The Bionic Boot

Better Bomb-Sniffing Technology

University of Utah engineers develop material for better detectors.

By University of Utah | November 05, 2014

Ling Zang, a University of Utah professor of materials science and engineering, holds a prototype detector that uses a new type of carbon nanotube material for use in handheld scanners to detect explosives, toxic chemicals and illegal drugs. Zang and colleagues developed the new material, which will make such scanners quicker and more sensitive than today’s standard detection devices. Ling’s spinoff company, Vaporsens, plans to produce commercial versions of the new kind of scanner early next year.DAN HIXON, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH COLLEGE OF ENGINEERINGNov. 4, 2014 – University of Utah engineers have developed a new type of carbon nanotube material for handheld sensors that will be quicker and better at sniffing out explosives, deadly gases and illegal drugs.

A carbon nanotube is a cylindrical material that is a hexagonal or six-sided array of carbon atoms rolled up into a tube. Carbon nanotubes are known for their strength and high electrical conductivity and are used in products from baseball bats and other sports equipment to lithium-ion batteries and touchscreen computer displays.

Vaporsens, a university spin-off company, plans to build a prototype handheld sensor by year’s end and produce the first commercial scanners early next year, says co-founder Ling Zang, a professor of materials science and engineering and senior author of a study of the technology published online Nov. 4 in the journal Advanced Materials.

The new kind of nanotubes also could lead to flexible solar panels that can be rolled up and stored or even “painted” on clothing such as a jacket, he adds.

Zang and his team found a way to break up bundles of the carbon nanotubes with a polymer and then deposit a microscopic amount on electrodes in a prototype handheld scanner that can detect toxic gases such as sarin or chlorine, or explosives such as TNT.

University of Utah materials scientists and engineers shown here developed a new kind of carbon nanotube material for use in the next generation of scanning devices to detects explosives, toxic chemicals and illegal drugs. Clockwise from background: Professor Ling Zang, doctoral student Ben Bunes, doctoral student Yaqaiong Zhang and postdoctoral fellow Miao Xu.DAN HIXON, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH COLLEGE OF ENGINEERINGWhen the sensor detects molecules from an explosive, deadly gas or drugs such as methamphetamine, they alter the electrical current through the nanotube materials, signaling the presence of any of those substances, Zang says.

“You can apply voltage between the electrodes and monitor the current through the nanotube,” says Zang, a professor with USTAR, the Utah Science Technology and Research economic development initiative. “If you have explosives or toxic chemicals caught by the nanotube, you will see an increase or decrease in the current.”

By modifying the surface of the nanotubes with a polymer, the material can be tuned to detect any of more than a dozen explosives, including homemade bombs, and about two-dozen different toxic gases, says Zang. The technology also can be applied to existing detectors or airport scanners used to sense explosives or chemical threats.

Zang says scanners with the new technology “could be used by the military, police, first responders and private industry focused on public safety.”

Unlike the today’s detectors, which analyze the spectra of ionized molecules of explosives and chemicals, the Utah carbon-nanotube technology has four advantages:

• It is more sensitive because all the carbon atoms in the nanotube are exposed to air, “so every part is susceptible to whatever it is detecting,” says study co-author Ben Bunes, a doctoral student in materials science and engineering.

• It is more accurate and generates fewer false positives, according to lab tests.

• It has a faster response time. While current detectors might find an explosive or gas in minutes, this type of device could do it in seconds, the tests showed.

• It is cost-effective because the total amount of the material used is microscopic.

This study was funded by the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, National Science Foundation and NASA. Zang and Bunes conducted the research with postdoctoral fellow Miao Xu and doctoral student Yaqaiong Zhang. Zang also is with the Nano Institute of Utah.

Where’d You Get That Great Idea?

Pitt team seeks the source of creativity: near or far?

By University of Pittsburgh | November 05, 2014

It’s commonly believed that creativity is a process that involves connecting ideas and building on the past to create something new. But is it better to “think outside the box,” using unrelated concepts to get the creative juices flowing, or to build on something more closely related to the problem one is trying to solve?

In a paper newly published in Design Studies, recent University of Pittsburgh graduate Joel Chan and his mentor Christian Schunn of Pitt’s Learning Research and Development Center, along with Carnegie Mellon University’s Steven Dow, have collected surprising evidence that nearer is better.

“For people needing fresh inspiration for a problem, these findings imply that you shouldn’t just go off and talk to random people or read things totally unrelated to your problem,” says Chan, the lead author, who earned his PhD from Pitt this summer and is now a postdoctoral fellow in Carnegie Mellon’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute. “These might yield novel ideas, but not necessarily … useful and novel ideas.”

Chan and Schunn, professor of psychology and senior scientist at Pitt’s Learning Research and Development Center, collected data through OpenIDEO, a web-based crowdsourced innovation platform intended to help people address a wide range of social and environmental problems like human rights violations and job growth for youth.

The team began collecting data from OpenIDEO’s “inspiration phase,” during which individuals posted descriptions of solutions to problems similar to those posited by new solution seekers. Subsequent to the “inspiration phase,” contributors moved on to posting more concrete, increasingly detailed solutions to the specific problem at hand. Then, OpenIDEO experts created a shortlist of what they saw to be viable creative solutions to the problem. The process took up to 10 weeks. Other similar studies, Chan says, have looked at the creative process over a much shorter period of time. Also, he adds, “in our study we had more than 350 participants and thousands of ideas. Creativity studies typically have many participants solve ‘toy’ problems or observe few participants solving real problems—in our study we had both, lending greater strength to our conclusions.”

The team collected its data at the conclusion of the OpenIDEO process. They then entered it into an algorithm to determine whether an idea was near to or far from the posted problem. This algorithm was first vetted against human judgments and proved to be quite good at determining idea distance. Then, the outcomes of the model proved adept at predicting the OpenIDEO experts’ shortlist and found that the vast majority of ideas that made the list were closely related to the posted problem, Schunn says.

