BBC News – Researchers develop new system to ‘eliminate’ batteries

Researchers at the University of Bedfordshire have developed a new technique for powering electronic devices.

The system, developed by Prof Ben Allen at the Centre for Wireless Research, uses radio waves as power.

Believed to be a world first, the team claims it could eventually eliminate the need for conventional batteries.

The university has now filed a patent application to secure exclusive rights to the technique.

‘Spare time’

Prof Allen and his team, including David Jazani and Tahima Ajmal, have created a system to use medium wave frequencies to replace batteries in small everyday gadgets like clocks or remote controls.

The new technique uses the “waste” energy of radio waves and has been developed as part of the university’s research into “power harvesting”.

Prof Allen said that as radio waves have energy – like light waves, sound waves or wind waves – then in theory these waves could be used to create power.

“The emerging area of power harvesting technology promises to reduce our reliance on conventional batteries,” he said.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

The emerging area of power harvesting technology promises to reduce our reliance on conventional batteries”

Prof Ben Allen University of Bedfordshire

“It’s a really exciting way of taking power from other sources than what we would normally think of.”

via BBC News – Researchers develop new system to ‘eliminate’ batteries.

So, every now and again we see information about this kind of thing. I still can’t help getting excited about it, and hopefully this FINALLY will be something we’ll be seeing within a year or two. This would be fantastic (and not more than a little awesome for homeless people who have to constantly seek a place to plug their devices in to recharge (if it’s news to you that many homeless people have devices, you clearly don’t realize how cheap devices have gotten…my phone was $10, no contract), or somehow find a way to go buy batteries).

Battery Desalinates Seawater | Chemical & Engineering News

For the first time, researchers have designed an electrochemical cell that can desalinate seawater Nano Lett., DOI: 10.1021/nl203889e. They think that its cost and efficiency eventually could improve on standard techniques of purifying seawater.

Worldwide demand for freshwater is skyrocketing as the population increases. Many of today’s desalination plants use reverse osmosis or evaporation, both of which require enormous amounts of energy to supply heaters or high-pressure pumps. To find cheaper, room-temperature, energy-efficient solutions, many researchers are looking to nanomaterials and electrochemistry.

The new system uses both. It first draws ions from seawater into a pair of electrodes. As the researchers pass current through the electrodes, electrochemical reactions drive chloride ions into a silver electrode and sodium ions to an electrode made from manganese oxide nanorods. Next, the researchers remove the desalinated water and release the trapped ions into a separate stream of waste seawater by reversing the direction of the electrical current. Although the pilot experiments were not automated, the researchers say that a pump could automate the process.

via Battery Desalinates Seawater | Chemical & Engineering News.

This is pretty awesome. Throw one of these on every boat ever, and you suddenly get rid of the whole “water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink” syndrome that has killed more than a few people over the years. And of course, being able to provide drinking water to less developed areas, or just areas with less potable fresh water, is also a major plus. THAT’s the power of German engineering.

Fracture Putty Can Heal a Broken Bone In Days – Slashdot

“If we break a bone it can take weeks or even month to heal depending on the type and severity of the break. In some extreme cases the complexity of the fracture can make it impossible to heal properly. Researchers at the University of Georgia Regenerative Bioscience Center have come up with a new solution for healing broken bones that cuts recovery time to days. It relies on the use of stem cells that contain a bone generating protein. These cells are injected in gel form directly into the area of the broken bone, where they quickly get to work forming new bone. The end result is very rapid recovery, possibly sidestepping the muscle atrophy that can come with long bone healing times. The gel has been proven to work on animals as big as a sheep and has funding from the DoD. Lets hope it is proven to work on humans in the coming years.”

via Fracture Putty Can Heal a Broken Bone In Days – Slashdot.

So, this is fucking AMAZING. Always nice to see medicine making legitimately visible progress. Now, if we could only stop bones from being breakable in the first place…

Neuroscience could mean soldiers controlling weapons with minds | Science | The Guardian

Soldiers could have their minds plugged directly into weapons systems, undergo brain scans during recruitment and take courses of neural stimulation to boost their learning, if the armed forces embrace the latest developments in neuroscience to hone the performance of their troops.

