Friday 17 May 2019

Experimental brain-controlled hearing aid decodes, identifies who you want to hear

Our brains have a remarkable knack for picking out individual voices in a noisy environment, like a crowded coffee shop or a busy city street. This is something that even the most advanced hearing aids struggle to do. But now Columbia engineers are announcing an experimental technology that mimics the brain's natural aptitude for detecting and amplifying any one voice from many. Powered by artificial intelligence, this brain-controlled hearing aid acts as an automatic filter, monitoring wearers' brain waves and boosting the voice they want to focus on.

* This article was originally published here

Extraordinarily transparent compact metallic metamaterials

In materials science, achromatic optical components can be designed with high transparency and low dispersion. Materials scientists have shown that although metals are highly opaque, densely packed arrays of metallic nanoparticles with more than 75 percent metal by volume can become more transparent to infrared radiation than dielectrics such as germanium. Such arrays can form effective dielectrics that are virtually dispersion-free across ultra-broadband ranges of wavelengths to engineer a variety of next-generation metamaterial-based optical devices.

* This article was originally published here

Healthcare, social media and a web of moral issues

"Ethics asks what we owe to one another and how we should treat one another. The internet has changed the landscape in which we, as humans, relate, and ethicists need to keep pace," explains Assistant Professor of Philosophy Moti Gorin.

* This article was originally published here

First anticoagulant approved for preventing VTE recurrence in children

(HealthDay)—Fragmin (dalteparin sodium) injection has been granted the first approval for subcutaneous use in preventing recurrence of symptomatic venous thromboembolism (VTE) in children aged 1 month or older, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced.

* This article was originally published here

Researchers imagine a cheaper, fairer marketplace for digital goods

E-commerce is sizzling. Last year, consumers spent more than $517 billion online with US merchants, up 15 percent from the year before, according to Internet Retailer.

* This article was originally published here

Clinical trial improves treatment of genetic rickets

A new study shows a drug developed in conjunction with investigators at Indiana University School of Medicine to alleviate symptoms of a rare musculoskeletal condition is significantly more effective than conventional therapies. The findings are published in Lancet.

* This article was originally published here

Essentials for growing tasty herbs on your windowsill

(HealthDay)—Whether you have a dedicated space in an outdoor garden or just a few buckets on a small patio, there's nothing quite like having your own herb garden for giving your cooking fresh flavor boosts.

* This article was originally published here

Sedimentary, dear Johnson: Is NASA looking at the wrong rocks for clues to Martian life?

In 2020, NASA and European-Russian missions will look for evidence of past life on Mars. But while volcanic, igneous rock predominates on the Red Planet, virtually the entire Earth fossil record comes from sedimentary rocks.

* This article was originally published here

Artificial intelligence shines light on the dark web

Beneath the surface web, the public form of the internet you use daily to check email or read news articles, exists a concealed "dark web." Host to anonymous, password-protected sites, the dark web is where criminal marketplaces thrive in the advertising and selling of weapons, drugs, and trafficked persons. Law enforcement agencies work continuously to stop these activities, but the challenges they face in investigating and prosecuting the real-world people behind the users who post on these sites are tremendous.

* This article was originally published here

Only 3% of children in England visit dentist before their first birthday, study finds

Research led by the University of Birmingham has revealed that just three percent of children in England visited the dentist before their first birthday.

* This article was originally published here

Mission control 'saves science'

Every minute, ESA's Earth observation satellites gather dozens of gigabytes of data about our planet—enough information to fill the pages on a 100-metre long bookshelf. Flying in low-Earth orbits, these spacecraft are continuously taking the pulse of our planet, but it's teams on the ground at ESA's Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, that keep these explorers afloat.

* This article was originally published here

Wild wheat relative genes to aid in battle against trio of pests

Wheat curl mite, greenbug and Hessian fly have long been troublemaker pests for Texas wheat, but a team of Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists is ready to go high tech to help control them.

* This article was originally published here

WhatsApp, security and spyware: what happened

Facebook-owned WhatsApp's revelation of a security flaw allowing hackers to inject spyware on smartphones raised fresh concerns about the security of the mobile ecosystem.

* This article was originally published here

Research reveals insulin-producing beta cells may change function in diabetes

A revolutionary new study using only materials derived from humans has revealed that insulin-producing beta cells can change their function in diabetes—and that this change may be reversible.

* This article was originally published here

Poll: Many adults worried about developing dementia

(HealthDay)—Many adults are worried about developing dementia and about half report taking steps to maintain or improve memory, according to a report published by the National Poll on Healthy Aging.

* This article was originally published here

Microsoft alerts hospitals to fix potential security risk

Computer experts inside hospitals were working diligently on Wednesday to address a serious new security vulnerability in older versions of the Windows operating system, which is still used in many health care devices even though Microsoft hasn't actively supported the older software in years.

* This article was originally published here

3-D-printed 'hyperelastic bone' may help generate new bone for skull reconstruction

Defects of the skull and facial bones can pose difficult challenges for plastic and reconstructive surgeons. A synthetic material called hyperelastic bone—readily produced by 3-D-printing—could offer a powerful new tool for use in reconstructing skull defects, reports a study in the May issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

* This article was originally published here