What if, instead of waiting days or weeks for a cast to be produced and prosthetic dental implants, false teeth and replacement crowns to be made, your dentist could quickly scan your jaw and "print" your new teeth using a rapid prototyping machine known as a 3D printer?
Tech
We've been stuck in a quagmire on individual wind turbine efficiency, meaning wind energy is now a mature technology that is not really a viable mass solution for replacing fossil fuels. But California Institute of Technology researchers have revisited some of the fundamental assumptions that guided the wind industry for the past 30 years, and now believe that a new approach to wind farm design, one that places wind turbines close together instead of farther apart, may provide significant efficiency gains.
For the first time, a handful of curious bystanders had the opportunity to see TU Muenchen's new electric vehicle in test runs. But the final design of MUTE remained shrouded; it will first be revealed at the IAA in Frankfurt (15 – 25 September 2011, hall 4, C 23). The MUTE prototype is built so that it has the same driving dynamics as the final vehicle.
With the United States' legislating out low-cost incandescent light bulbs in a few months, an article in Chemical & Engineering News says the ban on 100-watt bulbs may lead to a new wave of growth for the lowly light-emitting diode (LED), which hasn't taken off because they are overpriced and not very good.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- A novel application of carbon nanotubes, developed by MIT researchers, shows promise as an innovative approach to storing solar energy for use whenever it's needed.
BEER-SHEVA, ISRAEL, July 13, 2011 – A new system using video and computer software to monitor a baby that could be used to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), as well as for telemedicine applications, has been developed by two students at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU).
New Haven, Conn.—A team of scientists has discovered the youngest dinosaur preserved in the fossil record before the catastrophic meteor impact 65 million years ago. The finding indicates that dinosaurs did not go extinct prior to the impact and provides further evidence as to whether the impact was in fact the cause of their extinction.
Janna Beckerman said apple scab is now resistant to popular fungicides in Indiana and Michigan. Orchard growers will have to change management techniques.
(Photo Credit: Purdue Agricultural Communication photo/Tom Campbell)
Source:
When soil moisture levels increase, pesticide losses to the atmosphere through volatilization also rise. In one long-term field study, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists found that herbicide volatilization consistently resulted in herbicide losses that exceed losses from field runoff.
Mechanical pumps to give failing hearts a boost were originally developed as temporary measures for patients awaiting a heart transplant. But as the technology has improved, these ventricular assist devices commonly operate in patients for years, including in former vice-president Dick Cheney, whose implant this month celebrates its one-year anniversary.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Growing perennial grasses on the least productive farmland now used for corn ethanol production in the U.S. would result in higher overall corn yields, more ethanol output per acre and better groundwater quality, researchers report in a new study. The switch would also slash emissions of two potent greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide.
Los Angeles, CA (June 22, 2011) Gossip can be hurtful, unproductive, and mean. It can also be an important part of making sure that people will share and cooperate, according to a study in the current Social Psychological and Personality Science (published by SAGE).
07/07/11, Clearwater Beach, FL. Research to be presented at the upcoming annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB), the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating and drinking behavior, indicates that caffeine added to sugar-sweetened, carbonated beverages teaches adolescents to prefer those beverages. Researchers found that the amount of caffeine added to an unfamiliar beverage was correlated with how much teenagers liked that beverage.
MADISON - The continued growth of cropland and loss of natural habitat have increasingly simplified agricultural landscapes in the Midwest. A Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) study concluded that this simplification is associated with increased crop pest abundance and insecticide use, consequences that could be tempered by perennial bioenergy crops.
An extract of the poisonous shrub Jatropha curcas acts as a strong painkiller and may have a mode of action different from conventional analgesics, such as morphine and other pharmaceuticals. Details of tests are reported in the current issue of the International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology.