Lifeboat Foundation

Ultrasound technology has been in wide use for decades, helping submarines navigate and letting doctors non-invasively peer inside patients, but it might be about to get a whole lot more powerful. Researchers have developed an “ultra” ultrasound sensor that is so sensitive it can hear air molecules moving around or the vibrations of individual cells.

Age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss in seniors, and existing treatments are few.

But now, experiments in pigs and rats suggest that stem cell therapy might help curb at least one form of the disease.

The results could soon lead to the first human trials of this therapy for macular degeneration, according to researchers from the U.S. National Eye Institute (NEI).

Continue reading “Stem cell therapy shows early promise against macular degeneration” »

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Researchers of the University of Twente (UT; Enschede, Netherlands) have, for the first time, succeeded in connecting two parts of an electronic chip using an on-chip optical link, all fabricable with standard CMOS technology — a long-sought-after goal, as intrachip connection via light is almost instantaneous and also provides electrical isolation. Such a connection can, for example, be a safe way of connecting high-power electronics and digital control circuitry on a single chip without a direct electrical link. Vishal Agarwal, a UT PhD student, created a very small optocoupler circuit that delivers a data rate of megabits per second in an energy-efficient way.

Continue reading “On-chip optical link is created on electronic chip for the first time” »

The brain surgery that uses sound instead of scalpels.

Will truck drivers keep ICE-ing innocent electric car owners in the future?

DNA is always getting messed up and having to repair itself. Now, researchers have figured out some of the pathways cells use to fix it.

“We wanted to be more precise here and identify the region and the cells that are responsible for pain unpleasantness,” Scherrer tells Inverse. “We thought if we could find the center, or the cells in the brain that make pain unpleasant, perhaps acting on these cells could be a good strategy to reduce pain in chronic pain patients.”

It’s already established that the amygdala plays a role in the emotional component of pain, but this team actually found the exact cells in the amygdala responsible for those unpleasant pain messages by using a “miniscope,” a tool created by Schnitzer, and observing how mice responded to painful stimuli.

When mice in their experiment were exposed to a drop of scalding water, a given a pinprick, or asked to run along unpleasantly hot tracks, these cells in the amygdala were highly active. Importantly, Schnitzer adds, they didn’t light up when the mice were exposed to other stimuli like sugar water or a bad smell. “Every time mice were unpleased with the stimulation, we saw that these cells were turned on,” he adds.

Continue reading “Scientists Figured Out How to Separate Pain From Physical Suffering” »

Some iron-based superconductors could benefit from a tuneup, according to two studies by Rice University physicists and collaborators.

When Mike Poben, an opal buyer and and fossil fanatic, bought a bucket of opal from an Australian mine, he was surprised to find to find what looked like an ancient tooth in the pile.

Later, he also found a fossilized jaw piece — one that was shiny and glistening with opal.

After showing the two opalized specimens to paleontologists in 2014, Poben learned that they were part of a previously unknown dog-size dinosaur species, a new study finds. This dino lived about 100 million years ago in Australia, back when the landscape was lush and dotted with lakes. [Photos: Meet Wade, the Long-Necked Dinosaur from Down Under].

Continue reading “Opal-filled fossils reveal timid, dog-size dinosaur that lived down under” »