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Dec 20, 2015

5 Awesome Inventions That Came out of MIT This Year

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, innovation

We’re coming down the homestretch for 2015, and now is the time when most folks like to reflect on all of the things they’re thankful for. In the campus innovation space, that basically means MIT. Being one of the most technologically progressive universities in the world, MIT has the longstanding reputation of churning out life-changing innovations as if it were a cake walk.

This past year has been no different. Here are our picks of 5 inventions coming out of MIT that are sure to impact the world, making us very thankful to have the Cambridge-based university in our corner.

If everyone’s bodies were true to textbook anatomy, doctors’ jobs would be a breeze. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. So all patients going in for heart surgery will have slightly different nuances to their cardiac makeup. As you can imagine, these procedures present some high stakes, so it’s not great for surgeons to be surprised in the OR.

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Dec 20, 2015

Researchers may have discovered fountain of youth

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Researchers in Japan have found that human aging may be able to be delayed or even reversed, at least at the most basic level of human cell lines. In the process, the scientists from the University of Tsukuba also found that regulation of two genes is related to how we age.

The new findings challenge one of the current popular theories of aging, that lays the blame for humans’ inevitable downhill slide with mutations that accumulate in our mitochondrial DNA over time. Mitochondrion are sometimes likened to a cellular “furnace” that produces energy through cellular respiration. Damage to the mitochondrial DNA results in changes or mutations in the DNA sequence that build up and are associated with familiar signs of aging like hair loss, osteoporosis and, of course, reduced lifespan.

So goes the theory, at least. But the Tsukuba researchers suggest that something else may be going on within our cells. Their research indicates that the issue may not be that mitochondrial DNA become damaged, but rather that genes get turned “off” or “on” over time. Most intriguing, the team led by Professor Jun-Ichi Hayashi was able to flip the switches on a few genes back to their youthful position, effectively reversing the aging process.

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Dec 20, 2015

Luna Is The World’s Most Compact Consumer VR Camera

Posted by in categories: electronics, virtual reality

Consumer-level VR cameras are steadily on the rise, due to the growth of VR experiences and the wide array of things that virtual reality has to offer. To read more…

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Dec 20, 2015

‘Star Wars’ Tech: 8 Sci-Fi Inventions and Their Real-Life Counterparts

Posted by in categories: innovation, space

While the science and technologies behind the franchise are firmly rooted in fantasy, their enduring appeal has served as inspiration for many real-life scientists and engineers. Here are some of the most notable attempts to turn “Star Wars’” science fiction into science fact.

Exoplanets

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Dec 20, 2015

The beautiful, invisible world of microbes

Posted by in category: biological

Watch the beautiful, brutal world of invisible microbes.

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Dec 20, 2015

Introducing the Aipoly Vision App

Posted by in category: futurism

Aipoly posted this video on 2015/12/19.

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Dec 20, 2015

Borophene: This New, 2-Dimensional Material May Be Stronger Than Graphene

Posted by in categories: materials, nanotechnology, particle physics

Graphene is a super strong, two-dimensional material with atom-thick layers. But now, a team of scientists have developed a new material with a similar structure that they’re calling borophene, and it may have graphene beat.

Borophene, a one atom thick sheet of boron, is being introduced by scientists as the next big thing after graphene, another two-dimensional material that made headlines back in 2004. If you aren’t aware, graphene is basically a supermaterial. A single layer of this is about 100 times stronger than steel and it is extremely flexible.

Continue reading “Borophene: This New, 2-Dimensional Material May Be Stronger Than Graphene” »

Dec 20, 2015

This virtual reality bike could kill the boredom of exercise

Posted by in categories: health, virtual reality

Society isn’t ready to take a medium seriously until it can provide certain things. The first, and most obvious, achievement is it must work with porn. Virtual reality passed that benchmark a long time ago, and it seems to have no problem revisiting it over and over again. So what’s the next trial that virtual reality must face on its quest to becoming a true consumer medium?

Someone has to try and make me exercise with it.

That someone are the makers of the Virzoom, an exercise bike and app suite for the Oculus Rift headset. The VirZOOM is available for preorder today, with the first 300 units are $200 (it’s regular price $250).

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Dec 20, 2015

NASA’s Starshade

Posted by in category: alien life

Finding aliens with sunglasses!

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Dec 20, 2015

Solar Frontiers

Posted by in categories: solar power, sustainability

From Haiti to Alabama – discover the Solar Frontiers where clean energy is sparking a revolution in how our planet is powered – and by whom.

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