Technology

5 Cool Things About Artificial Hearts

Artificial hearts were invented at a time when progress in science couldn't come fast enough. In 1969, when they first went into human use, DDT hadn't been banned, vaccines were considered the medical highlight of the century, and the Green Revol ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Sep 13 2014 - 12:08pm

Let’s Get Vertical

Agriculture has one hell of a footprint, occupying 37.6 percent of earth’s land area, or about 0.7 hectares (1.7 acres) per person to feed our world's ...

Blog Post - Norm Benson - Mar 31 2015 - 8:34pm

Gene Testing Identifies Men With 6X Risk Of Prostate Cancer

A third of the inherited risk of prostate cancer is closer to being identifiable with 23 new genetic variants associated with increased risk of the disease. But there are a lot of factors. The total number of common genetic variants linked to prostate can ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 15 2014 - 9:32am

Wearable Computing And Privacy Invasions You Might Want To Think About Now

You lookin’ at me?Gareth Fuller/PA By Tom Foulsham, University of Essex Are you being recorded? Thanks to the ubiquity of CCTV and camera phones, the answer is more than ever before likely to be “Yes”. Add to this the growth of wearable technology such as ...

Article - The Conversation - Sep 16 2014 - 9:26am

It's Almost 2015- So Where Is My Hoverboard?

As most culturally astute people of a certain age know, 2015 is "The Future" of "Back To The Future II." "Back To The Future" was, of course, a seminal comedy in 1985- a time when terrorists were from the Mid-East and you cou ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Sep 15 2014 - 2:53pm

Emotion Recognition Software

Facial recognition software works pretty well. It measures various parameters, such as the distance between the person's eyes, the height from lip to top of their nose and various other metrics and then compares it with photos of people in a database ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 16 2014 - 1:29pm

Do Those Wearable Activity Monitors Work?

Wearable electronic activity monitors are a popular fad. They constantly monitor activities and bodily responses and the information is organized into computer programs and mobile apps.  Given the large and quickly growing market for these devices, resear ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 16 2014 - 5:39pm

Google Wants You to Spend Money on a Useless Security Feature

I'm not a big fan of conspiracy theories.  Yes, sometimes there are conspiracies, but the Internet seems to magnify discordant cynicism on an unbelievable scale.  I begin with this disclaimer because the conspiracy theorists have come out to explain w ...

Blog Post - Michael Martinez - Sep 17 2014 - 3:37am

The Future May Mean Carhacking Instead Of Carjacking

An older, mechanical car is a closed system- the only way to hack it is to be physically present. But as automobiles become increasingly chip-oriented, any way to update software remotely means the potential to be hacked.  You won't be carjacked, you ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 17 2014 - 10:48am

Blood Test To Diagnose Depression Uses 9 RNA Blood Markers

Northwestern Medicine researchers say they have developed the first blood test to diagnose major depression in adults, by measuring the levels of nine RNA blood markers. RNA molecules are the messengers that interpret the DNA genetic code and carry out it ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 17 2014 - 12:00pm