Blogs

http://www.cyberdyne.jp/English/robotsuithal/...

[ED Note] The name of this company is Cyberdyne, the same name as the one that went on to build the Terminator and SkyNet, should we be worried?

"Robot Suit HAL" is a cyborg-type robot that can expand and improve physical capability.

http://gigaom.com/2009/10/22/organic-motion-g...

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Over the past 20 years, robotics have revolutionized surgery, and new innovations are continuing to push the boundaries of medicine.

The "da Vinci" system revolutionized keyhole surgery.

Mike Rustic, senior lecturer at the mechanical engineering department at Imperial College, London, says machines such as the "da Vinci" system have had a huge impact on surgery.

[ED but I wonder how they will integrate beside manners]

The "da Vinci" first appeared in 1991 and lets surgeons carry out keyhole surgery remotely, allowing them to control robot arms from a console that also provides a three-dimensional image of the proceedings.

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/156309,mits-hyb...

Researchers have developed a 'hybrid microchip' that could advance electronics beyond the limits of Moore's Law.

According to Moore's Law, the number of transistors on an integrated circuit doubles every two years, leading to an exponential improvement in electronics.

However, as devices get smaller, it is increasingly difficult for manufacturers to continue the trend on conventional silicon microchips.

A meeting on "fusion triggered by laser" took place last week in San Francisco; about five hundreds papers and participants to discuss the production of cheap energy (electricity) by atom fusion triggered by laser (Inertial Fusion Energy). Consensus is that 2040 is a likely a target for the first power plant using that technology, maybe before, if everything goes well. The Lawrence Livermore demonstration facility (National Ignition Facility, California) is finished and ready for experiments in 2010.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/823...

A UK Royal Society study has concluded that many engineering proposals to reduce the impact of climate change are "technically possible".

Such approaches could be effective, the authors said in their report.

But they also stressed that the potential of geo-engineering should not divert governments away from their efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

Suggestions range from having giant mirrors in space to erecting giant CO2 scrubbers that would "clean" the air.

http://www.physorg.com/news171895852.html

In the papers, Alan Garen of the Department of Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry at Yale and his colleague Xu Song explain how cancer may overcome an organism’s natural “stop sign” for cell division.

During early development, stem cells give rise to other cells that differentiate into all types of tissue. New cell division and proliferation stop as the organism matures. However, cancer can hijack this process and trigger the uncontrolled cell division that produces cancer tumors.

One mechanism that stops cell proliferation is a family of tumor-suppressor proteins (TSP) that bind to and block the function of proto-oncogenes, or genes that have the potential to trigger cancer.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24...

Thursday, September 10, 2009How to Create Quantum Superpositions of Living ThingsFirst photons, atoms and molecules. Now physicists want to create a quantum superposition of a virus, which will allow them to perform Schrodinger's Cat experiment for real.

One of the great challenges for quantum physicists is to find quantum behaviour in macroscopic objects. There are obvious examples of quantum behaviour on a large scale, such as superconductivity and superfluidity, but physicists want more.

http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2009/08/purd...

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm...

LONDON (Reuters) - A British start-up company developing a cement that absorbs carbon dioxide has raised 1 million pounds ($1.7 million) to fund its work, underscoring the growing interest in eco-friendly construction ventures.

Novacem, a spin-out from Imperial College London, is one of a number of young companies tapping new technologies to reduce the cement industry's notoriously large carbon footprint.