#Tiny new sensor could simplify brain wave research Two years ago, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the U s. developed a tiny magnetic sensor that could detect the human heartbeat without touching the subject's skin.
Now, the same team has improved the sensitivity of the device tenfold, making it capable of measuring human brain activity
and becoming almost as sensitive-but much cheaper and easier to operate-than the best magnetometers available today.
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a noninvasive procedure that measures the magnetic fields generated by the brain. This helps neuroscientists understand perceptual and cognitive processes
map cerebral activity to help identify tumors in preparation for surgery, or even create better brain-computer interfaces.
Today, the gold standard in MEG technology are superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDS. But while extremely sensitive and effective, this technology isn't easy on the wallet."
"Cooling to 4 degrees above absolute zero, which is required for current commercial SQUID-based systems, is very expensive
the researchers came up with a magnetic sensor the size of a sugar cube that is also cheaper to manufacture
"Our sensors can be fabricated in parallel with techniques usually adopted for microelectronics, "says Kitching.""Moreover, while SQUID-based imaging systems require a large magnetically-shielded room to operate,
an imaging system based on our sensors could probably be operating in a much smaller (person-sized) shielded enclosure.
These advantages will almost certainly make a potential imaging system less expensive to manufacture.""The device contains 100 billion rubidium atoms packaged with micro-optics.
Currently, to perform a magnetoencephalography, an array of over 306 SQUID sensors is mounted in heavy helmet-shaped flasks containing cryogenic coolants.
But the peculiar characteristics of the newly developed sensor might enable lightweight and flexible MEG helmets that contain much fewer sensors."
"We are targeting 32 sensors for our system right now, "says Kitching. The NIST sensor was used to measure alpha waves in the brain associated with a person opening
and closing their eyes as well as signals resulting from stimulation of the hand; the measurements were verified then by comparing them with signals recorded by a SQUID.
The sensor measured magnetic signals of about 1 picotesla (trillionth of a tesla), which is 50 million times weaker than the Earth's magnetic field."
"By making an inexpensive system you could have one in every hospital to test for traumatic brain injuries
and one for every football team,"says Svenja Knappe, who was part of the research team. The new device is described in a paper published on the journal Biomedical Optics Express and freely available to the public c
#Inexpensive sensor measures ripeness of fruit As fruit matures, it releases a gas known as ethylene,
that causes the ripening process to begin. Once that process is under way, more ethylene is released,
kicking the ripening into high gear. Currently, produce warehouses use expensive technologies such as gas chromatography or mass spectroscopy to measure ethylene levels,
in order to gauge the ripeness of fruits that are in storage. A scientist from MIT, however, is developing small,
inexpensive ethylene sensors that could be used in places such as supermarkets. There, they could let shopkeepers know which batches of fruit need to sold the soonest
Developed by chemistry professor Timothy Swager, each sensor utilizes an array of tens of thousands of carbon nanotubes,
which have had copper atoms attached to them. While electrons ordinarily flow freely through the nanotubes,
any ethylene molecules present in the vicinity will bond with the copper atoms, obstructing the flow of those electrons.
Tiny beads of polystyrene are used also, which absorb ethylene and concentrate it near the nanotubes.
By measuring how much the electron flow has been slowed, the sensors are able to determine ethylene levels.
As a result, the sensors can reportedly measure concentrations as low as 0. 5 parts per million for context
a concentration of between 0. 1 and one part per million is what is required generally for most types of fruit to ripen.
The sensors were tested on bananas, avocados, apples, pears and oranges, and were able to accurately gauge the ripeness of all of them.
Swager now envisions the sensors being built into the cardboard boxes used to store fruit, and equipped with radio-frequency identification chips that would allow them to transmit ripeness data to handheld reading devices used by shopkeepers.
Each sensor and chip combined should cost about US$1, as opposed to the $1, 200 or so that gas chromatography
or mass spectroscopy systems currently run at. Another system, developed at the UK's National Physical Laboratory, uses radio frequencies, microwaves, terahertz radiation and far-infrared light to determine the ripeness of strawberries
although it intended more for use in the field. Source: MI e
#Researchers create living human gut-on-a-Chip in an effort to provide a more accurate alternative to conventional cell culture and animal models,
researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard university have developed a microdevice that mimics the structure, physiology,
Although it is only around the size of a USB memory stick, the device mimics the complex 3d features of the human intestine.
the membrane is attached to the side walls of the chamber that stretch and recoil using an attached vacuum controller.
and sustain common intestinal microbes on the surface of the device cultured intestinal cells allows the device to simulate some of the physiological features important to understanding many diseases.
