An 83-year-old woman needed a new lower jawbone last year for transplant and instead of a traditional implant, the medical team used a 3D printed jawbone manufactured by LayerWise. The transplant was carried out in the Netherlands last June and it has just now been announced. The implant was printed out of a titanium powder using a laser, layer-by-layer until the finished product was completed. The implant is a complicated part with articulated joints and cavities to provoke muscle attachment along with grooves to direct the regrowth of nerves and veins.

According to the team, it took 33 layers of titanium melted using the laser for 1 mm of height. That means that the finished jawbone had many thousands of laser passes. One of the interesting parts of the 3D printed jawbone is that it has a special double bridge that was attached and false teeth screwed in the that dental bridge. Also interesting is that the finished titanium jawbone weighs 107g, which is about one-third heavier than the replaced bone.

[via BBC]

The process of using roaches to create power has something to do with an enzyme roaches have that can be turned into a cockroach biofuel cell. The enzyme from the roach is able to break down sugars in the digestive tract into simpler sugars called monosaccharides. A second enzyme is introduced that oxidizes the monosaccharides and results in the release of electrons or creation of power.

So far, the system only produces around 100 µW of power, which admittedly isn’t much. Who knows what be done with that little bit of power in the future, perhaps something along the lines of little remote-control roaches to invade roach strongholds and disperse bug killer. According to the researchers, hailing from Case Western Reserve University, the little bugs aren’t harmed in any way. The electronics that are used to create power can be removed from the insects with no lasting effects.

[via medGadget via OhGizmo!]

The coolest of the projects that received grant money is one proposed by a team of scientists at Boston University that want to figure out if you can grow brown fat cells and then inject them into the human body as a way to boost metabolism and burn fat, leading to weight loss. The human body has both brown adipose tissue and white adipose tissue. The white fat cells make people obese, yet the brown fat cells help burn calories.

In fact, a recent study showed that a pockets of brown fat cells can burn as much as 250 calories in a three-hour time span. Those brown fat cells can even steal energy from white fat cells, further stunting obesity. The researchers hope to develop a method of growing those brown fat cells and injecting them into the body with the goal of helping overweight soldiers lose weight. You can bet that if the team is successful, this will also be highly profitable in the private sector with obese people looking for a way to lose weight.

[via Wired: Danger Room]

Now, the latest reason is that researchers are claiming that Wi-Fi radiation kills sperm. A team of scientists from Argentina found 29 guys willing to upload into a sample container for the study. Part of the sperm was placed under a notebook with Wi-Fi running and another sample portion was placed away from Wi-Fi at the same temperature.

Apparently, once the sperm was looked at under the microscope, 25% exposed to Wi-Fi signals were no longer swimming. The control group with no Wi-Fi exposure saw only 14% of the sample no longer swimming. Other scientists say that there isn’t anything to worry about yet. This is just one small sample, and an artificial setup, so it might not have any real world implications.

[via Reuters]

Taking that into consideration, researchers from Italy’s University of Bologna and the Smartphone Sensing Group at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire have come together to develop the WalkSafe app that pays attention for you when you can’t.

The app makes use of the phone’s rear-facing camera and image recognition algorithms to warn to the preoccupied user. It can even detect which way the cars are facing in the road and whether or not they’re moving, for instance.

WalkSafe alerts the user of any potential threats through audible or vibrating alerts. I think the app is definitely an innovative one, but really, mobile phone users should be more responsible and not rely on the app to let them know that they’re about to be run over by some delivery truck headed straight towards them.

If you want to give WalkSafe a try, it’s available for free download over on the Android Market now.

[via PopSci via Dvice]

This virtual iCub has been given this quirk. The idea is that this simulation of iCub will be exposed to these processes and it might help it form connections in the same way a human does.

[via New Scientist]

Part of the problem is having an infrastructure and supply chain for such liquid refills. That’s where urine comes in handy. We all produce it everyday, so it is widely available and cheap. Researchers at the University of the West of England in Bristol have started experimenting with urine as the fuel for a microbial fuel cell.

Microbial fuel cells generate their power from bacteria feeding on the sugars and give off electrons. Did you know that humans produce 6.4 trillion liters of urine every year? That’s just humans. If you include farm animals there’s 38 billion liters every day right there.

