A team of engineers from the U.S. and South Korea has developed what is believed to be the smallest man-made pump ever built, powered by a glass electrode. The pump is about the same size as a red blood corpuscle. The pump works by electroosmosis, in which electricity pushes the fluids from one end of the pump to the other. The heart of the pump measures only four micrometers across, and the pump is capable of controlling a flow rate of one femtoliter per second. Applications include delivering drugs to an individual cell and taking fluid samples from single cells. The glass electrodes could also be integrated into other nanoscale devices. (Nature Nanotechnology) (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news193298040.html)

A research team from North Carolina State University has developed compiler software that could make it easier for traditional software programs to take advantage of graphics processing units (GPUs). They found that standard programs translated by their compiler ran approximately 30 percent more quickly than those optimized by GPU developers. The CPU from an average computer has about 10 gigaflops of computing power, or 10 billion operations per second; a GPU from an average modern computer has 1 teraflop of computing power, or 1 trillion operations per second. More info: North Carolina State University news (Source: )

Caffeine may be protective against the cognitive decline seen in aging, Parkinson's disease, dementia and Alzheimer's disease, a group of international experts has found. Papers in the special issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, "Therapeutic Opportunities for Caffeine in Alzheimer's Disease and Other Neurodegenerative Disorders," are available free. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news193317154.html)

McMaster and IBM are investigating how the automotive industry can connect a vehicle's multiple sensors and microprocessors in the vehicle and on roads to create a "cognitive car" that can predict vehicle failures before they happen, redirect drivers to less congested routes and help reduce traffic accidents, and give drivers real-time visual information and alerts. The program will also study how increased computing power can help vehicles better integrate into regional and global transportation systems, including roadside service, traffic management, air quality management, and emergency services. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news193338148.html)

The European BOEMIE (Bootstrapping Ontology Evolution with Multimedia Information Extraction) research project has used AI techniques to create highly structured knowledge bases that can automatically identify, analyze and index video, image, audio and text. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news193341835.html)

Roboticists are attempting to program robots with socially acceptable behavior. University of Washington researchers have developed an algorithm that allows a virtual robot to navigate a crowd like a human instead of plowing directly through. (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18913-innovation-teaching-robots-some-manners.html)

Joseph Fourier University scientists have implanted the first functional glucose biofuel cell in a living animal, eliminating the need to surgically remove and replace a power-generating device for implants. The device uses enzymes to harvest energy from glucose and oxygen found naturally in the body. The maximum power of the device was 6.5 microwatts, which approaches the 10 microwatts required by pacemakers. The technology could be used for a range of applications, such as neural and bone-growth stimulators, drug delivery devices, insulin pumps, and biosensors. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/25341/?nlid=2998&a=f)

In a study published in Nature, a Stanford University-led team has shown that fMRI signals based on elevated levels of oxygenated blood in specific parts of the brain can be caused by activation of local excitatory neurons. In the past, for example, researchers could only assume that when they showed subjects a picture of someone they knew, a stronger fMRI signal measured using the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) technique in a part of the brain that possibly deals with face recognition was caused by the excitation of neurons, rather than some other factor. The key experiment involved turning on genetically engineered excitatory neurons in an experimental group of rats in the presence of blue light delivered via a fiber optic cable. The researchers then anesthetized the rats and looked at their brains with fMRI. They found that exciting these defined neurons with the optogenetic light produced the same kind of signals that researchers see in traditional fMRI BOLD experiments — with the same complex patterns and timing. In the control group of rats, which were not genetically altered, no such signals occurred. This showed that true neural excitation indeed produces positive fMRI BOLD signals. To see what else this new understanding of optogenetically enhanced fMRI BOLD might yield, the team took the research a few steps further: they found that they could use optogenetics to produce activity in specific kinds of cells in neural circuits, and then read out the far-reaching effects with fMRI BOLD over a substantial distance in the brain. In one experiment, for example, the team could see how activity they stimulated in the thalamus, a key relay center deep in the brain, could affect circuits stretching into the somatosensory cortex, a surface brain region important in processing sensation. Because researchers have published more than 250,000 papers using or building upon the BOLD technique, clarifying its true meaning is very important, said senior author Karl Deisseroth, MD PhD, associate professor of bioengineering and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. "We can now ask what the true impact of a cell type is on global activity in the brain of a living mammal," Deisseroth said. "A key to scientific inquiry is developing tools that allow us to intervene and experiment with brain circuits — engineering a reversible gain or loss of function — rather than simple observation of correlations. This points to new approaches for understanding and treatment." The findings suggest that fMRI can now be used to study the brain-wide impact of changes in neural circuitry, such as ones that may underlie many neurological and psychiatric diseases. More info: Stanford University School of Medicine and Global and local fMRI signals driven by neurons defined optogenetically by type and wiring Also see: Control of cell movement with light accomplished in living organisms (Source: )

