Scientists have created a new biocomputing chip that makes calculations using a DNA substrate, including mathematical operations essential to artificial intelligence (AI) training and big data processing. Researchers described the new biocomputing platform Oct. 19, 2023, in the journal PLOS One. DNA is known as the blueprint for life and encodes genetic information, like data … Read more
Most of the cell types in your body appear in many places — for example, humans have photoreceptors throughout our nervous systems, not just our eyes. So it seems strange that taste receptors would only be found on the tongue. Turns out, you actually have taste receptors throughout your body; you just can’t taste what … Read more
Approximately 25 million years ago, an ancestor of both humans and apes genetically diverged from monkeys and lost its tail. No one had identified the genetic mutation responsible for this dramatic change in our physiology — until now. In a new study published Wednesday (Feb. 28) in the journal Nature, researchers identified a unique DNA … Read more
Within the next few decades, NASA aims to land humans on the Moon, set up a lunar colony and use the lessons learned to send people to Mars as part of its Artemis program. While researchers know that space travel can stress space crew members both physically and mentally and test their ability to work … Read more
Putting a computer inside someone’s brain used to feel like the edge of science fiction. Today, it’s a reality. Academic and commercial groups are testing “brain-computer interface” devices to enable people with disabilities to function more independently. Yet Elon Musk’s company, Neuralink, has put this technology front and center in debates about safety, ethics and … Read more
In science fiction, people often find a way to move at the speed of light. But you might find yourself asking, could your body survive going so fast? What would happen to it? First, let’s assume that it is possible — though it is not — for a human to move at the speed of … Read more
A tech startup is building a headband that it claims can induce stabilized lucid dreaming in a wearer — letting them take control of their own dreamscapes. Prophetic described how its device, called “the Halo,” works in a post on X on Jan. 25. The headband will use an artificial intelligence (AI) platform dubbed “Morpheus-1” … Read more
For the first time, scientists enabled an amputee to feel temperature via his prosthetic hand, crossing what the researchers say is one of the final hurdles in being able to imbue prosthetics with the full spectrum of senses available in a human limb. The team achieved this feat by implanting a small device in the … Read more
For the first time, scientists have generated functional human brain tissue using a 3D printer. Scientists printed the tissue to be less than 0.01 inch (0.02 centimeter) thick, and it contains both nerve cells and supporting cells called glia. All of these cells can communicate with one another and form networks, as they would in … Read more
An 81-year-old man from Surrey became the first patient in the U.K. to receive a new “vaccine” designed to treat solid-tumor cancers, such as the skin cancer melanoma. Therapeutic cancer vaccines act as a kind of immunotherapy, meaning they help train the immune system to fight cancer cells. They’re different from vaccines that prevent cancer, … Read more
