Bee Sniffing Technology Detects Dangerous Vapours

As far back as 1999, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Controlled Biological Systems Program funded a bee-training program to detect buried landmines, so that many thousands of acres of the world's land could be productively farmed without encountering landmines the ugly way.

A bee's natural instinct is to extend its proboscis when it encounters a desirable odour, anticipating the taste of a flower, let's say. But the bees used in the 1999 DARPA experiment were trained, via classical Pavlovian conditioning, to respond to the odour of TNT instead. Their reward when they responded with a Proboscis Extension Reflex (PER), was a taste of sweet syrup. Then, trainers attached small diodes onto the backs of TNT-trained bees and used handheld radar tracking devices to chart where the bees went.

Inscentinal Ltd. has been working on developing very unique sensing instruments that couple the biological performance of honeybees with the technology to translate bee response into an electronic response. Inscentanil's first proprietary design is a hand held device called the VASOR136, a trace vapour detection unit that is very versatile.

The VASOR136 contains 36 cartridges each containing one bee. Filtered in by a standard gas mask cartridge is a constant supply of clean air. When an operator presses a button on the VASOR, an air sample is taken from the environment that exposes the bees to ambient, unfiltered air. If the bees have been trained to respond to a vapour in that air, the bees will exhibit a PER response and the response will be translated by the VASOR into a simple result shown on the PDA screen display.

Read more at: http://www.physorg.com/news188894292.html

Passenger-Propelled Rickshaw

Passenger-Propelled Rickshaw Takes to the Roads of Delhi

Art team Sylvia Winkler and Stephan Koeperl took advantage of a cycling event last Sunday to test out their in-process project for the residency– a passenger propelled cycle rickshaw!!! They joined a cycling group for a 5.5 km trip down the BRT from Ambetkar Nagar T-Point to Moolchand Flyover.

Sylvia Winkler and Stephan Koeperl have improvised Delhi's cycle rickshaws to reconnect it to riders. Those riding the rickshaw can take part in the movement of the machine by pedalling from their seats in the rear. The rickshaws are powered by solar panels

Stuttgart-based artists Winkler and Koeperl have been working together for the last 10 years when they met at the State Academy of Fine Art - Koeperl trained in art education, Winkler studied textile design. “The PPR doesn't just "fuel the dream of a post-oil society," it is also a wonderfully levelling and nonhierarchical mode of transport with tremendous possibilities for a city like Delhi. "And anyone can copy the design," they say proudly.

Augmented reality puts the squeeze into virtual hugs

Now you really can reach out and touch someone through the Internet, with the help of a wearable robot designed by a husband-and-wife team of scientists based in Japan.

Five years in the making, the device aims to inject a little physicality into online chatter, boosting the emotional quotient of virtual exchanges between flesh-and-blood people.

Forget emoticons, those annoying little smiley :-) or frowning :-( faces added to text messages with key strokes.

The quickened thump of an angry heart beat, a spine-tingling chill of fear, or that warm-all-over sensation sparked by true love -- all can be felt even as your eyes stay glued to a computer screen.

The proof-of-concept robot, dubbed iFeel_IM! ("I feel therefore I am"), was presented Saturday at the first Augmented Human International Conference, held in the French Alps ski resort of Megeve.

Read more at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100405/tc_afp/sciencelifestylerobotsinternetemotion

Dental Hearing Aid

Dental Hearing Aid Technology from Sonitus Medical

SoundBite hearing system is intended for patients who suffer from single sided deafness, conductive hearing loss, or mixed hearing loss and seek a non-surgical, non-invasive, hearing device that delivers high fidelity sound.

Sonitus Medical out of San Mateo, California is a company that's betting on bone conducting dental hearing implant technology. The SoundBite Hearing System that the firm is developing consists of a unit that has a microphone and wireless transmitter, and a tiny speaker that attaches to rear teeth to resonate and transmit the audio mechanically to the cochleae. The idea for this technology is not new and maybe risky, but Sonitus Medical seems confident it can earn regulatory approval and introduce an all new hearing aid technology to market.

