Tag: #149

In future, an automatic device could service human blood vessels. Industrial infrastructure also needs regular monitoring. Flying support is nothing new, but now a Swiss startup has developed a maintenance drone with 360° aerial mobility, which can get just about anywhere. It’s all possible thanks to two tiltable propellers installed at the side and an additional rotor at the...

When it comes to hair extensions, environmentally-friendly alternatives are available. Sustainability is also a key theme for an education programme in Washington D.C., which allows jail residents to train as hairdressers and beauticians. Led by four experts, trainees practise on mannequins first. Later, skills can be honed on fellow inhabitants or civilians, albeit with trimmers instead of scissors and...

Coffee grounds can be made into spectacle frames. Coffee itself, meanwhile, is having a hard time due to climate change. Which is why a Belgian startup has developed a coffee alternative made from chickpeas. These are first fermented in an organic and patented process. The secret lies in the use of multiple microbial strains under different conditions, and in...

Implants can be nourished by the body’s store of glucose. Sea cucumbers, meanwhile, contain unique structures not found in other terrestrial organisms. Among them, as a Mississippi-based research team recently discovered, is a special sugar compound which could help beat cancer. Healthy body cells communicate with one another through tiny ‘antennae’, identifying pathogens and preparing themselves accordingly. Cancer cells...

A new method of calculation prevents location data from being exposed. Digitalisation means more and more data is being generated. Now, an international research team from England and Australia has developed a new magnetic molecule to improve storage capacity. The team sandwiched the rare earth element dysprosium between two nitrogen atoms. A hard drive made up of such molecules...

Fleas have inspired researchers hoping to guard implants against bacterial settlement. A much bigger animal is now proving similarly inspirational for a Massachusetts-based research team. Supposedly stubborn but highly intelligent, donkeys have sebaceous glands which secrete a compound which provides protection against deer ticks. More precisely, the smell of the chemical substance (E)-2-Octenal repels the ticks. It prevents them...