Australian scientists have developed a ’brain’, which enables the production of a world-first low-cost, intelligent small helicopter, set to end many difficult and dangerous tasks undertaken by humans.
The CSIRO Mantis can simply be told where to go and what to do, and it will go off, do the job and find its own way home, unassisted.
The low-cost CSIRO Mantis, described as a vertical take-off, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), provides a host of new ways of doing things.
Knowledge could lead to new vaccines, treatments, detection and decontamination technologies
In the age-old battle between man and microbe, it pays to know your enemy. This is especially true for Bacillus anthracis, the bacterium that causes anthrax. Tiny spores of this highly infectious pathogen can survive drought, bitter cold and other harsh conditions for decades, yet still germinate almost instantly to infect and kill once inside an animal or human host.
In a collaborat
Saint Louis University researchers receive a patent after decades of research.
Can the common cold ever be a good thing? It is if you’ve figured out a way to genetically engineer the virus so that it fights and kills cancerous cells – while leaving healthy cells intact.
That’s been the work of Dr. William Wold and his colleagues at Saint Louis University School of Medicine for the last 30 years.
“The potential is understandably huge,” said Wold, whose wor
As notebook computers become thinner and lighter, the ever-present bulky power adapters used for line current approach the weight of the laptops, but smaller and lighter adapters may be on the way, thanks to piezoelectric technology, according to a Penn State electrical engineer.
“Electromagnetic transformers are shrinking slightly, but there are theoretical limitations in reducing the general size,” says Dr. Kenji Uchino, professor of electrical engineering. “A piezoelectric motor and tran
On January 2nd 2004 the NASA space mission, STARDUST, will fly through comet Wild 2, capturing interstellar particles and dust and returning them to Earth in 2006. Space scientists from the Open University and University of Kent have developed one of the instruments which will help tell us more about comets and the evolution of our own solar system and, critical for STARDUST, its survival in the close fly-by of the comet.
Launched in February 1999, STARDUST is the first mission designed to b
A tiny nanowire sensor — smaller than the width of a human hair, 1,000 times more sensitive than conventional DNA tests, and capable of producing results in minutes rather than days or weeks — could pave the way for faster, more accurate medical diagnostic tests for countless conditions and may ultimately save lives by allowing earlier disease detection and intervention, Harvard scientists say.
In preliminary laboratory studies demonstrating the capability of the new sensor, the researchers
Physicians and researchers at the UC Davis School of Medicine and Medical Center found that children with sickle cell disease who are exposed to tobacco smoke in the home have more complications from the disease than those who live in a smoke-free environment. The study was published in the December issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
“Exposure to environmental or passive tobacco smoke increased the risk of sickle cell crisis by 90 percent, and was not influenced by
Despite gains brought about by the women’s movement, young adults are far less likely than their middle-aged counterparts to call themselves feminists, according to a study conducted in part by the University of Pennsylvania.
Researchers examining the link between age and social attitudes about feminism found that support for abortion rights and gender equality in the workplace — a strong part of the feminist tradition — is virtually unrelated to whether young adults as well as senior ci
Antibiotics used on swine farms may stir controversy about their potential role in the rise of anti-bacterial resistance, but a new study says their use means significant production efficiency and a 9 percent boost in pork producer profits.
The study, published in the December issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, provides an economically detailed look at the use of antibiotics for growth promotion following dramatic changes that have altered the face of the U.S. swine
By tailoring the dosage of chemotherapy to each individual patient, the treatment of breast cancer could be improved considerably. This is shown in a dissertation by Uppsala researcher Henrik Lindman at Uppsala University in Sweden. The method has proven to yield excellent results in clinical tests.
The dissertation reports that an alternative way of tailoring the dosage of chemotherapy has been studied and found to work. If the advantages of this method compared to standard treatment can be
The Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council has today announced GBP 16 million to create a massive computing Grid, equivalent to the world’s second largest supercomputer after Japan’s Earth Simulator computer. This Grid, known as GridPP2 will eventually form part of a larger European Grid, to be used to process the data deluge from CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory, when its new facility, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), comes online in 2007.
GridPP is a collaboration of
It’s hardly an appealing thought but the overpowering fragrance of mothballs in a large wind tunnel could provide the key to improving air quality in our towns and cities.
The tests will improve our understanding of how pollution and heat behave at street level so that more effective ventilation methods can be developed.
The research will be carried out by scientists at the University of Reading in collaboration with EnFlo, based at the University of Surrey, with funding from the
Robot researchers have long looked at the science of Kinematics and particularly how it applies to parallel robotics as providing novel solutions to robotic problems. But now researchers at the University of Warwick and China’s Tianjin University have used kinematic theory to produce a hybrid “rapid pick and place” robot that draws useful traits from both parallel and series robots and costs a third less than similar robots on the market.
The Diamond 600 robot uses parallel motors to drive i
A single gene appears to kick off a critical step in the development of the early embryo – the formation of the brain and spinal cord – and thus may offer a way to screen for fetal spinal cord defects such as spina bifida.
Neural tube defects, including spina bifida – an open spinal cord – and anencephaly, or lack of a complete brain, are among the most common serious birth defects in the United States. While the incidence has gone down in this country thanks to educational efforts encourag
A study published in the December issue of Archives of Neurology and currently available online shows that levetiracetam reduced phasic spasticity, which is marked by spasms and painful muscle cramps, in 100 percent of patients in a small clinical study.
“It’s amazing how many MS patients can’t walk, can’t move, and you treat their spasticity and they’re fine,” said Dr. Kathleen Hawker, assistant professor of neurology at UT Southwestern and lead author of the study. “Wh
As New Year’s Eve approaches and you prepare to pop open that champagne bottle, keep your fingers crossed for small bubbles … and lots of them.
That long train of tiny, rising bubbles is the key to the drink’s flavor and aroma, scientists say. And the smaller the bubbles, the better, according to the people who should know, researchers in the Champagne region of France, home to the famous vineyards that gave birth to the bubbly wine.
“Our ultimate goal is to cre
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