Here First - Science and Technology Blog

A study published in Nature Geoscience raised many questions that we need to be aware of. The Earth's temperatures rise sharply in western Antarctica, twice faster than originally estimated. From 1958 until now, average temperatures have risen by 2.4 degrees Celsius. This phenomenon affects not only that region but the entire world, because the world's oceans will rise and many coastal villages are now under seriously threat. Forbes magazine writes that risks of something bad to happen in those areas are 2 times higher than researchers originally thought. David Bromwich, a researcher at  Ohio University, said that the western part of the ice face twice a warming than it was previously anticipated. In order to reach to these conclusions, the researchers made ​​a thorough study. They took data recorded by meteorologists at Byrd Station and filled the gaps using advanced mathematical and computer modeling. Using all these techniques, they managed to better estimate th...

The idea that we live in a Matrix-like world is not new. In fact, many scientists say that it is possible to test whether our world is real or a computer simulation.  In 2003, Nick Bostrom , a professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford, published a paper called The Simulation Argument , arguing that it is most likely we live in a computer simulation world. Now, several researchers at Cornell University are trying to find a viable method of testing to see if we, as humans, are a string of numbers into a computer. Scientists at the University of Washington say that this theory can be tested. A similar idea came from German researchers, in November.  How to test if our world is real or imaginary? Researchers say that they can use a technique named latticequantum chromodynamics. In simple words, they will use computer simulation and they will try to build their own models.  The idea that we live in a computer simulation is not new. In 1977, the ...

The secret of immortality may be found in water,because researchers have discovered a creature that rejuvenates and never dies. Turritopsis dohrnii is a jellyfish whose abnormal cycle of development was first observed in 1988 by Christian Sommer, a German marine-biology student of 20 years old. He discovered that the marine creature can rejuvenate and get back to an early stage of life. Basically, this jellyfish never dies. Nowadays, science has managed to better understand the scientific miracle discovered 15 years ago by the young student. The rejuvenation process of Turritopsis dohrnii is determined by the environmental stress or a physical assault. During the transformation, the body cells change their function, such as a nerve cell can turn into a skin cell (the phenomenon also occurs in humans, with stem cells). The process of aging in reverse it is not yet understood completely, and James Carlton, a professor of marine sciences at Williams College and the dir...

No, this is not a time machine! It's the inside of a CT Scanner. CT Scan means Computed Tomography scan, and some call it CAT (Computer Axial Tomography) . Mainly, it uses digital geometry to generate a 3D image of the inside of our bodies.  How it works The CT Scanner sends beams through the human body, while moving through an arc. 

Mom is blonde with green eyes, dad is dark-haired and has brown eyes. He has 1, 93m, she, on heels, is barely reaching his shoulder. Will their child inherit Mommy's genetics, or he/she will be a "carbon copy" of his Daddy?  Genetics - a lottery or a cocktail  There are so many possible combinations, that one couple can give birth to 70 billion different children. That, because every cell in the human body has 80,000 genes. In principle, half of these are given by the father, and half-mother.  And yet, these pictures say otherwise. Usually, a son or daughter has features of both parents. This is not the case here. The "dominant" gene was real strong in these cases, and it manifested clearly. Looking at these lookalikes, a single thought comes to mind: we are all copies of our parents.  Children will be smart like their parents?  Without a doubt, genetics acts like that! But if it's not stimulated since childhood, you can lose ...

Processing power of today's smart phones and their ability to perform multiple functions are truly amazing. However, a general problem of these devices is the battery life that feeds them. They don't even come close to the performance these smartphones. This is why many of us need to carry around an additional MP3 player, or, as we go by car, a GPS, although the smartphone meets with success of these functions and more. Now, a new technology created by researchers at Northwestern University, USA , is about to change that. Engineers have made ​​an electrode for lithium-ion batteries - the rechargeable batteries used for most electronic devices - which could provide gadgets an operating range of ten times longer and duration of recharge from outlet ten times faster than normal. According to statements of Harold H. Kung, coordinator of the project, even after 150 charges, the new type of battery will still be five times more effective than lithium-ion batteries on the market...