The SoundBite hearing system consists of both a BTE (behind the ear) microphone unit, housing the receiver, wireless transmitter, and attached microphone, and a discreet, removable ITM (in the mouth) hearing device. An inductive charger unit is provided to charge the BTE microphone unit and ITM hearing device.

SoundBite is designed to detect sound using a tiny microphone placed in an open-fit dome within the ear canal of the impaired ear. This nearly invisible microphone is attached by a thin tube to a transmitter unit called a BTE worn behind the ear. Placing the microphone in the ear canal is intended to allow the SoundBite hearing system to capitalize on the natural acoustic benefit provided by the patient's own pinna or outer ear to capture and direct sound.

Read full article at: http://www.medgadget.com/archives/2010/02/dental_hearing_aid_technology_from_sonitus_medical.html

New Materials Inspired Spider Webs

New Materials Inspired by Water-Catching Properties of Spider Webs

Based on their research Lei Jiang and colleagues at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing created an artificial silk that mimics the water collecting abilities of natural webs. Whilst much is known about the strength of webs the scientists were keen to probe the lesser known ability of spider silk to capture and hold onto rain and morning dew – a mechanism that saves a spider from having to find a water source.

Using a powerful scanning electron microscope and a light microscope the team studied how the spider silk changes its structure when it becomes soaked in water vapour.
At the nanoscale dry spider silk resembles a necklace-like structure. It is formed from hydrophilic knots of silk connected by smooth and slender stretches known as joints. When water condenses on these knots they shrink into densely packed structures that are shaped like spindles. Moist droplets that hang from the spaces in between are drawn toward their nearest spindle-knot, where they gather in larger droplets. The difference in texture between the rough knots and the smooth joints aids the water movement.

Following this research Jiang’s team fabricated fibers that copied these properties. To do this artificial silks were formed by coating nylon fibers with poly(methylmethacrylate)/N,N-dimethylformamide-ethanol, which dries in tiny knots just like those in real spider silk. “Our artificial spider silk not only mimics the structure of wet-rebuilt spider silk but also its directional water collection capability,” the scientists claim.

The new material could be used to upgrade fog-catching nets such as those deployed in the coastal Andes that are providing people with water that they otherwise don't have access to. If the technology is commercialized it could be of great to benefit to communities living in rain-starved areas of the world.

Dolphins can turn off and on diabetes

Image by jurvetson via Flickr

Dolphins have the ability to turn off and on diabetes, scientists have found, a discovery that could help medical researchers to treat type 2 diabetes.

Dolphins can induce diabetes when there is little food around and turn it off when food is abundant, the researchers found. They believe it is a unique ability and results from the mammal's need to maintain high blood sugar levels to feed its big brain.

They also believe that humans had the ability but lost it through evolution and that studying dolphins could lead to techniques to re-activate it.
A team lead by Dr Venn-Watson regularly studied the blood samples of the dolphins off the San Diego coast and found that they could induce type II diabetes at times of fasting and then almost immediately turn it off again when food became available.

"Dolphins in the ocean go in to feast or famine situations. They will eat a bunch of fish at once and then they may go a while and fast and not eat. During that fasting state they need a mechanism to keep sugar pumping around their blood," she said.

Dr Venn-Watson believes that the ability dates back to when dolphins reverted from land animals to sea animals 55 million years ago and had to adapt to a protein-only fish diet, the Telegraph reported.

There was evidence that humans have done the same during the last ice age when they had to rely on a protein rich diet because all carbohydrate rich foods had been frozen, she said.

Read more at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8523412.stm

No Frizz

Breakthrough:
One of the most prolific inventors in medical history discovered a polymer that will tame frizzy hair, saving women thousands of dollars in hair straightening products.

Frizzy hair is the wild, seemingly out of control locks that are a major hair care problem for women. The two causes are humidity and surface friction; hair loses shape because water seeps into the hair shaft and expands it. Many women find big hair embarrassing and so to get to the root of the problem Professor Robert Langer’s team studied one thousand already available products that claim to be able to tame the tresses. The scientists discovered that traditional anti-frizz solutions rely on silicon to weigh down the hair, but it is not completely effective, as it is unable to keep out much of the moisture.

