Faster Internet Everywhere Always

Vern Fotheringham is CEO of Kymeta, which was recently spun out of Intellectual Ventures to commercialize a novel satellite antenna that could bring broadband access anywhere on earth, and for considerably cheaper than existing technologies. We caught up with Fotheringham to learn how you get better Wi-Fi on an airplane, what invisibility and connectivity have in common, and why our YouTube videos still frustratingly stall on our smartphones.

Kymeta’s mTennaTM products will simplify the connection between mobile users and high capacity Ka-band communications satellites, allowing passengers on planes, trains, boats, automobiles and other vehicles to enjoy the same kind of broadband experience that they already have at home or in the office.

Kymeta is working on a wide range of innovative and highly competitive products, including: Portable Satellite Hotspot (PSH) Laptop-sized, transportable end-user terminals delivered to customers via established and specialized distributors.

Source:
http://www.fastcompany.com/3000807/faster-internet-everywhere-always?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+fastcompany%2Fheadlines+(Fast+Company)
http://www.kymetacorp.com/

Vitamin B3 'helps kill superbugs'

Vitamin B3 could be the new weapon in the fight against superbugs such as MRSA, researchers have suggested.

US experts found B3, also known as nicotinamide, boosts the ability of immune cells to kill Staphylococcus bacteria. B3 increases the numbers and efficacy of neutrophils, white blood cells that can kill and eat harmful bugs. The study, in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, could lead to a "major change in treatment", a UK expert said.

The scientists used extremely high doses of B3 - far higher than that obtained from dietary sources - in their tests, carried out both on animals and on human blood.

Prof Adrian Gombart, of Oregon State University's Linus Pauling Institute, who worked on the research, said: "This is potentially very significant, although we still need to do human studies.

"Antibiotics are wonder drugs, but they face increasing problems with resistance by various types of bacteria, especially Staphylococcus aureus. "This could give us a new way to treat Staph infections that can be deadly, and might be used in combination with current antibiotics. "It's a way to tap into the power of the innate immune system and stimulate it to provide a more powerful and natural immune response."

Prof Mark Enright, of the University of Bath, said: "Neutrophils are really the front line against infections in the blood and the use of nicotinamide seems safe at this dose to use in patients as it is already licensed for use.

"This could cause a major change in treatment for infections alongside conventional antibiotics to help bolster patients immune system.

"I would like to see in patient clinical trials but cannot see why this couldn't be used straight away in infected patients."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19367277

'Clot nets' help stroke recovery

Using small nets to extract blood clots from patients' brains may be the future of stroke care, according to two studies. Clots block blood vessels, starving parts of the brain of oxygen, which leads to symptoms such as paralysis and loss of speech. Two studies, presented in the Lancet medical journal, suggest extracting clots with nets could improve recovery.

Two similar devices were compared with the current coil methods. One trial of 113 patients showed 58% had good brain function after three months, compared with 33% of those treated with the coil method, as well as a lower death rate. Another study in 178 patients showed almost double the chance of living independently after treatment.

One of the researchers involved, Prof Jeffrey Saver from the University of California, Los Angeles, told the BBC that these techniques would become more common, as they are more likely to clear clots than drugs.

"Clot-busting drugs only partially reopen 40% of large blocked arteries. These devices partially reopen 70-90% of large blocked arteries. "Second, these devices can be used in patients in whom it is not safe to give 'clot busting' drugs, such as patients taking anticoagulant medications, patients who had recent surgery, and patients who are between 4.5 to eight hours after stroke onset." In the long term he can see drugs being used as a first option and then clot removal if the drugs fail or cannot be used.

