus take on a different shape

and grow abnormally, a process that is brought about by acid and bile reflux when fluids from the stomach come up to say hello.

Between one and five of every 100 people with Barrett's oesophagus go on to develop oesophageal cancer.

Using biopsies to detect the pre-cancer condition is problematic for a couple of reasons. It requires trained scientists to pore over the samples looking for abnormalities,

which introduces a degree of subjectivity and possible human error. And although a stretch of oesophagus affected by Barrett's could measure as much as 10 cm (4 in),

there is much variation in the cells with some presenting mutations and others appearing normal and healthy.

This means if the wrong area is targeted, the biopsy may not really reveal much at all. So Fitzgerald and her team developed a solution they say can provide more accurate results.

The Cytosponge is around the same size as a multi vitamin pill but instead of nutrition it packs a tightly compressed sponge.

The patient swallows the capsule just like any other and it makes its way to the stomach,

where it rests for around five minutes. In this time the exterior dissolves and the sponge expands.

With a string attached and in the nurse's hand, the sponge is pulled then up through the oesophagus.

Rather than taking samples from only a section, it scrapes along the entire length of the tube collecting as many as half a million cells in the process."

"If youe taking a biopsy, this relies on your hitting the right spot, "says Fitzgerald."

"Using the Cytosponge appears to remove some of this game of chance.""The researchers are hopeful the Cytosponge could replace expensive and invasive endoscopies.

Already more than 2, 000 patients have swallowed the device in testing, though more trials are required to establish its efficacy.

The have licensed the device to a company called Covidien with a view to developing a commercial test.

The team's latest research into Barrett's oesophagus and oesophageal cancer was published in the journal Nature Genetics.

University of Cambridg i

#Ford's smart lighting technology spots potential hazards There are some incredible technological strides being made to improve road safety,

but the key to avoiding accidents remains the same: seeing what's ahead. Unfortunately, avoiding potentially dangerous situations before they pose a threat can be difficult on well sighted roads during the day, let alone at unlit junctions after the sun sets.

Ford is developing headlight technology that widens the beam at junctions and detects pedestrians and animals.

Ford's prototype system relies on a front-mounted camera, which works in tandem with GPS information to better illuminate bends and dips along a route.

When GPS signal isn't available, the system uses a camera mounted behind the rear view mirror to detect lane markings

and illuminate around corners. The system will also remember route data so next time you drive along that same road the car will know how to best light the way.

The car's camera system is also able to directly spotlight hazards with two special LED lamps positioned next to the fog lights.

The objects that the system picks up are highlighted in red and yellow on the screen inside,

depending on how close they are to the car. This spotlighting tech uses an infrared camera mounted in the grille that detects the body heat of up to eight people or large animals at a range of 120 meters (394 feet.

These LEDS are used also to light the exits of junctions and roundabouts. It's not just Ford working on safer lighting technology.

Mercedes'new E-Class will offer optional headlamps with 84 LEDS that allow full-beam to be used without blinding oncoming drivers,

while Audi and BMW have been testing laser headlamps that are significantly brighter than traditional xenon or LED options.

Ford expects the GPS-based lighting technology to be available for customers in the near future,

but there's no word as yet as to when the infrared spotlighting tech will hit the streets s

#Mussel-inspired surgical glue shuts down bleeding wounds in 60 seconds The ability of mussels to stubbornly bind themselves to underwater surfaces has intrigued scientists for years.

If this ability could be recreated in the lab, it could lead to new adhesives for all kinds of applications.

A team of Korean scientists has developed now a surgical glue inspired by these natural wonders that's claimed to be cheaper,

more reliable and incur less scarring than existing solutions. In surgery, stitches and staples are very effective at binding body tissue together,

but they can cause scarring and aren't always appropriate when treating more sensitive flesh and organs.