Beauty Breakthrough

So Langer searched for a molecule that would act as a water repellant. His approach was to bring an outsider’s perspective to the challenge, one without any preconceived ideas of what could or could not be done. For three years a team of scientists under his direction studied a whole suite of molecules that had been used previously in medical applications but never in the beauty industry. And that’s how Langer came across PolyfluoroEster, a man-made water-resistant compound that’s also used as a protective coating for DVDs and contact lenses. It is much smaller than traditional frizz-fighting ingredients and forms a micro-thin shield that sticks to the hair and seals the gaps in the shafts, thereby preventing water from entering. It also reduces surface friction.

In studies sponsored by the company scientists reported that a single use of No Frizz resisted moisture 30% more than the best silicon serums. That percentage went up to 60% when the product was used daily for five days.

Robert Langer’s brain is probably one of the most powerful on the planet. The MIT professor has approximately 750 worldwide patents to his name, ranging from oral contraceptives to heart valves, packaging devices and ultrasound drug delivery systems. He has authored more than 1,000 scientific papers, and is the most cited engineer in history. He has received no fewer than 170 major awards, and products developed from his technologies have saved a countless number of lives. And he has played a leading role in founding more than two dozen companies.

One of Langer’s inventions is now turning heads in the beauty world as he has come up with an innovation that will tame frizzy hair; it’s a water–resistant polymer called PolyfluoroEster. Professor Langer figured that if he could find solutions to tough medical and biotechnology challenges then he should certainly be able to do something about frizzy hair.

Check out their website: http://livingproof.com/product/nofrizz/#

Buy your customized newspaper

Billed as Europe's first "personalised paper", "niiu", a newspaper tailored to readers' individual wishes and delivered to their door before 08:00 am, made its first appearance in Berlin on Monday.
Customers of the paper choose what topics they want to read about -- be it sport, politics, fashion or any from a wide choice -- and receive news only on their chosen subject collated together and delivered like any other paper.

Articles are pulled together from major German papers such as Handelsblatt, Bild and Tagesspiegel, foreign titles such as the International Herald Tribune or the New York Times, as well as major blogs and Internet news sources.

For the right to print their news, "niiu" pays a licence to these papers, which in turn reach a younger audience, as "niiu" is aimed mainly at students, who pay 1.20 euros (1.79 dollars) to get their news fix. Non students are expected to stump up 1.80 euros.

The two German entrepreneurs who came up with the idea were delighted with their first day in business, having launched the concept in mid-October. More than 1,000 people have already signed up on the Internet to receive the "niiu", said Wanja Oberhof, 23, one of the founders. "That has exceeded all our expectations," he told AFP. "It's not just students, the interest is much wider," he added. The pair hopes to be printing 5,000 copies in the next six months, first in Berlin before rolling it out nationwide.

At a time when newspapers globally are struggling with competition from Internet news sources, the founders acknowledge that "niiu" is a risky venture. However, they said that young people were tired of trawling the web for news and would pay for the tailored service their paper offers. Eventually, clients will be able to choose the length of the paper delivered -- for example, eight pages on a busy Monday morning but 60 pages on a Friday when there might be more time to read. Initially, however, the paper consists of 16 pages.

Read more at: http://forum4editors.com/2009/10/a-brand-niuu-day-for-the-printed-newspapers-is-coming/
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4899459,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf

Tyres with wood

Cheaper, more fuel-efficient tires? Wooden it be good
Oregon State University (OSU) are proposing replacing silica with microcrystalline cellulose derived from plant fiber as a reinforcing filler in the manufacture of rubber tires. The result could be a tire that would cost less, perform better and save on fuel and energy.

As part of their study the OSU researchers replaced up to about 12 percent of the silica used in conventional tire manufacture with microcrystalline cellulose - a micrometer-sized type of crystalline cellulose with an extremely well-organized structure. This decreased the amount of energy needed to compound the rubber composite, improved the heat resistance of the product, and retained tensile strength.

