University of Costa Rica

A line of active gaming products aimed at keeping children fit While opinions are divided on how video games affect young minds, one thing seems to be definite – spending a lot of time playing sit-down games makes kids fat. Fortunately, gaming systems like Wii and Kinect are getting players active. Now, motion capture and medical

Researchers at the University of Bonn discover a new signaling pathway to combat excess body weight The number of overweight persons is greatly increasing worldwide – and as a result is the risk of suffering a heart attack, stroke, diabetes or Alzheimer’s disease. For this reason, many people dream of an efficient method for losing

An autonomous system for exploring the solar system’s smaller members, such as moons and asteroids, could bring us closer to a human mission to Mars. Stanford researchers, in collaboration with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have designed a robotic platform that could take space exploration to new heights. The mission

Patients who are otherwise completely unable to communicate can answer yes or no questions within seconds with the help of a simple system—consisting of just a laptop and camera—that measures nothing but the size of their pupils. The tool, described and demonstrated in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, on August 5 takes advantage of changes

Researchers have developed a new type of software that enables people to use large visual displays and touch screens interactively over the Internet for business and homeland security applications. Tabletop touch-operated displays are becoming popular with professionals in various fields, said Niklas Elmqvist, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University. “These

A thin, stretchable film that coils light waves like a Slinky could one day lead to more precise, less expensive monitoring for cancer survivors. The University of Michigan chemical engineers who developed the film say it could help patients get better follow-up treatment with less disruption to their everyday lives. The film provides a simpler,

Researchers at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) have developed a technique that enables driver assistance systems in cars to pinpoint pedestrians and cyclists – even while they are hidden from view. To this end, pedestrian’s and cyclist’s cell phones could soon serve as transponders. On-board positioning systems would then compute the projected trajectory of the

Toward a new generation of screening tests As part of an international research project, a team of researchers has developed a DNA clamp that can detect mutations at the DNA level with greater efficiency than methods currently in use. Their work could facilitate rapid screening of those diseases that have a genetic basis, such as

Image by eshare via Flickr Watching events unfolding in Tehran raises three intriguing questions for me: Is Facebook to Iran’s Moderate Revolution what the mosque was to Iran’s Islamic Revolution? Is Twitter to Iranian moderates what muezzins were to Iranian mullahs? And, finally, is any of this good for the Jews — particularly Israel’s prime