Tag: Science & Technology

GURGAON (TIP): A 35-year old patient from Republic of Congo, who was suffering from Yousuf’s Syndrome, has undergone a surgery with Da Vinci Xi system, one of the most advanced robotic surgical technology for performing minimal invasive surgery. This is reportedly one of the first such surgeries in India.

The system allows a doctor to perform a surgery with pinpoint accuracy and little damage to surrounding tissues. The benefits of robotic surgery include a minimally invasive approach, faster return to daily activities, fewer complications, and shorter hospital stay with reduced hospitalization costs.

Yousuf’s Syndrome is a condition, where due to complications from previous caesarean sections, an anomalous fistulous communication had formed between the uterus and the urinary bladder. This had led to menstrual bleeding draining into the bladder, leading to cyclical hematuria and repeated infections. The patient, therefore, occasionally had urinary incontinence, as urine would flow into the uterus and leak out.

“Previous medical consultations and reviews had all pointed towards a hysterectomy. However, she was not willing to undergo the procedure for removal of the uterus. With our robotic surgery programme, we not only managed to separate the fistula that had formed between the two organs, but also saved her from a hysterectomy. Surgeons at FMRI are currently utilizing advanced minimally invasive surgical techniques for all surgical specialties,” said Dr Sanjay Gogoi, Director, Urology and Renal Transplants at Fortis Hospital.

Talking about the benefits of Da Vinci Xi system, Dr. Gogoi said, “The device allows high definition 3D imaging, allowing surgeons to conduct complicated procedures with relative ease. The procedure involves using wristed instruments that bend and rotate far beyond the abilities of the human hand. Moreover, the tremor filtration and intuitive motion technologies allow the surgeons to operate with steady natural motion with the comforts of sitting on an easy chair.”

WASHINGTON (TIP): Scientists have created a new low-cost, non-toxic material that mimics the lotus leaf to repel water droplets, an advance that could help create environment-friendly water-proof surfaces. The superhydrophobic nanomaterial can be applied to a variety of surfaces via spray- or spin-coating.

The hydrocarbon-based material may be a green replacement for costly, hazardous fluorocarbons commonly used for superhydrophobic applications, said Andrew Barron of Rice University in US, who led the research. “Nature knows how to make these materials and stay environmentally friendly. Our job has been to figure out how and why, and to emulate that,” Barron said.

The lotus leaf was very much on their minds as the researchers tried to mimic one of the most hydrophobic or water-repelling surfaces on the planet. “In our material, there is a microstructure created by the agglomeration of alumina nanoparticles mimicking the papillae and the hyperbranched organic moieties simulating the effect of the epicuticular waxes,” Barron said.

NEW YORK (TIP): In a major breakthrough, researchers at Columbia Engineering have harnessed the molecular machinery of living systems to power an integrated circuit.

They achieved this by integrating a conventional solid-state complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuit with an artificial lipid bilayer membrane containing adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-powered ion pumps.

In living systems, ATP is used to transport energy from where it is generated to where it is consumed in the cell.

The advance has opened the door to creating new artificial systems that contain both biological and solid-state components.

“In combining a biological electronic device with CMOS, we will be able to create new systems not possible with either technology alone,” said study leader professor Ken Shepard.

While other groups have harvested energy from living systems, Shepard and his team are exploring how to do this at the molecular level, isolating just the desired function and interfacing this with electronics.

“We don’t need the whole cell. We just grab the component of the cell that’s doing what we want. For this project, we isolated the ATPases because they were the proteins that allowed us to extract energy from ATP,” Shepard said.

BEIJING (TIP): Glaciers on Mount Everest, source of major Asian rivers like Brahmaputra, have shrunk by 28%over the past 40 years due to climate change, according to a report.

The glacial shrinkage area is compared to the measurements taken in the 1970s in the report released by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Hunan University of Science and Technology , and Mount Qomolangma Snow Leopard Conservation Centre.

