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Feb 26, 2020

Brain injury diagnosed with a finger prick and an optofluidic chip

Posted by in categories: computing, neuroscience

Researchers in the UK claim to have developed a microfluidic chip that can rapidly tell whether someone has suffered a traumatic brain injury from a finger-prick blood sample. The optofluidic device detects a biomarker linked to brain injury, based on the way that it scatters light (Nat. Biomed. Eng. 10.1038/s41551-019‑0510-4).


An optofluidic device uses Raman spectroscopy to detect a biomarker in blood associated with traumatic brain injury.

Feb 25, 2020

Researchers create new state of light

Posted by in category: futurism

For 20 years, researchers have studied how light rotates around a longitudinal axis parallel to the direction light travels. But could it move in other ways? After two years of research, and thanks to a sabbatical, University of Dayton researchers Andy Chong and Qiwen Zhan became the first to create a new “state of light”—showing it also can rotate around a transverse axis perpendicular to the direction light travels, like a cyclone.

Nature Photonics, an international publisher of top-quality, peer-reviewed research of light generation, manipulation and detection, published their findings Feb. 24.

“The sabbatical allowed us the time to fully concentrate on this research and was very instrumental in putting us in a position to make this discovery,” Chong said.

Feb 25, 2020

Gmail Is Catching More Malicious Attachments With Deep Learning

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Users of Gmail get 300 billion attachments each week. To separate legitimate documents from harmful ones, Google turned to AI—and it’s working.

Feb 25, 2020

New fusion tech utilizes lasers to bypass sun-like temps and get rid of nuclear waste

Posted by in categories: nuclear energy, particle physics

You know what this world needs now… aside from love, sweet love, of course? Less nuclear waste. But it also seemingly needs more and more power, which nuclear would be great at providing, if not for all that pesky waste and those darn radioactive meltdowns that can happen when you go around splitting atoms (fission). Which is where nuclear fusion was supposed to help out, but generating Sun-like temperatures to recreate the processes that power our Earth-powering star have kept that technology at bay.

Well, we may be a lot closer to utilizing the power of fusion, thanks to the revolutionary thinking of HB11, a company that recently secured patents in the U.S., Japan, and China for just that kind of forward thinking technology. And if all goes according to plan, it could just change the world of electricity generation as we know it.

Feb 25, 2020

Henneguya salminicola: Microscopic parasite has no mitochondrial DNA

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

An international team of researchers has found a multicellular animal with no mitochondrial DNA, making it the only known animal to exist without the need to breathe oxygen. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes their study of Henneguya salminicola, a microscopic, parasitic member of the group Myxozoa and its unique physiology.

One of the common characteristics of all multicellular animals on Earth is —the process by which oxygen is used to generate —the fuel used to power . The process takes place in mitochondria, which has both its own genome and the main genome found in the rest of the body’s cells. But now, there is a known exception: Henneguya salminicola.

H. salminicola is a microscopic parasite that infects salmon. When the host dies, spores are released that are consumed by worms, which can also serve as hosts for the parasite. When salmon eat the worms, they become infected as the parasite moves into their muscles. They can be seen by fishermen as white, oozing bubbles, which is why salmon with H. salminicola infections are sometimes said to have tapioca disease.

Feb 25, 2020

THE BATMAN (2021) Teaser Trailer Concept — Robert Pattinson, Matt Reeves DC Movie

Posted by in category: entertainment

“A new knight rises.” 🦇
#TheBatman2021 ▼

Teaser Trailer CONCEPT for the newly announced Matt Reeves directed Batman movie starring Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne. Let me know what you think of the casting in the comments below.

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Feb 25, 2020

What a sunset! Photo

Posted by in category: futurism

Feb 25, 2020

Genetically Modified Bacteria Could Save The Bees

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, genetics

That bees are downright awesome is not up for debate. After all, they pollinate about a third of all the crops that we consume and help to support ecosystems worldwide. Yet the bees are in trouble, with a phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder (CCD) causing an alarming drop in numbers. Fortunately, a solution may be on the horizon in the form of genetically modified bacteria.

One thing that is a topic of great debate is the cause of CCD. Some studies point the finger at a particular class of pesticides called neonicotinoids, although many within the scientific community agree that multiple factors are probably at play.

What we do know is that CCD first became an issue once the Varroa mite became widespread, largely thanks to a global trade in European honeybees that brought them into contact with Asian parasites. At first, it was assumed that the mites were simply killing bees by sucking on their blood, although it later transpired that they also carried the lethal deformed wing virus (DWV), transmitting it into the bloodstream of the bees they feasted on.

Feb 25, 2020

Astra, DARPA prepare for upcoming launch challenge

Posted by in categories: space, transportation

Astra and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are readying for the first launch in a dual-mission “launch challenge”. Astra, the launch contractor, is currently conducting final preparations ahead of the launch of their Rocket 3.0 vehicle, nicknamed “1 of 3”. Both missions will launch from the Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska (PSCA) in Kodiak, Alaska. The first launch attempt is scheduled for 3:30 PM ET on February 27. The window stretches until March 1.

Astra and the DARPA launch challenge

Thursday’s launch will be the third for Astra, coming after two launches in July and November 2018. Both launched from the PSCA in Alaska. These were originally believed to be failures. However, Astra stated that the first was successful, and the second was only “shorter than planned”. Neither were designed to reach orbit, as they didn’t have functioning second stages.

Feb 25, 2020

This is how ESA telescope Euclid is going to visualize dark matter

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

How can you see something that’s invisible? Well, with Euclid! This future ESA telescope will map the structure of the universe and teach us more about invisible dark matter and dark energy. Scientific coordinator of Euclid and Leiden astronomer Henk Hoekstra explains how this works.

Why do we assume that exists, if we have never seen it or even measured it? “We are orbiting the centre of our galaxy at 220 kilometres per second,” says Hoeksta. A bizarre speed, which fortunately we don’t notice. Still, something strange is going on. “Based on the number of stars in our Milky Way, the stars at the edge of the Milky Way should have a much lower speed, but they move as fast as the Sun. Yet these stars are not being slung into the . Something is holding them together.”

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