Scientists create artificial nerve cell connections with plastic beads

September 10th, 2009 LONDON - The first robotic hand to give amputees a sense of touch has been created by Swedish scientists. When pressed against an object the 40 sensors in the Smarthand get activated.

August 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - While it gets quite difficult to manipulate tiny objects like single cells or nanosized beads via relatively large, unwieldy equipment, Penn State engineers have now designed a new system that uses sound as a pair of tiny tweezers that are small enough to place infinitesimal objects on a chip. While optical tweezers are large and expensive, acoustic tweezers are smaller than a dime, small enough to fabricate on a chip using standard chip manufacturing techniques.

August 26th, 2009 LONDON - A new study by an international team of researchers from France, South Africa, Germany, Israel and the UK has confirmed that 80,000-year-old shell beads found in caves in North Africa represent some of the earliest evidence of the use of personal ornamentation, which also points to the dawn of modern human behaviour. According to a report carried out by the Planet Earth Online, the beads provide evidence that the people alive at the time were acting much like modern humans.

July 9th, 2009 LONDON - Scientists at the University of Hull have identified a new group of molecules on the surface of nerve cells that make people cough when they are irritated. According to the researchers, the findings could lead to new drugs to treat coughing.

July 8th, 2009 LONDON - Taking a step closer towards the creation of artificial nerve cells, scientists have now found that neurotransmitters can be used to communicate between the nerve cells in the body. Just like cochlear implants and electrodes, current methods to stimulate nerve signals in the nervous system are based on electrical stimulation.

July 6th, 2009 LONDON - A new research has determined that cosmic 'whips', which are topological defects in space-time larger than the observable universe, can be detected with the help of gravitational waves. Many theories predict the existence of cosmic strings.

June 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists, using a new analytical method, have been able to demonstrate the presence of several artificial sweeteners in waste water in Germany. The method, which simultaneously extracts and analyses seven commonly used artificial sweeteners, was developed by Marco Scheurer, Heinz-Jurgen Brauch and Frank Thomas Lange from the Water Technology Center in Karlsruhe, Germany.

June 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, scientists have described the aerodynamic secret of twirling seeds of maple trees, which might have implications for the design of swirling parachutes and micro-helicopters. The research was done by scientists from Wageningen University in the Netherlands and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), US.

May 6th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have now shown that skin cells can be coaxed to behave like muscle cells and muscle cells like skin cells. The fickleness of the cells, and the relative ease with which they make the switch, provide a glimpse into the genetic reprogramming that must occur for a cell to become something it's not.

May 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists are developing artificial cells with the ability to tap an energy source and use it for sustained mobility. A Japanese study described the first 'self-propelled' oil droplets (used as a model for research on artificial cells) that can run on a chemical 'fuel'.

April 27th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists in The Netherlands are reporting development of a new plastic with a "self-healing polymer" that has potential for use in the first easy-to-recycle computer circuit boards, electrical insulation, and other electronics products that now wind up on society's growing heaps of electronic waste. Antonius Broekhuis and colleagues note in the new study that so-called thermoset plastics are widely used in consumer electronics due to their hardness and heat resistance.

April 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Archaeologists have excavated the largest 17th century bead repository found in coastal Georgia, with a recovery of roughly 70,000 beads manufactured all over the world. The beads were found as part of an extensive, ongoing research project led by a team of scientists from the American Museum of Natural History on St.

March 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - People who lose control over their facial muscles have now got a new lease of life, for scientists have now developed a technique that could restore their ability to wink, and eventually may help them smile by implanting an artificial muscle in their temple. Developed at the University of California, Davis and SRI International, the technique has shown promising results on cadavers.

March 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers at the University of Rochester have created long platinum nanowires that may lead to the development of commercially viable fuel cells. It is believed that the new wires could provide significant increases in both the longevity and efficiency of fuel cells, which have until now been used largely for such exotic purposes as powering spacecraft.

February 27th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers are relying on spun-sugar filaments to create a scaffold of tiny synthetic tubes to help regenerate nerves severed in accidents or blood vessels damaged by disease. The sugar filaments are coated with a corn-based degradable polymer, and then the sugar is dissolved in water, leaving behind bundles of hollow polymer tubes that mimic those found in nerves, said Riyi Shi, associate professor in Purdue's Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Basic Medical Sciences.