Tag: Fall2017

So far, stem cells haven’t lived up to their promise of regenerating failed organs and correcting genetic defects. Although stem cells can become any type of cell the body needs, isolating them and directing their metamorphosis can be risky and unpredictable. Besides, there are relatively few sources — human embryos among them — from which...

British Airways and Velocys, which makes renewable fuels, are partnering to make jet fuel from household waste. The first conversion plant will produce enough fuel to power all the airline’s Dreamliner flights from London to San Jose, California, and New Orleans. The fuel is expected to be clean enough to save about 60,000 tons of...

China’s oil production could peak as early as next year and its coal production in 2020, according to a government-funded study by the China University of Petroleum. China’s rich natural-gas reserves won’t begin to flag until 2040, the study concludes. But gas production is water-intensive and China can’t spare enough water to get all that...

At any moment, about 3,000 people in the United States alone are waiting for a replacement heart – one whose tissue is compatible with the recipient. Artificial hearts are the solution, but designs so far have been clunky and fraught with problems. Now medical engineers at ETH Zurich, a Swiss science and technology university, have...

The tiny Arab nation of Dubai has granted permission to the German company Volocopter to conduct a five-year test of its electric flying taxis in the country. The air taxi, made from carbon fibers, weighs less than 1,000 pounds and looks like a giant drone. It has nine batteries powering 18 rotors. The batteries can...

What if electric cars could be charged on the go, never needing to stop to refuel? That’s the implication of technology created by Stanford University engineers. The group transmitted electricity across a 3-foot distance to a moving object. The technology involves magnetic resonance coupling, in which an electrical current in one set of wires creates...

At the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, researchers were able to predict with up to 83 percent accuracy whether a person would develop Parkinson’s Disease just by looking at an individual’s medical history.   Before Parkinson’s is diagnosed, a person usually comes to the doctor with complaints about tremors, posture problems and...

More than 40 percent of the world’s people face water shortages, and that number will rise in the years ahead, the United Nations says. Oceans are a source of clean water. Saudi Arabia and other nations have been withdrawing water from the seas and purifying it for human use by forcing the water through a...