 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Research Watch Blog
| Has quantum biology's time come? |
| January 28, 2011 |
| The idea that
quantum processes, particularly entanglement, could play a role in
consciousness has intrigued physicists, philosophers and New Age dreamers
for decades. But the improbability of fragile quantum states surviving
in living beings... |
| As the worm turns — on demand |
| January 24, 2011 |
| We’ve seen remote control rats and remote control cockroaches... |
Papers of Note
Form
networks of channels in rubber, make the right shapes from the rubber, and
you have soft robotic grippers that can handle delicate objects.Soft Robotics for Chemists, Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Make robots that change form as they learn to walk, let them evolve over generations, and you have robots that more quickly learn to walk and end up with sturdier gaits.
Morphological change in machines accelerates the evolution of robust behavior, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Stories Elsewhere
Plastic artificial retina is a hit with nerve cells, New Scientist
(Source: Nature Communications paper A hybrid bioorganic interface for neuronal photoactivation)
Making a worm do more than squirm, Science News
(Source: Nature Methods papers Optogenetic manipulation of neural activity in freely moving Caenorhabditis elegans and Real-time multimodal optical control of neurons and muscles in freely behaving Caenorhabditis elegans)
Entangled En Masse: Physicists Crank Out Billions of Entangled Nucleus-Electron Pairs on Demand, Scientific American
(Source: Nature paper Entanglement in a solid-state spin ensemble)
The Healing Power of Light, Technology Review
(Source: Angewandte Chemie International Edition paper Repeatable Photoinduced Self-Healing of Covalently Cross-Linked Polymers through Reshuffling of Trithiocarbonate Units)
An Eyeball Camera, Now with Zoom, Technology Review
(Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper Dynamically tunable hemispherical electronic eye camera system with adjustable zoom capability)
Features
Nano
cancer drugs move to the next level: humansA growing number of cancer therapies packaged in infinitesimal particles are making their way to patients.
Can nanotech beat cancer?
Cancer will always be with us in some form, but the fear and devastation it causes could be history within a generation. We'll have the tiniest of things to thank for it.
View from the High Ground
Email conversations with researchers in high places.
How It Works
Get the nitty-gritty on nanotechnology, biochips, self-assembly, DNA technologies, quantum cryptography, and more.
Buy an ad link |
Blog RSS feed
See our sister publication
Energy Research News
| "In
most areas of science and technology, the origins of new breakthroughs
can still be found in the work of a small number of people -- or even
a single person -- working at their own pace on their own questions,
pursuing things that interest them. " - Jon Kleinberg, Cornell University |
| "Funding,
of course, enables discoveries but does not guarantee they will occur.
Lack of funding can almost certainly guarantee that discoveries will
not be made." - Ronald Arkin, Georgia Institute of Technology |
| "Physics
is to the rest of science what machine tools are to engineering. A
corollary is that science places power in our hands which can be used
for good or ill. Technology has been abused in this way throughout
the ages from gunpowder to atomic bombs." - John Pendry, Imperial College London |
Thanks to Kevin from
GoldBamboo.com
for technical support