The human body literally glows, emitting a visible light in extremely small quantities at levels that rise and fall with the day. Past research has shown that the body emits visible light, 1,000 times less intense than the levels which can be seen with the naked eye. In fact, virtually all living creatures emit very weak light. To learn more about this faint visible light, scientists in Japan employed extraordinarily sensitive cameras capable of detecting single photons. Five healthy male ...

Visible light communication (VLC) is a data communications variant which uses visible light between 400 and 800 THz (780–375 nm). VLC is a subset of optical wireless communications technologies. The technology uses fluorescent lamps (ordinary lamps, not special communications devices) to transmit signals at 10 kbit/s, or LEDs for up to 500 Mbit/s. Low rate[vague] data transmissions at 1 and 2 kilometres (0.6 and 1.2 mi) were demonstrated. RONJA achieves full Ethernet speed (10 Mbit/s) over the ...

Before birth and early in life, the developing brain is acutely sensitive to its environment. A symposium at the Fifth Annual Aspen Brain Forum, hosted by the New York Academy of Sciences in New York City, explored how certain social and psychological aspects of environment influence biology and behavior. Tracy L. Bale, of the University of Pennsylvania, noted that maternal stress during pregnancy is associated with increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders like autism and schizophrenia ...

First came sound, then color, then 3D—now virtual reality (VR) is lining itself up to be the next major innovation in filmmaking. Watching a movie in VR allows you to view a movie theater size screen in your living room. If the film is 360 degree you can step into the movie and be part of it not just watch it. Unlike conventional animation, motion-capture experienced in VR injects a stronger dose of realism by making viewers feel like they are actually in the movie. Virtual-reality (VR)...

ZYILA is Poland based company which has developed  world’s first spherical microphone which records and separates each instrument and vocals into a separate track. ZYLIA is an innovative and patented recording sound-source separation technology, a complete Portable Recording Studio for multi-track in one integrated solution. It isolates every instrument playing around it and records the results via dedicated software and cloud processing. Music band recording is a difficult task which requ...

Even though LED lights are among the most energy efficient available, there’s still plenty of room for improvement. Researchers recently found that light emitting diodes’ efficiency can be impeded by trace amounts of iron, which is a byproduct of LED production. That conclusion was the result of an international study involving KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and other universities, including University of California Santa Barbara, Rutgers University, the Univers...

University of Leeds (UK) has initiated a 'Smart Agriculture' project for organic farms in Riverford. Theobjective of the project was to collect real-time data for optimized yield. The project was to be able to capture useful data to start predicting measurements and events that could help farmers and agronomists to save time and money with its farms. In this project, the type of farm was not determining, because it has been deployed in a diverse range of crops, from vegetables to grain. Th...

A popular belief that there is a higher number of births around the full moon has been shown to be true for dairy cows by a group of University of Tokyo researchers. Previous studies have found conflicting evidence on the moon cycle affecting the timing of human births and many researchers remain unconvinced that the moon influences human births. Associate Professor Tomohiro Yonezawa of the Graduate School of Agriculture and Life Sciences explains that the results may have varied because “...

Feynman Technique Helps You Study Faster and Retain More Information. You can read something and hope that it'll all be beamed into your brain for future application. Or you can read it and write down what you just learned, as if you were teaching someone else, and actually retain it. In other words, implement a more “active” way of learning, which obviously takes a lot more work than it sounds. Ideally, when you write down your learnings, you’d also repeat what you wrote aloud, like a teache...

Boston is ready for its next wave of innovation. On Dec. 9, the city released a request for information (RFI) calling for new ideas to help it deliver better services while keeping in mind that adding human value is the primary driver for new technology. But one thing the city wants companies to keep in mind: to please keep the sales speak at home and be ready to deliver a fully thought-out plan after speaking with residents and interest groups that have a stake in the city. “Our call went...

A CubeSat (U-class spacecraft) is a type of miniaturized satellite for space research that is made up of multiples of 10×10×11.35 cm cubic units. California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) and Stanford University developed the CubeSat specifications to promote and develop the skills necessary for the design, manufacture, and testing of small satellites intended for low Earth orbit (LEO) that perform a number of scientific research functions and explore new space technologies. CubeS...

Sperm are constantly replenished in the adult male body. Understanding the workings of stem cells responsible for this replenishment is expected to shed light on why male fertility diminishes with age, and possibly lead to new treatments for infertility. "So-called Myc genes play an important role in stem cells' ability to self-renew," explains Kyoto University's Takashi Shinohara, who is interested specifically in spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs), which are responsible for producing sperm. S...

Senseonics has developed a new way to continuously monitor glucose levels around-the-clock, without the need for weekly sensor insertions or having to carry another receiving device.   Senseonics a medical technology company focused on the development and commercialization of a long-term, implantable continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system for people with diabetes, today announced topline results of the PRECISE II (A Prospective, Multicenter Evaluation of the Accuracy of a Novel Co...

Surgeries are becoming less-invasive and easier to perform thanks to creative ideas and smart engineering. Any surgeon performing laparoscopic procedures would be amazed by the intuitive controls of the FlexDex instrument platform. Unlike traditional laparoscopy instruments that involve dials, triggers, switches, and knobs, and that are clunky and not at all ergonomic, the FlexDex operates much like how a novice would expect it. Designed to magnetically retract and maneuver the gallbladder, ...