“Instead of seeing a bigger effect of far inspirations,” Chan says, “I saw that ideas built on source ideas more closely related to the problem tended to be selected more often. And I saw the same pattern across 12 very different problems—ranging from preventing human rights violations to fostering greater connectedness in urban communities to improving employment prospects for young people.”

Schunn adds that “we chose to look at a variety of problems to find out if there is a consistent pattern, and there is. And we can use this algorithm as a tool for a variety of problems, to identify the ideas that are ‘close’ and direct people to look at them.”

In short, Chan says, “My overall theory is that creative ideas more often come from accumulating many small insights, stretching the boundaries just a bit at a time.”

Surprising Inner-City Frog Among 7 New Species Found in Asia

Newfound golden-backed frogs had likely been overlooked by scientists.

The large golden-backed frog (Hylarana magna) is nearly four inches long.

PHOTOGRAPH BY SD BIJU, SYSTEMATICS LAB

James Owen

for National Geographic

PUBLISHED OCTOBER 29, 2014

Seven new species of golden-backed frogs have been discovered in Sri Lanka and India—including one in the middle of a bustling city, a new study reports.

Scientists caught the urban golden-backed frog(Hylarana urbis) in a weed-choked lake surrounded by a concrete jungle of factories, hotels, and businesses inKochi (map), a city of 2.3 million in India.

The surprising new species, which dwells in ponds and overgrown waterways, is known to exist only in two urban settings, said study leader Sathyabhama Das Biju, an amphibian researcher at the University of Delhi.

But that doesn't mean H. urbis is cut out for city life, according to Biju, whose numerous past finds in India include the extraordinary purple frog. (See "Weird Purple Frog Seduces Females From Underground.")

"I cannot really say that they have adapted to live in urban areas—probably not," he said.

Instead, the frogs may have lived there before their habitat was developed—and despite appearances, "urbanization could be putting them into danger."

Scientists discovered the urban golden-backed frog (Hylarana urbis) in the middle of a big city in India.

PHOTOGRAPH BY SD BIJU, SYSTEMATICS LAB

Forgotten Frogs

The frog's discovery comes from a ten-year survey of golden-backed frogs in the Western Ghats—a biologically rich mountain range that runs down the western side of India—and the whole island of Sri Lanka. (See pictures of more frogs found in western India, including the meowing night frog.)

The findings, published October 29 in the journal Contributions to Zoology, suggest that golden-backed frogs, with a range that stretches from Africa to Australia, are much more diverse than had been thought.

Based on an analysis of the physical and genetic characteristics of golden-backed frogs, the study found that populations in the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka had erroneously been lumped together by scientists—and that they actually represent six new species for India and one for Sri Lanka. That increases the known species of golden-backed frogs from 84 to 91. (See "14 New 'Dancing Frogs' Discovered in India.")

The reason for past misidentification was that, superficially at least, golden-backed frogs look alike. Even so, Biju said, it isn't really that hard for scientists to tell them apart.

"I think it's because of a lack of attention," he added.

The Sri Lankan species, Hylarana temporalis, for example, is easily distinguished by a ridge of skin behind the eye, Biju noted. The shape of the tips of the fingers and toes, and the degree of webbing on the hands and feet, also helped the team to sort the frogs apart from the new species in the Western Ghats, which were misidentified as H. temporalis for a long time.

The study then used DNA "molecular support to prove that the species in both these regions are clearly distinct," Biju said.

Big Haul

The new-species haul also included the largest golden-backed frog known from either country.

Dubbed Hylarana magna, or large golden-backed frog, it measures up to 3.6 inches (9.2 centimeters) long. Most adult golden-backed frogs are less than 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) long.

Recorded as seen in just a handful of sites in the southern Western Ghats,H. magna was found next to fast streams in dense evergreen forest.

However, Biju and colleagues note that many golden-backed frogs "are hanging on precariously in highly threatened habitats"—like the streetwiseH. urbis. (See pictures of vanishing amphibians in National Geographicmagazine.)

"If the present trends in extinction continue," Biju warned in a statement, "many frogs could disappear forever."

Know your wine

Эбру - искусство рисования на воде

Искусство рисования на воде называется эбру. Существует версия, что это мастерство произошло от шаманов, чьи ритуалы были похожи на процесс создания рисунков на поверхности воды. Об этом же говорит мраморный рисунок, переведенный на кусок кожи, возрастом около 2500 лет, найденный в районе Алтая.

Эбру - это не просто искусство, это способ самовыражения, который никогда не теряет своего мистического очарования. Посмотрев это видео, тебе сразу же захочется овладеть этим мастерством. Ведь кажется. что нет ничего прекрасней этих рисунков.

Прорыв в методах борьбы с раком осуществлен в Японии

Японские ученые сделали прорыв в методах борьбы с онкологическими болезнями. Специалистами из Токио воссозданы клетки организма, которые имеют свойства уничтожать раковые опухоли. 

Как объясняют японцы, клетки Т-лимфоцити и ранее возникали в организме в небольшом количестве, однако их численность была не достаточной для борьбы с раковыми клетками. Теперь данная технология позволит вводить непосредственной в организм в данные клетки и имеет большая вероятность того, что таким образом образуется необходимый турбо-заряд для иммунитета человека. 

После публикации данного исследования создана определенная основа для дальнейшего создания эффективных методов борьбы с опухолями. Однако, как объясняют специалисты данная теория, еще требует дальнейшей проверки и совершенствования. Для эффективной борьбы клетки Т-лимфоцитов необходимо перепрограммировать для лечения определенных видов раковых болезней.