Monday 27 February 2012

Will we ever... grow organs?

Growing synthetic windpipes, artificial skin and replacement blood vessels is now a reality, but scientists are now turning their attention to their ultimate goal: growing new human kidneys or hearts. 

Oxfam's Shelflife links goods with past using QR Codes

Oxfam is trying out a mobile phone scheme called Shelflife that lets customers find out the stories behind second-hand goods it sells.
A Shelflife phone app links stories and pictures provided by donors to tags attached to the goods.
Browsers in Oxfam shops can scan the tags using the app to find out about an individual item's past.
The charity believes it can sell things more easily when they have stories attached to them.
"Someone might donate a record and add that it was the song that they danced to at their wedding to its tag," said Oxfam's Emma Joy.
"We hope the pilot will prove that items with stories are more valuable and establish the monetary value of a story," she said.

The myth of the eight-hour sleep

We often worry about lying awake in the middle of the night - but it could be good for you. A growing body of evidence from both science and history suggests that the eight-hour sleep may be unnatural.

Digital tools 'to save languages'

Facebook, YouTube and even texting will be the salvation of many of the world's endangered languages, scientists believe.
Of the 7,000 or so languages spoken on Earth today, about half are expected to be extinct by the century's end.
Globalisation is usually blamed, but some elements of the "modern world", especially digital technology, are pushing back against the tide.
North American tribes use social media to re-engage their young, for example.

Tuesday 14 February 2012

Jeans with an in-built 'laptop' computer

The creation comes with a full-size blue tooth keyboard and also features integrated speakers and a wireless computer mouse.
The duo hand-stitched the prototype trousers - dubbed 'Beauty and the Geek' - which are designed to give the user the freedom to move around and still be in control of the computer.
The invention works using a USB device which plugs into the computer port maintaining a wireless connection.
According to de Nijs the trousers are only slightly heavier than normal jeans and are expected to sell for just over £250 if they make it to the market. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/9081300/Jeans-with-an-in-built-laptop-computer.html 

Tuesday 7 February 2012

3D Printed Couture: The New Look of Fashion

When Continuum Fashion (continuumfashion.com) founder and designer Mary Huang first saw a sample of a textile-like material generated using a 3D printer, her initial idea was to print a version of a dress that she’d been working on since college. Upon finding out the size of the printing boundary in a standard 3D printer, and given that just a single yard of fabric is 1,620-in.2 (36 x 45), and it takes more than a single yard to make a dress, the New York resident had to rethink her plan and come up with a design that required much less printer space, and a lot less material. She decided to go with the ultimate barely there article of clothing: the bikini.

Monday 6 February 2012

Tales of woe from the roaming professionals

Moving country for work was not a good move for Lieve Monnens-Cash - it prompted the collapse of her marriage.
Originally from Belgium, she had already experienced living and working in another country: "We'd been in Macclesfield in the north of England, but after 10 years there I had only three friends. I thought if we moved it would kick-start our life and our marriage. But after a year and a half the marriage had fallen apart."

Anti-fracking demo in Enniskillen

About 100 people have gathered in Enniskillen to demonstrate against the use of fracking to extract gas from shale rock in County Fermanagh.
Earlier this week an exploration company said there could be enough gas to guarantee natural gas supply for Northern Ireland over 50 years.
However, the process has proved controversial elsewhere.
In Lancashire, it has caused small earthquakes and in America, water has been polluted.
The process used in capturing the gas from the shale rock is hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking.
It involves drilling horizontally into the rock, forcing sand and water underground to cause tiny fractures that release the gas from the shale.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-16889695