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 “...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...