Posts tagged MIT

The prospect of less painful medicine shots without needles came a step closer this month, as US researchers revealed how they have developed a device that delivers a controlled, tiny, high-pressure jet into the skin without using a hyperdermic needle.

While there are already several jet-devices on the market, they tend to be of an “all or nothing” design that delivers the same amount of drug to the same depth each time.

However the new jet-injection device that researchers at MIT have engineered can be programmed to deliver medicine into the skin in a range of doses to variable depths in a controlled manner.

A statement released earlier this week gives details of the new technology, with comments from study leader Ian Hunter, the George N. Hatsopoulos Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, and some members of his team. Earlier this year, the journal Medical Engineering & Physics also published a paper where they describe the progress of their development.

(Source: futurenow321)

Forget about putting solar panels on the roof. Miles Barr wants to make curtains, cell-phone cases, and even shirtsleeves that generate electricity from the sun.

Barr, who earned a chemical engineering Ph.D. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is an expert in chemical vapor deposition. That’s a process in which two vapors are piped into a sealed chamber, where they react, creating a thin, solid film around an object inside. The technique isn’t new; it’s been used to add a waterproof layer to fabric, for example. Barr successfully adapted the technology to “print” an electrically active solar cell coating onto ordinary materials, starting with a sheet of paper in 2010. “When we first did that, it really sparked a lot of imagination,” says Barr, 28. “If you can put a solar cell on paper, what else can you put it on?”

Chemical vapor deposition changes the quality of a surface without using extreme temperatures or solvents that might cause damage. When Barr’s team at MIT figured out how to use the process to make solar cells, he says, they went to an office supply store and loaded up on stuff to test it on: “Saran Wrap, copy paper, tissue paper, almost anything you can imagine,” he says. Barr maintains the technique could be adapted for mass production. Because it relies on abundant organic molecules, rather than heavy metals or rare elements, it could be cheap, too. Right now, Barr’s solar cells convert only about 2 percent of the energy in light into electric power, compared with 10 percent to 20 percent for conventional photovoltaic panels, though he thinks he can eventually raise the efficiency to 10 percent.

(Source: futurenow321)

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Honda have finally realized that developing and selling a complete humanoid robot at affordable prices is going to take longer than they expected when they invested millions of dollars in the development of ASIMO. Now, Honda wants to take advantage of some of the technology developed for ASIMO to build less complete but still massively useful robotic devices.

As a result, a couple of days ago, Honda unveiled a new robotic leg device which functions similarly to an exoskeleton but has a rather different design as you can tell from the photo at the left. The new device will be of great assistance for the elderly and the disabled.

(Source: futurenow321)

New analysis of 36-year-old data, resuscitated from printouts, shows NASA found life on Mars, an international team of mathematicians and scientists conclude in a paper published this week.

Further, NASA doesn’t need a human expedition to Mars to nail down the claim, neuropharmacologist and biologist Joseph Miller, with the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, told Discovery News.

“The ultimate proof is to take a video of a Martian bacteria. They should send a microscope — watch the bacteria move,” Miller said.

“On the basis of what we’ve done so far, I’d say I’m 99 percent sure there’s life there,” he added.

(Source: futurenow321)

(Source: futurenow321)

The impressive thing here is that the project seems to have figured out basic locomotion with its silicone arms.As well as how to integrate those SMA arms into the system. There’s no word that we can find on exactly where all this is going, but again, if the videos are any indication, the OCTOPUS project is going somewhere.

(Source: futurenow321)

When a pair of B-1 Lancer pilots visited Popular Mechanics offices last week, the talk turned to the rebalance and how it will affect their jobs. The B-1 Lancer is a supersonic bomber that carries twice the payload of a B-52. Its three bomb bays can carry long-range missiles, precision JDAMs (Joint Direction Attack Munitions), sea mines, and “dumb” bombs. The Air Force also equipped the aircraft with modern targeting pods that can watch over a wide area or focus on an individual person on foot. “B-1s have dropped more bombs in America’s last three wars than any other aircraft,” says U.S. Air Force Col. David Been, commander of the 7th bomber wing.

(Source: futurenow321)

The study was and remains nothing if not controversial, with economists doubting its predictions and decrying the notion of imposing limits on economic growth. Australian researcher  Graham turner has examined its assumptions in great detail during the past several years, and apparently his latest research falls in line with the report’s predictions, according to Smithsonian Magazine. The world is on track for disaster, the magazine says.

The study, initially completed at MIT, relied on several computer models of economic trends and estimated that if things didn’t change much, and humans continued to consume natural resources apace, the world would run out at some point. Oil will peak (some argue it has) before dropping down the other side of the bell curve, yet demand for food and services would only continue to rise. Turner says real-world data from 1970 to 2000 tracks with the study’s draconian predictions: “There is a very clear warning bell being rung here. We are not on a sustainable trajectory,” he tellsSmithsonian.

(Source: futurenow321.blogspot.com)