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With photosynthesis, plants are already busy converting sunlight into usable energy. The question then is how to use plants' natural solar-power abilities to generate energy for us. In this video, an MIT researcher explains how to do just that. More »
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For years, the energy industry has been looking to seaweed to become the next big source of biofuel. But the algae plant has its drawbacks. Much of its energy is stored in a form of sugar that is difficult to tap into; this snag drives the cost of biofuel produced from seaweed up, and its viability as an alternative to petroleum-based fuels down. More »
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The world's smallest ear doesn't belong to any animal. Instead, it's a tiny piece of gold suspended in a laser beam. It can hear sounds a million times fainter than any human ear can, making it a powerful acoustic microscope. More »
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One of the big advantages of genetically modified corn was its built-in pesticides, as it produces a toxin that kills destructive bugs. Now its resistance to pests is wearing off. Just as Jurassic Park taught us, life found a way. More »
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It may not look like much at first, but the video you're watching represents a milestone in the field of brain-computer interfaces. More »
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Will the wonders of carbon nanotubes never cease? Engineers have now used everyone's favorite cylindrical übermolecules to create artificial muscles that can contract and twist, in a manner not unlike like the muscles found in elephant trunks and squid tentacles. The upshot? Researchers say these tiny little motors could soon be used to propel microscopic nanobots throughout your bloodstream. More »
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Back in August, we told you about a free course on artificial intelligence being offered by Stanford University, and co-taught by two world-renowned AI experts. The class officially started today, so if you managed to register for it on time, then good on you. More »
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Ready for a piece of technology you can rampantly steal for NaNoWriMo? How about secretly encoded E. coli that glow and can be used to send messages? Researchers have developed a way of getting seven strains of the bacteria to fluoresce in seven different colors. You can use them to create a secret message that starts as an apparently empty petri dish - but grows into an encoded message after delivery. They've dubbed the system SPAM: Steganography by Printed Arrays of Microbes, and it only gets cooler from here. More »
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It could be the first step towards truly immersive virtual reality, where you can feel the computer-generated world around you. An international team of neuroengineers has developed a brain-machine interface that's bi-directional. That means the monkeys can use this brain implant not only to control a virtual hand, but also to get feedback that tricks their brains into "feeling" the texture of virtual objects. More »
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This picture of a glowing cat has not been altered in any way. The cat, on the other hand, has been altered quite a bit. A team of researchers has genetically engineered it to express green fluorescent protein (aka "GFP," originally found in jellyfish), which makes the cat glow green under ultraviolet light. More »
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According to reports from the World Health Organization, the number of blood donors worldwide is decreasing, while the global need for safe blood of all types continues to rise. Blood is running out. More »
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Monsanto Company, the agricultural biotech corporation that everyone loves to hate, is the world leader in the production of genetically modified (GM) crops — plants that, among other things, prevent yield-decimating pests from overrunning agricultural production. More »
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A team of engineers today announced a discovery that could change the world of electronics forever. Called an "epidermal electronic system" (EES), it's basically an electronic circuit mounted on your skin, designed to stretch, flex, and twist — and to take input from the movements of your body. More »
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For people who suffer chronic back pain from degenerated or diseased spinal discs, there are few options. Surgeons can implant a plastic or metal spinal disc to replace your damaged one. But metal and plastic prosthetics can only do so much; surgeries are costly and recovery times are long. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5825764&view=rss&microfeed=true Researchers have developed a brain implant that augments the brain capacity of rats, boosting their ability to recall tasks. Reports Benedict Carey in the New York Times: More »
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Queen bees are much larger than worker bees, and live years longer, for one reason. They gorge on a sugary protein called "royal jelly." Now a scientist has made ultra-large flies using royal jelly too. Are humans next? More »
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Ever wonder how we're going to create humans who can breathe underwater? Of course you do. Now a study published this week about how algae insinuate themselves into salamander embryos (and DNA) could provide the beginnings of an answer. More »
