Slashdot

Roland Piquepaille writes "If you're like me, you've never heard about CoQ10 before today. I've discovered that this coenzyme, also known as ubiquinone, is a substance that's found in every cell of our bodies and as vital to our survival as vitamin C. Even if we're able to create our own CoQ10, our production decreases when we get older. This is why U.S. chemists are planning to use nanotechnology processes to add this enzyme to our regular diet. The team wants to put CoQ10 and other dietary supplements into the water we drink. Even if the technology is almost ready, I guess many years will be necessary before the regulation authorities allow this addition to our bottles of water. But read this summary for additional details and references."

Roland Piquepaille writes "Small bioptic telescopes mounted on glasses to help people with visual impairments have been in existence for about 60 years and are allowed for use in driving by 39 states in the U.S. Most of them were either too heavy or too ugly to be widely used. Now, a Harvard research team has developed a new generation of telescopes embedded in glasses lens. According to one of the researchers, 'one major advantage is the appearance of the glasses. Because they look almost like normal everyday spectacles, it is more likely that visually impaired people will use them.' But read more for additional references and a picture of this in-the-lens telescopic device."

Roland Piquepaille writes "NASA officials recognized last week that dead bodies were used to develop Orion landing systems. According to NASA, 'three human bodies were used in the tests at Ohio State University Medical Center' in 2007. Even if the results of the experiments helped NASA, one of its spokesman said that the space agency followed widely accepted ethical standards for using cadavers donated for research. He added that 'it's a socially awkward topic. The bodies are all carefully handled through all of the tests. We follow ethical medical procedures with these bodies that have been donated for science.' In fact, NASA relies more on computer simulations than on experiments with cadavers, but read more for additional details and a picture showing NASA's Orion six crew configuration and its potential risks of injuries during landings."

Dutch engineers have built the third generation of the DelFly autonomous air vehicle. The DelFly Micro made its first public flight earlier today in Delft. This micro air vehicle weighs only 3 grams and has a wingspan of 10 centimeters. This very small remote-controlled aircraft carries a 0.4 gram camera. The DelFly Micro, which looks like a dragonfly, can fly for 3 minutes at a maximum speed of 5 meters/second. It could be used for observation flights in difficult-to-reach or dangerous areas. But read more for additional details and watch pictures of the DelFly Micro and its family of autonomous air vehicles.

Portuguese researchers have created the first paper-based transistors. To be more precise, they've made the first field effect transistors (FET) with a paper interstrate layer. According to the research team, these new transistors offer the same level of performance as 'state-of-the-art oxide based thin film transistors (TFTs) produced on glass or crystalline silicon substrates.' Possible applications for these paper-based transistors include new disposable electronics devices, such as paper displays, smart labels, bio-applications or RFID tags. But read more for additional details and see a picture of the first paper interstrate TFTs.

Roland Piquepaille writes "If you're as afraid as I am when you enter your dentist's office, I have some excellent news. The London-based Society of Chemical Industry reports that UK researchers have developed a new technology that spots tooth decay almost as soon as it's begun. This new technology is based on Raman spectroscopy, a method often used to distinguish between different chemicals. According to the researchers, 'the new technique would mean that dentists could simply shine a laser on a tooth to determine whether it was healthy or not.' Human trials should start soon and it's highly possible that your dentist will use this technology in about five years. But read more for additional references and see how Raman spectroscopy can be used to investigate human teeth."

You all know that incandescent bulbs are pretty inefficient, converting only 10% of electricity into light — and 90% into heat. Light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, could soon replace incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs in our homes. They are more efficient and environmentally friendly. But LED lights are currently too expensive because they are using a sapphire-based technology. Now, Purdue University researchers have found a way to build low-cost and bright LEDs for home lighting. According to the researchers, the LED lights now on the market cost about $100 while LED lights based on their new technology could be commercially available within a couple of years for a cost of about $5. It would also help to cut our electricity bill by about 10%, but read more for additional references and an overview of this promising research work.

Roland Piquepaille writes "As you probably know, graphene is a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms packed in a dense two-dimensional honeycomb lattice. And it recently became very popular recently as a basis for future ultra-fast transistors. Now, according to Science News, U.S. researchers are using graphene to image individual hydrogen atoms via a standard transmission electron microscope (TEM) technology. Until now, heavy atoms, such as carbon, could be detected by electron microscopy. But the physicists from Berkeley, California, have shown it's possible to track the smallest atoms, hydrogen ones. But read more for additional references and spectacular images of isolated hydrogen atoms on a graphene membrane."

