The Feelix Growing project uses software that allows robots to adjust to how a person is feeling based on feedback from cameras and sensors. The bots look at a human's facial expression and key in on their voice and proximity to determine what kind of mood they're in. (Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/18/emotional-robot-has-empathy-understands-your-frustration/)

Google has been publishing a series of posts about how its search engine works with meaning, going beyond page rank. (Source: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/google-and-the-real-search-for-meaning-on-the-web/index.html)

A future generation of ultra-dense flash memory chips could be based on a new Phase Change Memory (PCM) technology, according to Numonyx, an Intel spinoff. Flash memory transistors (currently 65 nanometers wide) will face limited lifetime (write/erase cycles) when dimensions get below 20 nanometers, due to the retention of electric charge in the flash transistor. PCM would use use GST (an alloy of tellurium, antimony and germanium), switching between disordered and crystalline states, as in a CD or DVD. It would allow for stable use down to 5 nanometers or below, the company says. (Source: http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn14330-losing-the-lasers-turns-cds-into-memory-sticks.html)

Al Gore said on Thursday that Americans must abandon electricity generated by fossil fuels within a decade and rely on the sun, the winds and other environmentally friendly sources of power, or risk losing their national security as well as their creature comforts. He cited military-intelligence studies warning of "dangerous national security implications" tied to climate change, including the possibility of "hundreds of millions of climate refugees" causing instability around the world, and said the United States is dangerously vulnerable because of its reliance on foreign oil. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/washington/18gorecnd.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin)

A Gartner analyst predicts the demise of the computer mouse in the next three to five years for home entertainment or working on a notebook. Taking over will be gestural computer mechanisms like Nintendo's Wii, multitouch screens like the iPhone, and facial recognition devices such as products from Sony, Canon and other video and photographic manufacturer. Also see: Super-sensitive controller opens Wii to music (Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7508842.stm)

In a strain measurement using perfect samples of graphene, Columbia University researchers have confirmed that is the strongest material ever tested. Illustration showning the one-atom-thick atomic structure of graphene (Jeffrey Kysar, Columbia University) The finding provides evidence that graphene transistors could be the most effective material to withstand heat in future ultrafast microprocessors. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/21098/?a=f)

Gil Alterovitz, a research fellow at Harvard Medical School, is developing a computer program that translates protein and gene expression into music. In his acoustic translation, harmony represents good health, and discord indicates disease. Using data collected from a study of protein expression in colon cancer, Alterovitz analyzed more than three thousand related proteins involved in the disease. He found four key networks, using various genetic databases that catalog relationships between genes and proteins. He then assigned a note to each network, and together, these notes formed a harmonic chord. He compared the "music" of normal, healthy human data sets to that of the colon-cancer samples and found that, according to his model, colon cancer sounded "inharmonious." (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/21094/page2/)

An international team of researchers has shown that it can control the quantum state of a single electron in a silicon transistor--even putting the electron in two places at once. Their discovery could help pave the way toward a practical quantum computer. The electronc could be in one of three states. At low electric fields, the electron remained bound to an arsenic atom. At high electric fields, the electron was pulled away from the atom. But when the electric field was at just the right level, the electron would be in both places at once. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/21086/?a=f)

The Imperial College London researchers who developed effective rheumatoid arthritis drugs through targeting cytokines (immune system signaling proteins) have found that similar anti-cytokine therapies may help with atherosclerosis and other medical conditions. The researchers previously discovered that in autoimmune diseases (such as arthritis), the body makes excess cytokines, causing the immune system to fight itself. This results in inflammation and tissue destruction. Blocking just one cytokine--Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) alpha--blocked all the cytokines involved in rheumatoid arthritis inflammation. Atherosclerosis is caused by a chronic inflammatory response in arterial walls from an excessive immune response to cholesterol. University of Manchester News Release (Source: )

Researchers at University College London have discovered early blood markers (excess cytokines--signaling proteins--a sign of an overly aggressive immune system) in people with the gene for Huntington's disease, a neurodegenerative disorder . These markers show that the neurodegeneration may start more than 15 years before neurological symptoms are apparent. People with the Huntington's mutation typically first experience symptoms in their 30s or 40s, and live an average of 15 to 20 years after that. Researchers speculate that the cytokines (released by immune cells in the brain called microglia) may be killing--or contributing to the death of--healthy neurons. If cells that release excessive cytokines could be kept at bay, the progression of the disease could be slowed down. Measured cytokine levels could be a way to test the effectiveness of new treatments for Huntington's. (Source: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=new-targets-for-treating)

