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Heart Monitor Taped on Skin

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Organic Sensor & Organic Solar Cell Combine to Monitor Heartbeats Source:  RIKEN Center Very Flexible, Taped Heart Monitor on Your Finger Scientists have developed an organic sensor powered by sunlight that performs as a self-powered heart monitor.  The scientists put a sensor device, an organic, electrochemical transitor, into a flexible organic solar cell.  The device successfully measures the heartbeats of humans under bright light conditions. New Generation of Self-Medical Monitoring This monitor, developed by scientists at the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science and the University of Tokyo, is human friendly, ultra flexible with a solar powered sensor.  It can also be used to monitor brain function.  The development was reported in the journal Nature.  It's being hailed as the next generation of self-medical monitoring.  Such self-powered devices placed on the skin have great potential for medical applications.

Ending Malaria thru Gene Mutation

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Genetically Putting Mosquitos on Self-Destruct Africa's Malaria-Endemic Countries DNA Editing Malaria is among the world's worst scourges.  In Africa in 2016, 194 million people were infected by malaria and nearly half a million died from it.  The deadly disease is caused by a parasite and transmitted by mosquito bites. Imperial College London Biologists A team of biologists at Imperial College London may have the weapon to end the scourge.  They've successfully gene-edited mosquitos to self-destruct.  They've targeted a patch of DNA that never varies.  By gene editing the female mosquitos into infertility, the population becomes extinct within 5 to 11 generations. Potential:  Malaria Eliminated within 2 Decades If this gene editing is as successful as lab tests have been, the scientists believe malaria could be eliminated within 2 decades.  Computer models indicate that in the wild mosquito populations could be made extinct by the technique within 4 year

Jordan Turning The Desert Green

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Desert Agriculture Enabled by Seawater and Solar Power Jordan's Sustainable Solar & Seawater Farm Project Ambitious, Innovative Project Jordon has embarked on a very ambitious and innovative project to turn the desert green for farming. They have a pilot project underway in a location that's .62 miles from the Israeli border and 9.3 miles from the Red Sea. Feeding the World One of the most pressing needs facing humanity is feeding the world's growing population.  By 2050, food production needs to go up by 50% to feed the projected global population.  The problem is further complicated by the lack of good water, which is a big issue in Jordan.  Furthermore, food production totals 70% of global freshwater consumption and emits 25% of greenhouse gases.  Changes are clearly needed.  Jordan, which is the 2nd poorest water supply nation and three-quarters desert, is taking an innovative, problem solving lead. Jordan Playing to Its Strengths Jordan has plenty o

New, Smart Materials

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Innovation to Increase Jet Fuel Efficiency Photo:  Courtesy of Texas A&M Potential to Reduce the Cost of Flying Texas A&M scientists have developed a group of new, smart materials that could significantly improve the efficiency of fuel burn in jet engines.  That has the potential of cutting the cost of flying. Brand New Materials with Great Potential The materials could also reduce airplane noise over residential areas.  Scientists say there are additional applications in a variety of other industries.  They believe they are just scratching the surface of something new that could enable brand new technologies and brand new scientific research.  The lead researcher is Dr. Ibrahim Karaman, Chevron Professor and head of the university's Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering. Smart Metals Changing Shape The Texas A&M team brought together 2 new areas of materials science involving metal alloys which are metals composed of 2 or more elements.  One are

Life Signs on Ancient Mars

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N ew Research Says It's a Real Possibility Mars, the Red Planet Evidence of Support for Underground Martian Life New research by Brown University scientists has discovered that ancient Mars had a plentiful supply of key ingredients for microbes to live under the surface of Mars for millions of years. Just Published Research Based on basic physics and chemical calculations, the Brown researchers found that the subsurface of Mars had more than enough dissolved hydrogen to support microbial life.  Their study was just published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Core Findings The scientists found that radiolysis, which is a process by which radiation breaks down water into its basic particles of hydrogen and oxygen, would have created plenty of hydrogen 4 billion years ago on Mars.  They believe the Martian subsurface had the capability to support life for hundreds of millions of years. Intriguing One Step Closer Let's face it.  We are intrigued by the

Facebook & Virtual Reality

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Facebook Believes VR is Next Big Thing Quest Headset Quest Facebook unveiled a wireless VR headset this week called Oculus Quest.  The company is pushing to popularize the emerging technology by taking it to a mainstream audience.  Facebook acquired Oculus in 2014.  The headset Quest will be available in the spring of 2019. Facebook Goals Facebook leadership believes that VR is the next big thing in human communications after the mobile phone.  The company's goal is to get 1 billion people involved in VR.  Quest offers 6 degrees of freedom and Touch controllers.  It allow you to jump into action with no PC wires or external sensors. VR Future There are expert forecasts that VR headsets and devices will grow in sales by 31% for 2018 over 2017.  A number of heavyweights are investing in the field including Google, Sony and Apple.

Japan's Robot TV News Anchor

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Erica Makes Robotic News Erica - The Robot TV News Anchor First Robot TV News Anchor The world has its first robot news anchor.  Nippon Television, the Japanese TV network, has hired Erica to deliver the nightly news.  Erica is a highly advanced robot.  It was developed by the Director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University, Hiroshi Ishiguro.  He says Erica has one of the most advanced artificial speech systems in the world. Likes to Chat The news robot is loaded with the latest tech.  It's capable of holding conversations with humans thanks to speech generation algorithms, facial recognition technology and infrared sensors that track faces across a room. Even Tells Jokes - Robot News Network This robot is no joke.  Erica actually likes to tell jokes.  For now, she'll serve as a news reader. No on-the-road reporting assignments yet but that can't be too far behind on a potential channel called Robot News Network (RNN).