These drawbacks have motivated the development of adhesives that are strong enough to hold tissue together in wet environments,

and do so without inciting adverse chemical reactions. The proteins that mussels use to latch onto rocks, ships and jetties in the face of crashing ocean waves has been the focus of much research in this area.

In 2009, North carolina State university researchers revealed work aiming to develop a synthetic adhesive that combined these proteins with inkjet printer technology.

Scientists at Pohang University of Science and Technology have taken a slightly different approach. Their solution was inspired by intersections of amino acids called tyrosines that can be found in dragonfly wings and insect cuticles.

mussel protein-based adhesive (LAMBA) and claim to have proven its superiority to existing surgical glues.

the scientist say it was able to close bleeding wounds in less than 60 seconds and healed them without inflammation

#Age-related macular degeneration patient receives bionic eye transplant You might remember the Argus II implant from

The ambitious prosthesis is back, with researchers now looking to utilize the technology to treat patients with dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

The Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System, built by Second sight, is designed to stimulate a patient's remaining retinal cells,

and wirelessly transmitted to electrodes implanted onto the surface of the retina. Providing the implant works as intended,

the patient will perceive patterns of light, which they can learn to interpret, thus regaining some degree of sight.

It's software-based, and will likely provide improved results as testing continues. Back in 2013

the implant received market approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US, for the treatment of Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) a degenerative condition that affects the peripheries of patient vision.

The procedure was carried out at the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital in the United kingdom, by Dr. Paulo Strange MD.

Though this is only the first test using the implant for AMD sufferers, those initial positive results are extremely promising.

and to have the opportunity to help a great deal more people living with blindness, "says Second sight's Executive officer, Dr. Robert Greenberg."

#Scissoring origami-inspired bridge could help out in disasters Whether they're floods, earthquakes or landslides,

natural disasters have a nasty habit of cutting survivors off from aid by destroying bridges. While traditional portable bridges can already be set up in such situations,

researchers from Hiroshima University recently demonstrated a new model that is said to be"the world fastest, largest, strongest,

and lightest expanding temporary bridge.""Developed by a team led by Dr. Ichiro Ario, the Mobile Bridge Version 4. 0 (MB4. 0) was inspired by the Japanese folded-paper art of origami.

When not in use, the MB4. 0 is contracted like an accordion and can be towed on a trailer.

Once it gets to the site of a destroyed bridge, however, it employs a scissor-like action to fold out,

its sections of decking sliding out end-to-end to provide a platform for vehicles. From the time it arrives until the time that it can be used is about an hour

with no foundation construction or cranes being required a fact that makes it more economical than some other options.

In fact, the amount of time it takes to actually expand across the river is only about five minutes,

An MB4. 0 prototype was demonstrated at a symposium of the Japan Society of Civil engineers on June 23rd,

and used by cars to cross the Hongo River in Fukuyama City. Ario and his team are continuing to develop the technology

and have suggested that it could also be used to extend the lifespan of older bridges that are need in of structural support o

#Metal foams could provide lightweight radiation shielding Radiation generally comes under the heading of"things you want to stay away from,

so a North carolina State university team is developing a new lightweight shielding based on foam metals that can block X-rays, gamma rays,

as well as withstanding high-energy impact collisions. Though they aren't very familiar to the public,

foam metals have been around for over a century. In its simplest form a foam is made by bubbling a gas through molten metal to form a light froth that cools into a lightweight matrix.

This produces a foam that is lighter than conventional metals, but has comparable strength. Foams can also be made by milling or 3d printing,

but whatever the method, they are expensive and difficult to manufacture, so their uses are restricted to very specialized applications, such as spacecraft or advanced cooling systems.

The new foam metal being developed by the NC State team led by Afsaneh Rabiei, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, was created originally as a strong,

lightweight material for military and transportation applications, but Rabiei became curious about its potential in radiation shielding.

The result was a high-Z steel-steel foam, which is made a composite of stainless steel with small amount of tungsten formed into hollow spheres

and introduced into the steel matrix to make a foam that was less dense than stainless steel.

