World’s most precise clock

Imagine a clock precise to one second in a period comparable to the age of the universe (more than 13 billion years).

That’s what National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) scientists have built, with funding from DARPA’s Quantum-Assisted Sensing and Readout (QuASAR) program: two optical lattice clocks that use ultracold ytterbium atoms to measure the passage of time.

The ytterbium clocks tick off seconds by measuring the frequency of light absorbed by atoms as electrons in the ground state jump to an excited state. Each of the clocks relies on approximately 10,000 rare-earth ytterbium atoms cooled to ten millionths of a degree above absolute zero and trapped in an optical lattice made of laser light.

Another laser provides the resonant energy necessary for the atoms to cycle between two energy levels a rate of 518 trillion times per second (518 terahertz), achieving timekeeping precision of one part in 1018.

That’s 10,000 times better than the current atomic clocks used to support GPS satellites. This extreme stability could vastly extend the time between GPS clock updates and may block attempts by an adversary to spoof GPS signals.

Such clock precision could also enable more precise methods to measure gravity, magnetic fields, and temperature.

http://www.darpa.mil/NewsEvents/Releases/2013/08/29.aspx

‘Biological resynchronization’: stem cells keep cardiac beat in synchrony

The team proposes a novel strategy of “biological resynchronization” in which stem cells repair heart muscle damage to reestablish correct cardiac motion, replacing pacing devices,

Heart attacks limit local oxygen, which can kill areas of cardiac tissue — called ‘infarcted’ areas — and also leave scarring. This damage leads to a lack of synchrony in the heart beat motion.

http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=133950&CultureCode=en

Microencapsulation produces uniform drug release vehicle

Consistently uniform, easily manufactured microcapsules containing a brain cancer drug may simplify treatment and provide more tightly controlled therapy, according to Penn State researchers.

“Brain tumors are one of the world’s deadliest diseases,” said Mohammad Reza Abidian, assistant professor of bioengineering, chemical engineering and materials science and engineering. “Typically doctors resect the tumors, do radiation therapy, and then chemotherapy.”

The majority of chemotherapy is done intravenously, but, because the drugs are very toxic and are not targeted, they have a lot of side effects. Another problem with intravenous drugs is that they go everywhere in the bloodstream and do not easily cross the blood brain barrier so little gets to the target tumors. To counteract this, high doses are necessary.

Microcapsules to precisely control drug release

“We are trying to develop a new method of drug delivery,” said Abidian. “Not intravenous delivery, but localized directly into the tumor site.”

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-09/ps-mpu082913.php

Creating a low-cost, flexible touchscreen

Future touchscreens* will be flexible, cheap, and give you finer touch-control.

The secret: replace currently used indium tin oxide (ITO) — which is expensive, rare, and worse, brittle — with cheap, flexible metal nanowires that can even be sprayed on.

Unfortunately, there has been no simple way to design a touchscreen using nanowires that will provide an optimum combination of low resistance, evenness, and transparency.

It’s trial-and-error: create a batch with a new wire aspect ratio (length/diameter), density, etc., percolate it (like filtering coffee), and see if the thing works — or just forms a random network with gaps. Frustrating, slow.

Now researchers at the University of Pennsylvania** and Duke University** have developed a clever workaround: computer simulation of various combinations of nanowire length and diameter, the number of nanowires, the area they cover, and contact resistance (at wire connections) to reach the Goldilocks zone: the optimum combination of electrical properties and transparency.

No information on commercialization of this research was available from the team, but future research will focus on nanowire orientation, various continuous deposition methods, variation in nanowire length and diameter, and different processing techniques.

The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and Penn’s Materials Science Research and Engineering Center.

http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/news/penn-develops-computer-model-will-help-design-flexible-touchscreens

A new supercapacitor for energy storage at high temperatures

Rice University researchers who have developed a supercapacitor that can operate at very high temperatures, using clay as a key ingredient.