Scientists have found new evidence that serve to elucidate a long-sought mystery: Which was the origin of life on Earth Research confirms that life on Earth is possible due to comets that bombarded our planet billions of years ago, storing essential ingredients for its appearance here. Jennifer G. Blank , research team coordinator, described experiments in the laboratory with powerful tools and computer models. Scientists have recreated the conditions inside comets at the moment when they hit Earth's atmosphere at a speed of about 30,000 mph and then crashed on the surface. The research is part of a broad scientific effort that has the goal to understand how amino acids and other ingredients necessary for life on our planet have appeared several billion years ago. Before then, Earth was a barren and desolated planet. Amino acids are the key ingredient of proteins, "brick" core of all life, from microbes to humans. The research shows that the key to life would hav...

An American pathologist from Indiana University along with an international team of researchers extracted DNA samples from the brains of deceased patients belonging to the period 1896-1938 in order to observe if they contain genes related to schizophrenia or other mental illness. It is believed that schizophrenia is caused by certain genetic variations, but researchers were unable to identify the precise mutation or series of mutations that are directly related to the disease. Scientists took advantage of the fact that brain samples dating from the late 19th and early 20th century are kept perfectly preserved museum in a special substance (a form flammable gelatin and cellulose). The brains were not affected in any way by modern medicaments and have with clinical notes. However, extracting DNA and RNA samples was not easy, because the brains must be treated with liquid nitrogen at -180 degrees Celsius temperature. Although researchers have not published their findings, if DN...

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland are workin on a type of artificial blood that will be ready for human tests in two or three years. The artificial blood is created from divisible stem cells harvested from adult bone marrow. The fresh created blood will be O Negative and could be used for 98% of patients. Basically, blood is a liquid material that carries oxygen and other nutrients through the veins and arteries. Every day people are injured or develop problems that requires surgery. This means blood loss requires transfusion of fresh blood from various donors. In some cases this could be a problem because the blood type could be hard to find, especially in underdeveloped countries. In addition, there are external risks of blood infections such as HIV, hepatitis, etc. The team from Edinburgh, led by Professor Marc Turner, is cultivating stem cells from bone marrow in a material very similar to red blood cells. They believe that the mechanism is refined and will...

Artificial blood vessels created in the laboratory with a 3D printer  could be used in organ transplantation soon . The major obstacle encountered so far in creating artificial tissues was supplying them with nutrients, which is done naturally through capillaries. A team of researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany has solved this problem by using a 3D printer and a technique called two-photon polymerisation. There are thousands of patients who desperately needed a transplant and some fail to obtain it in time. Over 11,000 people were put on the waiting list for organ transplantation in Germany only in 2011. To save as many lives as they can, researchers around the world working in the field of tissue engineering have attempted to create in the laboratory artificial tissues and even whole organs. "The individual techniques are already functioning and they are presently working in the test phase; the prototype for the combined system is being built," ...

Superstring theory is an effort to find an answer for all of the atoms and cardinal forces of nature in one hypothesis by molding them as oscillations of tiny supersymmetric strings. Superstring theory is a stenography for supersymmetric string theory because contrary to bosonic string theory, it's the adaptation of string theory that contains fermions and supersymmetry. Physicist Brian Greene gives a short explanation of superstring theory, a concept that minuscule strands of energy vibrating in 11 dimensions create every particle and force in the universe.

SixthSense is the latest effort from Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry. The setup features a camera, a projector, a little mirror, phone and colored caps. The components communicates with the cellphone that will access all the data you need. The system tracks the four fingers and recognizes various gestures (zoom in/out, take a picture, organize, resize). It's still a work in progress but its capabilities are just amazing. Price: $350.

A fresh study by the University of Glasgow, brought out today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, evokes that our life expectancy is probably influenced by how much tension we were exposed to early in our lives. The research also depicts that early life stress underwent by our partners may affect our lifespan. “Other research led us to expect that increased stress exposure in early life would reduce adult lifespan’, said Professor Pat Monaghan, “but we were not expecting such a big effect on breeding partners. Unstressed birds had mortality rates that were four times higher than normal if they were simply given partners that had experienced stress earlier in their lives.” The group of researchers considers that contribution to the reason for the partner effect could be that these tense souls are not very comforting to be with. Agreeing to Professor Monaghan, “The take home message is that the wrong kind of partner can be very bad for your health.” It...