The glacial area on the south slope of the world’s highest mountain, in Nepal, has decreased by 26% since the 1980s, the report said.

Part of the report also said Everest, known as Mount Qomolangma in Tibet, has been getting warmer for the past 50 years.

Kang Shichang, a researcher with the State Key Labo ratory of Cryospheric Sciences under the CAS, said the data was based on long-term remote sensing and on-site monitoring.

At present, there are 1,476 glaciers in China’s Mt Qomolangma national nature reserve, covering 2,030 square kilometres, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The shrinking glaciers have resulted in swelling of glacial lakes and higher river levels downstream, Kang, who has led several glacier inspection teams, said.

Remote sensing data showed that the area of a glacial lake in Mount Everest nature reserve increased from about 100 square kilometres in 1990 to 114 square kilometres in 2013, Kang said.

Mount Everest is the source of a number of major Asian rivers, including Brahmaputra and Ganges.

LONDON (TIP): Scientists have developed power paper -a new material consisting of nanocellulose and a conductive polymer -that has an outstanding ability to store energy . One sheet, 15 centimetres in diameter and a few tenths of a millimetre thick, can store energy similar to the supercapacitors currently on the market, researchers said.

The material can be recharged hundreds of times and each charge only takes a few seconds. “Thin films that function as capacitors have existed for some time.What we have done is to produce the material in three dimensions. We can produce thick sheets,” said Xavier Crispin, professor of organic electronics at Linkoping University in Sweden.

The new cellulose-polymer material has set a new world record in simultane ous conductivity for ions and electrons, which explains its exceptional capacity for energy storage, researchers said.

Unlike the batteries and capacitors currently on the market, power paper is produced from simple materials -renewable cellulose and an easily available polymer.

It is light in weight, requires no dangerous chemicals or heavy metals and is waterproof, he said.

MELBOURNE (TIP): Scientists have developed a soft, flexible and stretchable keyboard using a type of rubber known as a dielectric elastomer that can be wrapped around any object.

“Imagine a world where you drop something, and it bounces back without any damage. That’s the benefit of these rubber devices that can flex and stretch,” said Daniel Xu, from the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

The keyboard was made from a single laminated structure with two sensing layers oriented at 90 degrees apart.

This took advantage of their mechanical coupling while at the same time still provided an electrical separation.

A total of nine different positions were distinguished within the sensor keyboard. “A key benefit of our keyboard is that essentially, it’s just a thin sheet of rubber. It can be wrapped around any object which turns it into a keyboard,” said Xu.

“It can also be made into a sensing skin for motion capture, which is useful for athletes, clinicians, and for new interactive gesture controllers,” he said. The researchers often used video games to test the functionality of the keyboard – and as part of a separate project have made a sensing glove to interface with shooting games.

Researchers are working with a spin-off company, StretchSense, to develop wearable and other technologies designed to sense stretch.

CHENNAI (TIP): Predicting the weather is a tricky business; sometimes the weather man gets it right, but more often he cops the flak for getting it wrong. To reduce the window of mistakes and to improve the accuracy of forecasts, researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras are developing a technique that will depend that is fed into high quality data from satellites on supercomputers. They have been working on the `data assimilation’ method for more than a decade, where they combine numerical weather models with satellite and/or radar data to reduce errors in prediction of tropical cyclones.

Traditionally, IMD meteorologists follow the synoptic method for cyclone prediction in which weather observations taken on the ground or from ships and in the upper atmosphere with the help of sensors attached to balloons are used to make forecasts.The data from various sources are then plotted on a weather map to get a synoptic view of the world’s weather. The numerical model, which meteorologists say improves forecast accuracy , is employed for cyclone forecasts two to three days prior to their estimated landings.

When IIT-M researchers analysed the 2010 tropical cyclone Jal to evaluate the capability of their technique, they found that with the numerical model, they improve prediction by up to 35% for a 24-hour forecast and up to 12% for a 54-hour forecast. The numerical-based weather forecast system has a 60-70%prediction accuracy .