These scenarios are described in a report into the military and law enforcement uses of neuroscience, published on Tuesday, which also highlights a raft of legal and ethical concerns that innovations in the field may bring.

The report by the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science, says that while the rapid advance of neuroscience is expected to benefit society and improve treatments for brain disease and mental illness, it also has substantial security applications that should be carefully analysed.

The report’s authors also anticipate new designer drugs that boost performance, make captives more talkative and make enemy troops fall asleep.

“Neuroscience will have more of an impact in the future,” said Rod Flower, chair of the report’s working group.

“People can see a lot of possibilities, but so far very few have made their way through to actual use.

“All leaps forward start out this way. You have a groundswell of ideas and suddenly you get a step change.”

via Neuroscience could mean soldiers controlling weapons with minds | Science | The Guardian.

Something about the potential for this technology following a horrible path kind of irks me, but then, considering that we’ve deployed killer drones across the planet, destroyed a nuclear power plant with a computer virus, and pump our poorest citizens full of drugs and then hand them automatic weapons (and then some…), hey, may as well get interested in the science itself. I really am quite curious though as to whether this kind of thing may be getting interfered with through, say, emotional instability, or mental problems, that may even go undetected, or arise through war experiences. I could see a gun being directly controlled by, say, a PTSD flashback as being a very dangerous tool.

Oh, and my bad for totally spacing on this blog lately…I’ve still been posting this kind of thing to Diaspora, but I really should keep myself in the habit of using this, as it’s a bit more capable of doing various things.

Cloaking magnetic fields: The first ‘antimagnet’ device developed

 

 

Spanish researchers have designed what they believe to be a new type of magnetic cloak, which shields objects from external magnetic fields, while at the same time preventing any magnetic internal fields from leaking outside, making the cloak undetectable.

The development of such a device, described as an ‘antimagnet’, could offer many beneficial applications, such as protecting a ship’s hull from mines designed to detonate when a magnetic field is detected, or allowing patients with pacemakers or cochlear implants to use medical equipment.

In their study, published today, Friday 23 September, in the Institute of Physics and German Physical Society’s New Journal of Physics, researchers have proved that such a cloak could be built using practical and available materials and technologies, and used to develop an array of applications.

Take, for example, a patient with a pacemaker undergoing an MRI scan. If an MRI’s large magnetic field interacts with the pacemaker, it can cause serious damage to both the device and the patient. The metal in the pacemaker could also interact with and distort the MRI’s large magnetic field, affecting the machine’s detection capabilities.

The researchers, from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, are aware that the technology could also be used by criminals to dodge security systems, for example in airports and shops, but they are confident that the new research could benefit society in a positive way, while the risks could be minimized by informing security officials about potential devices, enabling them to anticipate and neutralize problems.

via Cloaking magnetic fields: The first ‘antimagnet’ device developed.

So…does this mean we can have EMP resistant electronics now?

Marijuana blocks PTSD symptoms in rats: study – Yahoo! News

 

 

Marijuana administered in a timely fashion could block the development of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in rats, a new study conducted at Haifa University has found.

The study, which was conducted by researchers at the university’s psychology department and published in the Neuropsychopharmacology journal, found that rats which were treated with marijuana within 24 hours of a traumatic experience, successfully avoided any symptoms of PTSD.

“There is a critical ‘window of time’ after trauma, during which synthetic marijuana can help prevent symptoms similar to PTSD in rats,” said Dr Irit Akirav who led the study.

In the first part of the experiment, rats were exposed to extreme stress, and were found to display symptoms resembling PTSD in humans.

They were then divided into four groups, with the first given no marijuana, the second given a marijuana injection two hours after being exposed, the third after 24 hours and the fourth after 48 hours.

The researchers examined the rats a week later and found that the group that had not received marijuana, as well as the one that received the injection after 48 hours, displayed PTSD symptoms and a high level of anxiety.

