Could Flying Bikes, Cars Be Next? Toyota and U.S. Army Explore

 

Hoverbikes and boards that lift off the ground are no longer sci-fi. Even the U.S. Army is considering how to use them. Lexus built its Hoverboard, which uses magnets and liquid nitrogen cooled superconductors to lift off the ground, for an ad campaign. Photograph courtesy Lexus Hovering technology, once Hollywood sci-fi, is gaining ground in the real world. The U.S. Army is looking at the “world’s first flying motorcycle,” and Toyota’s luxury brand Lexus has built its own hoverboard. Yet these and other levitating wonders won’t hit the market anytime soon. They still have to undergo safety testing and regulatory scrutiny. And some are simply meant to amuse. Lexus’ new Hoverboard, for example, isn’t the forerunner of a flying car that Toyota says it’s been studying. “It’s definitely something that works, but it’s not something we plan to sell,” says Lexus spokesman Moe Durand of the hoverboard, unveiled this week in a company video. It uses magnets and liquid nitrogen-cooled superconductors to lift a rider off the ground. So far, it only works when magnets are embedded underneath the concrete surface. “It’s really just for an ad,” Durand says, citing the “Amazing in Motion” ad campaign to showcase Lexus’ innovation. Though Lexus didn’t build it as part of a push toward a flying car, he says it could eventually lead in that direction: “Is it dipping our toe in the water? Maybe.” An increasing number of companies, though, are vying to commercialize their hovercraft. Their prototypes may not look like Marty McFly’s board in the 1989 movie Back to the Future II, but they’re aiming to use magnetic levitation to do all sorts of incredible things—transport troops over difficult terrain, move passengers in Elon Musk’s vision of sonic tubular travel, or even lift buildings to avoid earthquake damage. Chris Malloy built a helicopter-like craft in his garage in suburban Sydney, Australia. His website says he “combined the simplicity of a motorbike with the freedom of a helicopter to create the world’s first flying motorcycle.” Now he’s the managing director of Malloy Aeronautics, a company based in the United Kingdom. “We’re doing a feasibility study for them,” Malloy says of the U.S. Army, noting his Hoverbike can do search and rescue missions, cargo delivery, disaster relief, and surveillance. He says his craft, designed to come in manned and unmanned versions, can do what helicopters do—at a lower cost, in tighter spaces, and without pilots. This is the original prototype of the Hoverbike, which has two propellers. The current one is a quad-copter with four propellers. Photograph courtesy Malloy Aeronautics He declined to give specifics about the project. At the Paris Air Show earlier this month, Maryland Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford announced that Malloy’s company—along with SURVICE Engineering Co., a Maryland-based defense firm—is working to develop the Hoverbike for the U.S. military as a new class of Tactical Reconnaissance Vehicle. Malloy says he developed the Hoverbike for commercial, not military, use. “We’ve had lots of people who want to place orders,” he says, noting he’s not yet taking them. “We don’t want to hurry our product into the market.” Technically, he says the company could begin production now, but he needs to do rigorous testing to prove its safety. He expects that could take at least three to five years, and he doesn’t have the market to himself. “We have competitors,” he says, noting companies in New Zealand and elsewhere with similar prototypes. Simpler hovercraft are emerging, too. In California, Greg Henderson has built the Hendo, a hoverboard that he says uses one fourth as much energy as a helicopter to lift the same weight. (Find out what it’s like to ride one.) In October, his company Arx Pax plans to debut a new version that’s smaller, lighter, and more powerful. The story is part of a special series that explores energy issues. For more, visit The Great Energy Challenge. On Twitter: Follow Wendy Koch and get more environment and energy coverage at NatGeoEnergy.

