Novel standing electric wheelchair follows user to aid transitioning
From Superinnovators 30/11/23 A novel electric standing wheelchair shared on social media appears to use an intelligent control system to follow its user, making it easier for them to transition from another wheelchair. The manufacturer is currently unknown but similar standing wheelchair models without the user-following functionality include Z01 from Chinese company JBH ($2,590) and […]
Marvelous: Deutsche Bank Park’s retractable roof disappears into scoreboard
From Superinnovators 29/11/23 Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt boasts a striking retractable roof designed by Gerkan, Marg and Partners and constructed by ECCON and Max Bögl. The revamped stadium opened in 2006 at a cost of €150 million. Its advanced steel cable drive system facilitates swift transitions, opening or closing within 15-20 minutes in a […]
Coffee grounds may hold key to preventing neurodegenerative diseases
From University of Texas at El Paso 29/11/23 Neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s, affect millions of people in the United States, and the cost of caring for people who live with these conditions adds up to hundreds of billions of dollars each year. Now, researchers from The University of Texas at El Paso […]
Acer i-Seed: the first eco-friendly fluorescent artificial seed for monitoring soil temperature by using drones
From Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia – IIT 29/11/23 A new kind of artificial seed to sense environmental parameters without impacting on the health of environment is the invention coming from the IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology) in Genova, Italy. The soft robot, named Acer i-Seed, is inspired by natural Acer seeds and […]
Density matters for better battery material performance, researchers find
From Tsinghua University Press 28/11/23 Zinc — cheap, abundant, environmentally friendly — may be the answer to better batteries, but there’s a major problem: Aqueous zinc ion batteries (AZIBs) cannot match lithium-ion batteries in terms of power output. To test what electrode material composition might be able to bring AZIBs up to par, a research […]
Laser-powered ‘tweezers’ reveal universal mechanism viruses use to package up DNA
From eLife 27/11/23 Researchers have used laser-powered ‘optical tweezers’ to reveal a universal motor mechanism used by viruses for packaging their DNA into infectious particles. The research, published as a Reviewed Preprint in eLife, is described by the editors as a fundamental study that could be paradigm-shifting for our understanding of how viral DNA motors […]
Biomaterial developed at São Paulo State University proves capable of accelerating bone regeneration
From Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo 27/11/23 Researchers at São Paulo State University’s Botucatu Institute of Biosciences (IBB-UNESP) in Brazil have developed a novel biomaterial that speeds up osteoblast (bone cell) differentiation. The invention has the potential to be used in future in bone regeneration, bone grafting and dental implant […]
How bloodstain tails can reveal new forensic details
From American Institute of Physics 27/11/23 Forensic science has captured the public imagination by storm, as the profusion of “true crime” media in the last decade or so suggests. By now, most of us know that evidence left at a crime scene, such as blood, can often reveal information that is key to investigating and […]
How do we learn? Neuroscientists pinpoint how memories are likely to be stored in the brain
From Trinity College Dublin 26/11/23 What is the mechanism that allows our brains to incorporate new information about the world, and form memories? New work by a team of neuroscientists led by Dr. Tomás Ryan from Trinity College Dublin shows that learning occurs through the continuous formation of new connectivity patterns between specific engram cells […]
Hydrogen detected in lunar samples, points to resource availability for space exploration
From U.S. Naval Research Laboratory 24/11/23 U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) researchers have discovered solar-wind hydrogen in lunar samples, which indicates that water on the surface of the Moon may provide a vital resource for future lunar bases and longer-range space exploration. Space-based resource identification is a key factor in planning for civilian- and government-led […]