Biologists and computer scientists at Australia’s Monash University have taught a cluster of brain cells living in a lab dish to play Pong, the rudimentary ping-pong video game from the 1970s.
Category: TRENDS IN HI-TECH SCIENCE
Post
DID SCIENTISTS GET THE CAUSE OF ALZHEIMER’S WRONG?
Conventional scientific wisdom says that Alzheimer’s Disease is caused by a protein called amyloid-beta gathering in clots among brain cells, preventing them from communicating properly.
Post
A FIRST: SCIENTISTS REVERSE BENCHMARK SYMPTOMS OF AGING IN HUMANS
Two things happen to each of us as we age. First, the telomeres—the “end caps” on our DNA strands that protect our chromosomes—shorten.
Post
A BETTER WAY TO TURN STUBBORN PLASTICS INTO FUEL
Mixed or hard-to-recycle plastics could be turned into fuel by heating them in an oxygen-free chamber. However, the process—called “pyrolysis”— can only handle certain kinds of plastic and several of the tests are struggling to operate at commercial scale.
Post
A BETTER WAY TO MAKE BIOPLASTICS
Scientists at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research Center and Washington University have devised a smoother production process to turn waste carbon dioxide—CO2—into biodegradable plastics.
Post
NEW FORM OF PLASTIC FEEDS MARINE LIFE
The world is literally swimming in plastics, with an estimated 5.25 trillion bits of it in our seas and about 46,000 pieces per square mile of ocean, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.
Post
3 JUNK FOODS FOUND TO BE “GATEWAYS” TO POOR EATING HABITS
Marijuana has often been called a “gateway drug,” causing users to be more susceptible to using harder drugs such as heroin and cocaine. Turns out Twinkies and ice cream might be similar gateways to poor eating habits.
Post
NANOBOTS CURE PNEUMONIA IN MICE
At the University of California at San Diego, bioengineers have created microscopic robots that entered the pneumonia-infected lungs of mice and cleared out the disease-causing bacteria.
Post
THE PAINLESS, SELF-ADMINISTERED TATTOO
Forget sitting for an hour or two, enduring pain and listening to a grating noise, while an over-decorated scribe slowly carves an image into your flesh, blotting your oozing blood from time to time.
Post
THE THREE-MINUTE BATTERY
Adden Energy, a start-up spun out of Harvard University, reports having created a battery that can be fully charged in three minutes and will last through 10,000 cycles or 20 years of regular use. At Harvard, engineers used computer power and machine learning to analyze and refine battery chemistry, create novel power cell designs, and...