Hiding behind the current COVID-19 pandemic, another serious public health threat is looming – the rise of antibiotic-resistant “superbugs.” New antibiotics are needed to help turn the tide, but developing them takes time. Now, IBM Research has put AI to work on the task, producing two promising new drug candidates very quickly. The discovery of penicillin was one of the […]
IBM Develops AI To Invent New Antibiotics
Retro Wooden Camera
Long before the first 3D TVs or movies, people were enjoying three-dimensional stereoscopic photographs. The new Minuta Stereo camera allows users to create their own, in a decidedly vintage fashion. In a nutshell, stereoscopic photography involves taking two photos of the same subject from slightly different angles, then viewing those photos through a device with two side-by-side eyepieces. Because one […]
Colour Blindness Correcting Contacts
While there already are glasses that help compensate for red-green color blindness, the lenses often can’t be shaped to users’ prescriptions. That’s why scientists are now developing a new type of corrective contact lens – and it was inspired by old gold-containing glass. First of all, color blindness-correcting contact lenses do also already exist. Like the glasses, they have a […]
Travel-Friendly Electric Guitar
Utah’s Klos Guitars has been making acoustics and ukuleles fashioned from carbon fiber for a number of years now, and while there have been instruments you can plug into an amp, the company hasn’t ventured into all electric guitar or bass territory, until now. Like some of the models gracing the Klos catalog, the new electric guitar and bass options […]
Skin Swabs For Parkinson
As it stands, diagnosing Parkinson’s can be a complicated process that relies on symptoms, careful examinations and case-by-case assessments of physicians, but lately we’re seeing how more clear cut signs of disease could arise in the gut, our tears and even our skin. Scientists at the University of Manchester (UM) focusing on this lattermost possibility have made a significant discovery, […]
DNA Storage
A team of researchers led by professor of pharmaceutical sciences John Chaputa at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) is developing methods for storing vast amounts of data on strands of synthetic DNA that are much tougher than natural DNA. The technique has already been used to encode the US Declaration of Independence on a single molecule. One of the […]
Compact Imaging System
Things don’t fall from the sky without a damn good reason. US lawyers Baum Hedlund, who specialize in litigation concerning transport accidents, lists human errors as the main reasons (53 percent) for aircraft crashes, followed by manufacturing defects (20 percent) and poor maintenance. Take a Boeing 737, for example, that in 2011 lost a section of its roof while in […]
Samsung Raises Stakes With Sensor
Smartphones have revolutionized photography, making it vastly easier than ever before to capture and share great images. And on the other side of the coin, camera advances are probably responsible for a lot of smartphone sales these days; phones have been more than good enough in most areas for many years now, and a terrific new camera provides a compelling […]
MIT Creates Camera Lens
Modern zoom lenses work wonderfully, but crack one open and you’ll be greeted by a truly terrifying degree of micro-mechanical complexity, with 20 or more polished glass elements set to move in different directions at varying rates when you work the zoom or focus rings. The fact that these things last for years and years of heavy use while getting […]
Wazai 2.0 Smart Plant
Have you ever found yourself with a struggling houseplant, demanding to know why it won’t thrive? Let the Wázai 2.0, the world’s smartest bonsai, turn you into a master home gardener. Finally, you can have a plant that tells you exactly what it needs and when. This smart bonsai plant comes with its own monitoring app to update you on […]