Aside their use in sci-fi, nanoparticles have emerged as a viable foundation for new ways to diagnose, monitor and treat disease. Current goal in development of nanoparticles used in medicine is to develop them in a way to selectively target only diseased cells, while leaving healthy cells unharmed. University of Florida (UF) researchers developed such… »
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has recently funded the researchers from Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University to develop a smart suit that could be used to improve physical endurance for soldiers in the field. Unlike exoskeletons we previously wrote about, the proposed suit will be made from soft and lightweight… »
After a year of sustained injury or illness, most of the individuals with limited feeling or movement in their hands due to quadriplegia see very little improvement in recovery for the remainder of their lives. Georgia Tech researchers have created Mobile Music Touch (MMT) – a wireless, musical glove that may improve sensation and motor… »
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) have developed a new approach for making biocompatible vesicles that can carry drugs to their targets in the body. By starting with a protein that is found in sunflower seeds, they used genetic engineering to make a variety of protein molecules that assemble into biocompatible vesicles and other… »
Inspired by the swarming patterns of animals in nature, an aerospace engineering PhD student from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia, is using biomimicry to develop an algorithm which simulates novel and chaotic flight formations of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The results could be used in order to improve their performance in marine… »
Using the compound eyes of the humble moth as their inspiration, an international team of physicists from the City University of New York and Tongji University in Shanghai applied biomimicry to develop new nanoscale materials that could someday increase the resolution of the resulting X-ray images without the need for larger radiation dosages which occur… »
Inspired by lizards, which have the ability to turn right side up and land on their feet when they fall, the researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, developed a robot able to mimic that ability. Named RightingBot, the lizard-inspired robot mimics lizards which swing their large tails one way to rotate their body the… »
As Europe’s population ages, chronic diseases are becoming increasingly widespread. In order to provide a seamless system able to monitor heart rate, breathing and physical activity, EU-funded researchers have developed a T-shirt fitted with sensors as well as additional in-home monitoring devices and intelligent data processing technology. Aside being used in telemedicine, the system could… »
