Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

A revolutionary new micro-scale device with no mechanical parts. RMIT University researchers in Melbourne, Australia, have developed the world’s first liquid metal enabled pump, a revolutionary new micro-scale device with no mechanical parts. The unique design will enable micro-fluidics and lab-on-a-chip technology to finally realise their potential, with applications ranging from biomedicine to biofuels. The

Strap on your Spock ears Star Trek fans, the age of universal translators is approaching. The Disrupt SF conference recently wrapped up and Vocre has won both the Best Mobile App award and the Audience Choice award. Vocre, created by myLanguage, is the latest real time voice translation app for your iPhone. Simply speak into

Image via Wikipedia Money invested in protecting nature can bring huge financial returns, according to a major investigation into the costs and benefits of the natural world. It says money ploughed into protecting wetlands, coral reefs and forests can bring a hundredfold return on capital. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity study (Teeb) is backed

A team of researchers led by Dr Nazmul Karim and Prof Sir Kostya Novoselov at The University of Manchester have developed a method to produce scalable graphene-based yarn. Multi-functional wearable e-textiles have been a focus of much attention due to their great potential for healthcare, sportswear, fitness and aerospace applications. Graphene has been considered a potentially good material for these types of

The 1K House concept was initiated by Tony Ciochetti Launched in 2009, MIT’s “1K House” project challenges designers to come up with affordable, sustainable housing solutions that can improve conditions for the billions of people in the world living on less that $1 per day. The “Pinwheel House” designed by MIT graduate student Ying chee

Stem cells are starting to prove their value as medical treatments THIRTY years ago a young haematologist called Richard Burt was training at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore. He noticed that after leukaemia patients had received a treatment to wipe out their immune systems, they needed to be re-immunised against diseases such as measles and

The mega brand partners with Facebook to address a critical issue that affects 800 million people worldwide Over 1/2 billion people are daily Facebook users, collectively creating over 3.2 billion ‘likes’ and ‘comments’ every single day. What if these small, everyday actions could make a positive impact on the life of millions of people? Unilever,

A team of engineers from Washington University in St. Louis is looking to capitalize on the sense of smell in locusts to create new biorobotic sensing systems that could be used in homeland security applications. Baranidharan Raman, associate professor of biomedical engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, has received a three-year, $750,000

Reintroducing airships into the world’s transportation-mix could contribute to lowering the transport sector’s carbon emissions and can play a role in establishing a sustainable hydrogen-based economy. According to the authors of an IIASA-led study, these lighter-than-air aircraft could ultimately increase the feasibility of a 100% sustainable world. Airships were introduced in the first half of