Cutting Edge

Currently, radiologists measure the sizes of potentially cancerous lung nodules by measuring their largest widths using a two-dimensional computer screen. (The method widely used to do this is called RECIST.) Now, researchers are investigating volumetrics, by which they can measure nodules in 3D.

Thanks to work done by a team of researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in the simplest of cancer cases, volumetrics appears to reveal volume changes far more precisely than currently possible on 2D screens, which could cut diagnosis time from six months down to four weeks, the researchers estimate.

"We found … Read more

You say you've tried every diet fad but still can't lose the flab. Maybe your will is as soft as your one-pack. Perhaps only the merciless resolve of an inhuman coach can whip you into shape.

Lucky for you, a Hong Kong-based start-up is preparing to release Autom, a robot diet mentor with a deceptively pleasant demeanor.

Users can talk with the 15-inch-tall Autom and, by using its LCD touch screen, indicate what they've had to eat and how long they've exercised on a given day. The machine, which is linked to the Internet, is designed … Read more

BP Agrawal, founder of Sustainable Innovations, has won the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability.

The award goes to an individual's overall achievement in improving the lives of others through science or engineering innovation, not for one particular invention.

Agrawal has achievements in several areas. He started out in the corporate world working for big names like Hughes, ITT, GTE, General Dynamics, and Vecna Technologies bringing patented technologies to market. During his corporate stint, he patented a single-bit voice-processing technology that enabled voice over satellite, and a "self-healing" modem. He was also the associate editor of IEEE … Read more

It's robots to the rescue in the Gulf of Mexico--or at least that's what British oil giant BP hopes following a disastrous explosion and oil spill at the Transocean Deepwater Horizon oil rig, 130 miles southeast of New Orleans.

Officials have deployed robotic submarines in an effort to contain the spill, which has grown to cover an area measuring some 1,900 square miles. BP quoted National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration experts as saying the spill is "very thin" and on the surface of the ocean.

The agencies have deployed four remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to the wellhead about 5,000 feet below the ocean surface.

They are monitoring the leak, which was discovered Saturday, as well as trying to activate the blowout preventer, a 50-foot-tall, 450-ton mass of valves that can cap the wellhead and stop the oil flow.

The ROVs--which include machines such as the Millennium by oilfield engineering company Oceaneering--have apparently been on the job for several days, but without success. While ROVs have been used by the oil and gas industry for more than 30 years, this particular mission is highly complex due to the great depth of the wellhead, as well as the first of its kind.

"If you can visualize it, it's like robotic arms doing something outside the space station," BP spokesman Ron Rybarczyk was quoted by The Guardian as saying. "It is operating something with a mechanical claw on it that grasps things and turns things and adjusts equipment way down at the floor of the ocean." … Read more

I know many of you cannot wait for the day when we encounter little green people over a beer, or perhaps even turn into them.

However, one of the world's most celebrated scientific brains, Stephen Hawking, wonders whether aliens and humans really can co-exist.

According to the Times of London, Hawking has made a new documentary, "Stephen Hawking's Universe," for the Discovery Channel, which is scheduled to be broadcast in May. In this film, which took three years to make, Hawking offers his view of what really might be out there.

He doesn't paint an … Read more

With the launch Thursday of the X-37B spacecraft aboard an Atlas V rocket, the U.S. Air Force is taking a page from NASA's space shuttle program.

Looking somewhat like a traditional shuttle but at roughly one-quarter the size, the unmanned X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle took off for its maiden space voyage from Cape Canaveral in Florida and reached a low earth orbit late in the day. The X-37B is intended to serve as a platform for experiments and to offer insights on transporting satellite sensors and other equipment to and from space.

"If these technologies on the … Read more

The first particle has been detected in a Large Hadron Collider experiment that hopes to shed light on the nature of interactions between matter and antimatter.

LHCb--an experiment set up to explore what happened in the moments immediately after the Big Bang--on Wednesday found a particle called a beauty or bottom quark. CERN scientists have a wish list of particles they want to measure in the experiment, and the beauty quark is the first on the list that they have found.

The detection is a step on the road to the possible discovery of new particles or interactions between particles, … Read more

LensVector, a Silicon Valley start-up working on new lens technology that rids mobile phones of moving parts, has secured new funding to tailor its products for a group with a particular interest in tiny cameras: the United States intelligence community.

Specifically, In-Q-Tel, the CIA-based organization that invests in technology companies, has funded the Mountain View, Calif.-based start-up, said LensVector Chief Executive Derek Proudian. In addition, LensVector also is being paid to develop specific products through the deal with IQT.

Proudian declined to reveal exactly how much money is involved in the new investment and development contract. However, he did … Read more

If you were hoping that the right software could make you smarter, you may be out of luck.

Brain training software, such as Nintendo's Brain Age, are often touted as a way to improve your smarts. But 11,430 people who played such games for several weeks didn't seem to be any brighter at the end, according to the results of a study conducted by the BBC and released Tuesday.

The investigation launched by the BBC last September challenged viewers of the BBC One science TV show "Bang Goes the Theory" to use a series of … Read more