Roland Piquepaille writes "Swiss researchers have developed a very-high-resolution x-ray microscope. Their approach combines two well-known microscopy techniques, coherent diffractive imaging (CDI) and scanning transmission x-ray microscopy (STXM). As a result, the new system offers both the high penetration power of x-rays and high spatial resolution. This method will allow other scientists to look inside semiconductors or biological samples without altering them. It could be used to identify nanometer defects in buried semiconductor devices or to improve the performance of future semiconductor devices. The research team doesn't give details on availability of this microscope. But read more for additional details and pictures created with this new microscopy method and by another method used to product dark-field X-ray images."

Roland Piquepaille writes "Spanish scientists have developed a new eco-friendly air-conditioning system. The researchers are relying on solar energy for cooling their devices. They claim that their technology does not harm the ozone layer and reduces the use of greenhouse gases. The research team has 'designed and built an absorption chiller capable of using solar and residual heat as an energy source to drive the cooling system.' Even if this research effort looks promising, the scientists don't provide any information about availability or pricing for such devices. But read more for additional details and a picture showing a prototype of a solar cooled air-conditioning system, which really looks like an ordinary air-conditioning one."

Roland Piquepaille writes "A worldwide outbreak of avian or 'bird flu' is still not excluded and health officials recognize that new drugs are needed since new strains of the virus appear everyday. Now, U.S. scientists are using supercomputers to find new drugs to fight the virus and to stay ahead of these mutations. And it is encouraging to learn that a team of UC San Diego scientists has isolated more than two dozen promising and novel compounds from which new 'designer drugs' might be developed to combat this disease. The 27 new identified compounds appeared to be equal or stronger inhibitors than currently available anti-flu drugs like Tamiflu. But read more for additional details and pictures showing how the researchers worked."

Roland Piquepaille writes "The Ikhana unmanned aircraft system has been used by NASA last year to fight wildfires from the sky and this month to provide images of current Californian wildfires to authorities (link to NASA images). But Ikhana is also used to evaluate advanced sensing technology installed on its wings to improve its efficiency. The new sensors, which incorporate fiber optic sensing technology, are located side by side with traditional sensors. As said one NASA researcher, 'there are 3,000 sensors on Ikhana that are imperceptibly small because they're located on fibers approximately the diameter of a human hair.' But read more for additional details and a picture of these sensors taken from above."

Roland Piquepaille writes "In a 2006 study, U.S. researchers have shown that psilocybin, a substance contained in 'sacred mushrooms,' produced substantial spiritual effects — when administered under controlled conditions. The scientists recently interviewed the volunteer subjects and they've noted that most of them 'continued to say 14 months later that the experience increased their sense of well-being or life satisfaction.' These lasting benefits of 'magic mushroom' therapy — which included a single dose — are giving new ideas to the researchers. Why not using hallucinogens to treat cancer-related anxieties? New studies are being planned to answer this question and the researchers are recruiting volunteers. But read more for additional references and pictures of the living room-like session room used in the Johns Hopkins hallucinogen research studies."

Japanese researchers have found a way to build long threads of DNA using miniaturized hooks and bobbins. In fact, they've demonstrated how to manipulate delicate DNA chains without breaking them. They've designed these laser-directed microdevices to pick up and manipulate individual molecules of DNA. The scientists have used optical tweezers to catch and move these microdevices, which could be used in the future to detect genetic disorders such as Down's syndrome. But read more for additional details and references, including diagrams showing the chromosomal DNA manipulation methods used by the scientists to build long DNA strands.

Roland Piquepaille writes "German researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute have introduced their third generation of household robots, the Care-O-Bot 3. The previous generations of this mobile robot assistant were designed to assist elderly or handicapped people in daily life activities. But now, this new 1.45 meter-high robot is intended to be an artificial assistant always at your service, even if you're young and in good health. It moves on 4 spherical wheels in any direction and has a large array of sensors designed to ensure it will never hurt you. With it 3-finger hand, it can handle a bottle of apple juice or champagne put on its front tray. It will then wait until you ask it to pour a glass for you. Sorry, I don't know when it becomes commercially available. But read more for additional details and a photo of Care-O-bot 3 serving a drink."