Empatica’s smartwatch predicts Epileptic seizures
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Epileptic seizures are debilitating, but they can also be fatal, this latest breakthrough pre-warns people before they have them. Embrace is a smartwatch of a different kind. It’s able to tell time, analyse sleep patterns, and, more crucially, it’s also able to tell if you’re about...
AI starts reading sentences directly from people’s brains
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As AI becomes increasingly adept at helping unlock the secrets of the brain it’s also becoming more adept at helping decode and visualise complex thoughts onto TV’s and other devices. The capabilities and accuracy of Artificial Intelligence (AI) “mind reading” systems, as they are increasing...
Nanoparticles help researchers accurately locate metastasising cancers
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Until now it has been hard, almost impossible, to identify how Cancer spreads around the body, and that’s made metastasising cancers harder to treat. Following on from a recent announcement from another team that they’ve managed to use a simple blood test to detect...
New polymer tears up anti-biotic resistant bacteria from the inside out
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As the number of superbugs and anti-biotic resistant bugs increase, we need to find new novel ways of fighting them. A research team composed of scientists from the A*Star Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, and IBM, have produced a new macromolecule that can target...
Semi-synthetic cells could revolutionise everything from sensors to healthcare
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The ability to create semi-synthetic cells that have both organic and inorganic properties opens up a whole world of new use cases that span everything from biotech to new forms of manufacturing. The more we study natural biological cells, the more we learn about...
IBM wants to combine AI and blockchain to transform healthcare
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF AI and blockchain are two incredibly powerful technologies, but for different reasons, however, when they’re combined their significance, and impact, becomes even greater. The combination of Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (AI) “could bring significant improvements to a healthcare sector plagued by interoperability problems and...
Novoheart has grown real, miniature hearts in jars that beat like the real thing
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Trying to demonstrate that new drugs don’t have any negative impacts on a patients heart is difficult, but this new technology provides research organisations with a fast, cheap way to test their new drugs without the risks. Beating rhythmically and suspended in a jar,...
Experts believe AI will be used to hijack brain machine interfaces, form consortium
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As brain machine interfaces become more capable, and as their use cases and adoption broaden, experts are worried that regulators will leave it to late to protect people from bad actors and misuse. Ever since Tesla CEO and founder Elon Musk announced his plans...
New eye drops use nanotech to fix faulty vision and eliminate eye glasses
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Millions of people around the world have eye problems, whether they’re severe, or slight, but now a new nanoparticle solution looks like it could help users bin eye glasses for good. Today there are a number of ways, from using bionic eyes, gene editing...
New smartphone app lets users detect fatal heart conditions at home
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to detect fatal heart conditions before they kill you is a good thing… enough said. The most common type of Arrhythmia, a form of atrial fibrillation, is an irregular beating of the heart that can lead to stroke, blood clots, or heart...
World’s first stem cell bone tissue transplant is a success
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF When patients loose part of a bone, for example, to Cancer, often there is no way to get the bones to grow or fuse together again resulting in amputation, this breakthrough will prevent that. Medical history was made at Emek Medical Center in Afula...
New graphene filter turns filthy water into drinking water
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Millions of people around the world don’t have regular access to clean drinking water, and this breakthrough could help them. Every year millions of people around the world die from diseases they’ve contracted from drinking unclean water but now researchers in Australia have developed...
Under Armour’s new clothes help heal your body while sleeping
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As we develop new materials, and find new ways to use them for our benefit, one day in the future we’ll suddenly discover that clothes can do much more than clothe us. Could the right clothes, in this case pyjamas, help athletes, and the...
New prosthetic hand project will give amputees back their sense of touch
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF When people loose a limb the prosthetics they use don’t offer any form of tactile or sensory feedback, this new project hopes to solve that problem and give people their sense of touch back via a new form of prosthetic. Following on from a...
Ultrasound on a smartphone, Butterfly Network release the iQ
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Healthcare in many countries is expensive and difficult to access, tools like these help democratise access to vital services helping people live longer, healthier lives. Engineer Jonathan Rothberg became famous for creating the world’s first DNA sequencer on a chip called the Ion Torrent back in...
Blackberry’s AI Robo-hacker gets to work finding bugs in connected cars code
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As more products become reliant on software to function, and as programs get increasingly complex, human developers are finding it increasingly difficult to find and patch all the bugs and vulnerabilities. As cars, especially self-driving ones, become more reliant on software it’s critical automakers...
World’s first crystal robot goes for a walk
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Our ability to turn almost any material, seemingly, into a robotic device, including crystals, will help us open the door to new drug delivery and healthcare applications as well as ones we haven’t discovered yet. All of a sudden I’m seeing a new glut...
Molecular programming breakthrough could create better molecular assemblers
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As we learn how to create and build new, smaller molecular sized machines and robots being able to manipulate matter at the molecular scale will become increasingly important. Over the past couple of months there have been world firsts in the creation of DNA...
New theory let’s scientists bring light to a standstill
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The manipulation of light is becoming an increasingly important factor in the development of new communications, computing, energy and entertainment systems, and our mastery of it is getting better all the time. Light is famously fast, normally travels at nearly 300,000 kilometres per second through...
Chinese scientists unveil a new material that heals itself like human skin
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Up until now most self-healing materials have either been hard, or soft, and that narrows their number of applications, this new material is the first to have the best of both worlds. Imagine a smartphone, or window, that can heal from cuts and scratches...
