3-D images? Peshaw. Those are so 2007. What humanity needs now is what MIT researchers hope to provide very soon: super realistic “passive 6-D reflectance field displays” that not only look great, but also respond to stimuli, like lighting conditions. And, not only will these uber images do all that and a bag of chips, […]

 
Researchers have pinpointed a gene that helps determine if an individual is at a risk for developing a nicotine addiction. Generally, when smoking a cigarette for the first time, people either experience a pleasant buzz or a nauseating cough.

 
 Photosonix InnerPulse
Ever wondered if you can manipulate the abstract images forming inside your head? A human brain, they say, is very powerful and it is close to impossible to realize its true potential.

High levels of testosterone may be a key factor in spreading disease
Ever wondered why males in any population are often more likely to get infected, and transmit disease? Well, American biologists say that it may be because of the male sex hormone testosterone.

A new study conducted by the researchers at the National Neuroscience Institute in Singapore has shown that drinking one cup of black tea may reduce the risk of Parkinson’s disease by as much as 71 percent.

 
With a new analytical technique, a fingerprint can now reveal much more than the identity of a person. It can now also identify what the person has been touching: drugs, explosives or poisons, for example.

 
 Artificial Cornea
Researchers at Stanford University may have just gotten us one step closer to creating a cyborg. They’ve developed a new kind of artificial cornea, one that’s “showing promise” in animal studies and could eliminate the need for cornea transplants completely.
 

 
 
For the first time, an optical sensor, developed by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), can measure proteins in saliva that are linked to oral cancer. The device is highly sensitive, allowing doctors and dentists to detect the disease early, when patient survival rates are high.

 
While harnessing the wind to generate energy isn’t exactly a new idea, with turbines having been around for years, harnessing it with gigantic kites is. Imagine, with a small footprint on the land, a series of gigantic, connected kites using the wind to generate enough energy to power 100,000 homes.

 
 Vibering Jewelry
Sometimes I come across products and ideas that help make the world better in ways that might not have been imagined. The Vibering by designers Kwang-seok Jeong, Min-hee Kim and Hyun-joong Kim is one such creation.
 

 
A patch has been designed that regenerates cardiac muscle damaged by a heart attack or heart failure. The mesh patch is made of vicryl, which is a material primarily used for suturing injured tissue while later becoming absorbed by the body.

 
If you think tongue to be the only sensory organ accomplished of distinguishing between tastes, you are mistaken; here, it’s made possible electronically.

 
 Phoenix spacecraft’s inverted scoop preparing to take soil samples on Mars.
NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft has detected the presence of a chemically reactive salt in the Martian soil, a finding that if confirmed could make it less friendly to potential life than once believed.

 
A new contact-lens prototype senses changes in pressure, which may one day provide continuous monitoring for patients with glaucoma.  Each lens (pictured) consists of a transparent polymer with tiny, opaque electrical circuits (gold).
A tiny electrical circuit built into contact lenses may provide 24-hour monitoring for glaucoma.  Currently, the only way for patients with glaucoma to […]

 
Daniel Nocera has developed a simple method to split water molecules and produce oxygen gas
In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn’t shine. (Video)

 
Scientists have identified the world’s smallest snake — a reptile about 4 inches long and as thin as spaghetti that was found lurking under a rock on the Caribbean island of Barbados.

 
The work of Kim Kichul is something that delves very deep in to both the scientific world as well as the spiritual world. It is one of the most amazing works of abstract art which Kim puts in the form of a definite science and uses to try and find a spiritual metaphor to the […]

 
 
The elusive exercise pill just took a step closer to becoming a reality. Scientists have found that two compounds can boost endurance in mice by changing the metabolic properties of the animals’ muscle. One of the drugs appears to mimic some of the benefits of exercise even in sedentary mice. But the most dramatic benefit […]

A clockwork machine hailed as the supercomputer of the ancient world provided a calendar for the Olympic Games and may have had a link with Archimedes, one of the greatest names in science, investigators believe.

 
 E-textile Pants
A pair of pants may help determine if elderly individuals have a high risk of slipping and falling by sensing fluctuations in their walking gait.

 
 
Getting access to drinking water is a daily challenge for more than one billion people in the world. Desalination may help relieve such water-stressed populations by filtering salt from abundant seawater, and there are more than 7,000 desalination plants worldwide, 250 operating in the United States alone. However, the membranes that these plants use to […]

 
Butterfly wings, peacock feathers, opals and pearls are some of nature’s jewels that use nanostructures to dazzle us with color. It’s accomplished through the way light reaches our eyes after passing through the submicroscopic mazes within these materials.

Arun Ghosh, at right, a Purdue professor of chemistry and medicinal chemistry, and graduate
student Xiaoming Xu discuss the structure of an enzyme inhibitor designed to treat Alzheimer’s disease
Scientists in Britain have developed a drug which could represent a major breakthrough in treatment for people with Alzheimer’s disease, they said on Wednesday.
The drug, Rember, targets the […]

 
 Optofluidic Microscope
Researchers have developed a “microscopic microscope” - a microscope that’s small enough to fit inside a cell phone yet that still delivers top-quality magnifying power.

 
Having been plagued with slow internet speeds literally all my adult life, the news that scientists from the University of Sydney have found a way to make the World Wide Web 60 times faster than current top speeds only makes me more than happy.