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Dec. 22nd, 2008
Scientists Hack Cellphone to Analyze Blood, Detect Disease, Help Developing Nations
 "Using only an LED, plastic light filter and some wires, scientists at UCLA have modded a cellphone into a portable blood tester capable of detecting HIV, malaria and other illnesses." In essence, a coherent light source illuminates a blood sample, a picture of which is captured by the cell phone. Custom software analyzes the sample and generates a preliminary diagnosis in minutes, at least enough to warrant finding a more qualified physician. The mod is intended as a cheap alternative for blood testing in remote villages. |
Chill out, you beautiful people, the Versace beach is refrigerated - Times Online
 Fashion house Versace is reportedly planning to create the world's first refrigerated beach by installed a network of pipes under the sand. |
Science News / Florence Nightingale: The Passionate Statistician
An interesting article on how Florence Nightingale used the relatively new field of medical statistics to analyze the problems with British hospitals in Turkey. She even developed new statistical graphing methods to help get her point across.
Wobbly planets could reveal Earth-like moons
 UK astronomers have developed a way to potentially detect moons around some of those 300+ exoplanets that have been discovered. The method, which depends on detecting the wobble of the planet as it orbits its sun, also reveals an estimate of the moon's mass and distance from the planet. Given that some of those planets are within the habitable zone of their sun, it is possible they may have moons capable of supporting life. This could be combined with a new technique to more precisely determine the size of the planet. |