So far, tests have produced a very small amount of power (peaking at whopping 8 milliamps). By miniaturizing and stacking microbial fuel cells, they hope to increase the power significantly. It’s fascinating stuff. Just think – one day our toilets could power our homes.

[via BBC News via geek]

Not only can HyQ run and jump, it’s legs are also actively compliant, which means that the robot can change the stiffness of each limb. It’s impressive to watch it do it’s thing in the video. In some ways, more impressive than it’s predecessors.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

This ‘bot can negotiate rough terrain, thanks to actuators that absorb shocks and vibrations without damage to the body. It can even kick! HyQ weighs 70 kilograms and can walk and trot at speeds up to 6 kilometers per hour. It can rear up like a horse, as well as squat jump and get all four feet off the ground. This looks like the most capable robot dog/horse yet.

[via IEEE Spectrum]

The touch panel is sensitive enough to detect finger inputs through all sorts of fabrics. This might sound good, but it might look awkward in some circumstances, like in a meeting. Stroking your pocket usually implies something different than composing an email or sending a text, if you know what I mean.

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Microsoft thinks that the back of a PocketTouch screen could be used like this to read gestures, and already have it deconstructing  text characters. I can see this being useful to teens everywhere, who want to send secret text messages without anyone knowing.

[PC World via DVice]

He demonstrated this feat at the recent IROS 2011 event, trying to crawl on the floor. I say trying because he doesn’t do a very good job at crawling. In fact, the video shows him barely moving forward. Nice to know he would be easy to run from anyway. Given time he should get better, but for now this robot modeled after a three and a half year-old child is no speed-demon.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Aside from learning to crawl, this bot is all about exploring how human cognition develops, using facial expressions and adaptive learning techniques. The idea is that iCub can learn in the same way a child would.

[via IEEE Spectrum]

Gallant Lab researchers Shinji Nishimoto, An T. Vu, Thomas Naselaris, Yuval Benjamini, Bin Yu and Jack L. Gallant used a complex computer program that looked at the minute changes in blood flow inside the brain during an fMRI and then used those changes to approximate the video that the person being studied was watching on YouTube. Obviously, the video recreated isn’t high quality, but it is a close approximation to what was actually being viewed.

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The computer used shapes and colors to approximate the video images giving them the rough and general feel of the video being seen by the participant. The cool part is that future applications for this software may allow us to actually watch our dreams or daydreams.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

[via ABCNews]

Scientists have inserted an anti-viral gene into the genetically engineered cats that help the resist the feline form of AIDS. The gene for a fluorescent protein called GFP was also inserted into the cats as well. Apparently, the glowing gene was simply inserted as a way to monitor the activity of altered genes. “We did it to mark cells easily just by looking under the microscope or shining a light on the animal,” said Dr Eric Poeschla, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, US.

The genes for glowing and for resisting feline AIDS were inserted into the feline eggs known as oocytes. Both cats and humans have proteins that typically fight infections that are not able to fight AIDS, whereas the anti-viral gene helps produce a protein that can resist AIDS-causing viruses. The researchers report that there was a reduced replication of the feline AIDS virus in the (glowing) cats with the additional gene.

[via BBC]

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The idea is that this worm could be used for search and rescue operations in the future. Especially earthquakes. So instead of Superman flying down and digging you out of the rubble, you may have a worm to thank for your rescue, which isn’t nearly as cool, therefore I suggest we give it cape and costume. Superhero worms would be awesome.

[via Machineslikeus]

The glowing blue stick you see in the tweezers is a new sensor that the team has been working on that glows to show the mouse’s blood sugar. The sensor uses glucose-responsive fluorescent hydrogels inside and is 1mm in diameter. It is designed to be easily injected under the skin and can be removed with tweezers like a splinter.

The sensor has shown to be accurate and durable enough to stay inside the body for up to 140 days in mice. The team is working on calibrating and testing the sensor further to improve the accuracy and duration of the sensor. Eventually the hope is that the sensor can be used in humans to allow blood sugar monitoring without having to prick the finger to draw blood for conventional testing.

[via MedGadget]

As with all such flying helicopters, the possibilities are only limited by your imagination and what you can think to do with it. It could be used as a spy drone, you could use it to drop things where you want them, monitor weather situations, etc. A good all purpose research bot. It comes with ROS already installed, providing APIs for controlling it. The Flybox uses an ARM 32 bit controller and it can do it’s thing for up to 30 minutes at at time.