Minimally invasive heart surgery

 

Definition By Mayo Clinic Staff In minimally invasive heart surgery, heart (cardiac) surgeons perform heart surgery through small incisions in the right side of your chest, as an alternative to open heart surgery. Surgeons operate between the ribs and don't split the breastbone (sternotomy), which results in less pain and a quicker recovery for most people. In minimally invasive surgery, your heart surgeon has a better view of some parts of your heart than in open heart surgery. As in open surgery, minimally invasive heart surgery requires stopping your heart temporarily and diverting blood flow from your heart using a heart-lung machine. Surgeons perform many minimally invasive heart surgeries, including: Aortic valve surgery Atrial septal defect closure, including patent foramen ovale Atrioventricular canal defect (also called atrioventricular septal defect) surgery Heart valve surgery to treat heart valve disease Maze heart surgery to treat atrial fibrillation Mitral valve surgery Saphenous vein harvest (removing a vein from your leg) for coronary bypass surgery Tricuspid valve surgery Your doctor will work with you to determine whether minimally invasive heart surgery is an option. If you've had prior heart surgery or heart disease, you generally aren't a candidate for minimally invasive heart surgery. Your doctor also may perform tests and review your medical history to determine whether you're a candidate for minimally invasive heart surgery. Mayo Clinic offers robot-assisted surgery or thoracoscopic minimally invasive heart surgery. Advantages Minimally invasive heart surgery isn't an option for everyone, but it offers many advantages in those for whom it's appropriate. Advantages may include: Less blood loss Lower risk of infection Reduced trauma and pain Shorter time in the hospital, faster recovery and quicker return to normal activities Smaller, less noticeable scars Risks In people for whom minimally invasive heart surgery is appropriate, risks and complications are rare. You may experience these complications, which also may occur in other surgeries: Bleeding Stroke Wound infection Types Mayo Clinic heart surgeons work with an experienced surgical team to perform minimally invasive heart surgery, including robot-assisted heart surgery and thoracoscopic heart surgery. In both types of procedures, surgeons reach your heart through small incisions between the ribs of your chest. Robot-assisted heart surgery. In robot-assisted heart surgery, the exact maneuvers performed in traditional open chest operation are duplicated by the surgeon using robotic arms, rather than his or her hands. During this procedure, your surgeon works at a remote console and views your heart in a magnified high-definition 3-D view on a video monitor. From the remote console, your surgeon's hand movements are translated precisely to the robotic arms at the operating table, which move similarly to the human wrist. A second surgeon and surgical team assists at the operating table, changing surgical instruments attached to the robotic arms. Thoracoscopic surgery. In thoracoscopic surgery (sometimes referred to as a mini-thoracotomy), your surgeon inserts a long, thin tube (thoracoscope) containing a tiny high-definition video camera into a small incision in your chest. Your surgeon repairs your heart using long instruments inserted through small incisions between your ribs.   June 06, 2015

A new means to killing harmful bacteria

 