The study also showed that the new tire possessed comparable traction to existing rubber tires in wet, rainy conditions and actually decreased the rolling resistance of the product in high temperatures. This would improve the fuel efficiency of tires made with the new approach in hot weather. Cellulose fiber has been used for some time as reinforcement in some types of rubber and automotive products, such as belts, hoses and insulation – but never in tires, where the preferred fillers are carbon black, which is made from increasingly expensive oil, and silica, which is energy-intensive to process. Both products are also very dense and reduce the fuel efficiency of automobiles. Conversely microcrystalline cellulose is produced in a low-cost acid hydrolysis process.

The research team say that more research is needed to confirm the long-term durability of tires made using microcrystalline cellulose, but hopefully they’ll last longer and provide a smoother ride than these.

Climate adapting jacket works like a pine cone

'Smart' Clothing Imitate Pine Cones

When pine cones fall from the trees, their scales open, allowing the seeds to be released. This is because these scales are made of two layers of fibers acting in different directions. Stealing this idea from nature, a team of U.K. researchers has designed a new material to make 'smart' clothing which adapts itself to changing temperatures. Like the scales of pine codes, this 'smart' material has two layers. The top one has small spikes, which open or close to let the outside air flow to cool you or to protect you. And as the second layer is waterproof, you should always feel comfortable wearing these clothes imitating nature.

Current commercial applications of climate-controlled clothing operate using fibers designed to stretch or curl in a certain direction when heated. Manufacturers can create fabric that adapts itself to weather conditions by overlaying clothing with many tiny strips of these fibers; the clothing can become cooler in warm weather and warmer in cold weather.

When the fabric is heated up, the strips curl outward, increasing airflow throughout the clothing. Conversely, when the fabric is cooled, the strips straighten out and form a solid layer, preventing loss of heat and moisture. These fabrics have proven invaluable for activities that involve changing temperatures, including mountain climbing and skiing.
Read more at: http://www.thetartan.org/2008/3/24/scitech/htw

Clothes Bleach- your news medicine

Whiter Laundry And A Surprising New Treatment For Kids' Eczema

Chronic, severe eczema can mar a childhood. The skin disorder starts with red, itchy, inflamed skin that often becomes crusty and raw from scratching. The itching is so bad kids may break the skin from scratching and get chronic skin infections that are difficult to treat, especially from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

Researchers from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine have discovered powerful relief in the form of diluted beach baths. It's a cheap, simple and safe treatment that drastically improves the rash as well as reduces flare-ups of eczema, which affects 17 percent of school-age children.

The study found giving pediatric patients with moderate or severe eczema (atopic dermatitis) diluted bleach baths decreased signs of infection and improved the severity and extent of the eczema on their bodies. That translates into less scratching, fewer infections and a higher quality of life for these children.

The typical treatment of oral and topical antibiotics increases the risk of bacterial resistance, something doctors try to avoid, especially in children. Bleach kills the bacteria but doesn't have the same risk of creating bacterial resistance.

Patients on the bleach baths had a reduction in eczema severity that was five times greater than those treated with placebos over one to three months, said Amy S. Paller, M.D., the Walter J. Hamlin Professor and chair of dermatology, and professor of pediatrics, at the Feinberg School.

Read the full article at: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090427010810.htm

Self-healing body parts for automobiles

Damaged car? It will soon self-heal!

You cut yourself in the finger - and a few days later your skin has completely healed again. Biological organisms have an amazing ability to automatically initiate self-healing and self-repair when they sustain damage. Imagine self-repairing cars, planes, bridges or buildings. These materials could be of particular use in structures that are at present impractical or impossible to repair, such as electronic circuit boards, implanted medical devices or spacecraft. Self-repairing materials would have a massive impact on virtually all industries, lengthening product lifetimes, increasing safety, and lowering product costs by reducing maintenance requirements. Thanks to nanotechnology, these visions are coming closer to reality.

Nickel titanium is a shape memory alloy. The material, if deformed while cool, returns to its undeformed shape when warmed. Other shape-memory alloys (SMA) have since been discovered. Some of these alloys include CuSn, InTi, TiNi, and MnCu. TiNi alloys and copper-based alloys are the most commonly used. It has been found that they can recover substantial amounts of strain, and/or generate significant force, when changing shape.