You can get it outfitted with a USB camera, WiFi, XBee and Bluetooth. No word on whether you can put an action figure of an X-Wing pilot on top, but that would be cool and it’s the best use I have for this one. No info on price yet, but it is likely out of my range.

[via Robotliving]

This little factoid has already been brought up more than once, but it was the first thing that came to mind when I saw these adult cradles.

Your eyes aren’t deceiving you, because yes, that is a cradle, and yes, that’s an adult lying down inside it. Looks comfortable, doesn’t it?

The story as to how the design came about isn’t all whimsical and rhymes, however. It was actually one of the results from a study done about children who have rhythmic movement disorder (RMD). This chair here provides a comfortable environment that can calm anyone’s senses and give them some downtime and a much-needed break from work and life, in general.

As an added bonus, environmentalists will be happy to know that all of the materials that went into making this adult cradle was sourced in a way that’s friendly to Mother Earth, including the glue that was used to bind the layers of plywood.

The team of designers behind this cradle are Richard Clarkson, Grace Emmanual, Kalivia Russel, Eamon Moore, Brodie Cambell, Jeremy Brooker and Joya Boerrigter, collectively known as Synergy341.

[via Yanko Design]

But more than that, I was really impressed with how much racing games have evolved to more interactive games. For example, the seat moved with each turn I made, and the whole chair would vibrate or lurch forward whenever I crashed into something (which happened pretty often.)

However, the OutRun AR project is totally in a league of its own, because it’s basically a video game that has been brought into the real world. This project of Garnet Hertz’s first made waves in 2009, and after a couple of years, he’s finally done with it.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Hertz, an informatics researcher from the University of California Irvin, made OutRun IRL a reality by incorporating the classic driving game into an electric golf cart that has been fitted with cameras and custom software that can roughly render what’s actually in front of you in using retro-style arcade graphics.

For the future, Hertz and his fellow researchers hope that their technology could somehow be used to create AR-based wheelchairs to help the disable and maybe even develop some video game-based therapy and remedies for disabled gamers.

[via Nowhere Else (FR) via Engadget]

Because of such impending phenomenon, scientists all over the world have worked long and hard to develop hybrid corn and crops that grow bigger and faster. Researchers are also working double-time to come up with innovations in recycling and finding further uses for our waste so that we don’t run out of natural resources too soon.

One Japanese scientist with probably good intentions took all this to heart and presented his suggestion to a disgusted audience: burger patties made with meat synthesized from human feces. (And yes, we mean human crap, poop, excrement, or deposit, whatever you want to call it.)

That’s right. Mitsuyuki Ikeda, a researcher from Okayama’s Environmental Assessment Center, wants to help alleviate the world’s food crisis with human poop burgers.

This really isn’t “meat” per se. It’s sort of an artificial meat that’s derived from human waste. The patties are composed of 63% proteins, 25% carbohydrates, 3% lipids, and 9% minerals.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

He calls his meat “sewage mud” which I think is pretty appropriate. Ikeda maintains that his sewage mud will one day become a sellable commodity as opposed to the more costly process that is needed to produce and process real meat.

Like I said, his intentions and thoughts are noble and good. The final product? Not so much.

[via Dvice]

I am going to assume they mean one of the larger milk cartons that are somewhat rare in the US now. The 3D printer is cheap as well; the team says that it can be built for about 1200 Euro (~$1700  USD). The finished product weighs about 1.5kg and uses a tank of resin for printing.

Another cool fact about the printer is that its intense light (I assume they mean LED laser diodes) can harden layers of the resin only 1/20th of a millimeter thick. That means that the printer can be used to print items that require extreme precision. The team is working on making the printer cheaper and smaller yet, and they are working to get it to use other print materials like ceramic.

[via TGDaily]

Austin Whitney, a student paralyzed in a car accident four years ago was set for graduation at Berkeley, and was able to walk across the stage to receive his diploma. He had apparently been helping with the development of the exoskeleton as a test subject at the university. The suit was created by a team of UC Berkeley mechanical engineers that included four doctoral students led by Professor Homayoon Kazerooni.

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The exoskeleton that the student wore at the show is very different from some previous versions of the exoskeleton developed. Those previous versions cost as much as $90,000 and the version Whitney wore across the stage would cost about $15,000. That is still expensive, but it is about the same price as some high-end power wheel chairs.

[via SFGate]