Although the rats in the other two groups also displayed high levels of anxiety, the PTSD symptoms had totally disappeared.

“This shows that the marijuana administered in the proper ‘window of time’ does not erase the experience, but can help prevent the development of PTSD symptoms in rats,” Akirav said.

“We also found that the effects of the cannabinoids were mediated by receptors in the amygdala area of the brain, known to be responsible for mediation of stress, fear and trauma,” she noted.

While a decisive parallel between emotional states in humans and animals cannot always be drawn, Akirav was confident psychiatrists will take her research forward to implement it on humans.

via Marijuana blocks PTSD symptoms in rats: study – Yahoo! News.

Support our Troops! Legalize Weed! Hmm, suddenly the same movement? We find ourselves living in strange days… At the very least, this indicates a major portion of the country that could benefit from medical marijuana, and in the meantime, turn it into a MAJOR industry, without even necessarily going out and giving everyone access to weed (if you’re of that authoritarian type). Either way, the science speaks for itself. Denying this stuff to people who have fought for our country, condemning them by the thousands to a lifetime of PTSD symptoms, while knowing that it can prevent such symptoms, is beyond abominable.

Physics rule broken? European scientists claim neutrinos measured traveling faster than light – The Washington Post

A pillar of physics — that nothing can go faster than the speed of light — appears to be smashed by an oddball subatomic particle that has apparently made a giant end run around Albert Einstein’s theories.

Scientists at the world’s largest physics lab said Thursday they have clocked neutrinos traveling faster than light. That’s something that according to Einstein’s 1905 special theory of relativity — the famous E equals mc2 equation — just doesn’t happen.

“The feeling that most people have is this can’t be right, this can’t be real,” said James Gillies, a spokesman for the European Organization for Nuclear Research. The organization, known as CERN, hosted part of the experiment, which is unrelated to the massive $10 billion Large Hadron Collider also located at the site.

Gillies told The Associated Press that the readings have so astounded researchers that they are asking others to independently verify the measurements before claiming an actual discovery.

“They are inviting the broader physics community to look at what they’ve done and really scrutinize it in great detail, and ideally for someone elsewhere in the world to repeat the measurements,” he said Thursday.

Scientists at the competing Fermilab in Chicago have promised to start such work immediately.

“It’s a shock,” said Fermilab head theoretician Stephen Parke, who was not part of the research in Geneva. “It’s going to cause us problems, no doubt about that — if it’s true.”

The Chicago team had similar faster-than-light results in 2007, but those came with a giant margin of error that undercut its scientific significance.

Other outside scientists expressed skepticism at CERN’s claim that the neutrinos — one of the strangest well-known particles in physics — were observed smashing past the cosmic speed barrier of 186,282 miles per second (299,792 kilometers per second).

University of Maryland physics department chairman Drew Baden called it “a flying carpet,” something that was too fantastic to be believable.

via Physics rule broken? European scientists claim neutrinos measured traveling faster than light – The Washington Post.

Um… There goes physics?

Study concludes Gulf War syndrome involves real brain damage | The Raw Story

 

 

For the last twenty years, veterans of the Persian Gulf War of 1991 have been complaining of a range of ailments, including pain, fatigue, and problems with memory and concentration. And for just as long, the causes have remained uncertain and there has been a tendency by the military to attribute the complaints to post-traumatic stress disorder.

Now a long-term study at the University of Texas in Dallas has used a new technique to measure blood flow in the brains of sufferers and has detected “marked abnormalities” in brain function that can probably be attributed to low levels of exposure to sarin nerve gas. This abnormal blood flow has persisted or even worsened over the eleven years of the study.

“The findings mark a significant advancement in our understanding of the syndrome, which was for years written off by the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs as a form of combat stress rather than an objectively diagnosable injury,” reports the Dallas Observer.

via Study concludes Gulf War syndrome involves real brain damage | The Raw Story.

About time we got some good solid evidence. Now, in only another 20 or so years (or however long it really takes before most of the veterans suffering from this syndrome have died off), perhaps Congress will actually provide assistance to our wounded veterans.