Smart materials actively respond to the stimulus of mechanical stress imposed on the material, causing the compromised region to self-heal and restore partially or completely, the properties of the material. Applications of self-healing materials span several sectors: composites, building and construction materials, foams, films, coatings, plastics, concrete, etc.
Each individual type of smart material has a different property which can be significantly altered, such as viscosity, volume, and conductivity. The property that can be altered influences what types of applications the smart material can be used for.
Within the next few years a number of cars will possess body parts—such as air dams and handles—made out of shape memory alloys. Self-cleaning glass and scratch-resistant panels will also become the norm. Slightly longer term, self-healing rubber -- such as BASF is developing—will be incorporated into cars.

Watch the smart materials demo at : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU-dChOfkAg
Also in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape_memory_alloys
Read more at : http://corporate.gitverlag.com/media/article/169475/Dow_CMI0509.pdf

Beads which change color: impact: reusable signage, posters, labels

Magnetochromatic Beads

RIVERSIDE, Calif., June, 18, 2009 – Microscopic polymer beads that change color instantly and reversibly when external magnetic fields acting upon the microspheres change orientation, have been discovered by a research team at the University of California, Riverside.

Applications of the new material include display type units such as rewritable or reusable signage, posters, papers and labels, and other magnetically activated security features. The new material also can be used to make environmentally friendly pigments for paints and cosmetics, as well as ink materials for color printing.

"Unlike many conventional approaches, the instantaneous color change occurs with no change in the structure or intrinsic properties of the microspheres themselves," said Yadong Yin, an assistant professor of chemistry who led the study that brought together chemists at UCR and engineers at Seoul National University, South Korea. "What changes instead are the magnetic fields acting externally on the orientation of these microspheres, these photonic crystals. Our work provides a new mechanism for inducing color change in materials. Now, for the first time, stable photonic materials with tunable colors can be fabricated on a large scale." "The new technology has a great potential for a wide range of photonic applications because the on/off switching of the diffraction color”

See the change in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKsgzk5quZU
Read More at: http://www.photonics.com/Content/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=38171

Frame shift: From expiry date to "ready-to-use" date on food packets

Made-in-Transit Packaging
Most fresh food comes with a "best before" date, but Amsterdam-based Canadian designer Agata Jaworska thinks it should be marked "ready by." Her concept: packaging in which food can keep growing during shipping to the supermarket so that it arrives ready to be harvested, in a state of optimum freshness.
'Made in Transit' is a supply chain concept in which the production of fresh perishable food happens on the way to the supermarket, shifting the paradigm of packaging from preserving freshness to enabling growth, a shift from 'best before' to 'ready by'.

Transportation is essential in connecting distant factories, and in bringing the goods to the market, but it only serves to relocate the goods, and not to transform them in any productive way. The industry takes for granted that transportation and packaging can only locate and protect and not create or transform.
Transportation and packaging are viewed as essential yet expensive and wasteful.
But if one was to take a total chain perspective from the outset and skip steps, merge steps, or reverse the order of events, maybe transportation can be factored in as a productive creator of value.
Made in Transit is a holistic reconsideration of the product supply chain in which a synthesis of production with distribution creates a new mode of production.
Currently, 'production' equals 'transformation', 'packaging' equals 'protection' and 'distribution' equals 're-location'.
If we can turn the package into a growth condition, then the chain becomes: 1) packaging, 2) on the way growth and 3) consumption.
The packaging and distribution functions would be transformed into production. The consequences of merging production with distribution could lead to the end of the factory since distribution space simultaneously becomes production space thereby eliminating or drastically reducing the need for a land-based production facility. On-demand production could also become more of a reality. If the product can be created on the way to the market, then it does not have to be made until the order comes in. This prevents overproduction and consequent waste.

Read in more detail: http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/Supply-Chain/Made-in-Transit-The-end-of-the-factory
Watch a two minute animation: http://youtube.com/watch?v=oWcOgzNNHlE
A five minute presentation by Agata: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Oras6CRRWzQ