Circa 2020
The behind-the-scenes tales of hit products and creations from Japan: this is Japan’s Top Inventions. This time, an invention that uses magnetic force to help freeze food without destroying its cell structure: a “fresh freezing” system. It was developed by a Japanese venture firm in 1995 as a technology that would help freeze food without altering its flavor. We look into the story behind its creation, inspired in part by microwaves, and learn about the latest versions.
Circa 2017
Scientists in the Netherlands say they are close to a breakthrough which will allow crops to be grown in deserts. Many say this could completely alter life on the African continent and even end hunger.
Continue reading “Dutch scientists close to ‘breakthrough’ method of growing crops in deserts” »
An XPRIZE Rapid COVID test from U smell it honored Scratch n Sniff can detect COVID-19 by Smell.
Guilford, CT, USA; U-Smell-It™ LLC, a Guilford-based company specializing in innovative COVID detection techniques, has announced that it has won the $6M XPRIZE Rapid Covid Testing, a global effort to develop breakthrough COVID testing methods.
XPRIZE Rapid COVID Testing is a $6 million dollar, 6-month competition to develop faster, cheaper, and easier to use COVID-19 testing methods at scale.
Continue reading “U-Smell-It honored in global $6M XPRIZE Rapid Covid Testing Competition” »
Much of human invention and innovation has been the result of our discovery and replication of natural phenomena, from birds in flight to whales that dive deep into the ocean. For the first time, researchers have captured at the nanometer level the gliding machinery of the bacterium Mycoplasma mobile. Their findings were published in mBio. It illuminates the origin and operating principle of motility, which could serve as a basis for the next generation of nanoscale devices and pharmaceuticals.
“My lab has been studying the molecular nature of bacteria from the Mycoplasma genus for years,” states Professor Makoto Miyata from the Graduate School of Science, Osaka City University and lead of the research group. “And we have developed a conceptualization of how some of these parasitic bacteria ‘glide’ around their hosts.”
For example, Mycoplasma mobile forms a protrusion at one end giving the bacterium a flask shape. At the tapered end are external appendages that bind to solid surfaces, and in concert with an internal mechanism, cause the bacterium to glide across the surface of its host to find nutrient-rich sites and escape the host’s immune response.
Deepmind, Co-founder and CEO, Demis Hassabis discusses how we can avoid bias being built into AI systems and what’s next for DeepMind, including the future of protein folding, at WIRED Live 2020.
“If we build it right, AI systems could be less biased than we are.”
Researchers have, for the first time, decoded the neural signals associated with writing letters, then displayed typed versions of these letters in real time. They hope their invention could one day help people with paralysis communicate.
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TOUGH TECH: British marines trial a jet suit as an innovative method to board ships at sea. https://abcn.ws/337HNrp
Our recent look at the possibility of technosignatures at Alpha Centauri is now supplemented with a new study on the detectability of artificial lights on Proxima Centauri b. The planet is in the habitable zone, roughly similar in mass to the Earth, and of course, it orbits the nearest star, making it a world we can hope to learn a great deal more about as new instruments come online. The James Webb Space Telescope is certainly one of these, but the new work also points to LUVOIR (Large UV/Optical/IR Surveyor), a multi-wavelength space-based observatory with possible launch in 2035.
Authors Elisa Tabor (Stanford University) and Avi Loeb (Harvard) point out that a (presumably) tidally locked planet with a permanent nightside would need artificial lighting to support a technological culture. As we saw in Brian Lacki’s presentation at Breakthrough Discuss (see Alpha Centauri and the Search for Technosignatures), coincident epochs for civilizations developing around neighboring stars are highly unlikely, making this the longest of longshots. On the other hand, a civilization arising elsewhere could be detectable through its artifacts on worlds it has chosen to study.
We learn by asking questions and looking at data. In this case, asking how we would detect artificial light on Proxima b involves factoring in the planet’s radius, which is on the order of 1.3 Earth radii (1.3 R⊕) as well as that of Proxima Centauri itself, which is 0.14 that of the Sun (0.14 R⊙). We also know the planet is in an 11 day orbit at 0.05 AU. Other factors influencing its lightcurve would be its albedo and orbital inclination. Tabor and Loeb use recent work on Proxima Centauri c’s inclination (citation below) to ballpark an orbital inclination for the inner world.
Even as a chip shortage is causing trouble for all sorts of industries, the semiconductor field is entering a surprising new era of creativity, from industry giants to innovative start-ups seeing a spike in funding from venture capitalists that traditionally avoided chip makers.
While a variety of industries struggle with supplies, semiconductor experts say there are plenty of new ideas and, most surprising, start-ups.
Tzar Labs, a molecular diagnostic company, and Mumbai-based Epigeneres Biotechnology, have claimed a breakthrough with their RNA-marker based technology for early detection of cancer rooted in stem cell biology. The blood tests, which can help determine whether cancer is absent, imminent, or present and also detect the different stages of the disease; will be launched by the end of this year.
Ashish Tripathi, founder and CEO of Tzar Labs, said that they are awaiting the regulatory approvals, and are building the first laboratory in Mumbai now. “We want to have labs in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad to begin with. To scale this, we need to add more labs and collection centres. We plan to launch the test in the market by the last quarter of 2020 calendar year.” Tripathi added that they would keep prices low, but did not divulge how much it could cost the end-user.
The blood test gives results in 72 hours now and can tell if one has cancer or has a chance of getting it. It is also able to say where the cancer is growing. They do an RNA mutation analysis for any organ in the body from a blood test. The company has recently conducted 1000 person clinical study, which has been peer reviewed by Stem Cell Reviews and Reports (SCRR), one of the leading global science journals in Stem Cell technology, published by Springer Science.