The supercapacitor is reliable at temperatures of up to 200 degrees Celsius (392 degrees Fahrenheit), and could be useful for powering devices for use in extreme environments, such as oil drilling, the military and space, Rice scientist Pulickel Ajayan reported in Nature’s online journal, Scientific Reports (open access),

“Our intention is to completely move away from conventional liquid or gel-type electrolytes, which have been limited to low-temperature operation of electrochemical devices,” said Arava Leela Mohana Reddy, lead author and a former research scientist at Rice.

“By allowing safe operation over a wide range of temperatures without compromising on high energy, power and cycle life, we believe we can dramatically enhance or even eliminate the need for expensive thermal management systems.”

A supercapacitor combines the best qualities of capacitors that charge in seconds and discharge energy in a burst and rechargeable batteries that charge slowly but release energy on demand over time. The ideal supercapacitor would charge quickly, store energy and release it as needed.

“Researchers have been trying for years to make energy storage devices like batteries and supercapacitors that work reliably in high-temperature environments, but this has been challenging, given the traditional materials used to build these devices,” Ajayan said.

http://news.rice.edu/2013/09/03/clay-key-to-high-temperature-supercapacitors/

Cancer’s origins revealed

Researchers at Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have provided the first comprehensive compendium of mutational processes that drive tumor development. Together, these mutational processes explain most mutations found in 30 of the most common cancer types. This new understanding of cancer development could help to treat and prevent a wide-range of cancers.

Each mutational process leaves a particular pattern of mutations, an imprint or signature, in the genomes of cancers it has caused. By studying 7,042 genomes of people with the most common forms of cancer, the team uncovered more than 20 signatures of processes that mutate DNA. For many of the signatures, they also identified the underlying biological process responsible.

All cancers are caused by mutations in DNA occurring in cells of the body during a person’s lifetime. Although we know that chemicals in tobacco smoke cause mutations in lung cells that lead to lung cancers and ultraviolet light causes mutations in skin cells that lead to skin cancers, we have remarkably little understanding of the biological processes that cause the mutations which are responsible for the development of most cancers.

https://www.sanger.ac.uk/about/press/2013/130814.html

How DNA repair helps prevent cancer

The biological information that makes us unique is encoded in our DNA. DNA damage is a natural biological occurrence that happens every time cells divide and multiply. External factors such as overexposure to sunlight can also damage DNA.

Michael Feig, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Michigan State University, studies the proteins MutS and MSH2-MSH6, which recognize defective DNA and initiate DNA repair. Natural DNA repair occurs when proteins like MutS (the primary protein responsible for recognizing a variety of DNA mismatches) scan the DNA, identify a defect, and recruit other enzymes to carry out the actual repair.

“The key here is to understand how these defects are recognized,” Feig explained. “DNA damage occurs frequently and if you couldn’t repair your DNA, then you won’t live for very long.” This is because damaged DNA, if left unrepaired, can compromise cells and lead to diseases such as cancer.

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jp403127a

NSA cracks most Internet encryption, inserts back doors, The New York Times reveals

The NSA has circumvented or cracked much of the encryption, or digital scrambling, that guards global commerce and banking systems, protects sensitive data like trade secrets and medical records, and automatically secures the e-mails, Web searches, Internet chats, and phone calls of Americans and others around the world, The New York Times reports

The agency, according to documents provided to The Times and ProPublica by Edward J. Snowden and interviews with industry officials:

Deployed custom-built, superfast computers to break codes

Collaborated with technology companies in the United States and abroad to build in back doors

Coerced some companies into handing over their master encryption keys or building in a back door

Covertly introduced weaknesses into the encryption standards followed by hardware and software developers, or altered their software or hardware.

Worked with chipmakers to insert back doors or by exploiting security flaws

Had partnerships with major telecommunications carriers

Had access to Microsoft’s most popular services, including Outlook e-mail, Skype Internet phone calls and chats, and SkyDrive, the company’s cloud storage service.