A team led by Denise Montell, PhD, of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, has controlled protein behavior in live fruit flies simply by shining a focused beam of light on the cells where they want the protein to be active. A precise understanding of cellular growth and movement is the key to developing new treatments for cancer and other disorders caused by dysfunctional cell behavior. The new technology, developed in the laboratory of Klaus Hahn, PhD, the Thurman Professor of Pharmacology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is an advance over previous light-directed methods of cellular control that used toxic wavelengths of light, disrupted the cell membrane or could switch proteins on but not off. Unlike some approaches, it requires no injection of cofactors or other unnatural materials into the animals being studied. "We have now shown that this technique works in two different living organisms, providing proof of principle that light can be used to activate a key protein. In this case the protein controls cell movement, enabling us to move cells about in animals. This is particularly valuable in studies where cell movement is the focus of the research, including embryonic development, nerve regeneration and cancer metastasis. Now researchers can control where and where particular proteins are activated in animals, providing a heretofore inaccessible level of control," said Hahn. More info: University of North Carolina School of Medicine news Also see: fMRI research on brain activity validated (Source: )

A new analysis of U.S. health data, published Monday in Pediatrics, links children's attention-deficit disorder with exposure to common pesticides used on fruits and vegetables. "Exposure is practically ubiquitous. We're all exposed," said lead author Maryse Bouchard of the University of Montreal. The study provides more evidence that the government should encourage farmers to switch to organic methods, said Margaret Reeves, senior scientist with the Pesticide Action Network, A 2008 Emory University study found that in children who switched to organically grown fruits and vegetables, urine levels of pesticide compounds dropped to undetectable or close to undetectable levels. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news193293278.html)

The speed at which algorithmic trades are executed, usually milliseconds, is shrinking fast: by a factor of 10 since 2007, says Kevin McPartland at Tabb Group, due to investment in dedicated optical-fiber networks and faster routing devices. The average execution time for one class of small trade on the New York stock exchange fell from 10 seconds to 0.7 seconds between 2005 and 2009. "The big problem," says James Angel, who studies financial markets at Georgetown University in Washington DC, "is that US exchanges have no real-time safeguard against extreme malfunction." If a mistake in an algorithm - or even deliberate sabotage - were to set off a wave of selling, the people tasked with suspending markets in the event of dangerous trading would not be able to react quick enough. He proposes that the US Securities and Exchange Commission require that all markets incorporate a "circuit-breaker" that would suspend trading on signs of an algorithm-driven crash. (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18900-briefing-computer-traders-blamed-for-wall-street-crash.html)

Life 2.0, a documentary about the real physical lives of Second Lifers, focuses on the people behind the avatars. (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/05/the-real-world-of-first-life.php)

With rising student debt, stagnant graduation rates, a struggling job market flooded with overqualified degree-holders, and unemployment rate for college graduates trailing the rate for high school graduates, the notion that a four-year degree is essential for real success is being challenged by a growing number of economists, policy analysts and academics. (Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/College-for-all-Experts-say-apf-3621490094.html?x=0)

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers have developed a novel transistor. controlled by ATP (the chemical that provides the energy for our cells' metabolism) that could be a big step towards making prosthetic devices that can be wired directly into the nervous system. The transistor comprises a carbon nanotube, which behaves as a semiconductor, bridging the gap between two metal electrodes, and coated with an insulating polymer layer that leaves the middle section of the nanotube exposed. The entire device is then coated again, this time with a lipid bi-layer (similar to those that form the membranes surrounding our body's cells) using a protein that, when exposed to ATP, acts as an ion pump, shuttling sodium and potassium ions across the membrane. The build-up of ions creates an electric field around the exposed portion of the semiconducting nanotube, increasing its conductivity in proportion to the strength of the field. When the supply of ATP is reduced, ions leak back across the membrane and the flow of current through the transistor falls. (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18891-nanotube-transistor-will-help-us-bond-with-machines.html)

European researchers have used immersive virtual reality in the first experiment to show that body ownership can be transferred to a virtual body. A first-person perspective of a life-sized virtual human female body that appears to substitute the male subjects' own bodies was sufficient to generate a body transfer illusion. The results support the notion that bottom-up perceptual mechanisms can temporarily override top down knowledge. resulting in a radical illusion of transfer of body ownership. The research also illustrates immersive virtual reality as a powerful tool in the study of body representation and experience, since it supports experimental manipulations that would otherwise be infeasible. Also see: Virtual skirt and legs turn men into girls (Source: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0010564#pone.0010564.s005)