Responding to the research, the Stoke Association's Dr Clare Walton said clot-busters did not work for all patients so new techniques could help many patients. She added: "Clot retrieval devices have the potential to be used with more stroke patients and are better at removing blood clots than clot-busting drugs. "We are very excited about this potential new treatment and look forward to further developments." Dr Philip Gorelick, from Michigan State University, said the studies were "major steps forward in the successful treatment of acute ischaemic stroke, and pave the way for new treatment options". The research was published to coincide with a European Society of Cardiology meeting in Munich.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19355202

Self driving autonomous cars

Driverless cars at Griffith University

Dr Jun Jo from Griffith’s School of Information and Communication Technology, Professor Kiesu Kim from a Korean University and Helensvale State High school students are currently developing the first driverless cars in Australia.

"Our aim is to develop an eco-friendly car as well as a driverless intelligent car" Dr Jo said.
"It will be man controlled by early 2010 and driverless by 2012 which is not that far away".

The most significant obstacles facing these vehicles could be human rather than technical: government regulation, liability laws, privacy concerns and people's passion for cars and the control it gives them.

Source:
http://www.griffith.edu.au/create-whats-next/driverless-cars
http://www.griffith.edu.au/science-aviation/intelligent-control-systems-laboratory/research/research-topics/cooperative-driverless-vehicles
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/23/android_powered_autonomous_vehicle/

Date: 14-08-2012

Autonomous Flying cars: Grounded reality or ready for take off?

Ever increasing number of cars on the roads means that a vehicle that can soar into the skies remains an attractive option.  “We need to try to relive congestion on our road, and one potential solution is an aerial vehicle” says Dr Michael Jump, a lecturer in aerospace at Liverpool University in the UK.

The team intends to draw on drone technology to automate as much of the flying as possible. Current fly-by-wire technology, as well as some of the features being used in the development of autonomous or robotic vehicles could all help fleets of these vehicles fly along predefined highways – and crucially avoid each other.

But perhaps the biggest problem the team aim to tackle are the regulatory and safety issues, as well as those of public opinion.  “The technology is the easiest bit,” says Dr Jump.

When pressed about a likely launch date, the project scientists are reluctant to commit but have no doubts that it will come to pass. “We are trying to apply rational scientific engineering approach to this problem” says Dr Jump. “What sounds strange and wonderful today can very often become tomorrow’s reality.”

Date: 06-06-2012

Permission to test autonomous functions on Berlin roads
07.12.2011 AutoNOMOS Labs finally received an exceptional permission to test autonomous functions in real traffic situations. The matured safety concept which we developed with the support of TÜV NORD and our new sponsor HDI Gerling Industry Insurances includes a safety driver (acting as a “driving teacher”) and a copilot who both can take control of the car in situations which seem too risky for autonomous driving.

Facts:

• Exceptional permissions for the State of Berlin are examined and approved by the LABO (Landesamt für Bürger- und Ordnungsangelegenheiten) according to official StVO regulations.
• The name of our latest test-vehicle is “MadeInGermany” (MIG) our first car was named “Spirit of Berlin”.
• AutoNOMOS Labs is a project at the Freie Universität Berlin, Artificial Intelligence Group, financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in a market-oriented program called ForMaT.
• The car is equipped with several cameras, RADAR- and LIDAR-(Laser) sensors to “perceive” its surrounding and a high-precision GPS System. The Laser-Scanner on the roof detects obstacles around the car. It does not take pictures for google street view
• The vision of autonomous driving is shared with fellow robotic researchers around the world. Many of them – like ourselves – are former contestants of the DARPA Challenges.

Source: http://autonomos.inf.fu-berlin.de/news/permission-test-autonomous-functions-berlin-roads
Links:

• DARPA urban grand challenge autonomous cars 
• MIT DARPA Grand Challange
• Standford University DARPA Grand Challange
• Tartan racing 

Datum: 29-05-2011
Autonomous road train project SARTRE completes first public road test

SARTRE, also known as Safe Road Trains for the Environment, aims to develop strategies and technologies that will allow vehicles to operate on normal public highways with significant environmental, safety and comfort benefits. Basically, the idea was to have a lead driver tow a train of cars behind it. Tests have been going on at Volvo’s test track in Sweden last year.

“People think that autonomous driving is science fiction, but the fact is that the technology is already here,” says Linda Wahlström, project manager for the SARTRE project.

SARTRE is a joint venture between Ricardo UK Ltd, Idiada and Robotiker-Tecnalia of Spain, Institut for Kraftfahrwesen Aachen (IKA) of Germany, SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, Volvo Car Corporation and Volvo Technology of Sweden.

Source: http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/05/autonomous-road-train-project-sartre-completes-first-public-road-test/

Datum: 09-May-2012
Google gets Nevada driving licence for self-drive car

Engineers at Google have previously tested the car on the streets of California, including crossing San Francisco's Golden Gate bridge. According to software engineer Sebastian Thrun, the car has covered 140,000 miles with no accidents, other than a bump at traffic lights from a car behind.

Bruce Breslow, director of Nevada's Department of Motor Vehicles, says he believes driverless vehicles are the "cars of the future". Nevada changed its laws to allow self-driven cars in March. The long-term plan is to license members of the public to drive such cars.

Google's car has been issued with a red licence plate to make it recognisable. The plate features an infinity sign next to the number 001.

Other states, including California, are planning similar changes.

"The vast majority of vehicle accidents are due to human error," said California state Senator Alex Padilla, when he introduced the legislation. "Through the use of computers, sensors and other systems, an autonomous vehicle is capable of analysing the driving environment more quickly and operating the vehicle more safely."

Datum: 20-Feb-2012
Nevada approves self-driving cars on public roadways

If you happen to be driving around in the state of Nevada, don’t be surprised if you encounter an unmanned vehicle on the streets or highways. The state became the first to officially approve rules for self-driving cars on public roads earlier this week.

Bron: http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/02/nevada-approves-self-driving-cars-on-public-roadways/


Datum: 11-Oct-2010
Google Working on Cars That Drive Themselves



Google CEO Eric Schmidt, the search engine giant is currently at work on cars that are completely automated. In fact, their progress is so far along that they’ve already got a whole slew of self driving Toyota Prius that have logged over 140,000+ test miles.

Read: Google Working on Cars That Drive Themselves [Google Said to Be Working on Self Driving Cars, Have Already Logged 140,000+ Test Miles] » TFTS – Technology, Gadgets & Curiosities

Google Working on Cars That Drive Themselves [Google Said to Be Working on Self Driving Cars, Have Already Logged 140,000+ Test Miles] » TFTS – Technology, Gadgets & Curiosities

New nanoparticles shrink tumors in mice

By sequencing cancer-cell genomes, scientists have discovered vast numbers of genes that are mutated, deleted or copied in cancer cells. This treasure trove is a boon for researchers seeking new drug targets, but it is nearly impossible to test them all in a timely fashion.

To help speed up the process, MIT researchers have developed RNA-delivering nanoparticles that allow for rapid screening of new drug targets in mice. In their first mouse study, done with researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute, they showed that nanoparticles that target a protein known as ID4 can shrink ovarian tumors.  


“If we could figure out how to make this work [in humans], it would open up a whole new class of targets that hadn’t been available,” says Hahn, who is also director of the Center for Cancer Genome Discovery at Dana-Farber and a senior associate member of the Broad Institute.

Lead authors of the paper are Yin Ren, an MD/PhD student in Bhatia’s lab, and Hiu Wing Cheung, a postdoc in Hahn’s lab.

In a study of mice with ovarian tumors, the researchers found that treatment with the RNAi nanoparticles eliminated most of the tumors. Gordon Mills, chair of the systems biology department at the University of Texas’ MD Anderson Cancer Center, says the work is an important step toward generating new targets for drugs to treat ovarian cancer, which is the fifth-leading cause of cancer deaths among women in the United States.

Bron: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/new-nanoparticles-shrink-tumors-in-mice-0816.html

Solar energy and batteries

Scientists develop fast recharging material for lithium-ion batteries
A group of South Korean scientists has developed a new material for a secondary or rechargeable battery that can be fully recharged in just a matter of minutes. The new battery, on the other hand, uses the same type of nanoparticle materials that are first resolved in a solution that contains graphite, which later is carbonized to form a dense network of conductors all throughout the electrodes of the battery.