Cracked enryptions of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL); virtual private networks (VPNs), and the protection used on 4G smartphones

Accessed the world’s fiber optic cables and Internet hubs

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/06/us/nsa-foils-much-internet-encryption.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

DNA-based biological nanostructures for controlled drug delivery

Nanoscale “cages” made from strands of DNA can encapsulate small-molecule drugs and release them in response to a specific stimulus, McGill University researchers report in a new study.

The research marks a step toward the use of biological nanostructures to deliver drugs to diseased cells in patients.

The findings could also open up new possibilities for designing DNA-based nanomaterials.

“This research is important for drug delivery, but also for fundamental structural biology and nanotechnology,” says McGill Chemistry professor Hanadi Sleiman, who led the research team.

In their experiments, the McGill researchers first created DNA cubes using short DNA strands, and modified them with lipid-like molecules. The lipids can act like sticky patches that come together and engage in a “handshake” inside the DNA cube, creating a core that can hold cargo such as drug molecules.

http://www.newswise.com/articles/dna-cages-may-aid-drug-delivery

‘Seeing’ faces through touch

Perceiving faces can be enhanced by touch, says researcher Kazumichi Matsumiya of Tohoku University in Japan.

The face aftereffect

In a series of studies, Matsumiya took advantage of a phenomenon called the “face aftereffect” to investigate whether our visual system responds to nonvisual signals for processing faces.

In the face aftereffect, we adapt to a face with a particular expression — happiness, for example — which causes us to perceive a subsequent neutral face as having the opposite facial expression (i.e., sadness).

Matsumiya hypothesized that if the visual system really does respond to signals from another modality, we should see evidence for face aftereffects from one modality to the other. So, adaptation to a face that is explored by touch should produce visual face aftereffects.

The experiment

To test this, Matsumiya had participants explore face masks concealed below a mirror by touching them. After this adaptation period, the participants were visually presented with a series of faces that had varying expressions and were asked to classify the faces as happy or sad. The visual faces and the masks were created from the same exemplar.

In line with his hypothesis, Matsumiya found that participants’ experiences exploring the face masks by touch shifted their perception of the faces presented visually compared to participants who had no adaptation period, such that the visual faces were perceived as having the opposite facial expression.

Further experiments ruled out other explanations for the results, including the possibility that the face aftereffects emerged because participants were intentionally imagining visual faces during the adaptation period.

And a fourth experiment revealed that the aftereffect also works the other way: Visual stimuli can influence how we perceive a face through touch.

What makes you genetically compatible with your partner?

A University of Manchester professor and his wife have had their own DNA analysed for compatibility as part of the research for a new book out this week.

Professor Daniel Davis and his wife Katie’s experience is documented in The Compatibility Gene, published by Penguin, which discusses how our crucial compatibility genes may influence finding a life partner as well as our health and individuality.

The book explains how research has radically transformed knowledge of the way our bodies work - with profound consequences for medical research and ethics. The story begins with a small band of scientific pioneers who, during the Second World War, struggled to understand the mysteries of transplants and grafts. And continues to the Swiss zoologist who had people rank the sexiness of smells from worn T-shirts - and found the results related to our compatibility genes. Very recent experiments discussed in the book show that these same genes may also influence the likelihood of problems in pregnancy.

Interstellar solar sail effort

The first Starship Congress conference session was devoted to solar sails, leading off with Jim Benford’s keynote, followed by Les Johnson, who described current and near-term work. Right now the only propulsion method that will get us to interstellar velocities is the sail, and even then we’re talking no more than a couple of hundred kilometers per second.

Carbon fiber is ideal for sail work because when you put a microwave beam on the sail the material absorbs energy and begins to heat. A sail made of aluminum would begin to melt as you reach about 900 K, limiting possible accelerations, but carbon fiber has a low areal density (about 8 grams per square meter in the material the Benfords used) and a microwave reflectivity approaching 90 percent.

