Muscle atrophy is defined as a decrease in the mass of the muscle; it can be a partial or complete wasting away of muscle, and is most commonly experienced when persons suffer temporary disabling circumstances such as being restricted in movement and/or confined to bed as when hospitalized. When a muscle atrophies, this leads to muscle weakness, since the ability to exert force is related to mass. Modern medicine's understanding of the quick onset of muscle atrophy is a major factor behind the p...

A clinical research paper led by Stanford University investigators has demonstrated that a brain-to-computer hookup can enable people with paralysis to type via direct brain control at the highest speeds and accuracy levels reported to date. The report involved three study participants with severe limb weakness — two from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called Lou Gehrig’s disease, and one from a spinal cord injury. They each had one or two baby-aspirin-sized electrode arrays placed...

  The Rover Land & Sea is a powerful and flexible app-enabled RC car that works with iOS and Android devices. As shown in the images, the RC car sports a compact and streamlined appearance design, and it features uniquely designed wheels that not only allow it to run on a variety of terrains, but also propel the vehicle through the water with fins on the wheels. Moreover, the rubber ridges in the center of each wheel provide traction and protect the fins on land. Indoors or outdoo...

Üllo is a revolutionary wine purifier that restores the natural taste of wine with Selective Sulfite Capture™ filter technology. Üllo is a revolutionary new wine purifier that uses Selective Sulfite Capture™ technology to remove sulfites and sediments, bringing wine back to its natural state. Sulfites are added to all wine varietals—red, white, and everything in between—as a preservative. Üllo works with any still wine to remove sulfites the moment their job is done. Üllo can also aerate your...

Austrian startup Fontus has developed a novel water bottle that harvest water from air. It's a vaporware that literally pull water vapor out of the air to fill itself. Harvesting water from the air via processes like condensation has been practiced in various ways for eons, of course. In recent years, we've seen a James Dyson award go to an Australian irrigation system that works on the same principle, as well as a lightweight bamboo tower that grabs its own water. But the ability to do so ba...

'EyeVac' Home  - Simply sweep debris to EyeVac and the infrared sensors automatically activate the vacuum. It also is a air filtration device. Sweep the dirt and debris to the EyeVac; No more backbreaking bending; No more dirt left behind by the dustpan. EyeVac is an appliance that provides a more convenient and faster method to keep hard floors clean. EyeVac has been satisfying customers in tough commercial settings including Hair Salons, Vet & Medical Clinics and Commercial Shops for ye...

NASA's Centennial Challenges: Vascular Tissue Challenge The Vascular Tissue Challenge offers a $500,000 prize to be divided among the first three teams that can successfully create thick, metabolically-functional human vascularized organ tissue in a controlled laboratory environment. About the Challenge NASA, in partnership with the nonprofit Methuselah Foundation’s New Organ Alliance, is seeking ways to advance the field of regenerative medicine through a new prize competition....

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared the expanded use of the Vidas Brahms PCT Assay to help health care providers determine if antibiotic treatment should be started or stopped in patients with lower respiratory tract infections, such as community-acquired pneumonia, and stopped in patients with sepsis. This is the first test to use procalcitonin (PCT), a protein associated with the body’s response to a bacterial infection, as a biomarker to help make antibiotic management decisions...

University of Melbourne research has found that treating chronic knee osteoarthritis  by conducting online exercise sessions by a physiotherapist (via Skype), combined with an automated online pain-coping program, has substantial benefits for improving pain, function and quality of life. Treating chronic knee osteoarthritis is set to go “virtual” after new research found that exercise delivered by a physiotherapist via Skype, combined with an automated online pain-coping program, has substant...

When astronauts in the Orion spacecraft travel beyond the moon to explore deep space destinations, they’ll need a robust diet to keep them healthy and sharp. While crew members aboard the International Space Station can choose from approximately 200 items for their meals and have the space to stow an array of options, feeding the crew on deep space missions presents several unique challenges that NASA scientists are working to tackle. Orion has limited room inside it to accommodate the suppli...

A perovskite solar cell is a type of solar cell which includes a perovskite structured compound, most commonly a hybrid organic-inorganic lead or tin halide-based material, as the light-harvesting active layer. Perovskite materials such as methylammonium lead halides are cheap to produce and simple to manufacture. Perovskite solar cells have shown potential both in the rapid efficiency improvement (from 2.2% in 2006 to the latest record 20.1% in 2014) and in cheap material and manufacturing c...

Healing with medicinal plants is as old as mankind itself. The connection between man and his search for drugs in nature dates from the far past, of which there is ample evidence from various sources: written documents, preserved monuments, and even original plant medicines. Awareness of medicinal plants usage is a result of the many years of struggles against illnesses due to which man learned to pursue drugs in barks, seeds, fruit bodies, and other parts of the plants. Contemporary science ...