As a result, all energy-holding particles of the new battery start recharging simultaneously while the same particles in conventional batteries begin recharging in order from the outermost particles to the innermost. This cuts down on the time needed to recharge the new type of battery to between 1/30 and 1/120 of that of existing rechargeable batteries.

The research team, partly funded by the science ministry, also includes four doctoral students of the Ulsan university -- Lee Sang-han, Cho Yong-hyun, Song Hyun-kon and Lee Kyu-tae. Their paper, titled "Carbon-Coated Single-Crystal LiMn2O4 Nanoparticle Clusters as Cathode Material for High-Energy and High-Power Lithium-Ion Batteries," was published earlier this month in the international edition of the weekly journal Angewandte Chemie.

Bron: http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/techscience/2012/08/13/8/0601000000AEN20120813001600320F.HTML

Update: 06-06-2012
Solar Impulse’s first intercontinental landingTAKE-OFF TIME: 05:22 (UTC+2) 05.06.12
LANDING TIME:  23:30 (UTC+1) 05.06.12
FLIGHT DURATION: 19 H 8 MIN
AVERAGE GROUND SPEED: 51,8 KM/H
HIGHEST ALTITUDE REACHED: 8’229 M (27’000 FT)
FLIGHT DISTANCE: 830 KM

“This flight marks a new stage in the history of the project because we have reached another continent,” added André Borschberg, in consensus with Mr. Bakkoury’s comments “After almost 20 hours of flight we landed with a full set of batteries. This is extraordinary as it represents an increase in confidence in new technologies."

Source: http://solarimpulse.com/

Datum: 27-04-2012
Liquid batteries to store wind and solar energy



Renewable energies have great potential to solve diminishing natural resources but they are unreliable - if the wind doesn't blow or the sun doesn't shine they simply don't work.

But imagine if the energy that they generate could be stored in a giant battery?

Such a battery would need to be to be low-cost, a problem which has until now prevented such developments.

"In the past battery research has been driven by advanced chemistry that was expensive with the hope that mass production would see the price fall.

"The major difference with my group was that we would only consider components that have a chance of meeting the right price point," said Prof Sadoway.

Source:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17214914
http://lmbcorporation.com/
http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Topics/Energy/We-Need-A-Battery-Miracle

Update: 27-APR-2012

“The way things stand, electricity demand must be in balance with electricity supply.” The problem is: coal and nuclear plants can’t address demand fast enough. How do we deal with the problem of intermittency?

Sadoway thinks he has the answer, and in this hugely well-received talk, he outlines his invention of a liquid metal battery he thinks might act as a blueprint for the future. “If we’re going to get this country out of its current energy situation, we can’t conserve our way out, we can’t drill our way out, we can’t bomb our way out. We’re going to do it the old-fashioned American way: we’re going to invent our way out, working together,” says MIT professor, Donald Sadoway.

The 36-inch-wide “Bistro Table” battery is not yet ready for prime time, but a future variant is designed to produce the daily electrical needs of 200 American households with a battery that is “silent, emissions free, has no moving parts, is remotely controlled, and is designed to the market price point, without subsidy.” 

Source: TED Blog | Reinventing the battery: Donald Sadoway at TED2012

Datum: 24-Feb-2012
Light management leads to ultra-efficient solar cells, possibly 70%

It has long been thought that conversion efficiency of solar cells cannot exceed 34 percent. A thermodynamic limit is responsible for this practical limitation. By clever light management, however, an efficiency of 70 percent is achievable.
How this can be done is described by AMOLF director Albert Polman and his colleague Harry Atwater from the California Institute of Technology in a commentary article in Nature Materials that appears on Tuesday, February 21.

A solar cell is a device that converts sunlight into electrical power. This conversion process, however, is not very efficient: in a conventional solar cell a large fraction of the energy of the sunlight is lost. Blue and green light are converted to electricity with an efficiency less than 50%, while infrared light is not absorbed by a solar cell at all. The highest efficiency realized by a silicon solar cell is only 27 percent.

