The beginning of human personhood is the moment when a human is first recognized as a person. There are differences of opinion as to the precise time when human personhood begins and the nature of that status. The issue arises in a number of fields including science, religion, philosophy, and law, and is most acute in debates relating to abortion, stem cell research, reproductive rights, and fetal rights. The fetus may be aware of the body, for example by perceiving pain. It reacts to touch, ...

A Dutch study found that by 30 weeks of age a fetus can remember a sound for 10 minutes. By week 34, a fetus may be able to remember. During rapid-eye-movement sleep, when we dream, the brain is thought to be processing stored memory. The memory of a newborn infant is dominated by its fetal experience, and the infant is likely to dream about its life in the womb. Research with lucid (or conscious) dreaming has shown that dream images are supported by the corresponding body actions, using thos...

A University of Tokyo research group and their collaborators developed an odor-detecting sensor made from a membrane protein found in mosquitoes called an olfactory receptor, which responds to the smell of human sweat, that they embedded in an artificial cell membrane. The researchers succeeded in getting a mobile robot mounted with the sensor to kick into motion when detecting the smell given off by a particular substance. Such applications of the sensor may one day play a vital role in search ...

It’s only a matter of time before drugs are administered via patches with painless microneedles instead of unpleasant injections. But designers need to balance the need for flexible, comfortable-to-wear material with effective microneedle penetration of the skin. Researchers from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm say they may have cracked the problem. In a study published recently in PLOS ONE, the research team from KTH reports a successful test of its microneed...

A novel technology that could allow for accurate, guided landing of payloads returning to Earth from the International Space Station will soon undergo testing in orbit. The technology, called "Exo-Brake," is a "tension-based, flexible braking device resembling a cross-parachute that deploys from the rear of a satellite to increase the drag," NASA officials said in a statement. Developed and tested by engineers at NASA's Ames Research Center in California, the Exo-Brake is a de-orbit device...

Scientists have witnessed the birth of atmospheric ice clouds, creating ice cloud crystals in the laboratory and then taking images of the process through a microscope, essentially documenting the very first steps of cloud formation. The team witnessed a process known as ice nucleation in unprecedented detail, taking time-lapse movies of the first few seconds when a particle attracts water vapor, forming ice crystals that become the core of icy cirrus clouds — the high, wispy clouds that act ...

Medical students and researchers at Nova Southeastern University are stepping into the virtual world to better serve patients. Using Second Life®, students at Nova Southeastern University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine create avatars that fly into a virtual clinic where students can practice communication skills and diagnostic procedures on virtual world patients. The program allows students to practice in a relaxed environment where they are not afraid to make mistakes. Researchers at NSU...

What would happen if an electric current no longer flowed, but trickled instead? This was the question investigated by researchers working with Christian Ast at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research. Their investigation involved cooling their scanning tunnelling microscope down to a fifteen thousandth of a degree above absolute zero. At these extremely low temperatures, the electrons reveal their quantum nature. The electric current is therefore a granular medium, consisting of...

Collabody™ is a unique fusion protein design platform which utilizes a short triplex-forming collagen-like peptide (about 40 amino acids in length) as a scaffold protein binder for fusing with antibody fragments, hormones, cytokines, lymphokines, growth factors, lectins, enzymes, soluble receptor fragments and chemo agents. The autoimmune system in our body is vital for the protection against invading viruses and bacteria germs. Anti-CD3 Collabody™ The malfunctioning of thi...

University of Tokyo researchers have revealed both theoretically and experimentally the anomalous behaviors of massless Dirac electrons, a special type of electron population, by means of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements, an experimental technique that allows detailed observation of electron behavior. It is well known that an electron at rest in a vacuum has a finite mass. On the other hand, in a crystal, an electron has an apparent mass (effective mass), which can take a variety...

Ours has become an "experience economy" in which people have shifted from passive consumption of products or services to active participation in the process. Recognizing this shift, many companies now invest in the delivery of experiences -- what might be called the Amazon-ification of retailing. Innovation activities with a human-centered design principle powered by a thorough understanding of what people want and need and what they like or dislike about the way a particular service is provi...

ZoomHRV is an athletic coach and fitness tracker that promises to be the smartest and the most accurate training device available in the market. It is a multifunctional tracking device that measures the user’s heartbeats while training. It tracks movements as well as detects user body readiness to train and advises on optimal training intensity. ZoomHRV is an advanced biometric device that gives accurate and precise information allowing users to see detailed data collected about their ever...

In 2016, NASA drove advances in technology, science, aeronautics and space exploration that enhanced the world’s knowledge, innovation, and stewardship of Earth. “This past year marked record-breaking progress in our exploration objectives,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “We advanced the capabilities we’ll need to travel farther into the solar system while increasing observations of our home and the universe, learning more about how to continuously live and work in space, and, of co...