Researchers at the MIT-Harvard Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) have come up with a new way to assemble artificial tissues by encapsulating living cells in cubes and arranging them into 3-D structures. The new "micromasonry" technique employs a gel-like material that acts like concrete, binding the cell "bricks" together as it hardens. To obtain single cells for tissue engineering, researchers have to first break tissue apart, using enzymes that digest the extracellular material that normally holds cells together. However, once the cells are free, it has been difficult to assemble them into structures that mimic natural tissue microarchitecture. Researchers at the MIT-Harvard Division of Health Sciences and Technology built this tubular tissue by encasing cells in polymer "bricks" and attaching them to a tube-shaped template. (Javier Gomez Fernandez) More info: MIT news (Source: )

Japan's aerospace exploration agency (JAXA) plans to launch the first spacecraft fully propelled by sunlight on May 18, piggybacking on Japan's Venus Climate Orbiter, (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627603.800-maiden-voyage-for-first-true-space-sail.html)

Using a laptop and custom-written software, researchers at University of Washington and University of California, San Diego were able to hack into the control systems of a car. In tests done wirelessly via the Internet, they demonstrated that they could disable the brakes and turn off the engine while the vehicle was moving at 65 kilometres per hour. (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18901-modern-cars-vulnerable-to-malicious-hacks.html)

A closer look at unrecognized patterns in EEG brain data shows that putting the brain to work on a simple task can change those patterns, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have found in a study published in the May 13 Neuron. "We don't yet know how to decode the information contained in these signals, but the fact that they're such a large part of brain activity and that they can be modulated when you do a task suggests that they are going to be very important to understanding the brain," says lead author Biyu Jade He, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow. She studied data gathered from five patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. To treat these patients, surgeons temporarily implant grids of electrodes on the surface of the brain, allowing them to gather detailed EEG readings and pinpoint the source of the seizures for surgical removal. Using a technique called nested-frequency analysis, she showed that the temporal connections between low-frequency brain waves and high-frequency brain waves are more extensive than previously realized, and that there are patterns of temporal organization in those irregular signals. "These temporal connections reach outside of the domains of periodic brain waves that neuroscientists study and into the irregular, arrhythmic brain activity that we discard," she explains. "This suggests that there are patterns of temporal organization in those irregular signals. Those patterns may reflect important aspects of brain architecture and function." Next, scientists asked six patients with electrode implants to press a button either in response to a cue or at random time intervals that they chose. During these experiments, Biyu He identified changes in the power spectrum of this irregular brain activity in brain regions involved in performing the tasks. More info: Washington University School of Medicine news (Source: )

Chemists at New York University and China's Nanjing University have created a DNA assembly line that has the potential to create novel materials efficiently on the nanoscale.
Gold nanoparticles on a DNA track (Ned Seeman)
An industrial assembly line includes a factory, workers, and a conveyor system," said NYU Chemistry Professor Nadrian Seeman, the study's senior author. "We have emulated each of those features using DNA components." The assembly line relies on three DNA-based components. The first is DNA origami, a composition that uses a few hundred short DNA strands to direct a very long DNA strand to form structures to any desired shape. These shapes are approximately 100 x 100 nanometers in area, and about 2 nm thick (a nanometer is one billionth of a meter). DNA origami serves as the assembly line's framework and also houses its track. The second are three DNA machines, or cassettes, that serve as programmable cargo-donating devices. The cargo species the researchers used are gold nanoparticles, which measure 5 to 10 nanometers in diameter. Changing the cassette's control sequences allows the researchers to enable or prevent the donation of the cargoes to the growing construct. The third is a DNA "walker," which is analogous to the chassis of a car being assembled. It moves along the assembly line's track, stopping at the DNA machines to collect and carry the DNA "cargo." As the walker moves along the pathway prescribed by the origami tile track, it encounters sequentially the three DNA devices. These devices can be switched between an "on" state, allowing its cargo to be transferred to the walker, and an "off" state, in which no transfer occurs. In this way, the DNA product at the end of the assembly line may include cargo picked up from one, two, or three of the DNA machines. "A key feature of the assembly line is the programmability of the cargo-donating DNA machines, which allows the generation of eight different products," explained Seeman. More info: New York University news and A proximity-based programmable DNA nanoscale assembly line (Source: )