Health Tech

3D computer model helps screen millions of chemo drugs

Researchers have long used still images of proteins known to be related to recurring cancers in an attempt to understand exactly why these proteins make some chemotherapies fail.

Now, biochemists at Southern Methodist University are using a 3D computer model of the human protein P-glycoprotein -- believed to play a pivotal role in the failure of chemotherapy in many recurring cancers -- to screen more than 8 million potential drug compounds in the hunt for one that will help stop this failure.

"This has been a good proof-of-principle," biochemist John G. Wise said in a school news release. &… Read more

Internet usage patterns may signal depression, study finds

The amount and type of online activity Internet users exhibit may be indicators of depression, findings a group of researchers hopes will lead to software tools to help identify depressive behavior.

People who showed symptoms of depression tended to use the Internet differently than those who didn't show signs of depression, researchers said in a New York Times opinion piece today. Some of that behavior included obsessively checking e-mail, watching lots of videos, and switching frequently among multiple apps, according to a new study by researchers from the Missouri University of Science and Technology.

The researchers asked 216 college … Read more

MIT video tech could be a remote pulsometer -- or a lie detector

In the Fox TV show "Lie to Me," Dr. Cal Lightman was able to tell whether someone was lying by observing what he called "micro expressions" on their faces. The twitch of an eye, the quickening of a pulse, the beads of sweat on a brow -- he looked for clues too subtle for most of us to catch.

Now, researchers out of MIT are developing a video technology they call Eulerian Video Magnification that could do that and more -- by amplifying the motion in a standard video sequence to detect information not visible to … Read more

New flu detection test can be carried in a first aid kit

After the H1N1 "swine flu" virus jumped from pigs to human in 2009, more than 18,000 people died and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called it the first global pandemic in more than 40 years.

Today, biomedical engineers out of Brown University and Memorial Hospital in Rhode Island hope that their prototype flu detector biochip will help contain the next major flu outbreak by enabling the quickest, most accurate, and most affordable diagnosis possible.

The team's assay, which they call SMART (short for A Simple Method for Amplifying RNA Targets), consists of a series … Read more

How the White House is aiming the X Prize model at big problems

On October 4, 2004, the idea of incentive prizes hit the mainstream when Burt Rutan and his team at Scaled Composites launched SpaceShip One into orbit for the second time and won the $10 million Ansari X Prize.

Since then, prizes like that have become more and more common, and though the X Prizes are still the gold standard, there are now similar competitions from medical research to science to business, and beyond.

Not long ago, however, the U.S. government got into the business (PDF) of using competitions like these to come up with new ways to solve existing … Read more

Eyejusters double-lens glasses offer DIY vision correction

Fixed-lens glasses are so last year -- if U.K.-based company Eyejusters has anything to say about it, that is.

Eyejusters' "SlideLens" technology enables users to turn a dial on one of the glasses' temple arms to slide two lenses across one another and thereby adjust the focus. That just might help some of the world's estimated 670 million people who need glasses but don't have them manipulate their own prescriptions.

Eyejusters calculates that its two types of glasses -- positive power (to correct near-sightedness) and negative power (to correct far-sightedness) -- could help roughly 90 percent of people whose poor vision can be corrected using glasses.… Read more

Building a better bladder for an H20-thirsty world

How do you design a water bottle for the end of the world?

That's the question that was put to the team at Japanese design-engineering firm Takram, which has worked with, among others, Toshiba, NTT Docomo, and Toyota. Their novel response? Forget about the bottle and create artificial organs that could be implanted in humans to make their bodies more efficiently use what water is available should resources become scarce.… Read more

Olympus confirms 7 percent reduction in workforce

As expected, Olympus has confirmed that it'll be reducing its workforce by 7 percent, as the company tries to regain its footing in the wake of its crippling scandal.

According to Olympus, the company will cut 2,700 employees from its global workforce between now and March 31, 2014. The move is part of a broader restructuring that could see major changes across the company's subsidiaries, global production sites, and other divisions.

The cuts Olympus plans to make are actually a bit deeper than expected. Last week, Japanese news outlet Nikkei Business Daily reported that the company would cut approximately 2,500 jobs from its payroll. … Read more

AIRbudz prototype earbuds let the ambient noise in

I don't run without music. I just get too bored. But a few beats into songs by, say, The Knife, and my feet are pounding the pavement hard. I'm also perpetually safety-conscious, though, which means I tend to avoid Portland's beautiful but busy waterfront loop in favor of quiet streets with low traffic.

So I have long hoped for the perfect sports headphones that are durable, comfortable, and let the ambient noise in. Enter AIRbudz, the alternative earbud attachments that Utah-based entrepreneur (and jogger) Tammy Erdel is raising funds for on Kickstarter.

AIRbudz deal with external sound blockage by incorporating air channels into their 3D-printed buds that quite simply let ambient sound stream in. The ambient noise is obviously still competing with whatever sounds are pumping through the headphones, but that sound doesn't appear to be in any way altered or compromised.… Read more