"Because the models most often available to us today do not recapitulate human disease, we can't fully understand the mechanisms behind many intestinal disorders,
and therapies we validate in animal models often fail to be tested effective when in humans,
"Having better, more accurate in vitro disease models, such as the gut-on-a-chip, can therefore significantly accelerate our ability to develop effective new drugs that will help people who suffer from these disorders."
"The gut-on-a-chip is the latest in a series of engineered organ models developed at the Wyss Institute,
which began with the lung-on-a-chip. The institute has received also funding to develop a heart-lung micromachine to test the safety and efficacy of inhaled drugs on the integrated heart and lung function,
and a spleen-on-a-chip to treat sepsis. The team gut-on-a-chip is detailed in the journal Lab on a Chip.
Source: Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineerin e
#Crab shells used to produce cheaper pharmaceuticals Crabs and lobsters...they're not just for eating, anymore.
Chitin, one of the main components of their exoskeletons, has recently found use in things such as self-healing car paint, biologically-compatible transistors, flu virus filters,
and a possible replacement for plastic. Now, something else can be added to that list. Researchers from the Vienna University of Technology are developing a technique in
which chitin is being used to cheaply produce a currently very-expensive source of antiviral drugs.
Many presently-used antiviral drugs are derived from N acetylneuraminic-acid acid, also known as NANA. The substance can synthesized
but in either case it is very costly-at about 2, 000 euro (US$2, 626) a gram,
Normally, the fungus feeds on chitin and breaks it down into monomer amino sugars. With the addition of the new genes,
Some of the bioreactors being used to cultivate the bioengineered Trichoderma fungus The bioengineered Trichoderma can be cultivated in bioreactors
chitin is the second-most common biopolymer on earth, occurring not only in crab and lobster shells,
If cow milking recalls a bucolic image of a farmer strolling out to the barn with a bucket and stool,
With this robotic milker, the farmer needn't come any closer to the action than a readout on a smartphone,
Modern milk cows produce an average of 6. 5 gallons (24.6 l) of milk per day.
and dairy farmers must either plan their daily routine entirely around this fact or make enough money to hire additional labor.
In the early 20th century, milking machines became available and a certain degree of mechanization started to creep into dairy farming.
By 1939, a otolactormilking parlor was showcased at the Borden pavilion at the New york World Fair,
where cows were led into a rotating carousel, which kept the whole milking machine process organized on a nicely industrial basis. Unfortunately,
That why we still talk about agriculture as being different from industry. Chasing cows, making them wait
so something more was needed to ease the life of the farmer. Robotic milking is based on the idea that
The Astronaut 4 is one of a range of robotic farming systems made by Lely, including robotic cowshed cleaners and forage pushers.
It modular, so it can be configured to local farm needs, and works on the principle that instead of the farmer or the robot controlling the milking,
the cow does. This may produce some very weird mental pictures, but there is logic at work because the cow knows better than anyone else how often she needs to be milked
there will be more milk and happier cows. The Astronaut 4 system is designed to be as easy as possible for the cow to use.
reduces stress, and makes the milking station less of a bottleneck because there isn't a whole herd trying to get in at the same time.
Levy even claims that the cows learn how to use the system faster than the farmers do.
minerals, supplements, and liquids to suit each cow. As the trough swings clear at the end of milking,
this encourages the cow to walk forward and leave. According to Lely, this simple action is enough to increase the capacity of the robot by an extra cow each day.
The brushing also stimulates the production of oxytocin as well as improving milk flow speed. The milk is moved from the arm through the rest of the system by means of compressed air impeller pumps.
Compressed air is preferred the method of powering a milking robot wherever possible to avoid the danger of contamination that a hydraulic system presents.
and pen of the Astronaut 4 are equipped also with sensors to detects signs of mastitis.
