Mutant squid and Shocking shotguns

Technology Review Feed - Biotech Top Stories

Mapping Complex Diseases - Researchers at Columbia University have mapped the overlap between 161 different diseases by studying epidemiological data from 1.5 million patients. Among their findings is a strong overlap between schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism, suggesting that these three diseases may be caused by a shared group of genes. The researchers hope others will use their map to further investigate the genetic bases of the diseases they studied--genetics that in most cases are poorly understood.

National Geographic News

Photo in the News: Rare "Octosquid" Captured in Hawaii - It looks like a gourmet's dream—part octopus, part calamari. But scientists can't seem to get their arms around this ocean-going oddity, which has been dubbed "octosquid." When the animal was sucked up from 3,000-foot (914-meter) depths by a deep-sea pipeline Tuesday at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority in Kailua-Kona (NELHA), scientists were initially stumped. The foot-long octosquid had the body of a squid but eight tentacles like an octopus—and it lacked the long, flowing tentacles reminiscent of squid.

ABC News: Technology

Roswell: Alien Spacecraft or Top Secret Spy Project? - In July 1947, something remarkable happened outside Roswell, N.M., something that literally put the town on the map. The debris is long gone, but the reverberations have never stopped. Was it an alien spaceship that crashed, killing its otherworldly occupants? Or just a weather balloon? It depends on whom you ask or what you read, and whether you believe them.

Physics Org

Probing Question: Why are some deaf people able to play instruments? - Applause exploded in Vienna's Karntnertortheater on May 7, 1824, following the premiere performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Yet the master composer himself, by then almost completely deaf, didn't know his work was well received until he turned to see the audience. Nearly two centuries later, a hearing-impaired British solo percussionist and composer named Evelyn Glennie performs intricate, arresting rhythms on a myriad of instruments. How can Beethoven and Glennie, among the few accomplished deaf musicians, make music they cannot hear?

AMA Won't Call Video Gaming an Addiction - The American Medical Association on Wednesday backed off calling excessive video-game playing a formal psychiatric addiction, saying instead that more research is needed. A report prepared for the AMA's annual policy meeting had sought to strongly encourage that video-game addiction be included in a widely used diagnostic manual of psychiatric illnesses. AMA delegates instead adopted a watered-down measure declaring that while overuse of video games and online games can be a problem for children and adults, calling it a formal addiction would be premature.

Bar workers suffer from customer smoking - Health officials in Oregon say people absorb notable levels of the carcinogen NNK after spending just a few hours in a smoky bar or tavern.

Jumping robots take clues from nature - A group of mechanical engineers from the University of Bath has a peculiar interest in flying squirrels, fleas, and grasshoppers. Inspired by animals considered to be excellent jumpers, the researchers have designed two jumping robots, one of which demonstrated some of the highest jumps for an autonomously powered robot so far engineered.

Restaurants Test Table Card Readers - It's become routine for customers to swipe their credit or debit cards at consoles in fast-food joints, gas stations and grocery stores. So why do we still hand over the plastic at sit-down restaurants?

Biomedical engineers use electric pulses to destroy cancer cells - Electroporation is a phenomenon known for decades that increases the permeability of a cell from none to a reversible opening to an irreversible opening. With the latter, the cell will die. What Davalos and Rubinsky did was apply this irreversible concept to the targeting of cancer cells.

Extremetech

XREP Combines Shotgun with Taser - Tasers and shotguns are pretty scary on their own, but the folks at TASER International have decided to combine the two and create the XREP (eXtended Range Electronic Projectile), a 12-gauge shotgun that'll have you twitching on the floor in no time flat.