The Belgium company ONAK created a new canoe, which can fold-up to the size of a large suitcase. When ONAK founders Otto Van de Steene and Thomas Weyn found themselves wanting to travel with a canoe they would be able to use within a city, they decided to make it themselves. The origami design and the ability to unfold the canoe in ten minutes from its rectangular suitcase on wheels fits their goal of creating a boat that people can store without a lot of space available. ONAK is the perfe...

Since the earliest days of the Internet, most government agencies have eagerly explored how to use technology to better deliver services to citizens, businesses and other public-sector organizations. Early on, observers recognized that these efforts often varied widely in their implementation, and so researchers developed various frameworks to describe the different stages of growth and development of e-government. While each model is different, they all identify the same general progression fro...

The earth sciences have defined a new human age - now social scientists are calling for broader and more interdisciplinary discussion. The Anthropocene is a proposed epoch dating from when human activities started to have a significant global impact on Earth's geology and ecosystems. The Anthropocence concept thus includes, but also transcends, the idea of anthropogenic climate change. The Early Anthropocene Hypothesis (sometimes called Early Anthropogenic) was proposed by William ...

Air in the home can be heavily polluted just by daily household activities. Unfortunately, since many indoor air pollutants are colorless and odorless, people often fail to detect them. A team of engineers at Michigan State University is perfecting new technology that not only warns of a problem with indoor air, but also identifies the source of the pollution and offers suggestions on how to remedy the situation. Mi Zhang, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, is h...

In science, sometimes the best discoveries come when you’re exploring something else entirely. That’s the case with recent findings from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where a research team has come up with a way to build safe, nontoxic gold wires onto flexible, thin plastic film. Their demonstration potentially clears the path for a host of wearable electronic devices that monitor our health. The finding might overcome a basic issue confronting medical engineers: ...

Scientists at Trinity College Dublin have uncovered a marvel molecule that blocks a key driver of inflammatory diseases. The finding could meet a major unmet clinical need by inspiring new non-invasive treatments for arthritis, multiple sclerosis and Muckle-Wells syndrome, among a myriad of other inflammatory diseases. The molecule ‘blocks’ a key biological driver of inflammatory diseases. Marvel Molecule Could Lead to Treatments for Inflammatory Diseases and it could inspire non-invasive tre...

eSight is the only patented, assistive-device of its kind anywhere in the world. eSight is wearable, handsfree, portable - and most importantly, eSight is a non-surgical device. eSight is registered with the United States FDA. eSight Corporation is inspected by Health Canada. eSight’s wearable, hands-free headset houses a small, high-speed camera that captures everything the eSight user is looking at. The captured live video stream is instantly sent to a powerful computer that uses proprietar...

Horus is a wearable device that observes, understands and describes the environment to the person using it, providing useful information with the right timing and in a discreet way using bone conduction. Horus is able to read texts, to recognize faces, objects and much more. Horus is composed by a wearable headset with cameras and by a pocket unit that contains a powerful processor and a long lasting battery. The user can activate each functionality through a set of buttons located both on th...

Using JamKazam, you can now play music with other musicians from your homes across the Internet as if you were sitting in the same room. You can record your performances at the track level, share your recordings, and even broadcast your live sessions to family, friends, and fans. Basically, JamKazam takes the music you play that is captured into your computer – either by a device you already use for recording or by your computer’s built-in mic and headphones – and then uses an ultra-low laten...

Minecraft is a video game focused on creativity and building. Players build constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D world–everything from a hut, to a train station, to a fully functional computer. Why can't we take those virtual creations, and bring them into the real world? Minecraft.Print() is our attempt to do so by creating a bridge between Minecraft and the real world, via 3D printers. A Minecraft player defines a 3D space to be printed, after which the software extracts the object, ...

A ‘living bandage’ made from stem cells, which could revolutionise the treatment and prognosis of a common sporting knee injury, has been trialled in humans for the first time by scientists at the Universities of Liverpool and Bristol. Meniscal tears are suffered by over one million people a year in the US and Europe alone and are particularly common in contact sports like football and rugby. 90% or more of tears occur in the white zone of meniscus which lacks a blood supply, making them diff...

Scientists have enlisted the exotic properties of graphene, a one-atom-thick layer of carbon, to function like the film of an incredibly sensitive camera system in visually mapping tiny electric fields in a liquid. Researchers hope the new method will allow more extensive and precise imaging of the electrical signaling networks in our hearts and brains. The ability to visually depict the strength and motion of very faint electrical fields could also aid in the development of so-called lab-on-...