DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office (TTO) focuses on conceiving, designing, developing, and testing advanced technology platforms that provide U.S. forces with overwhelming tactical and strategic advantage, including vehicles, weapons, and other full-scale, potentially field-deployable systems. Whether designed to operate on the ground, at sea, in the air, in space or across domains, TTO platforms and supporting technologies have a common origin: as innovative ideas generated by program managers ...

Cancer rates differ between African- and U.S.-born black Americans, a new study finds. "Typically, cancer occurrence among blacks in the United States is presented as one homogenous group, with no breakdown by country or region of birth," said study co-author Dr. Ahmedin Jemal, an American Cancer Society epidemiologist. "Our study shows that approach masks important potential differences that may be key to guiding cancer prevention programs for African-born black immigrants," Jemal added. ...

Research has repeatedly confirmed that the first 1,000 days after conception strongly influence a person’s life expectancy and susceptibility to chronic diseases.  The primary marker used to identify early life stress is low birth weight, which can, for instance, indicate poor nutrition of the mother during pregnancy. But low birth weight is a marker only until birth, about 280 days – far short of a measurement useful for the first thousand days. New research from University of Washington ...

  Honda Miimo is an advanced robotic lawn mower that quietly and efficiently cuts your lawn in all weather conditions. Miimo is the clever robotic lawnmowers range by Honda. Powered by its own batteries, Miimo works autonomously and is capable of recharging itself when needed. It can be programmed to a work to a schedule that suits you. Thanks to its micro-mulching capability, Miimo cuts grass clippings into tiny particles - falling into the grass and acting as a natural fertiliser. W...

For millions of sufferers, there is nothing more debilitating than chronic back or joint pain. It can feel like a lifetime of misery. But researchers led by University of Utah bioengineering assistant professor Robby Bowles have discovered a way to curb chronic pain by modulating genes that reduce tissue- and cell-damaging inflammation. “This has applications for many inflammatory-driven diseases,” Bowles says. “It could be applied for arthritis or to therapeutic cells that are being deliv...

By the time someone realizes they damaged a ligament, tendon or cartilage from too much exercise or other types of physical activity, it’s too late. The tissue is stretched and torn and the person is writhing in pain. But a team of researchers led by University of Utah bioengineering professors Jeffrey Weiss and Michael Yu has discovered that damage to collagen, the main building block of all human tissue, can occur much earlier at a molecular level from too much physical stress, alerting doc...

For neurologist Lee Peterlin, migraines run in the family. She and her sister, Jackie, both suffer from migraine headaches that have been, at times, completely debilitating. That’s one reason why, several years ago, she started looking into why they and 30 million other Americans suffer from a neurological disorder whose cause, at least in part, remains a mystery despite the wealth of potential research subjects. One thing researchers have long known, however, is that migraine sufferers—or migr...

The Human Support Robot (HSR) is being developed to assist people in their everyday activities. In the future, the HSR will coexist with family members in the home, providing support to improve living conditions and the overall quality of life. Features Three key features make it possible for the HSR to operate in indoor environments around people. 1.Compact, Lightweight Body To better accommodate a wide variety of households, the HSR needs to be lightweight and maneuverable. An ar...

Biomedical engineers have developed a way to deliver drugs to specific types of neurons in the brain, providing an unprecedented ability to study neurological diseases while also promising a more targeted way to treat them. Drugs are the tool of choice for studying the connections between neurons, and continue to be the mainstream treatment for neurological disease. But a major drawback in both endeavors is that the drugs affect all types of neurons, complicating the study of how cell recepto...

Millions of American men pop a multivitamin each day, but new research shows the pills won't help the heart -- even if a man's nutrition is lacking. "Many had thought that men with 'poor' nutritional status at baseline may benefit more from long-term multivitamin use on cardiovascular outcomes; however, we did not see any evidence for this in our recent analysis," study author Howard Sesso, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said in a hospital news release. According to background ...

Researchers have shown how to modify commercially available silicon wafers into a structure that efficiently absorbs solar energy and withstands the high temperatures needed for “concentrated solar power” plants that might run up to 24 hours a day. The research advances global efforts to design hybrid systems that combine solar photovoltaic cells, which convert visible and ultraviolet light into electricity, thermoelectric devices that convert heat into electricity, and steam turbines to genera...

German Center for Research and Innovation event on 'Smart Cities & Urban Development ' in New York on May 2, 2017 In order to achieve the goal of sustainable smart cities, strong collaborations in research and technology are critical. For this reason, six German urban research networks are building partnerships in the US to develop innovative solutions and joint projects for resource-efficient and climate-adapted cities of the future. The GCRI is inviting American researchers, urban plann...

Leave your phone behind when you run and experience the smartwatch that lets you run, track and listen untethered. With NB RunIQ, you can GPS track your course and pace, bring your music along, monitor your heart rate and even receive and reply to notifications from your phone. Plus, this activity tracker syncs with Strava, the social network for athletes, so you can share your workout with a community of runners worldwide. https://youtu.be/9Y5fhknWOO8     New Balance RunIQ...