Albert Polman: "The solar cell community is very conservative. It is often assumed that only extremely simple solar cells can be made at low costs. But if you can reach an efficiency larger than 50% a much higher cost of the solar cell is acceptable. Solar panels with a high efficiency take up much less space, because you need fewer panels to generate the same amount of power. That saves costs of land, installation and infrastructure. With a slightly more complex solar cell it becomes possible to convert all colors of the light from the sun to electricity. An efficiency of 70% is achievable.

Bron: http://www.amolf.nl/news/detailpage/article/light-management-leads-to-ultra-efficient-solar-cells//chash/7ece18f9a69a891cddf38b40498927a1/

Retinal prosthetic strategy with the capacity to restore normal vision

Retinal prosthetics offer hope for patients with retinal degenerative diseases. Efforts to improve prosthetic capabilities have focused largely on increasing the resolution of the device’s stimulators (either electrodes or optogenetic transducers). Here, we show that a second factor is also critical: driving the stimulators with the retina’s neural code. Using the mouse as a model system, we generated a prosthetic system that incorporates the code. This dramatically increased the system’s capabilities—well beyond what can be achieved just by increasing resolution. Furthermore, the results show, using 9,800 optogenetically stimulated ganglion cell responses, that the combined effect of using the code and high-resolution stimulation is able to bring prosthetic capabilities into the realm of normal image representation.

Bron: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/08/08/1207035109

Related (sorry it's in Dutch):
Bron: http://tweakers.net/nieuws/70582/implantaat-herstelt-zicht-bij-blinden.html
Implantaten zijn ontwikkeld door het Duitse Retina Implant AG, in samenwerking met het Institute for Ophthalmic Research van de univerisiteit van Tübingen. In de toekomst zouden dergelijke implantaten het gezichtsvermogen van blinden en slechtzienden kunnen herstellen. De testpatiënten konden personen zien en konden zelfs tot op zekere hoogte lezen.

Fusion: The quest to recreate the Sun’s power on Earth.

Cheap energy with a Thermonuclear Reactor. Fusion, many believe, could be the answer. It works by forcing together two types, or isotopes, of hydrogen at such a high temperature that the positively charged atoms are able to overcome their mutual repulsion and fuse. The result of this fusion is an atom of helium plus a highly energetic neutron particle. Physicists aim to capture the energy released by these emitted neutrons, and use it to drive steam turbines and produce electricity.

It's just one of the huge number of challenges facing the designers of this groundbreaking project. The concept was discussed and argued over for several decades before finally being agreed in 2007 as a multinational cooperation between the European Union, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the US – in total, 34 countries representing more than half of the world's population.


These issues, plus the logistics of dealing with multiple nations with their own fluctuating domestic budget constraints, mean that the site won't be ready for the first experiments until 2020. Even then, they will just be testing the reactor and its equipment. The first proper fusion tests, reacting deuterium (a hydrogen isotope abundant in sea water) and tritium (which will be made from lithium), won't take place until 2028.

Those will be the key tests, though. If all goes to plan, the physicists hope to prove that they can produce ten times as much energy as the experiment requires. The plan is to use 50 megawatts (in heating the plasma and cooling the reactor), and get 500 MW out. Larger tokamaks should, theoretically, be able to deliver an even greater input to output power ratio, in the range of gigawatts.

Source:
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120810-the-quest-to-recreate-the-sun/1
http://www.iter.org/

Chemo 'undermines itself' through rogue response

Chemotherapy can undermine itself by causing a rogue response in healthy cells, which could explain why people become resistant, a study suggests.

Writing in Nature Medicine, US experts said chemo causes wound-healing cells around tumours to make a protein that helps the cancer resist treatment.

In this study, by researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle looked at fibroblast cells, which normally play a critical role in wound healing and the production of collagen, the main component of connective tissue such as tendons.

