You Can See, Hear And Feel Quakes Now

You can now eavesdrop on some of the world’s largest earthquakes from deep inside the Earth, thanks to a new project that lets you seem hear and feel seismic waves created by massive temblors. A group of scientists and sound artists at US’s Columbia University, who leads the Seismic Sound Lab, have turned seismic waves into sound and images for an educational performance about earthquakes. The SeismoDome project coupled the sound of seismic waves to visualizations that researcher’s team created using computer code written by an astrophysicist to visualize models of formation of stars. The team sped up both the sound and visuals by a factor of several thousand. They also filtered the sound and visualized data to illuminate different types of waves in the Earth.

A Robotic Surgeon With A Sense Of Touch

Researchers, including one of Indian origin, claimed to have developed the world’s first robotic surgical system that can give surgeons the sense of touch while they conduct keyhole surgery using a computer. The HeroSurg robot is a major breakthrough to current technology, which now limits robotic surgery to the sense of sight. This means laparoscopic or keyhole/micro surgery will be safer and more accurate than ever before by reducing trauma and lowering risk of blood loss and infection. HeroSurg was developed by engineers from Deakin University in Australia and Harvard University in the US. The HeroSurg’s sense of touch, provided through technology known as haptic feedback, would lead to better patient outcomes.

The major drawback of the current system in the lack of tactile feedback. Tactile feedback allows a surgeon to differentiate between tissues and to ‘feel’ delicate tissues weakened by infection or inflammation and dissect them more carefully. Tactile feedback will allow them to use finer and more delicate sutures in microsurgery. The haptics technology would also improve the ability to distinguish between tissues involved with cancer from normal tissue. HeroSurg’s Unique features include collision avoidance capability, modularity and automatic patient/bed adjustment.

New Drug May Help Treat Alcohol Addiction

A new medicine that targets parts of the brain’s stress system may help in curing people with alcohol use disorder (AUD). Researchers conducted a clinical trial of a new compound, called ABT-436, designed to block the effects of vasopressin, a neuropeptide produced in the brain’s hypothalamus. Vasopressin helps to regulate the pituitary adrenal axis and other brain circuits involved in emotion. As such, it plays a role in regulation stress, anxiety and their interaction with AUD. Researchers recruited 144 alcohol dependent adult men and women for the 12 week study. During a 28 day baseline period, female participants consumed at least 28 drinks per week, while male participants consumed at least 35 drinks per week. Participants were then randomized to receive either placebo tablets or ones containing ABT-436 compound. Researchers found that participants who received ABT-436 abstained from alcohol for more days than those who were given the placebo. Participants who reported high levels of stress appeared to respond better to ABT-436 abstained from alcohol for more days than those who were given the placebo. Participants who reported high levels of stress appeared to respond better to ABT-436. Smokers also benefitted from ABT-436. Experts suspect that ABT-436 targeted the same areas in the brain that related to withdrawal and stress, and, in the process, influenced both tobacco and alcohol use disorders.

Dental Fillings Can Damage Your Heart, Brain And Kidney

People with more than eight dental fillings may have 150% more mercury in their blood, increasing the risk of brain, heart and kidney damage. Dental surface restorations or known as dental fillings is composed of an amalgamation of mercury, silver, tin and other metals. The research analyzed data from 15,000 individuals and is the first to demonstrate a relationship between dental fillings and mercury exposure. Tooth decay is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases. But the kind of materials the dentist uses is not something’s that is rally discussed.

Researchers further analyzed exposure by specific types of mercury and found a significant increase in methyl mercury, which is the most toxic form, related to dental fillings. This result suggests the human gut micro biota, microorganisms living in the intestines, may transform different types of mercury. People with dental fillings who are also exposed to mercury from other sources, such as seafood, are most at risk. The study also looked at dental composite resins, a mercury free alternative for fillings that can release bisphenol A which may cause reproductive damage.

New Tech A Safer Option Than Transmission Through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth

Scientists have devised a way to send passwords through the human body rather than over airborne radio waves like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth which are vulnerable to hacking. University of Washington computer scientists and electrical engineers have devised a way to send secure passwords through the human body using benign, low-frequency transmissions generated by fingerprint sensors and touchpad’s on consumer devices. If you want to open a door using an electronic smart lock, you can touch the knob and touch the fingerprint sensor on your phone and transmit your credential through your body to open the door, without leaking the personal information over the air.

Sending a secret code over radio waves like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth means anyone can eavesdrop. Fingerprint sensors have so far been used as an input device. They have shown for the first time that these sensors can be re-purposed to send out information confined to the body. The process employs a sequence of finger scans to encode and transmit data. The team achieved rates of 50 bits per second on laptop to touchpad’s and 25 bits per second with fingerprint sensors – fast enough to send a password or code through the body and to a receiver within seconds. In tests with 10 different subjects the researchers were able to generate usable on-body transmissions on people of different height, weight and body types.

The system also worked when subjects were in motion. They showed that it works in different postures, like standing, sitting and sleeping. They can also get a strong signal throughout your body. The receivers can be anywhere – on your leg, chest, hands, - and still work. Normally, sensors use these signals to receive input about your finger. However, the engineers devised a way to use these signals as output that corresponds to data contained in a password. When entered on a smartphone, data that authenticates your identity can travel securely through your body to a receiver embedded in a device that needs to confirm who you are. The technology could also be useful for secure key transmissions to medical devices which seek someone’s identity before sending or sharing data.

Nanoparticle Jabs To Help Treat Arthritis

Injecting nanoparticles into a joint after an injury may suppress inflammation, reduce destruction of cartilage and lower the risk of osteoarthritis. When researchers inject steroids into an arthritis joint, the drug remains for up to a few hours. In the new study, the nanoparticles were injected shortly after an injury, and within 24 hours, the nanoparticles were at work taming inflammation in the joint and remained in cartilage cells for weeks. The nanoparticles used were more than 10 times smaller than a red blood cell, which helped them penetrate into tissues. The particles carried a peptide derived from a protein called melittin that was modified to enable it to bind to a molecule called small interfering RNA. The melittin delivered siRNA to the damaged joint, interfering with inflammation in cells.

In The Wild, Goldfish Turn From Pet To Pest

Two decades ago, someone dropped a handful of pet goldfish into a creek in southwestern Australia. Those goldfish grew, swam downstream, mucked up waters wherever they went and spawned like mad, taking over the whole river. Researchers believe this scenario is caused of a feral goldfish invasion in Vasse River. Since 2009, they have been running a control programme that involves catching goldfish and freezing them to death. Despite this, goldfish in the Vasse are thriving, with some growing as long as 16 inches and weighing up to four pounds.

Goldfish are one of the world’s worst invasive aquatic species. Goldfish in the Vasse River, though, have the fastest known growth rate of goldfish in the world. They are an ecological nightmare. Goldfish swim along the bottom of rivers, uprooting vegetation and releasing nutrients that trigger algal growth. They transmit exotic diseases and parasites. Females produce up to 40,000 eggs each year and are capable of interbreeding with other species of wild carp. With no natural predators, a large portion of goldfish offspring survive to reproductive age, continuing a cycle of rampant over population.