The material is actually a carbon-carbon microtruss, meaning a core of carbon fibers is fused to a textured outer surface. With carbon nanotubes woven into the material, this microtruss is capable of temperatures up to 3000 K, at which point it doesn’t melt but sublimes, going from solid to gas with no intervening liquid state.

http://nextbigfuture.com/2013/08/interstellar-solar-sail-effort.html

Computer can read letters directly from the brain

By analysing MRI images of the brain with an elegant mathematical model, it is possible to reconstruct thoughts more accurately than ever before. In this way, researchers from Radboud University Nijmegen have succeeded in determining which letter a test subject was looking at. The journal Neuroimage has accepted the article, which will be published soon.

The researchers 'taught' a model how small volumes of 2x2x2 mm from the brain scans – known as voxels – respond to individual pixels. By combining all the information about the pixels from the voxels, it became possible to reconstruct the image viewed by the subject. The result was not a clear image, but a somewhat fuzzy speckle pattern. In this study, the researchers used hand-written letters.

"In our further research we will be working with a more powerful MRI scanner," explains Sanne Schoenmakers, who is working on a thesis about decoding thoughts. "Due to the higher resolution of the scanner, we hope to be able to link the model to more detailed images. We are currently linking images of letters to 1200 voxels in the brain; with the more powerful scanner we will link images of faces to 15,000 voxels."

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-08-letters-brain.html

'Spider style' blood vessel building

A way of building body parts similar to the way a spider spins its web has been demonstrated by researchers in the UK.

The team at University College London used a constant stream of cells mixed with a polymer to weave the new tissues.

They think the technique could produce better results than other ways of building body parts for transplant.

The idea is that a patch of heart muscle could improve function after a heart attack.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23793787

China's 3D bio printer 'Re-human' to create scaffolds for cardiac repair

China unveiled their Regenovo 3D bio-printer. Unlike other 3D printers, which work with plastic or metal powder, Regenovo prints living tissue.

This 3D bio printer can print down to 15 microns and operate with temperatures ranging between 0 and 300 degrees Celsius. These advantages allow much wider material selection for 3D printing. Currently Unique has successfully printed scaffolds and bones with different precision and shapes using cultivated cells, for example the scaffolds for heart tissue constructs. Theoretically, when the biodegradable 3D printed scaffold is implanted into human body, it will be absorbed by the body in about a year.

According to Zhou GongYao, developer of Re-human, the team will soon apply for clinic trials of 3D printed scaffolds and bones. As soon as it obtains approval from medical institutions, it can then be applied to the human body.

http://www.3ders.org/articles/20130820-china-first-3d-bio-printer-to-create-scaffolds-for-cardiac-repair.html

New drug mimics the beneficial effects of exercise

A drug known as SR9009, which is currently under development at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), increases the level of metabolic activity in skeletal muscles of mice. Treated mice become lean, develop larger muscles and can run much longer distances simply by taking SR9009, which mimics the effects of aerobic exercise. If similar effects can be obtained in people, the reversal of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and perhaps Type-II diabetes might be the very welcome result.

The drug was developed by Professor Thomas Burris, who found that it was able to reduce obesity in populations of mice. It binds to and activates a protein called Rev-ErbAα, which influences fat and sugar burning in the liver, production of fat cells, and the body's inflammatory response.

"We do have indications that the effects of the drug are very similar to what you see with someone who has metabolic disorder who starts exercising," Burris stated in a Voice Of America interview. "They see a decrease in cholesterol, a decrease in triglycerides, an improvement in glucose metabolism. And a lot of this is due to transforming the muscle into a more metabolically active muscle."

http://www.gizmag.com/scripps-drug-sr9009-exercise-mimic/28651/

Namiki Lab air hockey robot can play with strategy

Robots playing air hockey can play strategically as a result of work by researchers in Japan at Chiba University's Namiki Lab. The system they constructed consists of an air-hockey table, a Barrett four-axis robotic arm, two high-speed cameras, and an external PC. This is not the first air hockey playing robot. Back in 2008, for one, there was the Nuvation Air Hockey robot that grabbed admirers. This was an industrial robot equipped with an optical sensor programmed to follow and react to a moving object.

