Tag: innovation

Self-folding Gripper for Capturing Single Cells: Wafer Fabricated for Cellular Analysis

Neha Shukla

Human body is composed of different biological cells. Each cell is unique. Research shows that a sample of biopsied tumor consists of various distinct cells. These cells differ in their rate of proliferation, responsiveness to drugs, potential metastasis and so on. Therefore, it is essential for researchers to understand the behavior of individual cells and then accordingly design therapy and treatments, for which seizing individual cell is very important.

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MindRider: Brain Monitoring Systems for Mapping Mental Experience

Pooja Kashyap

Researchers at the MIT Media Lab are working towards creating a novel helmet system that would reflect bike rider’s mind in the real time. It will be able to mind map rider’s engagement level from relaxed state to focused level while navigating through the routes. Mapping Mental Experience Sensors are embedded within the foam of the helmet that would act as a bridge between the brain waves and translating those ripples into the display of level of engagement. The technique is based on EEG (electroencephalography) where the embedded sensors act…

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Thermometer for Ultrasensitive Measurements: Temperature Control

Pooja Kashyap

Physics researchers at the University of Adelaide have successfully created a rare thermometer, efficiency of which is thrice the existing best thermometers so far. Reporting further, the experts expatiated that they were able to gauge temperature with the ‘nano-Kelvin thermometer’, through an accuracy of thirty billionths of a degree. Researchers asserted that they have reached the highest level of precision in terms of measuring temperature at room temperature. Talking about the innovation, Professor Luiten one of the lead researcher said that temperature at subatomic level is not static rather fluctuating.…

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Neuroprosthetic Devices on Deep Brain Simulation Technology: Implants to Restore Memories

Pooja Kashyap

A new initiative by the US military program focuses around treating defense personals from the after effects of being into war. In majority of cases, soldiers who come back from battle zones develop adjustment problems or psychiatric disorders to be more specific. For instance, combatants were diagnosed with “shell shock” during the era of WW I, “battle fatigue” during WW II and in Vietnam War, it was PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. Backed up by President Obama’s brain initiative, DARPA has received a funding of $70 million from the US to…

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Learning Process helps Survival of New Neurons: Using Brain at Optimal Levels

Pooja Kashyap

In an interesting study in the field of neuroscience, researchers have postulated that learning during the early ages of life helps in the survival of brain cells. Early learning also influence the functioning of brain cells after puberty claimed the same team. An experiment on rats demonstrated that brain cells that were exposed to learning survived with respect to the brain cells in animals that were not allowed to master a particular task. In addition, it was observed that the latter set of animals died quickly too.

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Internal Monitoring System Responsible for Neural Self-Regulation: The Most Complex Machinery

Pooja Kashyap

Parts of any machinery can be replaced, modified or tampered with only when the machine is in an off mode. It is nearly impossible to fiddle around with any operational part while it’s functioning. However, the same principle does not apply for our biological process, especially when we are talking about a nerve cell. This continuous rebuilding without affecting the overall operations has always been neuroscience’s biggest questions. Many theories have been put forward but none of them has ever reached any concrete census. Lately, Eve Marder, the Victor and…

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Nano- Bots to Enter into the Arteries for Delivering Drugs: High-Performing Nanomotors

Pooja Kashyap

Very soon, we would be witnessing a 3D world on microchips. During the beginning of this year, researchers at Penn State University demonstrated the movement of nanomotors in controlled manner inside living cells. And now, experts at the University of Texas Austin have developed one of the fastest spinning and relatively longer shelf life nanomotor. The newly fabricated nanomotor has an ability of spinning continuously for nearly 15 hours with a speed of 18k rpm. This is an innovative product in the league where the existing nanomotors display an efficiency…

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Stimulating Neurons can modify Human Learning: Curbing the Addictive Behaviors

Pooja Kashyap

Neuroscientists at the University of Pennsylvania have put forth a research as per which excitation of a set of dopamine-sodden neurons within the brain has substantial chances of altering the learning process. These neurons are present in substantia nigra, the grey matter in the midbrain. Stimulating this patch of the brain has resulted in altered learning by swaying people to reiterate physical actions leading to positive reinforcement producing immediate reward. For the experiment, eleven individuals who were going through deep brain stimulation (DBS) treatment for Parkinson’s disease were taken into…

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Right Enzymes Replicated the Semi-Synthetic DNA: Expanded-DNA Biology

Pooja Kashyap

Scientists always dig deeper into the functioning of nature in order for their better understandings. At times, these trials and errors have given rise to serendipity or accidental discoveries in science, amongst others, recent being how sliding saltwater over graphene generated electricity. While at other times, these experiments go beyond the natural order of workings even at the miniscule level.

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Predictive Power of Brain: Similar Activity Patterns are Exhibited amid Speakers and Listeners

Neha Shukla

At times, won’t we experience that while conversing with someone, the other person just say what were thinking or were about to spill out the same topic. And then we mutter, “what a coincidence” or as I say, “great minds thing alike” 🙂 well, this actually is not the case, neuroscientists have discovered new findings about the role of the brain during a communication. They say that people often predict what the speaker is about to say, because the brain activity of the listener is similar to the speaker. 

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Heatmaps Reveal Correlation Between Emotions and Body Sensations

Wa'd Abuzurayk

Science has proven times and times again that emotions cannot be separated from our physical well-being. Various emotional conditions play an important role in our biology. Brain activity and hormones and examples of things that are affected by one’s various emotional states. A recent study demonstrated that different emotions are judged to correlate with different body parts. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, was conducted by a team of bio-medical engineers, with 700 participants from three countries, those being Finland, Sweden and Taiwan. The…

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X-Ray Triggered Nanoparticle Photosensitizer: Photodynamic Therapy

Pooja Kashyap

While working upon new security-related radiation detection, researchers at the University of Texas, Arlington discovered an advance in photodynamic cancer therapy. Wei Chen, professor of physics at the UT Arlington, noticed an odd luminescence emitted by copper-cysteamine (Cu-Cy) nanoparticles when while working on an experiment where he was exposing the nanoparticles to X-rays. Upon further investigation, he found out that the luminescence was the byproduct of lost energy that the particles were diffusing. The same byproduct is also utilized in photodynamic cancer therapy to destroy cancer cells.

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