A new approach regarding Melatonin for MS Symptom Seasonal Variations Harvard-affiliated researchers from the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at BWH wanted to understand why symptoms of multiple sclerosis change with the seasons, improving as the days get shorter. They have found an explanation that could lead to a deeper understanding of the disease and more targeted treatment options for patients. Multiple sclerosis is a disease that affects the central nervous system, includin...

Wearable Thumbnail Sensor called NailO is the latest tiny wireless trackpad. A Novel tiny wireless trackpad that can be worn on a thumbnail has been developed by the researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This device is called NailO, and the prototype trackpad is similar to the stick-on nails sometimes used as a fashion accessory. It attaches to the user’s thumb and can be controlled by running a finger over its surface. This new wearable device turns the user’s thumb...

Researchers have cracked the challenge of printing glass through a nozzle. A team of MIT researchers have opened up a new frontier in 3-D printing which is the ability to print optically transparent glass objects. They demonstrated the first-ever machine that can print molten glass through a nozzle and make transparent glass objects layer by layer according to digital instructions. The 3-D printer G3DP produces optically transparent glass with the push of a button and contains a "kiln cart...

System learns to distinguish words’ and phonetic components without human annotation of training data. MIT researchers have developed a revolutionary new machine-learning system that can learn to distinguish spoken words and unlike its predecessors, it can also learn to distinguish lower-level phonetic units, such as syllables and phonemes. Every language has its own collection of phonemes, or the basic phonetic units from which spoken words are composed. The English language has somewhere...

Georgia Tech researchers have deposited carbon atoms onto graphene using a focused electron beam process to create patterns that evolve over time on the graphene. The patterns could be used to make reconfigurable electronic circuits, which evolve over a period of hours before ultimately disappearing into a new electronic state of the graphene. Graphene is also made up of carbon atoms, but in a highly-ordered form. Beyond allowing fabrication of disappearing circuits, the technology could be u...

Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) principal faculty at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have established a highly efficient method for making kidney structures from stem cells derived from skin taken from patients. The kidney structures formed could be used to study abnormalities of kidney development, chronic kidney disease, and the effects of toxic drugs, and could be incorporated into bioengineered devices to treat patients with acute and chronic kidney injury. In the longer term, these me...

A potential drug target has been discovered that could help scientists develop radical new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. Blocking activity of the protein, known as GPR3, results in toxic deposits thought to play a key role in the disease clearing away from the brain. Laboratory mice suffering from Alzheimer’s-like symptoms showed improvements in learning, memory and social skills when they lacked GPR3, according to research published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Further t...

Researchers at Georgia Tech have identified a way to teach robots how to fall with grace and without serious damage. The work is important as costly robots become more common in manufacturing alongside humans. The skill becomes especially important, too, as robots are sought for health care or domestic tasks working near the elderly, injured, children or pets. These machines are expensive to make and typically take months, if not years, to complete meaning every time they fall they can become da...

A new tool called (COW), a cellular on wheels, is a real lifesaver for missing children. Imagine if your child goes missing in a sea of people. It can happen in the blink of an eye. Losing your child even for a second to a couple of minutes is terrifying and tracking him or her down at an event like the state fair may seem impossible, until now. It’s all thanks to a new tool called a cellular on wheels or COW, for short. This new device may look like your typical smartphone, but law enf...

A revolutionary innovation from Yanko Design is a door handle with Self-Sterilization System which puts fears of bacteria-spreading influenza to rest. It is amazing that we never think that the dirtiest part of a public bathroom is likely the door handle and not places like the toilet seat or the paper towel dispenser, as this is one part of the bathroom that everyone touches on their way in or out, regardless of whether they have washed their hands or not. Door handles are a breeding grou...

The green mug is a refrigerated and insulated mug which is powered by absorbing the heat radiated by the water/ beverage. New Green Smart Glass is intended to make getting the perfect cup of coffee both easier and more eco-friendly. Chengzhu has created the Green Smart Glass which is a refrigerated and insulated mug which is powered by absorbing the heat radiated by the water/ beverage itself. Generally we do not drink hot coffee until it becomes cooler so there will be loss of heat. ...

Researchers from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have made a breakthrough in the field of 3D printing, developing a 3D printer prototype that is able to print up to 10 different materials simultaneously onto a single object. Delivering resolution at 40 microns or less than half the width of a human hair, the “MultiFab” system is the first 3-D printer to use 3-D-scanning techniques from machine vision, which offers two key advantages in accuracy and conven...

University of British Columbia students have developed a probiotic for honey bees, which they’ve coined the ‘pro-bee-otic.’ This innovative study by a group of UBC students is regarding the development a probiotic for honey bees. This is a particularly important solution, as global bee declines are a major problem and so much of the food we eat depends on pollination by insects. The students want to address this important issue and they feel that betting probiotics could be the key to prot...

Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute and the University of Copenhagen have discovered a new way to 'fence in' a tumor and help stop cancer cells from spreading. Tumors cause cells called fibroblasts to stiffen the surrounding tissue so that cancer cells can grip it, allowing them to tunnel through to the blood stream and spread around the body. They showed that adding experimental drugs, reprogrammed fibroblasts helped in stopping them from 'stiffening' the tissue around tumors. This he...

Astronomers have discovered a previously unknown link between the way young stars grow and the way black holes and other exotic space objects feed from their surroundings. The study, 'Accretion-induced variability links young stellar objects, white dwarfs, and black holes,' which is published in the journal Science Advances, shows how the 'flickering' in the visible brightness of young stellar objects (YSOs), very young stars in the final stages of formation is similar to the flickering seen fro...

Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara have created nanoparticles that resemble blood platelets that can be used to speed up the healing process and create clots faster to decrease blood loss from an injury. They have turned to the human body’s own mechanisms for inspiration in dealing with the necessary and complicated process of coagulation. By creating nanoparticles that mimic the shape, flexibility and surface biology of the body’s own platelets, they are able to accelera...

Hawkmoths are big, agile insects that hover in place expertly as they feed on nectar at dawn, dusk, and in the evenings. So, not only is it dark out, but the flowers are moving targets thanks to the breeze. Now, with the help of a robotic flower, researchers reveal how hawkmoths forage in the darkness: Their twilight or night vision is exquisitely attuned to flowers swaying in the wind. The findings, suggest that hawkmoth sight and flight evolved to perfectly match the movements of their only so...

As NASA gears up for a mission to Mars, planning a route to the Red Planet is important. Now, researchers have found that to save on weight and have concluded that a detour to the moon is the best route to Mars. Previous studies have suggested that lunar soil and water ice in certain craters of the moon could potentially be mined and converted to fuel. With the assumption that this tech exists at the time of a Mars mission, taking a detour to the moon to refuel actually reduces the mass of a mis...

Neutrinos have the smallest mass of any known particle, and are created in several ways, including during radioactive decay, directly in the Sun’s core, and when cosmic rays from the Sun hit the Earth’s atmosphere. Thousands of billions of neutrinos are streaming through our bodies each second. The prize has been awarded to two physicists who discovered a strange property of neutrinos, which Imperial scientists are still unravelling today. Today’s physics laureates, Professor Arthur B. McDona...

Cornell University researchers have developed a new lightweight and stretchable material with the consistency of memory foam that has potential for use in prosthetic body parts, artificial organs and soft robotics. The foam is unique because it can be formed and has connected pores that allow fluids to be pumped through it. The foam starts as a liquid, so researchers can pour it into a 3D printed mould in order to form the heart, adding appropriate valves to the finished structure. This means...

A team of scientists from the University of Chicago and Penn State University have accidentally discovered a new way of using light to draw and erase quantum-mechanical circuits in a unique class of materials called topological insulators. Researchers may be able to "paint" quantum electronics with beams of light. The electrons in topological insulators have unique quantum properties that many scientists believe will be useful for developing spin-based electronics and quantum computers. Howev...

Mafic Mound, a distinctive and enigmatic feature near the Moon’s South Pole, is a volcanic structure unlike any other found on the surface of the Earth’s only natural satellite, says a team of planetary geologists at Brown University. It stands about 2,600 feet tall and 47 miles across and lies in the middle of a giant impact crater known as the South Pole-Aitken Basin. “If the scenarios that we lay out for its formation are correct, it could represent a totally new volcanic process that’s ne...

Images sent back by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft last week reveal that Pluto has blue atmospheric hazes and water ice on its surface. Pluto’s haze layer shows its blue color in this picture taken by the New Horizons Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC). The high-altitude haze is thought to be similar in nature to that seen at Saturn’s moon Titan. The source of both hazes likely involves sunlight-initiated chemical reactions of nitrogen and methane, leading to relatively small, ...

Tesla has launched a software update for its vehicles enabling the cars to have an "autopilot" mode. The latest software update, 7.0 allows Model S to use its unique combination of cameras, radar, ultrasonic sensors and data to automatically steer down the highway, change lanes, and adjust speed in response to traffic. Once you’ve arrived at your destination, Model S scans for a parking space and parallel parks on your command. Today’s update increases the driver’s confidence behind the wheel...

An enzyme called telomerase plays a significant role in aging and most cancers, but until recently many aspects of the enzyme’s structure could not be clearly seen. Scientists from UCLA and UC Berkeley have produced images of telomerase in much higher resolution than ever before, giving them major new insights about the enzyme. Their findings, could ultimately lead to new directions for treating cancer and preventing premature aging. “Many details we could only guess at before, we can now see...

Researchers from Stanford University have improved artificial hands by attaching some flexible sensors on the fingertips, which can generate some electrical signals that can communicate with our brain directly instead of via a processor or a computer to translate back the signals to our brain. Engineers have built a flexible sensor that detects touch and, just like skin, produces electrical pulses that get faster when the pressure increases. They have also used those pulses to drive neuronal ...

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a predictive model that can provide doctors with an "invasiveness index" for cancer based on blood samples from individual patients, according to a new study. The test is based on chemical expression by specific cells in the body that help cancer move from the breast to other parts of the body. We want women to have more information to make a personal decision beyond the averages calculated for an entire population," said Manu ...

University of Illinois researchers developed a new approach, dubbed COMPASS that points directly to a protein’s likely structure using a combination of advanced molecular spectroscopy techniques, predictive protein-folding algorithms and image recognition software. Led by U. of I. chemistry professor Chad Rienstra, the team published its results in the journal Structure. “We’ve taken a process that would take months and brought it down to hours,” said Joseph Courtney, an Illinois graduate studen...

Danish scientists who were working on ways to fight malaria in pregnant women have accidentally discovered that the malaria protein they were using in their vaccine, when armed with a toxin, could kill cancer cells. The test was conducted on mice, and showed that the malaria protein first attached itself to the carbohydrate of the cancer cell, which later was killed off by the toxin. They hope to be able to begin tests on humans in the next four years. For decades, scientists have been search...

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem successfully converted skin cells into placenta-generating cells using the reprogramming method. The intent is to help women who have recurrent miscarriage and placental dysfunction diseases give birth to healthy babies, although researchers said more work will need to be done before that is possible. The placenta is the least understood human organ, but arguably one of the most important ones. It influences not only the health of a woman and ...