Category: Technology & Devices
Electric cooker offers an effective decontamination method for N95 masks
Researchers have found out that electric cookers, such as rice cookers, are able to decontaminate N95 respirator masks inside out while also maintaining their filtration and fit. N95 respirators are recommended personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect against airborne droplets and particles, including the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Severe shortage of N95 masks during the […]
Breakthrough 3D imaging device can scan inside blood vessels
A team of scientists and engineers from the University of Adelaide, Australia, and the University of Stuttgart, Germany, have developed a novel imaging device so small that it can navigate the blood vessels of mice. The miniature endoscope, at the thickness of a human hair, offers unprecedented abilities to 3D-scan the delicate vascular structures within […]
New graphene-modified facemasks to offer more effective protection against coronavirus
A consortium of Spanish scientists and companies are working on the development of new and safer prophylactic facemasks to combat the viral coronavirus. The masks will be made of non-woven textiles specially modified with graphene and its derivative materials e.g. polypropylene, which is the material used in most of today’s facemask filters. “Our intention is […]
Scientists invent electrical scaffolding-like material to help heal broken bones
Current implants or scaffold materials that mimic the body’s own electrical field, to stimulate bone cells into reproducing, are bulky, inconvenient and need to be surgically removed once the broken bone has healed. A new, wirelessly powered innovation by scientists at the University of Connecticut (UConn), US, now ensures that the implants would promote bone […]
MIT’s innovative surgical tape can patch up wet organs and peel off harmlessly
Last year, a team of MIT engineers developed an impressive alternative to sutures – a surgical adhesive or double-sided tape that could stick to the wet surfaces of organs and even attach implantable medical devices to tissues. Now, the engineers have introduced a way to safely remove the adhesive when it’s no longer needed, without […]
Wrinkles and spots allow new diagnostic AI to estimate peoples’ ages
An artificial intelligence (AI) system developed by neuroinformatics engineers at the Institute for Neural Computation at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), Germany, can estimate a person’s age and ethnic origin almost as well as humans. The system is a “hierarchical neural network” that has learned to assess faces – particularly, the tell-tale signs of a normal aging […]
Alternative, rice-sized implant could help treat neurological disorders
Certain neurological conditions require battery-powered implants to treat them, e.g. neuron-stimulating electrodes may be surgically inserted into the brain while a separate battery-powered pacemaker-like device is implanted under the skin elsewhere in the body. These might be a hassle to replace. Scientists at Texas-based Rice University, US, led by graduate student Amanda Singer, have instead […]
Diabetics could one day use remote-activated insulin-releasing device instead of needles
People with diabetes have trouble metabolising glucose, asbeta cells in the pancreas are unable to sense spikes in blood sugar levels and produce insulin in response. While the problem is usually overcome using regular insulin injections, researchers from ETH Zurich, in Switzerland, have developed a prototype device that allows users to instead give themselves a […]
Necklace ECG enables fast and easy monitoring for a trial fibrillation
A trial fibrillation – essentially an abnormal heart rhythm – is a major, often symptomless cause of strokes. An experimental new necklace designed by scientists at the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) could greatly help people most at risk of atrial fibrillation by ensuring fast, simple and periodic checks of their heart. Just like a […]
Sensors within prosthetic arm makes it “feel” like a natural limb
A new neuromusculoskeletal prosthesis is said to imitate a natural limb almost exactly, because users can control it with their own minds in a realistic way; it also feeds the sensation of touch back to the user’s brain. According to the international team of scientists who developed the sensing system built into the prosthetic, the […]
