By placing quantum dots on a specially designed photonic crystal, researchers at the University of Illinois have demonstrated enhanced fluorescence intensity by a factor of up to 108. Potential applications include high-brightness light-emitting diodes, optical switches and personalized, high-sensitivity biosensors. A quantum dot is a tiny piece of semiconductor material 2 to 10 nanometers in …
Researchers at the Carnegie Institution, has found a key biochemical cycle that suppresses the immune response, thereby allowing cancer cells to multiply unabated. The research shows how the biomolecules responsible for healthy T-cells, the body’s first defenders against hostile invaders, are quashed, permitting the invading cancer to spread. The same cycle could also be involved …
Lee Gomes of the Wall Street Journal asks : But don’t singularity people know that AI researchers have been trying to make such machines since the 1950s, without much success? Lee is referring to the goal of making machines smarter than people.The singularity he refers to is the technological singularity. The Technological Singularity is the …
WiPower uses induction (magnetic coupling) to transfer power from the base station to the receiving devices. They are claiming 68% efficiency in the transfer of power and believe that they can achieve 80% efficiency. A regular power cord is 58% efficient. Brian WangBrian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with …
Mitochondria play an unexpectedly important role in cell survival in the face of stress, according to a paper in this week’s Cell. The authors suggest that this cell stress response may provide clues about how calorie restriction extends lifespan in mammals. This research also confirms one of the seven parts of the SENS strategy for …
The Register discusses the CRN conference, where I was one of the presenters I need to correct some misunderstanding from a lack of clarity in one of my presentation slides. Register person had stated I was saying molecular manufacturing would happen in 2015. My prediction for a nanofactory level of capability in molecular manufacturing is …
Scientists in Israel are reporting the first simple and inexpensive method for building the large-scale networks of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) needed for using these microscopic wisps in a future generation of faster, smaller, and more powerful computers and portable electronic devices. Photo and illustration (inset) of carbon nanotube circuits. (Credit: Courtesy of Ze’ev Abrams …
From the Telegraph, cancer sufferers could be cured with injections of immune cells from other people within two years. Dr Zheng Cui, of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, has shown in laboratory experiments that immune cells from some people can be almost 50 times more effective in fighting cancer than in others. The …
esearchers at a Gaithersburg, MD, pharmaceutical company say they have found that 99 percent of patients with all stages of lung cancer have detectable levels of a particular protein in their blood that healthy individuals do not. The company, Panacea Pharmaceuticals, is reporting encouraging preliminary results for its test for the protein this week at …
Researchers in the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science are building a robotic prospector for NASA that can creep over rocky slopes and then anchor itself as a stable platform for drilling deep into extraterrestrial soils. Called “Scarab,” this four-wheeled robot will never leave the Earth. But it will demonstrate technologies …
A US team has created thousands of Di-positronium molecules by merging electrons with their antimatter equivalent: positrons. The discovery, reported in the journal Nature, is a key step in the creation of ultra-powerful lasers known as gamma-ray annihilation lasers. Gamma ray lasers would have a lot of uses. The progress with Bose condensates and with …