wombert - Slashdot User

A Robotic Cyberknife To Fight Cancer 80

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday December 31, 2008 @10:50PM from the how-is-it-at-starting-a-fire dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "The Cyberknife is not a real knife. This is a robot radiotherapy machine which works with great accuracy during treatment, thanks to its robotic arm which moves around a patient when he breathes. According to BBC News, the first Cyberknife will be operational in February 2009 in London, UK. But other machines have been installed in more than 15 countries, and have permitted doctors to treat 50,000 patients in the first semester of 2008. And the Cyberknife is more efficient than conventional radiotherapy devices. The current systems require twenty or more short sessions with low-dose radiation. On the contrary, and because it's extremely precise, a Cyberknife can deliver powerful radiation in just three sessions."

Enterprise 2.0 47

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday December 10, 2008 @01:17PM from the read-all-about-it dept.

mantex writes "The title of this book combines two coded terms — 'Web 2.0' and 'The Enterprise' — for which read 'social networking software' and 'Big Business.' And the purpose is to show how the techniques and concepts behind Web 2.0 applications (blogs, wikis, tagging, RSS, and social bookmarking) can be used to encourage collaboration efforts in what was previously thought of as secretive, competitive businesses." Read on for the rest of Roy's review.

Oil Exploration Leads To Video of a Mysterious Elbowed Squid 256

Posted by timothy on Thursday November 27, 2008 @06:41PM from the that-is-one-freaky-cephalopod dept.

eldavojohn writes "A rare glimpse from Shell Oil of a giant squid brings to light the strange relationships some deep sea marine biologists have with drilling companies. The video of the squid (Magnapinna) is very rare as this creature remains largely a mystery to science. While some are concerned of a conflict of interest, biologists and big oil sure make for strange bedfellows. The video is from 200 miles off the coast of Houston, TX and about 4,000 feet down." Looking at this creature gives me the willies, frankly.

Comment Re:Pointless conclusions (Score 1) 218

by wombert on Wednesday November 19, 2008 @02:37AM (#25814009) Attached to: The Neurological Basis of Con Games

I think you missed the part where the wallet full of cash was part of the scam. The money in the "lost" wallet is provided by the con men to lure in the mark... giving the guy "his share" would mean the con men lose money, which is why they're prepared with a decoy envelope.

Comment Re:Glad to see the interest in Article One Partner (Score 1) 96

by wombert on Tuesday November 18, 2008 @09:53PM (#25811475) Attached to: Crowdsourcing Site Offers Rewards To Bust Patents

Would it be too difficult to list the patent titles in the study description, next to the patent numbers and links? The summaries don't give much info about what patents are in question, but at least listing the titles might help. (For example, in the KEYBOARD - RIMM study, it would help to know that the patent disputes include "Hand-held electronic device with a keyboard optimized for use with the thumbs", "Hand-held e-mail device", "Hand-held electronic device with auxiliary input device", etc.)

Comment Re: Palin in 2012 ??! (Score 1) 1912

by wombert on Tuesday November 04, 2008 @12:27PM (#25627797) Attached to: Discuss the US Presidential Election

Wait... when does the Electoral College vote? :-P

Robotic Surgery On a Beating Heart 54

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday October 21, 2008 @05:27PM from the got-a-good-beat-you-can-dance-to-it dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Serious heart surgery usually involves stopping the organ and keeping the patient alive with a cardiopulmonary bypass machine. But this risks brain damage and requires a long recuperation. Scientists at Harvard University and Children's Hospital Boston have now developed a device that lets surgeons operate on a beating heart with a steady hand. The 'robotic' device uses 3-D ultrasound images to predict and compensate for the motion of the heart so that the surgeon can work on a faulty valve as it moves. The approach should improve recovery times and give a surgeon instant feedback on the success of the procedure, the researchers say. Here's a (slightly gory) video of the device in action."

Rat-Brained Robots Take Their First Steps 289

Posted by timothy on Wednesday August 13, 2008 @02:53PM from the aside-from-snow-crash-and-politics dept.

missb writes "Brain tissue cultured from rats has controlled a wheeled robot around a lab, according to New Scientist this week. Researchers in the UK have harnessed signals from thousands of disembodied rat neurons, and manipulated them to get a robot to respond to instructions. The team at the University of Reading in the UK hope their research will help provide treatments for diseases like Alzheimer's and epilepsy."

Robotic Fish Track Targets, Communicate With One Another 68

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday June 08, 2008 @12:08PM from the there's-a-fish-net-joke-here-somewhere dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "Many of today's underwater robots need to periodically come up to the surface to communicate with their human supervisors. But researchers at the University of Washington (UW) have developed a new kind of underwater vehicle. The 'Robofish' can work cooperatively with each other. 'The Robofish, which are roughly the size of a 10-pound salmon, look a bit like fish because they use fins rather than propellers.' According to the researchers, such robots 'could cooperatively track moving targets underwater, such as groups of whales or spreading plumes of pollution, or explore caves, underneath ice-covered waters, or in dangerous environments where surfacing might not be possible.' Further information and more pictures are also available for these autonomous fin-actuated underwater vehicles."