The differentiator with the Namiki Lab robot is that this one is able to strategize playing against its human opponent. Professor Akio Namiki and his group have designed a robot that can shift its strategy based on the opponent's playing style. The robot isn't just playing but is making its plays specifically against the opponent in any one game.

"The robot observes the speed and position of the player's paddle in relation to the puck. This data can be described by what is known as a Motion Pattern Histogram (MPH). The robot uses this data to estimate whether its opponent is playing aggressively or defensively.

http://phys.org/news/2013-06-namiki-lab-air-hockey-robot.html#jCp

Future vaccines could be delivered via patch

A skin patch that can deliver vaccines cheaply and effectively has been shown off at the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh.

Using a patch rather than a needle could transform disease prevention around the world, said its inventor.

Prof Mark Kendall said the new method offered hope of usable vaccines for diseases such as malaria.

"Half of vaccines in Africa are not working properly because refrigeration has failed at some point in the chain," said Dr Kendall.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22882446

A low-cost, implantable electronic biosensor

Ohio State University engineers are developing low-cost electronic devices that work in direct contact with living tissue inside the body.

The initial objective is to develop an in vivo biosensor to detect the presence of proteins that mark the first signs of organ rejection in the body. Such biosensors could also be used for detecting glucose, pH, and diseases such as cancer.

Other materials such as titanium could also work, and such coatings could even be tailored to boost the performance of sensors or other biomedical devices, Berger suggested.

http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/bodyelectric.htm

Nanorods found better than spherical nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery

Conventional treatments such as drugs for diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease can carry harmful side effects, mainly because the treatments are not targeted specifically to the cells of the body where they’re needed.

“The elongated particles are more effective,” said Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute’s Erkki Ruoslahti, M.D., Ph.D. “Presumably the reason is that … the curvature of the sphere allows only so many of those binding sites to interact with membrane receptors on the surface of a cell.”

Nanoparticles have been studied as vessels to carry drugs through the body. Once they are engineered with antibodies that bind to specific receptors on the surface of targeted cells, these nanoparticles also can, in principle, become highly specific to the disease they are designed to treat.

The studies demonstrate that nanorods with a high aspect ratio attach more effectively to targeted cells compared with spherical nanoparticles. The findings hold promise for the development of novel targeted therapies with fewer harmful side effects.

http://beaker.sanfordburnham.org/2013/06/why-the-shape-of-nanoparticles-matters/

Sensing individual biomolecules with optical sensors inside ‘nanoboxes’

Researchers at the Fresnel Institute in Marseille and ICFO, Institute for Photonic Sciences in Barcelona have designed and built the smallest optical device capable of detecting and sensing individual biomolecules at concentrations similar to those found in cells.

The device consists on a tiny dimer (dual) sensor made out of two gold semi-spheres, separated from each other by a gap as small as 15nm (size of a protein molecule). Light sent to this antenna is enormously amplified in the gap region where the actual detection of the biomolecule of interest occurs. Because amplification of the light is confined to the dimensions of the gap, only molecules present in this tiny region are detected.

The optical device offers a highly efficient platform for performing a multitude of nanoscale biochemical assessments with single-molecule sensitivity at physiological conditions. It could be used for ultrasensitive sensing of minute amounts of molecules, as an early diagnostic device for biosensing of many disease markers.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/iiop-cim061013.php

Microsoft’s robot touch screen lets you palpate a brain

Microsoft Research is developing a prototype of a haptic feedback touch screen called TouchMover, IEEE Spectrum reports.

The robotic system behind a curtain pushes back with a pressure that reflects the physical properties of virtual objects on the screen.

Researchers uploaded a full set of MRI brain scans and demoed how doctors might scroll through them and annotate specific slides.

Wth some additional programming, the researchers could also make the TouchMover provide haptic feedback based on the material properties and texture of the skull bone and pulpy brain tissue, making the screen feel like palpating an actual brain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UjGA9nY9_yM

Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have developed a highly sensitive exhaled-breath sensor, using tin dioxide (SnO2) fibers assembled from thin, wrinkled SnO2 nanotubes.

