Biotech

3D printing: The hype, the hopes, the hurdles

MARANA, Ariz. - Three-dimensional printing: hype, or hope?

That's the question industry leaders sought to answer at the Techonomy conference here in the sunny greater Tucson area. A panel of experts -- Geomagic's Ping Fu, Shapeways' Peter Weijmarshausen and PARC's Stephen Hoover, with CNET's own Paul Sloan moderating -- discussed the promises, pitfalls and potential of a technology that allows almost anyone to turn a digital file into a perfect copy of a physical object, from puzzle pieces to airplane wings, in materials such as plastic, metal and rubberlike polymers.

Can 3D printing change the world? … Read more

New e-skin is sensitive to touch and self-healing

The human skin, with all its frailties, turns out to be difficult to recreate, let alone improve on. The main challenge: It manages to be both self-healing and sensitive to the touch, enabling it to send vital information to the brain about temperature and pressure.

But chemists and engineers at Stanford say they are one step closer to developing an electronic skin that has both these properties, and they report this week in the journal Nature Nanotechnology that it could help lead to smarter prosthetics and more resilient, self-repairing electronics.

Their central task was to find a self-healing material (a … Read more

BeBionic 3: Watch a highly advanced bionic hand in action

Several months ago, my colleague Tim Hornyak wrote about the BeBionic 3 myoelectric prosthetic hand, a landmark prosthesis that enables a spectacular range of Terminator-like precise gripping and hand maneuverability.

A video making the rounds this week stars 53-year-old Nigel Ackland -- a wearer of the device -- who shows us that we've come extraordinarily far in prosthetic research, perhaps shockingly so if you don't keep up with the subject. … Read more

MIT figures out how to power tiny devices with... the ear

Devices that monitor inner ear activity could eventually be powered by the ear itself, according to research detailed in the current issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology by scientists from MIT, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI), and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST).

They say that for decades we have known the inner ear houses its own natural battery, but this is the first demonstration of its ability to power something external without compromising hearing.… Read more

Sensor promises disease detection with naked eye

British scientists have come up with a super-sensitive prototype sensor that lets doctors detect early stage diseases with the naked eye, an innovation that could prove valuable in countries that lack the resources for expensive diagnostic equipment.

The sensor, created at Imperial College London, relies on nanotechnology to analyze serum derived from blood samples.

A positive reaction to p24, a protein that indicates early HIV infection, or PSA, a protein that at certain levels can indicate prostate cancer, generates irregular clumps of nanoparticles that emit a blue color in a solution kept in a disposable container.

A negative reaction, however, … Read more

Detecting schizophrenia: The eyes have it

More than a century ago, doctors first realized that people with psychotic illnesses also suffer from impaired eye movements. Now researchers out of the University of Aberdeen in the U.K. have taken that observation and truly put it to the test with high resolution cameras and video software.

The result: a computer model based on a series of simple eye-tracking trials that has distinguished schizophrenics from healthy control subjects with 98.3 percent accuracy.

"It has been known for over 100 years that individuals with psychotic illnesses have a variety of eye movement abnormalities, but until our study, … Read more

DJ meets gym coach with app that keys songs to heart rate

Your smartphone could soon become a combination personal trainer and DJ.

Thanks to headphones that can measure your heart rate and acceleration, and a smartphone app that can identify which songs on your phone will help you reach your target heart rate, you won't have to guess which playlist best suits your next jog.… Read more

NASA exoskeleton suit is half way to Iron Man

The X1 Robotic Exoskeleton looks like a cross between the legs of a Stormtrooper and a Transformer. The suit is a spinoff from NASA's Robonaut 2 humanoid robot project.

The X1 is focused on either helping or hindering a person's legs, depending on its job description. When it's set to inhibit, the X1 resists movement and could be used to help astronauts exercise in space. When it's set to help, it could be used to assist paraplegics and others with lower body injuries with walking.

Four motorized joints and six passive joints give the 57-pound suit a good range of motion. It also gives it some nice Iron Man flavor, minus the propulsion feet.… Read more

How a smart bra could one day outdo the mammogram

Those breast exams women are supposed to regularly give themselves in the shower are no joke. With one in eight women facing breast cancer diagnosis at some point, early detection -- most often in the form of simple self exams -- can be a literal lifesaver.

So First Warning Systems, a company founded in Reno, Nev., in 2008, is designing and testing a smart bra that is essentially a continuous exam, and that thus far appears to be more accurate that the somewhat controversial mammography.

The Breast Tissue Screening Bra incorporates a sensor that measures tiny temperature changes that occur as blood vessels grow and feed tumors, which the company says grow for an average of 12 years (to 4 centimeters in diameter) before being surgically removed.

That sensor, meanwhile, communicates with pattern recognition software to help spot possible tumors long before a hand or mammogram likely would.… Read more