Healing damaged cells and organs and developing induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) for clinical use – these are the aims of the new Max Planck Center in Guangzhou, China. The Max Planck – GIBH Joint Center for Regenerative Biomedicine brings together leading researchers from two German Max Planck Institutes and outstanding scientists from the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The cooperation will enable vital progress to be made in the further d...

Variation in butterfly eggs is driven by female promiscuity Butterfly micropyles The eggs of some butterfly and moth species vary to give females control over the paternity of their offspring, according to new research published today. The new study reveals for the first time that the number and location of micropyles (small openings in the outer surface of a female insect’s eggs which allow sperm to enter) are driven by a degree of female promiscuity. The researchers behind the study, ba...

About six years ago, Stephen Smith was stopped at a traffic light in East Liberty, driving home from Carnegie Mellon University. The robotics professor had been working over a tricky problem — how to make urban traffic flow more efficiently. Computer simulations showed his proposed system worked, but he needed a place to test it amidst aggressive drivers, slow buses and errant pedestrians. And then he saw it: At the traffic light, mounted on a pole, was a camera. Smith, 63, had no experien...

Kyocera Corporation (President: Goro Yamaguchi) announced that it has developed one of the smallest known optical blood-flow sensors, which measures the volume of blood flow in subcutaneous tissue. With the sensor, Kyocera is researching a variety of mobile health (mHealth) applications such as monitoring stress levels or preventing dehydration, heatstroke and altitude sickness by studying trends or changes in blood-flow volume as alerts for these conditions and developing algorithms for detecti...

A new study using a NASA satellite instrument orbiting Earth has found that small, environmental changes in polar food webs significantly influence the boom-and-bust, or peak and decline, cycles of phytoplankton. These findings will supply important data for ecosystem management, commercial fisheries and our understanding of the interactions between Earth’s climate and key ocean ecosystems. “It’s really important for us to understand what controls these boom-and-bust cycles, and how they migh...

Measure and manage your brain health and performance with connected technologies to address the effects of stress, rest, and activity on how you work, live, and play. Wearables for everyday life NeuMitra has embedded biomodules that help measure and manage the autonomic nervous system. It provides you with a real-time autonomic score, assessing your physiology and its interaction with movement and temperature. The biomodules are encased in a design that seamlessly blends into your daily ...

Medical device developer Lumendi said today it won FDA 510(k) clearance for its DiLumen endoscopic accessory. The Connecticut-based company’s DiLumen device is now indicated for use in positioning endoscopes in the large intestine and assisting with optical visualization, diagnosis and endoscopic treatment. Lumendi’s endolumenal interventional platform is designed to enhance and facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of colorectal disease through a less invasive approach. “DiLumen is th...

Honda's new 'NeuV 'autonomous car that uses artificial intelligence to generate emotions that will help stronger connection between the car and human passenger. Harnessing the power of artificial intelligence, robotics, and big data to transform the mobility experience, Honda today announced that “Cooperative Mobility Ecosystem” will be the theme for its participation at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.  Honda will kick off its CES presence with an 11:00 am PST press con...

Aviator NORDIC DINO robot is a computerised and self-contained system purpose built for washing aircraft exteriors. The system consists of a mobile power unit, spray nozzles and rotating cleaning brushes powered by a lightweight remote control that permits safe and simple one-man operation. NORDIC DINO meets the requirements for washing aircraft exteriors and incorporates safety features designed to prevent accidental personal injury and aircraft damage. NORDIC DINO II The NORDIC DIN...

Spanish wireless sensor maker Libelium released MySignals, a biometrical IoT platform that allows developers to create new software e-health applications and medical devices measuring 20 different body parameters. The e-health development platform has 15 different sensors that measure the most important body parameters (ECG, glucose, airflow, pulse, oxygen in blood, blood pressure, among others). All the biometric data is encrypted and sent to the Libelium Cloud in realtime to be visualised on...

'NIMA' is a portable gluten tester from 6SensorLabs that can detect if a food has 20 parts per million or more of gluten. Options for understanding what’s in our food are minimal, and Nima has the vast potential to fulfill a visceral need in the food transparency sector,” said Brad Feld, managing director of Foundry Group, who assumes a new seat on Nima’s board of directors. “Nima leverages human computer interaction to provide the community with better data about our food to potentially s...

World's first solar highway has been opened in France. Wattway is a patented French innovation that is the fruit of 5 years of research undertaken by Colas, world leader in transport infrastructure, and the INES (French National Institute for Solar Energy). By combining road construction and photovoltaic techniques, Wattway pavement provides clean, renewable energy in the form of electricity, while allowing for all types of traffic. As the energy transition becomes reality, imagine a road ...

  Artificial intelligence promises to transform society on the scale of the industrial, technical and digital revolutions before it. Machines that can sense, reason and act will accelerate solutions to large-scale problems in myriad of fields, including science, finance, medicine and education, augmenting human capability and helping us to go further, farther, faster. Buoyed by Moore’s Law and fed by a deluge of data, AI is at the heart of much of today’s technical innovation. Industr...

Generally speaking, a biological pacemaker is one or more types of cellular components that, when "implanted or injected into certain regions of the heart," produce specific electrical stimuli that mimic that of the body's natural pacemaker cells. It's indicated for issues such as heart block, slow heart rate, and asynchronous heart ventricle contractions. In healthy individuals, the sinoatrial node (SAN) is responsible for initiating excitation >100 000 times per day. As with all cardiac ...