These metal-oxide nanofiber-based chemiresistive gas sensors allow for portable real-time breath tests that could be available on smart phones or tablets in the near future.

They sensors allow for diagnosing serious diseases such as diabetes or lung cancer quickly and effectively by simply breathing into a small nanofiber breathing sensor, mounted on a phone or other device.

“The sensor technology can be compatible with various types of smartphones, portable electronic gadgets, and medical devices,” he added. “We believe that there can be many ways to incorporate our technology based on particular needs of industries, not just in the medical device field, such as detecting hazardous chemicals or gas at manufacturing factories.”

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/tkai-nsd061113.php

New tasks become as simple as waving a hand with brain-computer interfaces

Small brain-computer interface (BCI) electrodes placed on or inside the brain allow patients to interact with computers or control robotic limbs simply by thinking about how to execute those actions.

This technology could improve communication and daily life for a person who is paralyzed or has lost the ability to speak from a stroke or neurodegenerative disease.

Now, University of Washington researchers have demonstrated that when humans use BCI technology, the brain behaves much like it does when completing simple motor skills such as kicking a ball, typing or waving a hand. So learning to control a robotic arm or a prosthetic limb could become second nature for people who are paralyzed.

A future wireless device could be built to remain inside a person’s head for a longer time to be able to control computer cursors or robotic limbs at home.

http://www.washington.edu/news/2013/06/11/new-tasks-become-as-simple-as-waving-a-hand-with-brain-computer-interfaces/

Video gamers capture more information faster for visual decision-making

Hours spent at the video gaming console probably train the brain to make better and faster use of visual input, according to Duke University researchers.

“Gamers see the world differently,” said Greg Appelbaum, an assistant professor of psychiatry in the Duke School of Medicine. “They are able to extract more information from a visual scene.”

Earlier research by others has found that gamers are quicker at responding to visual stimuli and can track more items than non-gamers. When playing a game, especially one of the “first-person shooters,” a gamer makes “probabilistic inferences” about what he/she is seeing — good guy or bad guy, moving left or moving right — as rapidly as he/she can.

This study was supported by grants from the Army Research Office, the Department of Homeland Security, DARPA, and Nike Inc.

http://today.duke.edu/2013/06/vidvision

Turning human spare parts into exports

Professor György K.B. Sándor believes that tissue engineering can become a new global export item.

The goal of his research at the University of Tampere in Finland is to produce bone and cartilage using tissue engineering and to optimize the use of tissue-derived stem cells for bone defects.

With tissue engineering, it is possible to produce tailored, living human spare parts. If the method can be rolled out on a larger scale, it may become the third alternative form of treatment alongside the traditional forms, surgery and pharmacotherapy.

“We have proven with more than 20 clinically successful operations that tissue engineering works,”

http://www.tekes.fi/en/community/News/482/News/1344?name=Turning+human+spare+parts+into+exports

Crowd-sourcing messaging to intelligent life

Lone Signal believes that crowd sourcing messaging to intelligent life (METI) is the ideal approach to establishing a stable, cohesive, and well-resourced interstellar beacon on Earth.

Lone Signal allows anyone with Internet access to compose and transmit messages to strategically targeted stellar systems.

The benefits of radio communication on Earth likely outweigh the potential harms of detection by extraterrestrial watchers; however, the uncertainty regarding the outcome of contact with extraterrestrial beings creates difficulty in assessing whether or not to engage in long-term and large-scale METI.

http://www.kurzweilai.net/crowd-sourcing-messaging-to-intelligent-life

European neuroscience projects to benefit from hybrid supercomputer memory

To handle large amounts of data from detailed brain models used in the Blue Brain Project and the Human Brain Project, IBM Research, EPFL, and ETH Zürich are collaborating on a new hybrid memory strategy for supercomputers.

Given the roughly 70 million neurons in the brain of a mouse, a huge amount of data needs to be accessed for the simulation to run efficiently.