The Lely MQC Milk Quality control MQC in the arm measures the color, temperature, conductivity, fat, lactose, levels of somatic cells,
and protein levels in the milk for each cow. It also notes animal weight, milking speed and
and it adjusts food supplements, minerals and medicines for each animal. As for the farmer, aside from filling the hoppers,
collecting the milk and maintenance, most of the work is supervising the system by means of a remote dashboard on a computer
or other device and using the collected data for management. It may be more Bill gates than Farmer Giles,
but at least the cows always get milked on time
#FLOW-AID helps farmers save water without sacrificing yields Wee already seen gadgets such as Koubachi and Flower power,
that communicate with userssmartphones to let them know when their houseplants need watering. Scale that idea up to an agricultural level,
and you get a prototype device known as the Farm Level Optimal Water management Assistant for Irrigation under Deficit or FLOW-AID.
It designed to let farmers in drought-stricken regions know when and how much water to apply to their crops,
so they don run their irrigation systems unnecessarily. FLOW-AID was developed by a group of 11 European companies and research institutes
as part of the EU-funded Innovation Seeds project. Multiple devices are installed at key locations in a farmer field.
Each device incorporates an aboveground control/communications unit, as well as humidity and electrical conductivity probes that are buried beneath the soil.
Using their smartphone, a farmer can access their network of FLOW-AIDS over the internet,
to check the moisture and nutrient levels of their soil. The system will notify them
when levels drop to the point that irrigation is required, at which point they can start their irrigation system remotely via their phone.
As soon as they see that sufficient moisture levels have been restored they can use their phone to turn the irrigation back off.
The system also incorporates software that takes location-specific factors such as plant properties, soil characteristics and water rationing limits into account.
So far FLOW-AID has been tested in six countries, where researchers have reported a 10 to 50 percent reduction in water use.
Because the device also keeps track of nutrient levels in the soil, it can additionally advise users on how often fertilizer should be applied this stops farmers from wasting money by over-fertilizing,
and minimizes the amount of excess fertilizer entering the environment. It estimated that the system could lead to a reduction in fertilizer use of up to 30 percent
#Pi-powered Kinograph makes preserving film heritage affordable As the Raspberry Pi Foundation (RPF) has worked to make computing more accessible,
it has helped pioneer new ways of using technology. We've seen the versatile, board-based Raspberry Pi enabling everything from robotic bartenders to doggie treat dispensers.
The latest project featuring the Pi comes from Matthew Epler, whose Pi-powered Kinogarph digitizes old film stock at a fraction of the cost of conventional off-the-shelf systems.
Epler's thesis project for NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, the Kinograph uses software to stabilize a series of captured images and extract optical sound.
In addition to a Raspberry Pi the system also requires a consumer-grade digital camera, a few 3d printed parts,
such as rollers that can take different sized film, and a few components that can be cheaply sourced over the internet.
This means that a decent DSLR will be the most expensive part of the setup, with the other components to add up to around $1, 200,
"the cost of digitization is prohibitive for anybody with more than a few films.""This is as true for individuals with private collections as it is for libraries, museums and other public institutions.
and embedded Linux on a Raspberry Pi, while Opencv, Processing, and AEO Sound applications are used for image and audio processing, with batch processing of crop rotation and color correction all possible.
Everything utilized in the Kinograph is open-source and available online. Epler's philosophy behind the project speaks to a broader perspective and says"
Cultural memory should not be dependent on money or technology.""It's only fitting that he chose to use a Raspberry Pi for the project,
Scientists from Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation have copied now this system in a propulsion system that could ultimately find use in boats recreational watercraft or submarines.
Known as the Octopus Siphon Actuator the miniature prototype system consists of four joined 20 x 6-cm (7. 9 x 2. 4-in) elastomer balls
As part of the recent Google Science Fair Texas teen Alex Spiride recently showed off his own bio-inspired Squid-Jet underwater vehicle e
#NASA probe will reveal 3d architecture of forests from space NASA is developing a laser-based instrument for deployment on the International space station that will probe the depths of Earth's forests from space in a bid to reveal more about their role in the planet's carbon cycle.
"said Piers Sellers, deputy director of the Sciences and Exploration Directorate at NASA'S GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER.""In particular, the GEDI data will provide us with global-scale insights into how much carbon is being stored in the forest biomass.