Sonoporation, or cellular sonication, is the use of sound (typically ultrasonic frequencies) for modifying the permeability of the cell plasma membrane. This technique is usually used in molecular biology and non-viral gene therapy in order to allow uptake of large molecules such as DNA into the cell, in a cell disruption process called transfection or transformation. Sonoporation employs the acoustic cavitation of microbubbles to enhance delivery of these large molecules. The bioactivity of ...

A favorite subject for science fiction authors from Isaac Asimov until now has been sentient robots. In these stories, mechanical robots interact at a human level, and have their own emotions. However, a new kind of robot has emerged into the public sphere, one that can be a first step in making intelligent robots a reality. This robot is called Roboy. Roboy is a humanoid robot that was first presented in March of 2013, and has been evolving ever since. One of the more impressive aspects ...

In the first evidence of a natural intervention triggering stem cell-based regeneration of an organ or system, a study in the June 5 issue of the Cell Stem Cell shows that cycles of prolonged fasting not only protect against immune system damage — a major side effect of chemotherapy — but also induce immune system regeneration, shifting stem cells from a dormant state to a state of self-renewal. In both mice and a Phase 1 human clinical trial involving patients receiving chemotherapy, long pe...

It’s a well-known fact that water, at sea level, starts to boil at a temperature of 212 degrees Fahrenheit, or 100 degrees Celsius. And scientists have long observed that when water is confined in very small spaces, its boiling and freezing points can change a bit, usually dropping by around 10 C or so. But now, a team at MIT has found a completely unexpected set of changes: Inside the tiniest of spaces — in carbon nanotubes whose inner dimensions are not much bigger than a few water molecule...

Neutron scattering and computational modeling have revealed unique and unexpected behavior of water molecules under extreme confinement that is unmatched by any known gas, liquid or solid states. In a paper published in Physical Review Letters, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory describe a new tunneling state of water molecules confined in hexagonal ultra-small channels – 5 angstrom across – of the mineral beryl. An angstrom is 1/10-billionth of a meter, a...

Researchers have developed a smart balaclava which warms oxygen before it’s inhaled to reduce the risk of athletes contracting chest infections in winter. Nottingham Trent University and German advanced knitting machine manufacturer Stoll GmBH created a prototype to help runners and skiers who can be exposed to increased risk of infections when exercising in the cold. The technology centres on a knitted patch of electric-conductive yarn over the nose and mouth which emits heat when cha...

Left your phone behind? You can always stay in touch with the LG Watch Sport™ on your wrist. This standalone smartwatch stays connected to your smartphone, no matter where it is, even if it's off.* Send and receive calls and texts. Stream music from Google Play™ Music. Monitor your heart rate and track your progress. Download apps easily, and customize the display with your important info. The LG Watch Sport is available in Titanium Google and LG have teamed up to create a pair of smartwatche...

Even though it is hotter than the surface of the Sun, the crystallized iron core of the Earth remains solid. A new study from KTH Royal Institute of Technology may finally settle a longstanding debate over how that’s possible, as well as why seismic waves travel at higher speeds between the planet’s poles than through the equator. Spinning within Earth’s molten core is a crystal ball – actually a mass formation of almost pure crystallized iron – nearly the size of the moon. Unde...

Researchers have developed a completely new type of display that creates 3D images by using a laser to form tiny bubbles inside a liquid "screen." Instead of rendering a 3D scene on a flat surface, the display itself is three-dimensional, a property known as volumetric. This allows viewers to see a 3D image in the columnar display from all angles without any 3D glasses or headsets. In The Optical Society's journal for high impact research, Optica, researchers led by Yoshio Hayasaki of ...

University of Tokyo and RIKEN researchers have identified seven genes responsible for causing mice to stay awake or fall asleep based on a theoretical model of sleep and on experiments using 21 different genetically-modified mice, some of which showed different sleep durations. Researchers hope that their research will contribute to the understanding and treatment of sleep disorders and associated neurodegenerative diseases. All animals appear to sleep for varying durations. In humans, sleep ...

Pulling strings to obtain food is an experiment often used to test the intelligence of apes and birds, but it is the first time this technique has been discovered in an insect. Moreover the cultural spread of such a technique from a single informed individual has also been described for the first time in an invertebrate animal. The results, published in PLOS Biology,  show that rare innovator bees were able to solve the problem of pulling the string to reach a sugar water reward by themsel...

Amazon Go is a new kind of store with no checkout required. Amazon has created the world’s most advanced shopping technology so you never have to wait in line. With Amazon's Just Walk Out Shopping experience, simply use the Amazon Go app to enter the store, take the products you want, and go! No lines, no checkout. https://youtu.be/NrmMk1Myrxc   Amazon checkout-free shopping experience is made possible by the same types of technologies used in self-driving cars: computer vision, sens...