Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Paper That Folds by Itself to Plane or Boat- It is No Magic, Watch it Happens

Have you seen a paper fold itself into a plane or boat. That is what the scientists at Harvard and MIT invented - a programmable matter by folding.

It might remind you of Origami. In fact the program relied on the ancient art of origami. In the video below you will see how a single thin sheet composed of interconnected triangular sections could transform itself into a boat or plane-shape - all without the help of skilled fingers.
The sheet, a thin composite of rigid tiles and elastomer joints, is studded with thin foil actuators (motorized switches) and flexible electronics.

The senior authors on the study were Robert J. Wood, associate professor of electrical engineering at the Harvard and Daniela Rus, a professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department at MIT. The fancy folding techniques were inspired in part by the work of co-author Erik Dermaine, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT and one of the world's most recognized experts on computational origami. The recent was published in the most recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, also known as PNAS.

"Smart sheets are Origami Robots that will make any shape on demand for their user," says Rus. "A big achievement was discovering the theoretical foundations and universality of folding and fold planning, which provide the brain and the decision making system for the smart sheet."

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This news item was adapted from the science news online publication SciGuru.com

No Tattoos or Genital Piercing for Minors in Minnesota

In Minnesota, minors can no longer get tattoos or pierced genitals, regardless of whether they have a parent's permission.

Florida outlaws personal ownership of Burmese pythons and other reptiles, and cracks down on horse thieves!

People with permits to carry concealed weapons can carry guns into restaurants that serve alcohol in Virginia and New Mexico.

Ohio will require insurance plans governed by state law to offer parents the chance to buy coverage for their children up to age 28, going beyond the federal law.

These interesting laws coming into effect on July 1 were reported in yahoo news today.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Wash liver with soap before transplatation to boost graft survival?

A group of researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital used a gentle detergent on liver for 3 days to remove cells and leave a scaffold with the architecture of the original liver tissue. After this process they transferred good liver cells back into the matrix and found that this works quite well.



Complete news story is availble at the Science news website.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Challenge Ideas Invited for Oil Spill Clean Up- Millions in Prize

Multimillion dollar prize for winning idea! The X Prize Foundation announced today that it is developing a multimillion-dollar “oil spill cleanup X challenge” to come up with solutions to cleaning up shorelines and open water fouled by oil leaking from the BP Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico.
More of this news available at CNN

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Organ on Chip- A Lung-on-Chip to Test Drugs!

It might sound like a fiction, to put an organ on a chip! Harvard biologists recently developed a lung on chip tool. They speculate that this can be used to test the effect of drugs and other agents before going to clinical trial.

Biopharmaceutical companies spend millions in the discovery of drugs. This kind of tools can cut down the cost.
This may also provide more valuable information on how human lungs responds, without testing on humans.

When we breathe oxygen enters blood through a three-layer interface of lung cells. The lung-on-a-chip microdevice takes a new approach to tissue engineering by placing two layers of living tissues-the lining of the lung's air sacs and the blood vessels that surround them-across a porous, flexible boundary. Air is delivered to the lung lining cells, a rich culture medium flows in the capillary channel to mimic blood and cyclic mechanical stretching mimics breathing. The device was created using a novel microfabrication strategy that uses clear rubbery materials.




More information on this news can be found at the science news website SciGuru.com

Thursday, June 24, 2010

BP Well Cannot be Plugged?

Well Pipe Below the Sea Floor Broken? Keith Olbermann show says the BP well is essentially unstoppable. Is this correct? He says the broken well tilting 10-12 degree may be due to this structural problem. See the video.

Keith's program of June 23, 2010 can be viewed on MSNBC website

Friday, June 18, 2010

Xenoblade the next top selling game

Xenoblade has already made its way in Japan. Introduced this month, Xenoblade has already taken the top spot as a best seller in Japan. Xenoblade is a role-playing video game from Nintendo for the Wii console.

According to the siliconera.com one of the writers, Tetsyya Takahashi got the idea for Xenoblade on a train ride. Takahashi said: “Wouldn’t it be interesting if people lived on the bodies of something huge, like gods?”. Xenoblade is expected to continue its huge ride in North America, when it is released.



A list of the new best sellers can be found at Nintendo world report.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Sink Hole in Guatemala- History Repeats? Or Photo Mixup?

The following are two similar sinkholes formed in Guatemala City, one this weekend and the other one in 2007. You will be amazed to see the similarities.

CNN reports late last night that "115 people have died after a tropical storm battered Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador over the weekend". CNN adds: "In the northern part of Guatemala City, the downpour created a giant sinkhole that swallowed up a space larger than the area of a street intersection. Residents told CNN that a three-story building and a house fell into the hole". The following is a copied photo from the CNN website (For original high quality image visit CNN website).



The complete story available at: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/05/31/honduras.storm.emergency/index.html?hpt=C1

The following is a Februaly 26, 2007 National Geographic report:

Giant Sinkhole swallows Guatemala Homes. "After fumbling for weeks, part of a poor Guatemala City neighborhood plummeted some 30 stories into the Earth on Friday"


The National Geographic photo and news:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070226-sinkhole-photo.html

Is it a repetition by chance?