technology

Wine producers go hi-tech to protect against fraud

"Making sure a glass of wine is everything it promises on the label was once a relatively simple process: hold against the light, tilt and observe the shade, swirl a little and give it a good sniff. But with the ever-increasing global consumption of wine now attracting the attention of fraudsters, wine drinkers are soon just as likely to be advised to whip out their smartphones. A quick scan can give the consumer a direct link to the supplier’s website to verify the label, trace the wine’s journey from vineyard to glass and provide information about the winery. New technology and international cooperation are now enabling producers to outsmart the fraudsters." Continue reading →

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Robots playing larger role in operating rooms

"Introduced commercially a little more than a decade ago, robotic surgery is becoming more routine in hospitals and is the preferred method for patients who need to have a prostate or cervix removed as well as a host of other procedures. In the last four years, the number of hospitals nationwide using the da Vinci robot has risen by more than 80 percent, and the number of procedures performed each year has risen by 300 percent to more than 300,000 operations each year, according to the multi-billion dollar company." Continue reading →

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Polish doctors carry out world’s first life-saving face transplant

"Polish doctors carried out the world’s first life-saving face transplant, the centre’s spokeswoman said Wednesday, weeks after a 33-year-old man was disfigured by a machine in a workplace accident. The man, an employee at a stonemason’s workshop and only identified as Grzegorz, was severely maimed on April 23, when a machine used to cut stone ripped out a large chunk of his face. With time of the essence, doctors were lucky to find a donor within two weeks, a man in his thirties whose family immediately agreed to the operation." Continue reading →

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Realty Mogul Review: Fractional Investment Property Ownership, Hard Money Lending

"Realty Mogul is a new 'crowdfunding' start-up that lets you invest in residential investment property for as little as $5,000. You either take a partial ownership position in a property, or you become a lender to (experienced) house flippers. The new thing here is that you can do it completely online with a few mouse clicks (no mortgage brokers, real estate agents, or tenants) and again that low minimum $5,000 investment. Taking an equity ownership position means that you own a little slice of a single-family home or multi-unit complex while a professional does the buying, fixing up, renting out, and eventual selling." Continue reading →

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Are telegrams dead?

"In India, the telegram held on a bit longer because it was used for internal government communications. The peak year was 1985, when 60m telegrams were sent, according to BSNL. But since then the number has dropped, and the number of telegram offices in India has fallen from 45,000 to just 75. Yet telegrams survive in a few other countries, including Belgium, Japan and Sweden, where former telecoms monopolies maintain them as a nostalgic novelty service. And in many other countries private firms offer telegram-delivery services. So despite several recent reports to the contrary, the telegram is not quite dead, and will probably never die." Continue reading →

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Simple vinegar test can prevent cervical cancer deaths

"A simple vinegar test could prevent 73,000 deaths from cervical cancer worldwide each year, the authors of a large-scale study of women in India said Sunday. A primary health care worker swabs the woman’s cervix with vinegar, which causes pre-cancerous tumors to turn white. The results are known a minute later when a bright light is used to visually inspect the cervix. The instantaneous results are a major advantage for women in rural areas who might otherwise have to travel for hours to see a doctor. The randomized study of 150,000 women over 15 years found that the vinegar test was able to reduce cervical cancer deaths by 31 percent." Continue reading →

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Urine ‘scent’ test can detect bladder cancer

"The new device, called ODOREADER, contains a sensor that responds to chemicals in gas emitted from urine, said the study in the US scientific journal PLoS ONE. It analyzes the gas and reports on the chemicals contained in urine, which scientists can then read on a computer screen in order to diagnose cancer of the bladder. 'We looked at 98 samples of urine to develop the device, and tested it on 24 patient samples known to have cancer and 74 samples that have urological symptoms, but no cancer,' said Probert. 'The device correctly assigned 100 percent of cancer patients.' The next step is to expand trials to a wider sample of patients." Continue reading →

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Gene therapy promises to wipe out rare childhood diseases

"A new type of gene therapy has shown promise in wiping out two rare childhood diseases, apparently without the risks of causing cancer, international researchers said Thursday. The method used an HIV virus vector and the patients’ own blood stem cells to deliver a corrected version of a faulty gene, said the report in the US journal Science. As a result, six children are doing well, 18 to 32 months after their operations, said lead scientist Luigi Naldini of the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy in Milan." Continue reading →

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8 Things You Didn’t Know About Nikola Tesla

"Tesla had what's known as a photographic memory. He was known to memorize books and images and stockpile visions for inventions in his head. He also had a powerful imagination and the ability to visualize in three dimensions, which he used to control the terrifying vivid nightmares he suffered from as a child. It's in part what makes him such a mystical and eccentric character in popular culture, Carlson said. He was also known for having excessive hygiene habits, born out of a near-fatal bout of cholera as a teenager." Continue reading →

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Desktop Sized Atom Smasher Demonstrated

"Physicists at The University of Texas at Austin have built a tabletop particle accelerator that can generate energies and speeds previously reached only by major facilities that are hundreds of meters long and cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build. 'We have accelerated about half a billion electrons to 2 gigaelectronvolts over a distance of about 1 inch,' said Mike Downer, professor of physics in the College of Natural Sciences. 'Until now that degree of energy and focus has required a conventional accelerator that stretches more than the length of two football fields. It’s a downsizing of a factor of approximately 10,000.'" Continue reading →

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