Important Innovations

 Medical Tests Possible on Coin Sized Chip University of Buffalo Success Researchers at the University of Buffalo have done what many others have tried without success.  They're created medical tests on a chip the size of a coin.  They've demonstrated how their chip accurately determines the eight blood types based on the time it takes each to flow thru the chip. Medical Tech Breakthrough This is a breakthrough.  The obstacle has been finding a reliable and efficient way to mix and move blood and other fluids thru a chip's tiny pumps and valves.  The UB team have done it.  They fabricated a chip that uses two different types of forces - capillary & vacuum driven - to move the fluids in micro and nanosized channels.  This advance solves a difficult problem that has been an obstacle to labs on a chip. Big Vision for Med Labs on Chips The expectations for the use of labs on chips are big, including in the developing world, on battlefields and in our homes.  Ima

World's 1st Driverless Grocery Deliveries Start in Phoenix This Fall Nuro Kroger, the nation's largest supermarket chain, and California-based driverless car company Nuro have teamed-up for what they call "the world's first, driverless grocery delivery service".  They're offering to Phoenix residents inexpensive, same day delivery thru Kroger's ClickList ordering system and Nuro's app. It rolls out this fall. Nuro's Vehicles "Teleporting" The vehicles are all electric, with no seats and no humans onboard.  Nuro co-founder Dave Ferguson says "we can deliver anything, anytime, anywhere.  We like to call it a local teleportation service." As you can see in the photo, the vehicles looks a bit like a toaster on wheels.  It weighs 1500 pounds, most of which is the battery that powers the electric motor.  It's about the length of an SUV but it's only 3.5 feet wide. Nuro's No-Passenger Mantra Nuro's strategy

Biodegradable, Hybrid Biobatteries Take-off Researchers at the State University of New York at Binghamton have developed a breakthrough biobattery, that's been eluding the engineering and scientific communities for decades.  It's paper-based, eco-friendly and hybrid.  On top of that, it's inexpensive and performs well. The problems this SUNY team have overcome are making the battery easy to produce, really biodegradable and powerful enough. Eco-Friendly Alternative The hybrid paper battery is easy to produce, flexible and biodegradable.  It has much higher power-to-cost ratio than previously reported paper-based microbial batteries.  This one uses a hybrid of paper and engineered polymers.  The polymers are the key to making it biodegradable. Powered to Start Ending Electronic Waste There's been a dramatic increase in electronics waste and the new biobattery is a start to reduce that.  Also, SUNY Asst. Professor Sean Choi says the battery's power can be

Underwater Canyon off Irish Coast Pulls CO² from Air Porcupine Bank Canyon  What a discovery!  A research expedition of scientists from University College Cork to a huge underwater canyon off the Irish coast discovered a hidden natural process that pulls greenhouse gas carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Mission to Map Underwater Porcupine Canyon They towed a drone out on Porcupine Bank to the Porcupine Bank Canyon, which is a huge, cliff walled underwater trench. It's at the point where Ireland's continental shelf ends.  The scientists are building a detailed map of the canyon's interior and boundaries.  That was the purpose of their just completed journey. Discovery Process Along the way, they spotted a process at the edge of the canyon that pulls CO² from the atmosphere and buries it deep in the sea.  All around the canyon's rim live cold-water coral which thrive on dead plankton.  The plankton build their bodies on carbon from CO² in the air.  When

Gentle Electric Pulse Boosts Memory University of Pennsylvania Innovation Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have demonstrated that gentle, imperceptible electric impulses passing through the brain improve memory and information retention. 15% Improvement In fact, the electric pulses increase memory and information retention up to 15%.  The electrical stimulation is precisely timed and targeted to the left side of the brain in the left lateral temporal cortex. Real-Time The Penn team developed a system to monitor the brain's activity real-time and trigger stimulation based on the activity.  The electrical pulses are unfelt and at a safe level. Exciting, Personalized Machine Learning Models Twenty five neurosurgical patients being treated for epilepsy participated in the study at clinical sites around the US.  The scientists developed patient-specific, personalized machine learning models. They programmed the stimulator to deliver pulses only when memory was p

Breakthrough Technologies Making Unrecyclable Packaging Recyclable Saving the Oceans 8 million tons of plastic enter the ocean every year  Yet the 3 biggest global cleanups deal with only 1/2% of that volume.  It's a plastic pollution crisis and there's an urgent need for innovative systemic solutions. World Economic Forum Incubator and Launch Pad The World Economic Forum and several other organizations have awarded $1million to 5 new recyclable and compostable packaging solutions to stop plastic from becoming waste.  It's an incubator program running into 2019, in collaboration with Think Beyond Plastics, to make these innovations marketable at scale. Making Unrecyclable Packaging Recyclable Here are 2 winners in the Unrecyclable to Recyclable packaging category: The University of Pittsburg:   The Pitt team applies nano-engineering to create a recyclable material that can replace very complex, multi-layered packaging that is unrecyclable.  This mirrors the way

DARPA's Biostasis Program Aims "To Slow Life to Save Life" Source:  DARPA Bistasis Biostatis The program is to buy extra time for soldiers' battlefield injuries as they await medical care.  DARPA, the Pentagon's Advanced Research Projects Agency, is working to develop treatments that slow down the body's biochemical reactions, tipping it into a slowed or suspended state until medical help arrives.  For those critically injured, time is a matter of life and death. Biological Suspended State This program is inspired by nature.  Wood frogs and microscopic creatures called "water bears" can survive extreme radiation, dehydration and freezing.  They do so by entering a state called cryptobiosis.  All metabolic processes appear to have stopped but the organism is still alive. Long Term Research This DARPA program is just getting started.  They're beginning at the cell and tissue level.  Then they'll scale up to the whole organism.  I