Thu, 06/25/2015 - 11:50am Helen Knight, MIT News correspondent In this illustration, phagemid plasmids infect a targeted bacteria. Image: Christine Daniloff and Jose-Luis Olivares/MIT (plasmid illustration courtesy of the researchers) The global rise in antibiotic resistance is a growing threat to public health, damaging our ability to fight deadly infections such as tuberculosis. What’s more, efforts to develop new antibiotics are not keeping pace with this growth in microbial resistance, resulting in a pressing need for new approaches to tackle bacterial infection. In a paper published online in Nano Letters, researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and Harvard Univ. reveal that they have developed a new means of killing harmful bacteria. The researchers have engineered particles, known as “phagemids,” capable of producing toxins that are deadly to targeted bacteria. Bacteriophages—viruses that infect and kill bacteria—have been used for many years to treat infection in countries such as those in the former Soviet Union. Unlike traditional broad-spectrum antibiotics, these viruses target specific bacteria without harming the body’s normal microflora. But bacteriophages can also cause potentially harmful side effects, according to James Collins, the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering and Science in MIT’s Dept. of Biological Engineering and Institute of Medical Engineering and Science, who led the research. “Bacteriophages kill bacteria by lysing the cell, or causing it to burst,” Collins says. “But this is problematic, as it can lead to the release of nasty toxins from the cell.” These toxins can lead to sepsis and even death in some cases, he says. A gentler burst In previous research, Collins and his colleagues engineered bacteriophages to express proteins that did not actually burst the cells, but instead increased the effectiveness of antibiotics when delivered at the same time. To build on this earlier work, the researchers set out to develop a related technology that would target and kill specific bacteria, without bursting the cells and releasing their contents. The researchers used synthetic biology techniques to develop a platform of particles called phagemids. These particles infect bacteria with small DNA molecules known as plasmids, which are able to replicate independently inside a host cell. Once inside the cell, the plasmids are engineered to express different proteins or peptides—molecules made up of short chains of amino acids—that are toxic to the bacteria, Collins says. “We systematically tested different antimicrobial peptides and bacterial toxins, and demonstrated that when you combine a number of these within the phagemids, you can kill the great majority of cells within a culture,” he says. The expressed toxins are designed to disrupt different cellular processes, such as bacterial replication, causing the cell to die without bursting open. Precise targeting The phagemids will also only infect a specific species of bacteria, resulting in a highly targeted system, Collins says. “You can use this to kill off very specific species of bacteria as part of an infection therapy, while sparing the rest of the microbiome,” he says. When the researchers monitored the response of the bacteria to repeated reinfection with the phagemids, they did not witness signs of significant resistance to the particles. “This means you can do multiple rounds of delivery of the phagemids, in order to get a more effective therapy,” he says. This is in contrast to repeated infection with bacteriophages, where the researchers found that the bacteria did develop resistance over time. Although Collins acknowledges that bacteria will ultimately develop resistance to any stress that is placed upon them, the research suggests that it is likely to take them far longer to develop resistance to phagemids than to conventional bacteriophage therapy, he says. A “cocktail” of different phagemids could be given to patients to treat an unclassified infection, in a similar way to the broad-spectrum antibiotics used today. But they are more likely to be used in conjunction with rapid diagnostic tools, currently in development, which would allow physicians to treat specific infections, Collins says. “You would first run a fast diagnostic test to identify the bacteria your patient has, and then give the appropriate phagemid to kill off the pathogen,” he says. The researchers are planning to expand their platform by developing a broader range of phagemids. They have so far experimented with a set of phagemids specific to E. coli, but now hope to create particles capable of killing off pathogens such as Clostridium difficile and the cholera-causing bacterium Vibrio cholerea. Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Pointing the way to crack-resistant metals

 

Thu, 06/25/2015 - 11:20am Joe Kullman, Arizona State University. The image shows corrosion of a silver-gold alloy spontaneously resulting in the formation of nanoscale porous structures that undergo high-speed cracking under the action of a tensile stress. It helps demonstrate a discovery by an Arizona State University research team about the stress-corrosion behavior of metals that threatens the mechanical integrity of engineered components and structures.Potential solutions to big problems continue to arise from research that is revealing how materials behave at the smallest scales. The results of a new study to understand the interactions of various metal alloys at the nanometer and atomic scales are likely to aid advances in methods of preventing the failure of systems critical to public and industrial infrastructure. Research led by Arizona State Univ. materials science and engineering professor Karl Sieradzki is uncovering new knowledge about the causes of stress-corrosion cracking in alloys used in pipelines for transporting water, natural gas and fossil fuels, as well as for components used in nuclear power generating stations and the framework of aircraft. Sieradzki is on the faculty of the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, one of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. His research team’s findings are detailed in Nature Materials. Using advanced tools for ultra-high-speed photography and digital image correlation, the team has been able to closely observe the events triggering the origination of stress-corrosion fracture in a model silver-gold alloy and to track the speed at which cracking occurs. They measured cracks moving at speeds of 200 mps, corresponding to about half of the shear wave sound velocity in the material. This is a remarkable result, Sieradzki said, given that typically only brittle materials such as glass will fracture in this manner and that gold alloys are among the most malleable metals. In the absence of a corrosive environment these gold alloys fail in the same manner as children’s modeling clay, Sieradzki explained: Roll modeling clay into a cylindrical shape and you can stretch it by a by 100% before it slowly tears apart. In the presence of corrosive environments, silver is selectively dissolved from the alloy causing porosity to form. If this occurs while the alloy is stressed, then the material fails as if it were made of glass. These results provide a deeper understanding of the stress-corrosion behavior of metals such as aluminum alloys, brass and stainless steel that threatens the mechanical integrity of important engineered components and structures. The team’s discoveries could provide a guide for “designing alloys with different microstructures so that the materials are resistant to this type of cracking,” Sieradzki said. Source: Arizona State University