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We usually think of fossil fuels as an energy source, but petroleum is also the raw materials used in all the world's plastics. Now leftover chicken feathers could allow us to keep using plastics in a world after oil. More »
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One of the reasons bananas enjoy their rampant popularity is that the kinds you buy in stores are hideously mutated versions of the original, bred to not have the inedible seeds their wild brethren so proudly display. Thanks to new research we may soon be seeing other fruit making the transition to seedlessness, and filling our grocery shelves. Bioengineers have successfully tweaked the custard apple, charimoya (called by Mark Twain "the most delicious fruit known to men") and the sugar apple — all of which are delicious but require nimble teeth if you want to avoid their seeds. These plants could provide new farming opportunities and delights in the produce section - plus, there's a possibility the research could be adapted to even more fruit. Get ready for the delicious, seedless future! More »
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NASA's Human Research Program is all about risk reduction, finding ways to counter fatigue and mitigate radiation damage, among other potential issues in space travel. But what if a different kind of program had evolved? More »
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In a first for medical science, rats were able to breathe and oxygenate their blood using lungs that had been grown in the lab. This a major step toward being able to grow replacement organs. More »
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Splice, opening Friday, deals with the abuse of science and the ways in which genetic engineering could go horribly wrong. But it's not an anti-science film, insists director Vincenzo Natali, who talked to us at Wondercon. More »
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A few years from now, your blood transfusion may contain synthetic blood cells (pictured) almost indistinguishable from the real thing. Except in one important way: These synth-cells can be stuffed with drugs for special delivery via your circulatory system. More »
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The book trailer for Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan takes us into his steampunk-flavored alternate universe, where the death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand triggers an all-out war where mechanical weapons face off against airships made from giant squid and whales. More »
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We're closer than ever to turning our bodies into computers. A study published this week in Science demonstrates how to turn DNA into a simple counter. That means your DNA could eventually be reprogrammed with a shut down command. More »
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The next time a viral infection starts spreading zombie-like madness across England (or wherever), we might put a halt to the plague before the sequel ever gets made. Our secret weapon will be a designer drug created by plugging some numbers into a mathematical formula. Rice University researchers have developed just such a formula, and it can show us exactly how to force a virus to mutate uncontrollably, to the point that the virus mutates itself out of existence. More »
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Your next prosthetic arm will be almost as good as the one you were born with: It will fuse with your existing skeleton. Veterinarians at North Carolina State University have developed a technique for attaching prosthetic limbs directly to the underlying bone structure in the remaining limb portion. Called "osseointegrated prosthetics," these limbs knit themselves with the patient's bone, allowing more for natural movement and avoiding some of the problems of "strap-on" prosthetics. A German Shepherd named Cassidy was the first canine patient to receive an osseointegrated prosthetic, and the researchers feel advances in fabrication and materials will allow them to shift the technology to humans in the near future. More »
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All viruses have an organic outer shell, but it turns out that with a little genetic tinkering they can be trained to produce an inorganic outer shell made of gold or cobalt oxide. Angela Belcher's lab at MIT has created an entire factory of trained viruses whose genes have been reprogrammed to grow battery ingredients. They're also growing ingredients for solar cells, as well as computer monitors and water-purification systems. More »
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Today a man in Finland has a new jaw, thanks to specially-treated stem cells harvested from his fatty tissues and grown in his stomach. It's not the first time researchers have grown bones inside a stomach (we featured a picture of some bioengineered teeth grown in rats' stomachs), but it's the first successful surgery of this type with a human. A group of Finnish doctors today announced the transplant was successful and that nobody looking at the patient would be able to tell that he'd had the procedure done. More »
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Spunk-seeking nanotechnology experts at Cornell say that sperm would make the perfect nanobots of the future. Robot sperm (pictured here in an artist's rendering) would deliver new DNA or other molecules to your body by scooting through your bloodstream using a tail powered by its own energy source. Find out why sperm are self-contained power-houses after the jump. More »
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