Bacteria Found Alive In Ice 120,000 Years Old 326

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday June 03, 2008 @05:16PM from the by-some-definitions-of-alive dept.

FiReaNGeL notes research presented this morning at Penn State on the discovery of a new, ultra-small species of bacteria that has survived for more than 120,000 years within the ice of a Greenland glacier at a depth of nearly two miles. From the psu.edu announcement: "The microorganism's ability to persist in this low-temperature, high-pressure, reduced-oxygen, and nutrient-poor habitat makes it particularly useful for studying how life, in general, can survive in a variety of extreme environments on Earth and possibly elsewhere in the solar system. This new species is among the ubiquitous, yet mysterious, ultra-small bacteria, which are so tiny that they are able to pass through microbiological filters. Called Chryseobacterium greenlandensis, the species is related genetically to certain bacteria found in fish, marine mud, and the roots of some plants."

Brain Interface Lets Monkeys Control Prosthetic Limbs 208

Posted by timothy on Thursday May 29, 2008 @09:21AM from the what-did-you-do-at-the-lab-today-bonzo dept.

himicos was one of many readers to point out one recent success of scientists working to develop working brain-machine interfaces, writing "A team at the university of Pittsburgh has finally advanced a 2002 technology enough for use in prosthetic limbs, the targeted application all along. Training computer models to the firing patterns of the neurons in the parts of the brain that control motion, they are able to project the intentions of a monkey to a robotic arm, which follows the will of the animal. The sad thing about the articles is that the beauty of the mathematics used to create and train the models is totally ignored." Reader phpmysqldev adds a link to coverage at the BBC, and writes "This of course brings significant hope to amputees and other other people with physical disabilities." (Note that this research has been going on for quite some time.)

New Robots Developed To Climb Walls 110

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday May 29, 2008 @12:45AM from the your-friendly-neighborhood-roomba dept.

An anonymous reader writes "SRI International, a nonprofit research and development organization, has developed a new technology that enables some robots to scale walls. The wall-climbing robots could be a boon for the US military, which could use them on reconnaissance or other missions in war zones, said Philip von Guggenberg, director of business development for SRI International, adding that the independent group has received some funding from DARPA, the technology research arm of the Pentagon. Von Guggenberg said that the new electrical adhesive technology called compliant electroadhesion, provides an electrically controllable way to stick machines to a wall. So what can they do? That adhesion lets the robots, using either feet or tracks, scale a vertical wall. They can even climb walls covered in dust and debris, or made out of concrete, wood, steel, glass, drywall, and brick. Good news is that regular robots, especially those with tracks, can be retrofitted with the technology and turned into wall climbers. Maybe if the kids are good, they'll get one for Christmas."

Surgical Robot Removes Calgary Woman's Brain Tumor 107

Posted by timothy on Sunday May 18, 2008 @03:01AM from the and-yes-it-had-permission-to-do-so dept.

Raver32 points out an article in the Victoria Times Colonist about an interesting advance in robotic surgery: "Calgary doctors have made surgical history, using a robot to remove a brain tumor from a 21-year-old woman. Doctors used remote controls and an imaging screen, similar to a video game, to guide the two-armed robot through Paige Nickason's brain during the nine-hour surgery Monday. Surgical instruments acting as the hands of the robot — called NeuroArm — provided surgeons with the tools needed to successfully remove the egg-shaped tumor."

Swarming Ants Destroy Electronics in Texas 328

Posted by timothy on Thursday May 15, 2008 @08:34AM from the where's-tiny-ender-when-you-need-him dept.

AntOverlords writes "Voracious swarming ants that apparently arrived in Texas aboard a cargo ship are invading homes and yards across the Houston area, shorting out electrical boxes and messing up computers. They have ruined pumps at sewage pumping stations, fouled computers and at least one homeowner's gas meter, and caused fire alarms to malfunction. They have been spotted at NASA's Johnson Space Center and close to Hobby Airport, though they haven't caused any major problems there yet."

The Army's $10M Spy Bat Still Too Big 199

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday March 18, 2008 @12:43PM from the who-hasn't-had-that-problem dept.

Lucas123 writes "The University of Michigan's Center for Objective Microelectronics and Biomimetic Advanced Technology (COM-BAT) is working on building a robot bat that would perform long-range reconnaissance for the U.S. Army, but U.Mich is currently struggling with miniaturizing components in order to make the bat small enough to be stealthy. 'The focus is to shrink down many electronics that while currently available would only be good if the US Army wanted, say, a 12-foot spy-bat.' Some components need to be 1,000 times smaller than they currently are. The Army's $10 million grant proposal calls for the bat to be six inches in length, weigh four ounces and use just one watt of power. The bat is supposed to be powered by a lithium-ion battery, charged by solar and wind energy, as well as simple vibrations."

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