“Data-intensive research has supercomputer requirements that go well beyond high computational power,” says EPFL professor Felix Schürmann of the Blue Brain Project in Lausanne. “Here, we investigate different types of memory and how it is used, which is crucial to build detailed models of the brain. But the applications for this technology are much broader.”

http://actu.epfl.ch/news/neuroscience-to-benefit-from-hybrid-supercomputer-/

A global quantum network

By quantum-mechanically coupling laser-cooled atoms to glass fiber cables, Vienna University of Technology researchers have developed a way to store quantum information over a long enough period of time to allow for entangling atoms hundreds of kilometers apart via fiber cables.

This finding is a fundamental building block for a global fiber-based quantum communication network, the researchers suggest.

By trapping atoms at a distance of about 200 nanometers from a glass fiber (which itself only has a diameter of 500 nanometers), a very strong interaction between light and atoms can be implemented. This allows one to exchange quantum information between the two systems. This information exchange is the basis for technologies like quantum cryptography and quantum teleportation.

Likewise, “quantum repeaters” can be used to link several shorter sections to one long quantum connection. “By using our combined nanofiber-atom-system for setting up an optical quantum network, including quantum repeaters, one might transmit quantum information and teleport quantum states around the world,”

http://www.tuwien.ac.at/en/news/news_detail/article/8244/

How to quickly generate a large quantity of personalized nerve cells

A team under the direction of Stanford cell physiologist and neuroscientist Tom Sudhof, PhD, has shown that in human ESCs or iPSCs, just boosting the level of a single transcription factor results in an abundant and quite pure population of nerve cells within as little as two weeks.

And unlike previous methods, this one seems to generate nerve cells of equally high functional quality regardless of which “starter” cell line was used to get the process underway.

Clearly, if you’re doing regenerative medicine for a stroke or brain-trauma victim etc., you’re going to need a lot of nerve cells, and time is of the essence. So the new method represents a major forward step toward the realization of the dream of personalized regenerative medicine.

http://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2013/06/12/youve-got-a-lot-of-nerve-industrial-scale-procedure-for-generating-plenty-of-personalized-nerve-cells/

Drug laws are ‘worst case of scientific censorship in modern times’

Outlawing psychoactive drugs amounts to the worst case of scientific censorship in modern times, leading scientists have argued.

UN conventions on drugs in the 1960s and 1970s have not only compounded the harms of drugs but also produced the worst censorship of research for over 300 years. This has set back research in key areas such as consciousness by decades and effectively stopped the investigation of promising medical treatments, the researchers say.

“The decision to outlaw these drugs was based on their perceived dangers, but in many cases the harms have been overstated and are actually less than many legal drugs such as alcohol,” said Professor Nutt, Edmond J Safra Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London.

The call for reform has been endorsed by the British Neuroscience Association and the British Association for Psychopharmacology, and the researchers are also seeking support from other academic organizations.

http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_11-6-2013-10-58-52

A robot that runs like a cat

Thanks to its cat-modeled legs, EPFL’s four-legged “cheetah-cub robot” is small, light and the fastest in its category (small quadruped robots under 30Kg): it can run 5 kilometers per hour (3.1 mph) — nearly seven times its body length in one second. .

Developed by EPFL’s Biorobotics Laboratory (Biorob), biomechanics, the robot will serve as a platform for research in locomotion and biomechanics.

Although not as agile as a real cat, it still has excellent auto-stabilization characteristics when running at full speed or over a course that included disturbances such as small steps. It’s also extremely light, compact, and robust and can be easily assembled from materials that are inexpensive and readily available.

http://actu.epfl.ch/news/a-robot-that-runs-like-a-cat/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UWlzMIl7E48

Good vibes

Imagine a device using tactile vibrations for GPS-provided turn directions.

Jones has built an array that precisely tracks a motor’s vibrations through skin in three dimensions. The array consists of eight miniature accelerometers and a single pancake motor — a type of vibrating motor used in cellphones.

