technology

Hacking an Airplane With Only an Android Phone

"So it looks like someone could hack a jetliner. With an Android smartphone. Awesome. At the Hack In The Box conference in Amsterdam, security consultant Hugo Teso demonstrated PlaneSploit, an app he developed that can take control of certain systems aboard an airplane and cause it to change direction or just crash itself into the ground. Hugo’s no terrorist, mind you. He developed the app to point out the glaring, frightening, insane security holes in most planes’ onboard flight systems. His demonstration was done in a simulated environment, but the methods and effects, he says, are exactly the same as what could happen with a real plane." Continue reading →

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Make A Foldable Mini-Spectrometer For Your Phone

"What we perceive as a single color consists of multiple blended colors- just as green paint can be made from mixing yellow and blue paint. A spectrometer is a device that splits light into the various colors it is composed of, which we otherwise cannot distinguish with the naked eye. By viewing a substance through a spectrometer, one can distinguish the exact mixture of colors, which correspond to specific wavelengths of light. These can be compared to other spectra to help identify the sample." Continue reading →

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Biofuel breakthrough turns virtually any plant into hydrogen

"Researchers at Virginia Tech announced Thursday that their latest breakthrough in hydrogen extraction technology could lead to widespread adoption of the substance as a fuel due to its ease of availability in virtually all plant matter, a reservoir previously impossible to tap. The new process uses a cocktail of 13 enzymes to strip plant matter of xylose, a sugar that exists in plant cells. The resulting hydrogen is of an such a 'high purity' that researchers said they were able to approach 100 percent extraction, opening up a potential market for a much cheaper source of hydrogen than anything available today." Continue reading →

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6-meter tall KamerMaker to 3D print Amsterdam house by year’s end

"It is surely now but a matter of time before we are reporting on the completion of the first 3D-printed house. Amsterdam-based DUS Architects is the latest company to show its hand, and has developed its own 3D printer, the 6-meter (20-foot) tall KamerMaker (literally, RoomMaker), with the intention of 3D printing a house before the end of the year. The intention is that the KamerMaker will print building components on site. The machine can print components, fabricated from polypropylene, up to 2.2 by 2.2 by 3.5 meters (7.2 by 7.2 by 11.5 feet) in size. It's hoped that in future the KamerMaker will be able to print objects from recycled plastic." Continue reading →

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Scientists use 3D printer to make tissue-like material

"British scientists have used a custom-made 3D printer to make living tissue-like material that could one day serve medical purposes, according to findings released Thursday. The material is made up of thousands of connected water droplets, encapsulated within lipid films, that can carry out some of the functions of human cells. These 'droplet networks' could be the building blocks of a new technology used to pass on drugs and, down the road, could even replace damaged tissue, said a statement from Oxford University, where the scientists are based. Their findings were published in Friday’s issue of the US journal Science." Continue reading →

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Scientists used modified T-cells to wipe out childhood leukemia in a little girl

"US researchers on Monday reported encouraging success with a new type of immune cell therapy that wiped out leukemia in a young girl by using her own modified T cells to fight the cancer. The case study of Emily 'Emma' Whitehead, age 7, offers hope for a new path against a stubborn form of leukemia, known as acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), maybe even replacing the need for chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants someday. An attempt at T cell reprogramming in another child who did not survive pointed to the need for more research to improve on the therapies being tested." Continue reading →

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Science Fiction Comes Alive as Researchers Grow Organs in Lab

"Since a laboratory in North Carolina made a bladder in 1996, scientists have built increasingly more complex organs. There have been five windpipe replacements so far. A London researcher, Alex Seifalian, has transplanted lab-grown tear ducts and an artery into patients. He has made an artificial nose he expects to transplant later this year in a man who lost his nose to skin cancer. Sir Roy Calne, an 82-year-old British surgeon, figured out in the 1950s how to use drugs to prevent the body from rejecting transplanted organs. Now, with the quest to build a heart, researchers are tackling the most complex organ yet." Continue reading →

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Sonic ‘lasso’ catches cells and moves them around

"Academics have demonstrated for the first time that a 'sonic lasso' can be used to grip microscopic objects, such as cells, and move them about. The researchers have shown experimentally how tiny particles, such as cells, or any small objects can be trapped by a spinning ultrasonic, or sonic, vortex. The vortex acts as a lasso that can be controlled and moved, catching the microscopic particles and enabling their careful positioning. This new technology makes possible applications such as assembly human tissue from a collection of cells and assembling nano materials." Continue reading →

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PC Shipments Post the Steepest Decline Ever in a Single Quarter

"Worldwide PC shipments totaled 76.3 million units in the first quarter of 2013 (1Q13), down -13.9% compared to the same quarter in 2012 and worse than the forecast decline of -7.7%, according to the International Data Corporation. The extent of the year-on-year contraction marked the worst quarter since IDC began tracking the PC market quarterly in 1994. The results also marked the fourth consecutive quarter of year-on-year shipment declines. Despite some mild improvement in the economic environment and some new PC models offering Windows 8, PC shipments were down significantly across all regions compared to a year ago." Continue reading →

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