University of Cambridge researchers have found that patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have reduced activity in the orbitofrontal cortex, the region that helps people make decisions and keep compulsive behaviors in check. Orbitofrontal cortex activity (Paul Wicks) The researchers took fMRI scans as participants engaged in a task (changing a habit--learning new pattern-matching rules) intended to stimulate the orbitofrontal cortex. Normal participants exhibited the expected activity, but those with OCD did not, even though their performance on the task was normal. Unaffected relatives of OCD patients also had this reduced activity, suggesting that genes (not yet identified) may trigger OCD. Brain scans could identity those who are at risk for OCD but have not yet developed symptoms, allowing them to get early treatment. (Source: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/717/3)

A multidisciplinary group focused on contentious issues related to race, genetic markers and medicine has released a set of 10 guiding principles for the scientific community. The group--ranging from geneticists and psychologists to historians and philosophers--was led by anthropologist Sandra Soo-Jin Lee of Stanford University. The guidelines include "members of the same race may have different underlying genetics," and "oversimplified science feeds popular misconceptions." (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14345-ten-commandments-of-race-and-genetics-issued.html)

A nanoparticle system developed by University at Buffalo scientists takes advantage of the versatility of bioconjugated quantum rods to ferry novel diagnostic and therapeutic agents across the blood-brain barrier. The findings could lead to better treatment of neuronal disorders. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news135443055.html)

A low-carb diet and a Mediterranean-style regimen helped people lose more weight than a traditional low-fat diet in one of the longest and largest studies to compare the dueling weight-loss techniques. The study was conducted by researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and will be published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine. The low-fat diet -- no more than 30 percent of calories from fat -- restricted calories and cholesterol and focused on low-fat grains, vegetables and fruits as options. The Mediterranean diet had similar calorie, fat and cholesterol restrictions, emphasizing poultry, fish, olive oil and nuts. The low-carb approach seemed to trigger the most improvement in several cholesterol measures, including the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL, the "good" cholesterol. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news135484776.html)

An ambitious plan to sequence 100 genes in 1,000 healthy old people could shed light on genetic variations that insulate some people from the ailments of aging, including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, allowing them to live a healthy life into their eighties and beyond. Eric Topol, a cardiologist and head of the Genomic Medicine Program at the Scripps Translational Science Institute, is leading the project. Researchers are collecting blood samples from 1,000 people age 80 or older who have never suffered any serious illnesses and do not take medication. They plan to sequence 100 genes, known from animal research and other studies to influence health and aging, especially major housekeeping, master-control genes like those involved in DNA repair or insulin growth factor-1, a protein hormone involved in cell growth. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/21092/)

The Interior Department on Wednesday made 2.6 million acres of potentially oil-rich territory in northern Alaska available for energy exploration, holding an estimated 3.7 billion barrels of oil. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/us/17alaska.html?adxnnl=1&ref=science&adxnnlx=1216289977-nN0GEaPhP/yfqTNu/sllBw)

Apple's new MobileMe cloud-computing service is meant to keep the e-mail, calendars, address books and Web bookmarks on all of your computers --Macs, Windows PCs, iPhones and iPod Touches -- synchronized in real time. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/technology/personaltech/17pogue.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)

University of Michigan are developing methods of preventing damage to neurons caused my implanted electrodes. They are using an electrically conductive polymer coating that increases the surface area of the metal-biological interface, which in turn boosts performance of the electrode and lowers both electrochemical reactions and needed battery capacity. Their ultimate goal is to get the electrodes to fully integrate with tissue by growing the coating after the electrode is implanted. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/21087/?a=f)

A new UCLA study suggests cortisol is the culprit behind premature aging of the immune system in stressed-out people. Immune cells (stained blue) end in protective caps called telomeres (stained yellow) that are shorter in the elderly -- and in persons suffering chronic stress. A new UCLA study suggests cortisol is the culprit behind premature aging of the immune system in stressed-out people. (UCLA/Effros lab) UCLA scientists found that the stress hormone cortisol suppresses immune cells' ability to activate their telomerase, an enzyme within the cell that keeps immune cells young by preserving their telomere length and ability to continue dividing. This may explain why the cells of persons under chronic stress have shorter telomeres, which are linked to a range of human diseases, including HIV, osteoporosis, heart disease and aging. If cortisol remains elevated in the bloodstream for long periods of time, it wears down the immune system. UCLA researchers are testing therapeutic ways of enhancing telomerase levels to help the immune system ward off cortisol's effect. University of California - Los Angeles news release (Source: )

Flash memory chips with a potential lifetime of hundreds of years and a lower rewriting voltage have been developed by University of Tokyo scientists. Current Flash chips are estimated to have a useful lifetime of around a decade or less for most applications. (Source: http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2221522/flash-chip-long-life-created)