If you are baffled at the slow speeds of wifi internet when more than one device is tapped into your network you should know that radio waves are merely one part of the spectrum that can carry our data. What if we could utilize other waves to surf the internet? Harald Haas (a German physicist), has developed a solution he calls “data through illumination”—getting the fiber out of fiber optics by beaming data through an LED light bulb that alters in intensity more accelerated than the human eye can follow. Haas alleges his conception, which he calls D-Light, could develop data rates more bolted than 10 MBps, which is quicker than your common broadband connection. He foresees a time to come where information for laptops, smartphones, and pads is aired by the light in a room. And security measures would be a breeze—if you can not envision the light, you can not access the data. You are able to guess all sorts of functions for this technology, starting with public cyberspace acces...

Columbia University men of science have developed a $1 plastic chip that can diagnose HIV and syphilis in 15 minutes. The chip named the "mChip", a credit-card-sized piece of plastic that is made applying a plastic injection molding process, examinations for multiple diseases with just one pinprick of blood. Nothing moves inside the chip, and the microfluidics-based chip can be examined with assist from a cheap visual sensor. Concording to results issued this week in Nature Medicine, the chip detects 100% of cases when utilized to test HIV or syphilis and human immunodeficiency virus together, with a 4% to 6% false positive rate. That's same to what is ascertained with common laboratory exams in the developed world. An mChip that can diagnose prostatic adenocarcinoma has already been authorized for use in Europe. In the future, Columbia investigator Samuel K. Sia trusts to practice the chip to examine pregnant women in Rwanda for HIV and other STDs. Numerous of...

You want to hide your age? If that's the case, you need watch carefully where you spit. Men of science from UCLA discovered a saliva test that will reveal your real age. This new discovery opens doors for a wide range of applications. A fresh patented test could help crime-scene investigators to discover suspect's real age without knowing anything else about them. "Our approach supplies one answer to the enduring quest for reliable markers of aging," said principal investigator Dr. Eric Vilain, a professor of human genetics, pediatrics and urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "While genes partly shape how our body ages, environmental influences also can change our DNA as we age," Vilain said. "Methylation patterns shift as we grow older and contribute to aging-related disease." Vilain and his squad picture the test turning a forensic creature in crime-scene investigations. By examining traces of spit left in a tooth bit...

Natural hormones have the same structure as the ones naturally found in the human body. That's the main reason they're called bio-identical hormones. Bio-identical hormones are combined in a exceptional type of pharmaceutics known as a compounding pharmacy. Products in drug stores offer people a diversity of natural choices created directly from herbs or plants. Family medicine and herbalists have evolved and these days a better acceptance could be found for these herbal products. There are so many types of products these days, we just have to be careful what we buy. That's why most pharmacies needs prescriptions in order to release hormone based products to buyers. These products are frequently in insufficient dose to create a measurable difference in the human body based on actual laboratory tests. They do occasionally assist to remedy some symptoms. These products use components of pure pharmaceutic degree that will be easily absorbed. This consequences in lower wa...

In a extraordinary presentation of brain-machine user interface engineering, scientists at the University of Pittsburgh have schooled a monkey to expend only its thoughts to manipulate an advanced robotic arm and execute detailed maneuvers with it. There were other experiments monkey with brain detectors planted in its brains has commanded robotic devices with brain. This experiment with robot arm is likely the most complex system a monkey was involved with. In this brain-robotic experiment, the monkey underwent 2 brain implants: the first brain implant in the hand area and the second in the arm area of its motor cortex. These two brain implants detects the pulses of motor neurons and beam this information to a computer, which interprets the patterns into controls for the robotic arm. Two years ago, Dr. Schwartz and his team instructed a macaque to control a less complicated mechanical arm to feed itself. This was a four-degrees-of-freedom robotic arm with shoulder articulates,...

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have determined that by using chemicals to control genes in a developing fertilized egg, they have been capable to convert the brain of one type of cichlid fish to resemble that of different. The investigators also ascertained divergences in the general modeling of the brain very early in evolution before working neurons form in a procedure known as neurogenesis. This discovering is at odds with a well-held hypothesis called "late equals large." Read full article here

Oxygen from Christopher Hendryx on Vimeo . Amazing 3D educative video that will help students learn more about chemical elements. This is Oxygen, produced at the Ringling College of Art + Design as my thesis for the department of Computer Animation. Learn a little bit of basic chemistry while watching Oxygen try to make friends in Element-ary school. Expect future shorts with these characters late 2010!