It was already known that the protein was involved in the development of cancers - but not in treatment resistance. The researchers hope their findings will help find a way to stop this response, and improve the effectiveness of therapy.

Peter Nelson, who led the research, said: "Cancer therapies are increasingly evolving to be very specific, targeting key molecular engines that drive the cancer rather than more generic vulnerabilities, such as damaging DNA.

Prof Fran Balkwill, a Cancer Research UK expert on the microenvironment around tumours, said: "This work fits with other research showing that cancer treatments don't just affect cancer cells, but can also target cells in and around tumours.

"Sometimes this can be good - for instance, chemotherapy can stimulate surrounding healthy immune cells to attack tumours. "But this work confirms that healthy cells surrounding the tumour can also help the tumour to become resistant to treatment. "The next step is to find ways to target these resistance mechanisms to help make chemotherapy more effective."

Bron: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19111700

Researchers build a toolbox for synthetic biology - MIT News Office

For about a dozen years, synthetic biologists have been working on ways to design genetic circuits to perform novel functions such as manufacturing new drugs, producing fuel or even programming the suicide of cancer cells.

Achieving these complex functions requires controlling many genetic and cellular components, including not only genes but also the regulatory proteins that turn them on and off. In a living cell, proteins called transcription factors often regulate that process.

So far, most researchers have designed their synthetic circuits using transcription factors found in bacteria. However, these don’t always translate well to nonbacterial cells and can be a challenge to scale, making it harder to create complex circuits, says Timothy Lu, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science and a member of MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics.

Lu and his colleagues at Boston University (BU), Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have now come up with a new method to design transcription factors for nonbacterial cells (in this case, yeast cells).

The project is part of a larger, ongoing effort to develop genetic “parts” that can be assembled into circuits to achieve specific functions. Through this endeavor, Lu and his colleagues hope to make it easier to develop circuits that do exactly what a researcher wants. “If you look at a parts registry, a lot of these parts come from a hodgepodge of different organisms. You put them together into your organism of choice and hope that it works,” says Lu, corresponding author of a paper describing the new transcription factor design technique in the Aug. 3 issue of the journal Cell.

Lead authors of the paper include Ahmad Khalil, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at BU, Lu, and BU postdoc Caleb Bashor. Other authors are Harvard grad student Cherie Ramirez; BU research assistant Nora Pyenson; Keith Joung, associate chief of pathology for research at MGH; and James Collins, BU professor of biomedical engineering.

Bron: Researchers build a toolbox for synthetic biology - MIT News Office

Cancer stem cell discovery could signal 'paradigm shift'

Researchers have discovered the cells in tumours that seem to be responsible for the regrowth of tumours.

Three separate studies on mice appear to have confirmed the view that the growth of tumours is driven by so-called cancer stem cells. The studies have been published in the journals, Nature and Science. three separate groups of researchers working independently have found direct evidence of cancer stem cells driving tumour growth in brain, gut and skin cancers.

According to Prof Cedric Blanpain of the Free University of Brussels, who led one of the studies, the results could pave the way for a new approach to treating many cancers.

But that may be easier said than done. The newly-identified cancer stem cells are very similar to healthy stem cells responsible for growing and renewing tissue in the body. Any therapy to target cancer stem cells may also destroy healthy tissues. A priority for researchers will be to see if there are important differences between normal and cancer stem cells so that therapies can distinguish between them.

But according to Prof Hugo Snippert of the University Medical Centre in Utrecht, who led the study into intestinal tumours, the confirmation that these cells exist is an important step in future cancer research.

Prof Luis Parada of the University of Texas, who led research that identified stem cells in brain tumours in mice, said he believed there would now be a new approach to developing new treatments for solid tumour cancers.

"Cancer stem cells change the paradigm. The goal of shrinking tumours may well turn out to be less important than targeting the cancer cells in that tumour."

Dr Michaela Frye, a Cancer Research UK scientist based at the University of Cambridge, said: "These results add even more weight to the theory that cancers are driven by a distinct group of cells called cancer stem cells.

Bron: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19083685