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Showing posts from January, 2017

The genius who grows tiny brains in a lab

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Our brains are complex organic computers – some belief the most complicated in the Universe. Yet one scientist has managed to create mini-brains that mimic how our minds work. Deep during a science laboratory in Cambridge, England, you'll notice see a rare thing: little, precise replicas of the human brain growing during a dish. Their creator, Madeline Lancaster, still remembers the day she initial wished to review the human brain as a little woman. Her father was a soul, and sooner or later he allowed her to see down a magnifier and examine a nerve cell growing during a dish. “I was utterly stricken by however lovely and the way complicated the anatomical structure is. It’s simply superb.” The brain contains quite a hundred billion of those brain cells (that’s similar because of the variety of stars in our galaxy) every with thousands of synapses connecting it to different areas of the brain. very little marvel that a lot of, as well as Lancaster, believe it to be ...

The ultimate deep sea explorer

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Robot explorers that can feel their surroundings – and translate those physical feelings back to their controllers – could change the way we delve into the deep. For decades, TV cameras mounted in exploration robots, particularly within the ocean deep, are mounted with cameras which will relay a read of their surroundings, and arms that are able to grab and grip. But so far, there’s been one huge downside for the humans at the opposite finish of the management wires – however, are you able to ensure the golem exploring a sunken shipwreck, as an example, won’t crush the traditional treasures it would choose up?  The folks dominant them from ships higher than the waves have had no sense of their surroundings, no tactile feedback which will tell them what their robotic helper is feeling. It’s a retardant that Oussama Khatib has been quietly grappling with for years. In the video higher than, he explains, however, his efforts to form a golem which will translate t...

The computer tablet that can save your life

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In much of the developing world, cardiologists are in short supply. One man decided to use technology to bring life-saving help to places without doctors. If you wish to check a heart surgeon in Cameroon, you’ll have a haul. The central African nation has several things – pristine forests, volcanoes and gorillas – however, collected ranks of medical specialists don't seem to be among them. during a nation of twenty-two million folks, their square measure simply fifty United Nations agency may facilitate. Worse, a typical examination prices around $40 (£32), whereas the general public continue to exist but $5 (£4) per day. Add into the combination a population of largely rural farmers and a few very dubious roads and it’s no surprise that the state has a number of the very best rates of cardiopathy on the continent. In developing nations like Cameroon, eight out of each ten folks can die of heart disease. Enter Arthur Zang, a school businessperson to create geographic...

Why bionic eyes could transform sight

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Claudia Hammond speaks to a researcher in Australia developing a whole new form of vision . The field of engineering has remodelled medication for hundreds of years, as way back because the ancient Egyptians United Nations agency created tailored toes from wood and animal skin. throughout the twentieth Century, mechanical and electronic advances created heart pacemakers and additional subtle prosthetic limbs attainable. Now, researchers square measure making bionic eyes to assist blind individuals in seeing once more. You wouldn't even like eyeballs   Neurosurgeon Jeffrey Rosenfeld, director of the Monash Institute of Medical Engineering in Australia, hopes to implant little “ceramic micro-electrode tiles” into the brain’s cortical area of blind volunteers this year – bypassing the traditional visual pathway. You wouldn't even like eyeballs. A photographic camera mounted on a try of glasses captures pictures that square measure then processed in an exceeding de...

The ghost town that was abandoned when the diamonds ran out

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The town of Kolmanskop in Namibia was once one of the wealthiest in the world - its hospital had the first X-ray unit in the southern hemisphere. Now it is buried in the desert. Diamonds aren't forever Looking at it currently, it's exhausting to believe this broken-down assortment of derelict buildings was once one in all the wealthiest communities within the world. settled on the southern flank of West Africa’s sprawling Namib Desert, the little city of Kolmanskop has been rescued by the sand. however one hundred years past it had been home to a busy diamond mine. In the town’s time period, the valuable stones were very easy to search out that they may be picked out of the sand. staff armed with jam jars would crawl on hands and knees, filling them with diamonds. But as resources area unit wiped out, individuals march on. nowadays Kolmanskop sits in an exceedingly restricted zone controlled by the Namdeb Diamond Corporation, a venture owned by Delaware Beers ...