According to the team, the foam metal was subjected to multiple tests, which showed that it was effective in blocking X-rays, various forms of higher and lower energy gamma rays, and neutron radiation.

Compared against bulk materials it demonstrated the same shielding properties for high-energy gamma rays, though its density was lower.

In addition, it has better blocking qualities for low energy gamma rays and neutron radiation. Although it was better than most materials at blocking X-rays,

it wasn't quite up to the standard of lead.""We are working to modify the composition of the metal foam to be even more effective than lead at blocking X-rays

and our early results are promising, "Rabiei says.""And our foams have the advantage of being nontoxic,

In addition, the extraordinary mechanical and thermal properties of composite metal foams, and their energy absorption capabilities, make the material a good candidate for various nuclear structural applications. n

#Needle-sized mechanical wrist gives surgery a new angle Some of the most difficult types of surgery just got easier and more versatile.

A team of engineers and doctors at Vanderbilt University has developed a tiny mechanical wrist that can be used for millimeter-sized incisions

and sutures that allow new kinds of operations and less-invasive ways of conducting existing procedures.

Many larger surgical tools with flexible ends already exist, with designs that range from 2. 4 to 15 mm (0. 1 to 0. 6 in) in diameter,

While the mechanical wrist is expected to be useful in many different kinds of precise, small-scale surgery,

the researchers believe it will be particularly handy in needlescopic surgery (also known as micro-laparoscopy). This involves making incisions so tiny that they can be sealed with surgical tape and leave no scar behind.

Like laparoscopy, but on a smaller scale, it is accomplished using tiny surgical instruments that are fed through narrow tubes into the incision,

with a similarly tiny camera providing visual guidance. It's minimally-invasive surgery taken to the extreme.

Armed with the flexible mechanical wrist, surgeons will soon be able to conduct operations on this scale through natural orifices such as the nose

and throat and through the sharp corners encountered in other areas such as the ankle and middle ear.

To start with the researchers plan to test the wrist in transnasal surgery. This kind of surgery normally involves cutting a big hole in a patient's skull

or face so that tumors can be removed from the pituitary gland and skull base. It can also be done through the nasal cavity with an endoscope (a thin tube with a camera attached),

but the procedure is extremely difficult. The mechanical wrist, they hope, will make this less-invasive alternative and many other kinds of operations less difficult,

which will have the knock-on benefit that most patients will suffer less postoperative pain and recover faster."

"We think once we give this tool to surgeons, they will find all kinds of applications we haven't thought of,

"said research team lead Robert Webster. The wrist is made from a rigid tube of a material called nitinol,

which is a metal alloy of nickel and titanium that can be moulded at a set curvature.

Vanderbilt University applied for a provisional patent on the design in May, and the software interface that allows surgeons to control the mechanical wrist should be completed by the end of August.

It then needs to go through FDA approval, which could take four or five years. The video below that explains how the mechanical wrist works.

A paper describing the research was presented in May at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Seattle.

#Synthetic material mimics coral's ocean-cleaning attributes Researchers from China's Anhui Jianzhu University have developed a synthetic substance that mimics coral's ability to collect harmful heavy metals from water.

Once present in the aquatic environment, these substances are absorbed into plant and animal life, eventually making their way into human food sources.

anything up to 17 in every thousand children living in surveyed fishing communities showed signs of negative cognitive impacts caused by eating fish containing too much mercury.

and even low levels of heavy metals can prove fatal. While this attribute is unfortunate for the coral,

it did give the researchers at Anhui Jianhu University an idea. The researchers worked with aluminum oxide,

a substance that's proved effective at removing pollutants in the past, and optimized its structure for the task at hand.

and a half times as effective at collecting the pollutant than traditionally structured nanoparticles. e are excited very about the results,

said study author Dr Xianbiao Wang. e hope our work provides inspiration for more research into the development of materials that mimic biological organisms. r

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