“What we are doing at IIT-M is not extensively used in operational forecasts as we need to test these for several types of situations,” said Chakravarthy Balaji, professor at department of mechanical engineering. “Many countries have adopted data assimilation technique and it’s time that India employ the model,” he added.

At IIT-M, researchers collect data from ground-based doppler weather radars and from multiple satellites like tropical rainfall-measuring mission, a Nasa satellite, Megha-tropiques, an Indian satellite and INSAT3D. These satellites have radiation detectors and scanning mechanism that identify visible, infrared or microwave radiation emanating from the land and ocean.

This ensemble of data is run in Weather Research and Forecasting model, a next generation numerical weather prediction system. They fed the data into supercomputer VIRGO, along with experts’ inputs on weather systems over the years to correct errors. The forecast can be done for 7 days, but reliability is high for up to 3 days.

The professor said the numerical model they use is time tested and the novelty in the research is the multi-pronged approach in predicting weather systems, selection of instruments on satellites to gather data, frequency selection for radiometer systems on satellites to scan the earth and measure radiation emanating from land and ocean.

He said observations made over the years through this technique will help in studying long-term patterns in the atmosphere and climate change. It can also help build a large database over the Indian Ocean, considered a `data deficient’ region Former deputy director general of regional meteorological centre, Chennai, Y E A Raj said IMD, at present, uses statistical model, which is based on past data, for long range tropical monsoon forecasting and that a research is on to use satellite and radar data in numerical models. “Numerical models will be very good for up to one week. While statistical models depend upon equations and correlations, they are useful for long-range forecasting,” he said.

IMD will be validating seasonal fore casting model developed at the Experimental Climate Prediction Centre, US, for more years before it can be used for op erational purpose.

Backing up your WhatsApp messaging history on an Android phone was a painful, multi-step process that involved connecting your phone to your computer and manually messing around with the WhatsApp folder in the phone’s memory.

All that’s history. If you use WhatsApp on Android, here’s some news that should make you really happy: you will soon be able to back up all your WhatsApp messages, pictures, videos and voice notes to Google Drive. This is similar to WhatsApp on iPhone, which backs itself up to iCloud.

WhatsApp and Google announced the partnership on their respective blogs.

There don’t seem to be any file-size limits to the backup, and since WhatsApp encyrpts every piece of content that it sends and receives, you can rest assured that Google won’t be able to read anything, and, you know, serve you ads.

The feature is rolling out over the next few months, so if you don’t have it already, hang in there and try not to lose your phone or something till you’re done backing up your WhatsApp.

We all love robots -but could we one day actually fall in love with one? This is Android Geminoid F , an eerily lifelike humanoid which stole the show at the World Robot Exhibition in Beijing this week. Created by Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratory at Osaka University , Geminoid F was the star attraction as people crowded round her to have their picture taken and speak to the android.

Some people have even remarked that they found Geminoid F “sexy”. She previously found fame as the first android film star -she co-starred in Japanese movie Sayonara, about the fall-out from a nuclear power plant meltdown. The Daily Mail reported that the 5ft 6 inch android was capable of eye movements, responded to eye-to-eye contact and could recognise body language. She has been designed to act like a human with rubber `skin’ and a woman’s face –but can’t walk and has to be wheeled around. She can smile, furrow her brows and move her mouth. She can also talk and sing -play recordings or `mouth’ other people’s voices.

With her realistic appearance, good looks and acting talent, you might think Geminoid F has it all -but her creators, are picky. Kohei Ogawa, assistant professor at Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratory said, “Our final goal is creating some artificial intelligence by using this robot. Most voice recognition systems do not work, in a noisy environment. In the future we’re going to create a perfect AI system by using this robot.”