Strange radio signals are coming from a galaxy far, far away

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For ten years currently, astronomers are picking up uncommon blasts of high-energy radio waves from distant components of the cosmos. every transmission of those “fast radio bursts” has the energy of innumerable stars for a fugitive moment, before they disappear in precisely a fraction of a second. Yet, the supply of those powerful signals has scientists baffled. “We don’t apprehend what form of an object is creating them,” admits Keith Bannister, AN uranologist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial analysis Organisation (CSIRO) in the state capital, Australia. “We don’t have a clue – you click your fingers and they’ve return and gone.” Astronomers initial detected quick radio bursts in 2007, exploitation knowledge from the Parkes astronomical telescope in Australia, and, so far, over twenty bursts are discovered. The mystery of what they're has become one amongst the most popular topics in physical science. This week, an analysis revealed within the journ...

The astrophysicist searching for the Universe’s ‘dark stars’

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Much of the Universe is made up of a strange substance that bears no resemblance to the atoms that make up life, the planets and our stars. What is this dark matter – and how do we find it? Astrophysicist Katherine Freese explains in the cinematic, mind-expanding video above. It is the last word whodunit. The suspect is that the basic matter that produces up the maximum amount as twenty-fifth of the Universe. it's a part of the terrible internet of all that we tend to sleep in. And nonetheless as a result of it's not a product of even the foremost basic building blocks of the atoms that make stars and life itself, it remains invisible. It doesn’t even move with lightweight. The explore for the substance particle has been a probe for scientists since the Nineteen Thirties. Today, there area unit quite one hundred groups around the world grappling with however we will prove it exists. Astrophysicist Katherine Freese is one in all those that have dedicated t...

Why vitamins pills don't work, and may be bad for you

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We dose au courant antioxidants as if they're the elixir of life. At best, they're most likely ineffective. At worse, they'll simply send you to Associate in a Nursing early grave. For Linus Carl Pauling, it all began to get it wrong once he modified his breakfast routine. In 1964, at the age of sixty-five, he started adding ascorbic acid to his fruit crush within the morning. it had been like adding sugar to Coca-Cola, and he believed – wholeheartedly, generally vehemently  – that it had been an honest issue. Before this, his breakfasts were nothing to put in writing concerning. simply that they happened early each morning before attending to work on Golden State Institute of Technology, even on weekends. He was energetic, and his work was fruitful. At the age of thirty, as an example, he planned a 3rd elementary means that atoms air control along in molecules, melding ideas from each chemistry and quantum physics. Twenty years later, his work into howeve...

Chinese retires could fuel the next overseas property boom

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More and additional of China’s old ar wanting to retire abroad – and property developers ar wanting to take advantage, writes Justin Bergman. When Mika Sun started searching for a retirement house for his folks, he had a couple of non-negotiable needs. Decent health care was a requirement, as was a secure community and a pristine atmosphere.  It conjointly had to be a decent investment, at a worth Sun — a 35-year-old network engineer at a telecommunications firm in Shanghai — may afford. This retirement dream of palm trees and sunny skies wasn’t in China, though. Like several well-travelled Chinese, Sun found what he was searching for overseas — specifically, in Irvine, California, a town forty miles south-east of la within the North American country. He recently bought a townhouse there for his folks, and in very few years once he’s secured a North American country visa, he plans to maneuver there for work and his folks can follow. Well-to-do Chinese art more and m...

Scared of the phone? Here's how to overcome that fear

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Does hearing the phone ring cause you to panic? will the thought of constructing a decision offer you cold sweats? We’re seldom separated from our mobile phones of late, however, many of us still suffer from a real, deep worry of constructing a telephone call. Recognised as Associate in a Nursing outcome of social folie, Tele phobia afflicts folks across countries and generations. Those who suffer from Tele phobia may well be comfy delivering an interview in an exceedingly space jam-packed with strangers or may send dozens of text messages each day, however, get shivers after they have to be compelled to speak on the phone. You have to consider things on the fly and you have got to reply to what somebody is spoken language to you “For plenty of individuals, elderly the phone may be a notably advanced interaction,” says Jill Isenstadt, vice chairman of employment for Joyable, that offers on-line medical aid.  “You got to consider things on the fly and you have go...

Is this the most liveable city in the world

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As a passage between East and West, Vienna is growing in quality – and international companies square measure being attentive. Austria’s capital recently beat 229 alternative noisy cities to be topped the foremost habitable town within the world in step with a study from practice Mercer. If you came here ten years ago, you would not recognise town any longer — there is a heap of restaurants and bars, artistic industries and it's rather more numerous It’s geographic location and simple living build it an enormous draw for business folks. whereas centuries ­old castles and fine arts build it a preferred traveller destination business travellers square measure even as common. “For me, Vienna was the foremost aesthetic town in Europe,” same Magnus Beyer, associate degree engineer with Imperial school in London United Nations agency recently went on his 1st business trip to Vienna to participate in the general assembly of the EU Geosciences Union control in Gregorian c...