Biotech

Some 10 million people around the world seek treatment for head trauma every year, and traumatic brain injury (TBI) is predicted to become the world's third leading cause of death and disability by 2020.

The Infrascanner Model 2000, a portable intracranial hematoma detector, just may put a dent in the death rate if it helps to quickly spot potential brain bleeds in TBI victims.

The handheld device, recently approved for both military and civilian use by the FDA, uses near-infrared (NIR) tech on eight different points of the brain. Because there is a higher concentration of hemoglobin in a … Read more

For the past several years, IBM's research arm has been making predictions about emerging technologies that will change our lives over the next five years. Dubbed "5 in 5," the annual year-end list has already accurately predicted the rise of now-familiar cultural touchstones like Siri, as well as our reliance on smartphones for everything, and real-time speech translation.

This year, IBM has taken a more in-your-face approach to predicting the future of innovation, by specifically focusing on, well, the face and the five senses that make their home there (and yes, hands and everywhere else in the case of touch).… Read more

A Ph.D. student at the University of Toronto is using the same transfer paper currently affixing temporary tattoos to kids -- in conjunction with a common screen-printing technique -- to develop a medical sensor that keeps tabs on a person's exertion by monitoring the skin's pH levels.

Similar devices, which are called ion-selective electrodes (ISEs), are already common among athletic trainers and medical researchers to help spot fatigue, dehydration, or even metabolic diseases. But they tend to be bulky and don't stick well to sweaty skin.

The new sensor stays put and doesn't look so, … Read more

About to fly halfway around the world? You could pop some melatonin in hopes of easing your inevitable jet lag. Or you could don a pair of odd-looking goggles and pretend you're modeling the Ikea line of Geordi La Forge eyewear.

Re-Timer, a lightweight wearable device invented to reset the body's internal clock, launched last week. It emits a soft green light onto the eyes to stimulate the part of the brain responsible for regulating the body's 24-hour clock.

Light received by photoreceptors in our peepers sends a signal to our brains telling us to wake up and smell the alertness. But circumstances including jet lag, irregular work shifts, and lack of sunlight during winter months can mess with the light we need to maintain a well-timed body clock and natural energy levels.

Enter the Re-Timer, which is meant as an alternative to sleep-assisting drug therapy. … Read more

When it comes to detecting a wide range of extremely faint scents, including the primary vapor that emanates from TNT-based explosives, dogs are the gold standard. But researchers out of the University of California at Santa Barbara, report in the journal Analytical Chemistry that they just may have man's best friend beat -- in the form of a fingerprint-sized silicon microchip.

"Like a person, a dog can have a good day or a bad day, get tired or distracted," Carl Meinhart, a mechanical engineering professor who led the research, said in a school news release. "We … Read more

MARANA, Ariz. - Three-dimensional printing: hype, or hope?

That's the question industry leaders sought to answer at the Techonomy conference here in the sunny greater Tucson area. A panel of experts -- Geomagic's Ping Fu, Shapeways' Peter Weijmarshausen and PARC's Stephen Hoover, with CNET's own Paul Sloan moderating -- discussed the promises, pitfalls and potential of a technology that allows almost anyone to turn a digital file into a perfect copy of a physical object, from puzzle pieces to airplane wings, in materials such as plastic, metal and rubberlike polymers.

Can 3D printing change the world? … Read more

The human skin, with all its frailties, turns out to be difficult to recreate, let alone improve on. The main challenge: It manages to be both self-healing and sensitive to the touch, enabling it to send vital information to the brain about temperature and pressure.

But chemists and engineers at Stanford say they are one step closer to developing an electronic skin that has both these properties, and they report this week in the journal Nature Nanotechnology that it could help lead to smarter prosthetics and more resilient, self-repairing electronics.

Their central task was to find a self-healing material (a … Read more

Several months ago, my colleague Tim Hornyak wrote about the BeBionic 3 myoelectric prosthetic hand, a landmark prosthesis that enables a spectacular range of Terminator-like precise gripping and hand maneuverability.

A video making the rounds this week stars 53-year-old Nigel Ackland -- a wearer of the device -- who shows us that we've come extraordinarily far in prosthetic research, perhaps shockingly so if you don't keep up with the subject. … Read more

Devices that monitor inner ear activity could eventually be powered by the ear itself, according to research detailed in the current issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology by scientists from MIT, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI), and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST).

They say that for decades we have known the inner ear houses its own natural battery, but this is the first demonstration of its ability to power something external without compromising hearing.… Read more