Scientists find gene that controls chronic pain | Reuters

British scientists have identified a gene responsible for regulating chronic pain, called HCN2, and say their discovery should help drug researchers in their search for more effective, targeted pain-killing medicines.

Scientists from Cambridge University said that if drugs could be designed to block the protein produced by the gene, they could treat a type of pain known as neuropathic pain, which is linked to nerve damage and often very difficult to control with currently available drugs.

“Individuals suffering from neuropathic pain often have little or no respite because of the lack of effective medications,” said Peter McNaughton of Cambridge’s pharmacology department, who led the study.

“Our research lays the groundwork for the development of new drugs to treat chronic pain by blocking HCN2.

“Pain is an enormous health burden worldwide, estimated to cost more than 200 billion euros $281 billion a year in Europe and around $150 billion a year in the United States.

Studies show that around 22 percent of people with chronic pain become depressed and 25 percent go on to lose their jobs. A 2002/03 survey by a group called Pain in Europe estimated that as many as one in five Europeans suffers chronic pain.

via Scientists find gene that controls chronic pain | Reuters.

Well, this looks like a very good breakthrough for those affected by chronic neuropathic pain. The number of people who, due to this malady, end up addicted to painkillers (often even resulting in illicit use of opioids such as heroin, and the overdoses, imprisonment, ostracism, and other complications that arise therefrom), or otherwise find themselves completely incapacitated. I’ve seen enough people in this position that this news is very exciting. Now, to wait and see how much they want to bleed people for on the price tag…

Quantum Processor Hooks Up with Quantum Memory – Technology Review

Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, have become the first to combine a quantum processor with memory that can be used to store instructions and data. This achievement in quantum computing replicates a similar milestone in conventional computer design from the 1940s.

Although quantum computing is now mostly a research subject, it holds out the promise of computers far more capable than those we use today. The power of quantum computers comes from their version of the most basic unit of computing, the bit. In a conventional computer, a bit can represent either 1 or 0 at any time. Thanks to the quirks of quantum mechanics, the equivalent in a quantum computer, a qubit, can represent both values at once. When qubits in such a “superposition” state work together, they can operate on exponential3639a15bbc11323de686b4988fbbcf3dly more data than the same number of regular bits. As a result, quantum computers should be able to defeat encryption that is unbreakable in practice today and perform highly complex simulations.

Linking a processor and memory elements brings such applications closer, because it should make it more practical to control and program a quantum computer can perform, says Matteo Mariantoni, who led the project, which is part of a wider program at UCSB headed by John Martinis and Andrew Cleland.

The design the researchers adopted is known as the von Neumann architecture—named after John von Neumann, who pioneered the idea of making computers that combine processor and memory. Before the first von Neumann designs were built in the late 1940s, computers could be reprogrammed only by physically reconfiguring them. “Every single computer we use in our everyday lives is based on the von Neumann architecture, and we have created the quantum mechanical equivalent,” says Mariantoni.

The only quantum computing system available to buy—priced at $10 million—lacks memory and works like a pre-von Neumann computer.

via Quantum Processor Hooks Up with Quantum Memory – Technology Review.

This is absolutely HUGE. Sure, it’s only currently 2 qubits of RAM, and thus isn’t currently useful yet, but it provides a model for further growth of a product for which the sky is only a moderate obstacle, and limits are as of yet unperceived. Even Science Fiction has a ways to go with exploring the quantum computer phenomenon, mostly because the authors (like most people) simply can’t wrap their heads around how much POWER these things grant us.

The bad news? Kiss all of your strong encryption good-bye once these things get just a little more memory added to them. Not to say that we won’t have strong encryption in the future, but all of our current algorithms will be cut to ribbons by the advent of the quantum computer, and we don’t yet have anything that has been tested (hard to test when the quantum computer isn’t here yet) that will stand up to the power they hold. Basically, strong encryption is great, but if it being broken in 2015 is a problem for you, you probably should just not let it out at all.