Category: Technology

  • Printing leather in the lab instead of killing animals

    Tissue printing sounds very interesting since it bring forward the concept of custom made tissue that can be made in the lab and can cure disease. But, this is a tough problem. It is difficult to make tissue that functions normally and be very safe to put it back into human. However, there is one…

  • Baxter robotics – a robot for everyone

    For most people the concept of robotics is scary. It means automatic machines that take engineers to program and then they operate like automatons performing repeated functions over and over again till they are stopped. If you are in the way of the operations, then it means destruction to you! However, a new company “rethink…

  • Windows recovery programs

    Almost all versions of computers need to be backed up. The two that have been very robust and offer good backup and cloning solutions are: Reflect Disk Imaging: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp Paragon Backup & Recovery Free Edition: http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/download.html These are the ones that offer very good flexibility as well as allow you to make bootable disks.

  • Army technology

    The army comes up with cool new technology that is obviously great for tires but this material could also make up instrumentation that will be light and flexible. An unbreakable spectrophotometer! {youtube}2wAvxQfusWU{/youtube}

  • Simplicity in microfluidics – Slip Chip. Enabling mobile diagnostics.

    Microfluidics involves complicated design and mechanics of fluid motion. Microfluidics enables many reactions to take place in miniscule volumes. This enables efficiency as well as minitiaturization with the consequential advantage of speed and low waste of reagents. However, one persistent problem has been the pumps that are required to pump liquid through these minor chambers.…

  • The fog gun system for bathing.

    History: Buckminster Fuller, a scientist from UK was a remarkable inventor, architect and a designer. He was responsible for the Geodesic dome among other designs but the most fulfilling design was the bathing unit, called Dymaxion that was a very unique concept. This design came from his observations while in the navy that exposing soiled…

  • What is the real need for lab automation?

    All the scientists when asked whether they use some kind of lab automation answer – “Of course” but recently a survey conducted by Lab Equipment showed that nearly 35% of the respondents do not use any lab automation systems. However that is still a large number of respondents who do use the lab equipment. Among…

  • Quenchbody technology – detect anything in 90 sec through antigen-antibody reaction.

    Ushio has made a great detector that can detect toxins, drugs and many other agents using a new method of detection that was published earlier in 2011.  The technology is interesting. The detection reagent is a Variable region fragment ofHeavy chain antibody (VH) that has the quenched fluorescence group embedded in its structure. This is…

  • Vanadium Dioxide V02 an insulator or conductor or both?

    Vanadium Dioxide is an interesting material. It functions as a metal at some temperatures and then as an insulator at other temperatures. The microscopic reason for the transition is unknown but the ways this can be used is interesting. Transition metal oxides make for interesting studies. They are normally an insulator that does not allow…

  • Water droplets to form tissue structures

    Dr Hagan Bayley’s lab has been working on ion channels, pores and droplet based technologies. Dr Gabriel Villar from that group just published a paper in Science that shows the formation of unique droplets submerged in hydrocarbons/oil. The formation of these droplets is interesting but what is unique is that they can form interactions amongst…