From Greek mythology and the Bible to modern critiques of the digital age, loneliness has been portrayed as part of the human condition. With modern society requiring more and more attention away from family, its currently being recognized as a significant adverse consequence of loneliness  and health. Loneliness and isolation are increasingly part of the experience for many. As societies are evolving globally in many different ways as, reduced inter-generational living, different societies c...

Mabu the personal healthcare companion is the face of Catalia Health’s platform for patient engagement.  We’ll be talking more about the backend software algorithms and medical best practices that drive her conversations with patients in the future.  She’s designed to help patients with the myriad challenges of chronic disease management and will be first rolled out this year to help a particular group of patients manage the medication portion of their treatment.  The video that is part of this...

NASA Invests in 22 Visionary Exploration Concepts Montage of innovative concepts selected for 2017 NIAC Phase I and Phase II funding Credits: Joel Sercel, Jay McMahon, Siegfried Janson, Adam Arkin, Jonathan Sauder, John Lewis and background, Chris Mann NASA is preparing for a future that could include soft robotic spacecraft with flexible surfaces that can anchor to an asteroid, and an artificial gravity device for long-duration, deep space missions, along with other t...

University of Utah Department of Bioengineering is developing device (Electrode Array) that will allow amputee’s arm to read signals from the brain and then tell the prosthetic hand how to move. Researchers, led by Clark, are further developing the Utah Slanted Electrode Array, a neural interface that uses 100 electrodes which connect with nerves in an amputee’s arm to read signals from the brain - telling the hand how to move. The Utah Slanted Electrode Array was first developed by Departmen...

23andMe, Inc., the leading personal genetics company, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted the company the first authorization to market genetic reports on personal risk for certain diseases. The authorization includes reports on genetic risk for ten conditions, including late-onset Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, celiac disease and hereditary thrombophilia (harmful blood clots), among others. "This is an important moment for people who want...

Medical Realities is an innovative group offering medical training products, specializing in virtual reality, augmented reality and serious games. By using consumer-level virtual reality devices such as the Oculus Rift, Medical Realities can reduce the cost of training, reach a wider audience & provide a completely safe learning environment for medical students. Combining 360 video, 3D and interactive content, The Virtual Surgeon™ puts you inside the operating theatre overseeing an op...

Human communication is unique because it strongly relies on language as well as on the exceptional motivation of humans to share information with others. Identifying by means of words what someone is talking about is hardly available for non-human animals, but human as well as non-human animals can use the direction of others’ gaze and gestures to detect to which object or social partner others’ behaviour is referring to. https://youtu.be/crL6mn_LW28 Hence, following others’ gaze and g...

  Every day the lining of your colon naturally sheds cells. If you have cancer or precancer in your colon, abnormal cells shed into the colon – along with normal cells – where they are picked up by stool as it passes through. Cologuard uses advanced stool DNA technology to find elevated levels of altered DNA and/or hemoglobin in these abnormal cells, which could be associated with cancer or precancer. Cologuard Collection Kit is easy to use, and it’s shipped directly to your home. ...

Engineering students Seth Robertson and Viet Tran of George Mason University in Virginia have invented a revolutionary device that uses low-frequency sound waves to extinguish fire instead of water, gas or foam. The young engineers used $600 worth of equipment, including a speaker, amps and a collimeter, to starve the flame of oxygen, thus putting it out. The fire extinguisher uses low frequencies between 30 and 60 hertz ranges to blast the fire, separating oxygen from the fuel. New typ...

Duo is a part mirror, all computer AI device that operates from beyond the reflective surface. Unlike the elusive standalone speaker Google Assistant, Duo the AI computer looks and works like a simple mirror. Its 27” reflective display effectively hides a smart computer that lets you connect your smart home devices. One can also use the slew of features from the all-purpose entertainment hub. https://youtu.be/O3yvaeIfOmQ The touch-sensitive AI computer lets you reach into your reflection...

Passive smoking during pregnancy also affects the cognitive development of children URV researchers show for the first time that passive smoking affects the cognitive development of children in the same way as active smoking The harmful effects that smoking during pregnancy has on child development are well known. Even so, of all the drugs, tobacco is the one that is most widely consumed in this period. A group of researchers belonging to the group NUTRISAM-Nutrition and Mental Healt...

UNSW researchers have observed how microbiota in the oesophagus is affected by a high-fat diet, depleting known beneficial bacteria and increasing the levels of “bad” bacteria. The team’s paper, published in Scientific Reports, found a high-fat diet affects the microbiota in the oesophagus of rats. First author Dr Nadeem Kaakoush says two other interesting things were observed. “The high-fat diet drops the levels of Lactobacillus species, well known to be beneficial and form part of dif...