New conductive ink for electronic apparel

 

Thu, 06/25/2015 - 10:45am University of Tokyo Electrodes, wires, and via holes can be printed by a single step printing process. The muscle activity sensor was produced by printing once on each side of the material's surface.  Image: 2015 Someya Laboratory University of Tokyo researchers have developed a new ink that can be printed on textiles in a single step to form highly conductive and stretchable connections. This new functional ink will enable electronic apparel such as sportswear and underwear incorporating sensing devices for measuring a range of biological indicators such as heart rate and muscle contraction. Current printed electronics, such as transistors, light-emitting diodes and solar panels, can be printed on plastic or paper substrates, but these substrates tend to be rigid or hard. The use of soft, stretchable material would enable a new generation of wearable devices that fit themselves to the human body. However, it has proved difficult to make an ink that is both highly conductive and elastic without a complicated multi-step printing process. Now, Prof. Takao Someya's research group at the Univ. of Tokyo's Graduate School of Engineering has developed an elastic conducting ink that is easily printed on textiles and patterned in a single printing step. This ink is comprised of silver flakes, organic solvent, fluorine rubber and fluorine surfactant. The ink exhibited high conductivity even when it was stretched to more than three times its original length, which marks the highest value reported for stretchable conductors that can be extended to more than two and a half times their original length. Using this new ink, the group created a wrist-band muscle activity sensor by printing an elastic conductor on a sportswear material and combining it with an organic transistor amplifier circuit. This sensor can measure muscle activity by detecting muscle electrical potentials over an area of 4x4 square centimeters with nine electrodes placed 2 cm apart in a 3x3 grid. "Our team aims to develop comfortable wearable devices. This ink was developed as part of this endeavor," says Someya. "The biggest challenge was obtaining high conductivity and stretchability with a simple one-step printing process. We were able to achieve this by use of a surfactant that allowed the silver flakes to self-assemble at the surface of the printed pattern, ensuring high conductivity." Source: University of Tokyo

Como Manter-se Motivado Quando Trabalha em Casa

 