This information will be particularly powerful when combined with the historical record of changes captured by the U s. longstanding program of Earth-orbiting satellites, such as Landsat and MODIS."
And the system will systematically canvas all land between 50 degrees latitude north and south enough to cover most of the tropical and temperate forests.
The lasers will send brief pulses of light around 16 billion of them in a year that are optimized to pass through the canopy of even very dense forests without causing harm to animals or vegetation,
and this fingerprint provides enough extra information to allow calculations of the height of the trees and their canopies with an accuracy of around 3. 3 feet (1 meter).
And that, in turn, enables scientists to estimate how much biomass the trees contain and how much carbon they are storing.
This is data that's missing from the current picture of how trees fit into the carbon cycle."
"One of the most poorly quantified components of the carbon cycle is the net balance between forest disturbance
and regrowth,"said Ralph Dubayah, the GEDI principal investigator at the University of Maryland.""GEDI will help scientists fill in this missing piece by revealing the vertical structure of the forest,
which is information we really can get with sufficient accuracy any other way.""It's not just useful for studying the carbon cycle, either.
GEDI's 3d maps could be combined with maps from other satellites to examine the role forest architecture plays in biodiversity and land use,
The GEDI lidar will be built at NASA'S GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER, with the University of Maryland, College Park leading the project e
#Nature inspires color-sensitive CMOS-compatible photodetector Researchers at Rice university's Laboratory for Nanophotonics (LANP) have developed a new image sensor that mimics the way we see color by integrating light amplifiers and color
filters directly onto the pixels. The new design enables smaller less complex and more organic designs for CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) sensors
and other photodetectors used in cameras. Conventional image sensors work by first converting light into electrical signals then combining that information with the red green
and blue color data determined by separate filters (or especially in low-end cameras a single filter array that uses a mosaic pattern to interpret colors).
But this approach adds bulk to the sensor and the filters gradually degrade under exposure to sunlight.
The Rice researchers stumbled upon the new technique while studying the hypothesis that cephalopods such as octopus and squid
which are colorblind detect color through their skin as part of an Office of Naval Research program that aims to mimic cephalopod skin using metamaterials (synthetic materials with nonnatural properties).
LANP graduate student Bob Zheng set out to create a photonic system that could detect colored light but in what lab director Naomi Halas calls a great example of the serendipity that can occur in the lab he wound up with a device with far broader applications.
Zheng's color photodetector consists of an ultra-thin oxide coating atop a thin layer of aluminum that was deposited onto a silicon photodetector using a common technique called electron-beam evaporation.
It's these approximately 100-nanometers-wide slits that allow the device to differentiate between colors with plasmons waves of electrons that flow across metal surfaces) excited by light of a specific wavelength.
but this new approach has advantages beyond on-chip integration adds LANP Director Naomi Halas.
#Ethiopia Agriculture ministry rolls out specialized phone service for farmers The Ethiopian government has rolled out a new phone service that farmers can call to get information on crops in their native languages.
crop failure or pestilence remains a stubborn problem for farmers and for wider regional food security. One issue for small hold farmers in the developing world is access to information and according to the United Nation development and humanitarian news website, IRIN,
African farmers often have less access to technical knowhow than those in other nations, which is one reason why the continent tends to produce less food despite its natural resources.
Populous Ethiopia has one of the fastest growing GDPS on the continent after years of famine and civil war.
The nation now has one of the largest"agricultural extension"systems in the world after major powers such as China and India.
These days it is a broad term but generally it means the educating farmers on how to apply scientific research and new farming methods.
The nation has some 60,000 agricultural extension officers. The 8028 phone service is a new component of that.
Farmers can request targeted information via SMS or Interactive Voice Response. The project, still in its pilot phase, began in July
and according to a government source has had already calls from some three million farmers. It is run
and operated by government ministries and the national telco and it was created by the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA).
The Economist reported last year that Ethiopia lags behind its neighbors in terms of cell phone penetration;
only 25 percent of its 90 million people use cell phones compared with the regional average of 70 percent."
