The Bionics Products Blog.

Can you use textiles to clean the air? Take sunlight. Add a film coating to fabric. And you get curtains that destroy pollutants and purify the air inside your home. The recipe is being touted by Ikea. Along with bunk beds and bedside tables, some thinkers at Ikea have been looking into technologies that can address indoor air pollution without having to resort to more complex filtering systems or electric power.

* This article was originally published here

Email This BlogThis!Share to X Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest

Recognizing disease using less data

As artificial intelligence systems learn to better recognize and classify images, they are becoming highly-reliable at diagnosing diseases, such as skin cancer, from medical images. But as good as they are at detecting patterns, AI won't be replacing your doctor any time soon. Even when used as a tool, image recognition systems still require an expert to label the data, and a lot of data at that: it needs images of both healthy patients and sick patients. The algorithm finds patterns in the training data and when it receives new data, it uses what it has learned to identify the new image.

* This article was originally published here

Email This BlogThis!Share to X Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest

US appeals court clears AT&T's $81B purchase of Time Warner

A federal appeals court on Tuesday cleared AT&T's takeover of Time Warner, rejecting the Trump administration's claims that the $81 billion deal will harm consumers and reduce competition in the TV industry.

* This article was originally published here

Email This BlogThis!Share to X Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest

Inhibiting cancer-causing protein could prevent scleroderma fibrosis

A protein known to play a role in cancer may also be increasing fibrosis in scleroderma patients.

* This article was originally published here

Email This BlogThis!Share to X Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest

Researchers invent a needle that knows where to go

Syringes and hollow needles have been used to deliver medication for more than a century. However, the precise implementation of these devices depends on the operator, and it can be difficult to deliver medication to delicate regions such as the suprachoroidal space at the back of the eye. Investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital have developed a highly sensitive intelligent-injector for tissue-targeting (i2T2) that detects changes in resistance in order to properly and safely deliver medication in preclinical testing. Their results are published in Nature Biomedical Engineering.

* This article was originally published here

Email This BlogThis!Share to X Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest

Foldable phone outlook hinges on price

Handset makers are racing to launch their first smartphones with folding screens but analysts warn the technology is still too rudimentary—and expensive—to woo consumers in large numbers for now.

* This article was originally published here

Email This BlogThis!Share to X Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest

Online shopping algorithms are colluding to keep prices high

Have you ever searched for a product online in the morning and gone back to look at it again in the evening only to find the price has changed? In which case you may have been subject to the retailer's pricing algorithm.

* This article was originally published here

Email This BlogThis!Share to X Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest

Can we address climate change without sacrificing water quality?

Strategies for limiting climate change must take into account their potential impact on water quality through nutrient overload, according to a new study from Carnegie's Eva Sinha and Anna Michalak published by Nature Communications. Some efforts at reducing carbon emissions could actually increase the risk of water quality impairments, they found.

* This article was originally published here

Email This BlogThis!Share to X Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest

Researchers succeed in controlling extremely short-wavelength spin waves

In recent years, electronic data processing has been evolving in one direction only: The industry has downsized its components to the nanometer range. But this process is now reaching its physical limits. Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) are therefore exploring spin waves, or so-called magnons—a promising alternative for transporting information in more compact microchips. Cooperating with international partners, they have successfully generated and controlled extremely short-wavelength spin waves. The physicists achieved this feat by harnessing a natural magnetic phenomenon, as they explain in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

* This article was originally published here