When participants were asked to identify specific locations of motors within the array, they were much more sensitive on the palm than on the forearm or thigh. But in all three locations, people were better at picking out vibrations in the four corners of the array, versus the inner motors, leading Jones to posit that perhaps people use the edges of their limbs to localize vibrations and other stimuli.

Jones sees promising applications for wearable tactile displays. In addition to helping drivers navigate, she says tactile stimuli may direct firefighters through burning buildings, or emergency workers through disaster sites. In more mundane scenarios, she says tactile displays may help joggers traverse an unfamiliar city, taking directions from a buzzing wristband, instead of having to look at a smartphone.

http://www.kurzweilai.net/good-vibes

DNA-carbon nanotube vapor sensor identifies scent of melanoma

According to new research from the Monell Center and collaborating institutions, odors from human skin cells can be used to identify melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.

The researchers also demonstrated that a nanotechnology-based sensor could reliably differentiate melanoma cells from normal skin cells.

The findings suggest that non-invasive odor analysis may be a valuable technique in the detection and early diagnosis of human melanoma.

“This study demonstrates the usefulness of examining VOCs from diseases for rapid and noninvasive diagnostic purposes,” said Preti. “The methodology should also allow us to differentiate stages of the disease process.”

http://www.monell.org/news/news_releases/monell_led_research_identifies_scent_of_melanoma

Major hurdle to diabetes transplants cleared

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a way to trigger reproduction in the laboratory of clusters of human cells that make insulin, potentially removing a significant obstacle to transplanting the cells as a treatment for patients with type 1 diabetes.

Efforts to make this treatment possible have been limited by a dearth of insulin-producing beta cells that can be removed from donors after death, and by the stubborn refusal of human beta cells to proliferate in the laboratory after harvesting.

“Until now, there didn’t seem to be a way to reliably make the limited supply of human beta cells proliferate in the laboratory and remain functional,” said Michael McDaniel, PhD, professor of pathology and immunology. “We have not only found a technique to make the cells willing to multiply, we’ve done it in a way that preserves their ability to make insulin.”

http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/25538.aspx

Tracking people in complex indoor settings

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a method for tracking the locations of multiple individuals in complex, indoor settings using a network of video cameras, creating something similar to the fictional Marauder’s Map used by Harry Potter to track comings and goings at the Hogwarts School.

The method was able to automatically follow the movements of 13 people within a nursing home, even though individuals sometimes slipped out of view of the cameras.

These automated tracking techniques also would be useful in airports, public facilities and other areas where security is a concern. Despite the importance of cameras in identifying perpetrators following this spring’s Boston Marathon bombing and the 2005 London bombings, much of the video analysis necessary for tracking people continues to be done manually, Hauptmann noted.

http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2013/june/june11_maraudersmap.html

Spot-welding a graphene nanoribbon to connect into a circuit

Scientists at Aalto University and Utrecht University have created single-atom contacts between gold and graphene nanoribbons.

The most significant discovery is that a single chemical bond forms an electronically transparent contact with the graphene nanoribbon — without affecting its overall electronic structure. This may be the key to using graphene nanostructures in future electronic devices, as the contact does not change the intrinsic ribbon properties.

“Combined AFM and STM allows us to characterize the graphene nanostructures atom-by-atom, which is critical in understanding how the structure, the bonds with the contacts and their electrical properties are related,”

http://www.aalto.fi/en/current/news/view/2013-06-13-002/

Creating magnetic clouds in graphene and switching them on and off

A University of Manchester team led by Dr. Irina Grigorieva has discovered how to create elementary magnetic moments in graphene and then switch them on and off, opening a new avenue towards electronics with very low energy consumption.

This is the first time magnetism itself has been toggled, rather than the magnetization direction being reversed.

Grigorieva and her team have shown that the magnetic clouds can be controllably dissipated and then condensed back. “This breakthrough allows us to work towards transistor-like devices in which information is written down by switching graphene between its magnetic and non-magnetic states. These states can be read out either in the conventional manner by pushing an electric current through or, even better, by using a spin flow. Such transistors have been a holy grail of spintronics.”

http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/news/display/?id=10201