"Farmers can'pull'practical, real-time advice available in their regional language by calling 8028 as often as they like,
"The hotline administrator can'push'customized content (such as in cases of drought, pest and disease) to callers based on crop,
geographic or demographic data captured when farmers first register to use the system.""Given the dozens of languages spoken,
targeted information remains important, though the system is only operating in some half dozen of the more than 60 regions in Ethiopia at this point.
Getting targeted information to farmers is a growing concern. In Colombia big data has been helping farmers with targeted information on
whether or not to plant crops, and when. Those who took the advice saved some $3. 8 million collectively i
#Super-tough glass based on mollusk shells In the future if you drop a glass on the floor
Inspired by shellfish scientists at Montreal's Mcgill University have devised a new process that drastically increases the toughness of glass.
This is called nacre (also known as mother-of-pearl) and it's what gives the shell its strength#the outer surface of the shell is made almost entirely of calcium carbonate
Fran#ois Barthelat studied the internal structure of nacre which is comprised of individual microscopic tablets that interlock in a fashion similar to Lego blocks.
The researchers noticed that the boundaries between the tablets aren't straight but instead are wavy like the edges of jigsaw puzzle pieces.
The scientists replicated these boundaries in glass microscope slides using lasers to engrave networks of wavy 3d micro-cracks within them.
and dispersed the energy keeping the glass from shattering. Altogether the treated slides were reportedly 200 times tougher than slides
and is also planning on applying it to other brittle materials such as ceramics and polymers.
#Snake Monster robot can be easily reconfigured to suit user needs Carnegie mellon University (CMU) has created a new robot that has six legs, looks creepily like a spider when it walks,
Designed and created in around six months in the lab of Howie Choset, a professor in CMU's Robotics Institute,
Current work being carried out on various other modules in the lab include force-sensing feet
wheels and tank-style treads that will allow users to modify the base structure into a selection of totally different robots suited to a range of tasks."
from inspecting nuclear power plants to slithering down the throats of surgical patients. The similarity in the construction and operation of the legs of the Snake Monster to those earlier CMU robot incarnations gives it its name.
In addition, a series elastic actuator consisting of an electric motor with a spring in series with its output shaft that allows the actuator to gauge
but rather let the robot automatically conform to the environment the way animals do.""Using the hardware knowledge gleaned from their many years of snake robot construction,
Choset and his team have created small, powerful, interconnected modules as the basis for their new Snake Monster and the line of reconfigurable robots promised to follow it.
"The architecture is built on Ethernet computer networking technology, "said Choset.""Ethernet doesn't require that the computers connected to it be of a specific type,
but that they all communicate with each other in the same way. The interfaces used in the modular architecture allow robot designers to focus on specific capabilities without having to worry about detailed systems issues
#Nissan and NASA team up for autonomous drive vehicle development It may seem akin to an alliance between a railway and a submarine manufacturer,
but Japanese automaker Nissan has signed a pact with US space agency NASA to develop self-driving cars. The five-year agreement announced last week covers a partnership on research and development of autonomous vehicle systems and their commercial applications.
Ames director S. Peter Worden and Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn (Image: Nissan) The agreement covers a five-year partnership (Image:
Nissan) The goal of the pact is to develop autonomous driving technologies with terrestrial and sp...
The pact will carry on until 2020 (Image: Nissan) View All the agreement involves scientists and engineers at Nissan's US Silicon valley Research center and NASA's Ames Research center,
also located in Silicon valley. Though such a partnership may not seem logical, NASA has, in fact, been in the car business for over forty years,
ever since the first Lunar rover went for a spin during the Apollo 15 mission in 1971.
"The work of NASA and Nissan with one directed to space and the other directed to earth, is connected by similar challenges,
"says Carlos Ghosn, president and CEO of Nissan motor company.""The partnership will accelerate Nissan's development of safe,
secure and reliable autonomous drive technology that we will progressively introduce to consumers beginning in 2016 up to 2020."
"Nissan says that the partnership will focus on the development of autonomous driving systems, human-machine interfaces, network-based applications,
and software analysis that could have uses both On earth and in space. The ultimate goal is to produce zero-emission proof-of-concept vehicles capable of self-navigation in difficult situations,
such as the mountains of Mars or driving cross town in the rush hour. Source: Nissa s
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