SAN FRANCISCO (TIP): Get ready to start watching live video of your friends and family doing something fun, boring or even dumb on Facebook.

The world’s largest social network is testing a new feature that will enable its 1.5 billion users to use their smartphones to shoot video so other people can see what they are doing as it happens.

Facebook has begun testing the live video option among a sliver of its US audience with iPhones. The Menlo Park, California, company didn’t specify when everyone with a Facebook account and a smartphone will have an opportunity to broadcast live.

The feature represents Facebook’s latest challenge to online messaging service Twitter, which introduced a live video application called Periscope earlier this year.

This isn’t the first time that Facebook has copied others’ ideas in an attempt to ensure its social network remains the leading digital hangout.

In recent years, Facebook also has embraced the hashtag symbol, a Twitter technique for flagging major events and topics of conversation, and cloned an option to check into specific places that was popularized by Foursquare.In another move of mimicry, Facebook is introducing another feature called “Collage” that will automatically bundle photos and video taken in the same place or at the same event into a slideshow. The concept mirrors a feature that Google introduced in its Plus social network years ago and imported into its Photo app six months ago.

GENEVA (TIP): Scientists in Switzerland have developed a 20 carat gold nugget that is thousand times lighter than conventional forms of the precious metal and can float on milk foam.

Researchers led by Raffaele Mezzenga, Professor of Food and Soft Materials at ETH Zurich, produced the new kind of foam out of gold, a three-dimensional mesh that consists mostly of pores.

It is the lightest gold nugget ever created, researchers said.

“The so-called aerogel is a thousand times lighter than conventional gold alloys. It is lighter than water and almost as light as air,” said Mezzenga.

The new gold form can hardly be differentiated from conventional gold with the naked eye – the aerogel even has a metallic shine, researchers said.

But in contrast to its conventional form, it is soft and malleable by hand. It consists of 98 parts air and only two parts of solid material, they said.

Of this solid material, more than four-fifth is gold and less than one-fifth is milk protein fibrils. This corresponds to around 20 carat gold.

The scientists created the porous material by first heating milk proteins to produce nanometre-fine protein fibres, so-called amyloid fibrils, which they then placed in a solution of gold salt.

The protein fibres interlaced themselves into a basic structure along which the gold simultaneously crystallised into small particles. This resulted in a gel-like gold fibre network. “One of the big challenges was how to dry this fine network without destroying it,” said Gustav Nystrom, first author of the study published in the journal Advanced Materials. As air drying could damage the fine gold structure, the scientists opted for a gentle and laborious drying process using carbon dioxide.

The method’s biggest advantage is that it makes it easy to obtain a homogeneous gold aerogel, perfectly mimicking gold alloys.

“The optical properties of gold depend strongly on the size and shape of the gold particles,” said Nystrom.

“Therefore we can even change the colour of the material. When we change the reaction conditions in order that the gold doesn’t crystallise into microparticles but rather smaller nanoparticles, it results in a dark-red gold,” he said.

By this means, the scientists can influence not only the colour, but also other optical properties such as absorption and reflection.

The substance’s properties, including its lighter weight, smaller material requirement and porous structure, have their advantages.

LONDON (TIP): In a first, doctors have used Google Glass to successfully restore the blood flow of a chronically blocked right coronary artery in a 49year-old patient. Virtual reality (VR) has potential to revolutionise some aspects of medicine and healthcare, researchers said.

Chronic total occlusion, a complete blockage of the coronary artery, sometimes referred to as the “final frontier in interventional cardiology”, represents a major challenge for catheter-based percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Coronary computed tomography angiography(CTA) is increasingly used to provide doctors with guidance when performing PCI in lesions.

Cardiologists from the Institute of Cardiology in Poland were able to successfully restore blood flow in the occluded right coronary artery of a male patient assisted by CTA projections in a wearable VR device based on Google Glass, with an optical head-mounted display. The procedure was completed successfully with implantation of two drug-eluting stents.