O número de pessoas que trabalha em casa está a crescer. No entanto, esta prática é mais difícil do que possa parecer, sendo necessário um alto nível de disciplina e enfrentar o trabalho como qualquer outro. Trabalhar em casa como um profissional – Imagem de Flickr/JeremyOK Segundo alguns estudos estatísticos realizados pela Work From Home Info, existe um elevado número de pessoas que trabalha em casa. Mesmo que esses números sejam relativos aos Estados Unidos, as estatísticas de outros países devem estar próximas dessas, proporcionais à população. Senão vejamos: o desemprego aumenta a olhos vistos e muitas dessas pessoas começam a arranjar soluções por conta própria. No início do processo, é muito provável que tudo comece a partir de casa. Nos Estados Unidos são gerados anualmente 427 biliões de dólares por negócios criados e mantidos a partir de casa e 70% dos americanos preferia ser o seu próprio empregador. Estas são demais razões para considerar o trabalho a partir de casa mais do que um capricho, antes uma realidade. Regras para manter a motivação e produtividade para quem trabalha em casa Trabalhar a partir de casa não é fácil. As distrações existem em maior número comparando com o trabalho tradicional, não existe o contato entre colegas de trabalho (porque muitas vezes não existem colegas de trabalho) e, inclusive, pode não ser uma prática bem vista por familiares e amigos. Por outras palavras, se quer trabalhar a partir de casa tem que ganhar bons hábitos e criar uma reputação, resultados visíveis que comprovem a sua boa escolha. De seguida apresento-lhe um conjunto de práticas que têm como objetivo manter a sua motivação e produtividade em cima quando trabalha em casa. É importante evitar distrações, tratar este trabalho como qualquer outro trabalho, levá-lo a sério e definir horas de verdadeira produtividade. 1. Comece o dia como um profissional Se pensa que por estar a trabalhar em casa não tem um horário e pode fazê-lo de pijama desengane-se. Trabalhar de pijama é depressivo, aos poucos vai sendo cada vez mais difícil tirar da sua cabeça a palavra casa e substitui-la por trabalho. Um bom sinal de que está disponível para trabalhar em casa é cumprir horários e vestir-se como se fosse para o escritório. Crie uma rotina: horas de levantar, pequeno-almoço, vestimenta a rigor, entra às 9 e sai às 5, seja o que for. A história de acordar a qualquer hora, puxar do portátil para a cama e trabalhar não funciona. Se leva o seu trabalho a sério, seja profissional. Artigo Relacionado: Como se Tornar numa Pessoa Madrugadora 2. Maximize o contato com outras pessoas Uma das vantagens do trabalho fora de casa é a possibilidade de conviver com colegas, partilhar opiniões e demonstrar que temos uma voz. Trabalhar a partir de casa tem este senão: vai estar na solidão a maior parte do tempo. Por essa razão, é importante maximizar o contato com o exterior, em termos profissionais, claro. Procure estar perto de clientes e potenciais clientes, outras pessoas que estejam na mesma situação. Se não consegue viver sem socializar, então esta ausência pode ser altamente desmotivadora. Lute contra esse problema e mantenha-se em contato. 3. Agrupe tarefas idênticas Rieva Lesonsky, CEO da GrowBiz Media, aconselha a agrupar tarefas idênticas (aliás, quer trabalhe em casa ou não). “Passar do e-mail para a escrita de uma proposta para uma sessão de brainstorm e voltar novamente ao e-mail vai dispersar a sua energia, uma vez que o seu cérebro tem que realizar mudanças de foco de cada vez que alterna entre tarefas.” Em vez deste vai-vem entre tarefas, agrupe aquelas que são idênticas. “Por exemplo, reserve uma manhã por semana para uma reunião; passe uma hora ao telefone a receber e realizar chamadas; reserve algumas horas para escrever uma proposta. Aos poucos vai entrar no ritmo de cada tarefa que está a realizar e vai ser mais eficaz,” diz Rieva. Artigo Relacionado: “O Multitasking Traz Ineficiência,” diz a Ciência 4. Discipline-se Se trabalhar no escritório pode ser uma tarefa árdua, imagine o que é trabalhar num local que remete para o descanso e paz, para as suas coisas e para o seu espaço, família, etc. O corpo fica mole, as distrações são mais que muitas. Comece a utilizar ferramentas como o RescueTime que lhe permite monitorizar onde gasta o seu tempo para que o possa aproveitar da melhor maneira. É fácil perder tempo a partir de casa – ou são os animais, ou são os filhos, ou cortar a relva do jardim. Não funciona. Trabalhar em casa passa muito por automatizar o cérebro para perceber quando é tempo para trabalhar e quando não é. Se continuar a perder tempo dessa forma nunca o vai conseguir. Artigo Relacionado: 5 Formas de Derrotar a Procrastinação Artigo Relacionado: 5 Práticas Para a Verdadeira Produtividade 5. Faça pausas e exercício Tal como qualquer profissional, as pausas e o exercício são bons catalizadores para o foco. Em casa tem outro benefício: pode aproveitá-las para trabalho caseiro. Se quando trabalha fora de casa as pausas não são mais do que perder algum tempo a não fazer nada, em casa pode tirar o melhor partido delas para realizar outras tarefas. Por outro lado, trabalhar a partir de casa torna a prática de exercício mais facilitada uma vez que evita a perda de tempo entre casa-trabalho e trabalho-casa. Deixou de ter a desculpa da falta de tempo porque o momento exato que serviria para a prática de exercício é precisamente a altura das deslocações. O exercício é benéfico para a sua saúde e para o seu trabalho. Artigo Relacionado: Exercício Físico e Saúde: A Tecnologia à Sua Disposição Se começou agora a trabalhar a partir de casa, ou se tem nos seus horizontes essa possibilidade, fazê-lo é mais difícil do que aparenta. Pelo menos se pretende obter produtividade. Recomendo que crie uma lista com vários pontos relativos ao que deve mudar e implementar para um dia de trabalho em casa bem sucedido. Aos poucos comece a habituar-se a todas essas práticas com disciplina. O truque para o trabalho caseiro é a disciplina.