The human body literally glows, emitting a visible light in extremely small quantities at levels that rise and fall with the day, scientists now reveal. Japanese researchers have shown that the body emits visible light, 1,000 times less intense than the levels to which our naked eyes are sensitive. In fact, virtually all living creatures emit very weak light, which is thought to be a byproduct of biochemical reactions involving free radicals
Tracy Jones-Harris Science & Design Aura, Glow, Human Body glows, Humans Glow, Japanese, Researchers, Visible Light
A Texas startup called Baryonyx plans to build data centers powered entirely by renewable energy. Its first project will be a wind-powered server farm powered by 100 wind turbines in the Texas panhandle. The company has also leased 38,000 acres in the Gulf of Mexico, where it hopes to build hundreds of 300-foot wind turbines that can each generate up to 5 megawatts of power to support additional facilities. Baryonyx plans to sell excess capacity to the local utility, which it will use as a backup when the wind dies down
Tracy Jones-Harris Science & Design, computers Baryonyx, Server Farm, Wind Farm, Wind Power
Two years ago computer security expert Bill Anderson read about scientific research on how the human eye moves as it reads and processes text and images. ‘This obscure characteristic… suddenly struck me as (a solution to) a security problem,’ says Anderson. With the help of a couple of software developers, Anderson developed a software program called Chameleon that tracks a viewer’s gaze patterns and only allows an authorised user to read text on the screen, while everyone else sees gibberish. Chameleon uses gaze-tracking software and camera equipment to track an authorized reader’s eyes to show only that one person the correct text. After a 15-second calibration period in which the software learns the viewer’s gaze patterns, anyone looking over that user’s shoulder sees dummy text that randomly and constantly changes. To tap the broader consumer market, Anderson built a more consumer-friendly version called PrivateEye, which can work with a simple Webcam to blur a user’s monitor when he or she turns away. It also detects other faces in the background, and a small video screen pops up to alert the user that someone is looking at the screen. ‘There have been inventions in the space of gaze-tracking. There have been inventions in the space of security,’ says Anderson. ‘But nobody has put the two ideas together, as far as we know.’”
Tracy Jones-Harris Internet, Science & Design, computers books, eyestrain, IT, privacy, Security, Software, story, Windows
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Electronic Nano Systems ENAS in Chemnitz led by Prof. Dr. Reinhard Baumann have unveiled tiny, printable batteries that they hope to put into production for pennies apiece. The new battery prototype is primarily composed of a zinc anode and a manganese cathode that can be screen printed and covered with a non-printed template cover. Each mercury-free battery weighs less than one gram, and can individually produce about 1.5 volts of electricity. By placing several batteries side by side, however, up to 6 volts can be generated. The institute has already produced these little power houses in the lab, and hopes to see them into production by the end of the year. The batteries have a relatively short lifespan, making them suitable for applications such as powering greeting cards
Tracy Jones-Harris Science & Design Batteries, Fraunhofer Research Institution, Printable Batteries, Tiny Batteries
Here’s something that people with poor or no vision will be excited about: three patients had their sight restored in less than a month by contact lenses cultured with stem cells at UNSW
All three patients were blind in one eye. The researchers extracted stem cells from their working eyes, cultured them in contact lenses for 10 days, and gave them to the patients. Within 10 to 14 days of use, the stem cells began recolonising and repairing the cornea. “The procedure is totally simple and cheap,” said lead author of the study, UNSW’s Dr Nick Di Girolamo. “Unlike other techniques, it requires no foreign human or animal products, only the patient’s own serum, and is completely non-invasive.
This is incredible and potentially game changing. It’s stuff like this that makes you realise that we live in the future, and it’s awesome.
Tracy Jones-Harris Science & Design Blindness, Contact Lenses, Cure Blindness, Stem Cell, UNSW
Don’t take it personally, Blu-ray — we still love you and all, but there’s just something dreamy about baking 1.6TB of information onto a blank piece of optical media we can actually afford.
According to a new report, a crew of researchers at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia have exploited the properties of a certain gold nano-rod that will theoretically enable them to shove 300 DVDs worth of data onto a single disc. Calling the method “five-dimensional optical recording,” the technique “employs nanometer-scale particles of gold as a recording medium,” and according to developers, it’s primed for commercialization. Essentially, these gurus have figured out how to add a spectral and polarization dimension, giving them the ability to record information “in a range of different color wavelengths on the same physical disc.”
As for the chances this actually makes it out of the laboratory and into the lives of real humans? You be the judge!
Tracy Jones-Harris Science & Design, computers 1.6TB, Blu-ray, DVD, five-dimensional optical recording, polarization, recording, spectral, Swinburne University of Technology
Putting a new twist on inhalers, Cambridge Consultants this week announced a new Vena platform for medical apparatuses.
It’s comprised of two wireless standards, Bluetooth Health Device Profile (HDP) and the IR-based IEEE11073, for exchanging data with between devices. The Vena respirator marks the first demo unit and will connect via smartphone or computer to help keep track of when it’s being used and can provide reminders for patients who need to scheduled doses. The information can also be sent to relevant doctors and anonymously to health care specialists who like to mine these numbers and find trends.
If you’re looking to see it for yourself and maybe try to smooze your way into a lungs-on, it’ll be at the Respiratory Drug Delivery Europe 2009 conference in Lisbon, Germany later this month.
Tracy Jones-Harris Science & Design bluetooth, GPS, GPS-enabled inhaler, health care, inhalers, Vena
It can be bent into a U-shape, “heals” cracks with nothing more than rainwater, and is strong enough to build bridges from. Is Victor Li’s composite building material really even concrete anymore?
Li, with others, has been working on this idea for years, designing materials that allow for large concrete structures, like bridges, to expand and contract with temperature changes without cracking and falling apart.
Nearly a decade and a half of research accomplished this goal, and then some: later versions of the composite, as seen above, can be severely bent without losing structural integrity. This resilience comes do to its ability to form a sort of concrete scar tissue out of calcium carbonate, the stuff seashells are made of, which fills the small cracks that form when the material is contorted.
Tracy Jones-Harris Science & Design buildings, concrete, healing, materials, self-healing concrete, Victor Li, water
Despite how unsettling this contraption is, the inventor, James Trevely, claims that the sheep don’t mind it all that much. In fact, he says that the sheep often fell asleep mid-shear, which I find hard to believe. Even harder to believe? That according to physiological stress tests, copulation is the most stressful activity for sheep to withstand. You sheep need to work on your self-confidence.
Tracy Jones-Harris Robots, Science & Design PETA, Robot, Shearing, Sheep
That unassuming iPod dock that was launched at the new York Auto Show for Chrysler GEM’s Peapod prototype. Turns out it’s got a pretty interesting little trick, allowing your iPhone / iPod double as the ignition key. According to the EV’s brochure, the company’s got an app that makes all the magic work, and if you wish to start your car in an old-school manner, keys are still a viable option. Sure, it’s not the first example of car-phone integration we’ve come across, it’s a welcome addition to the oddly-shaped neighborhood whip that’s going beyond concept phase into production this October.
Tracy Jones-Harris Gadgets, Science & Design car-phone integration, Chrysler GEM, iphone, ipod, ipod dock, peapod