First smartphone “just” respectful of people and the environment

Posted on June 19, 2013 by John

A small company based in the Netherlands, FairPhone, has designed a smartphone “just”, i.e. which is respectful of the environment and people. It is recyclable and materials, to the extent possible, have been made in non-conflicting, and companies that do not exploit their workers. The company will now begin production of the 7,000 devices that previously sold at a price of 325 euros each. By Carlos Gomez below:

FairPhone has sold the 5,000 mobile phones sustainable and respectful to people and the environment needed to start production. In fact, it reached almost 7,000, and now begins to manufacture them.

It is a social enterprise based in Amsterdam (Netherlands), and supported by the Waag Society, a foundation that aims to encourage experimentation with new technologies, art and culture.

His goal was to create a mobile device that does not contain minerals from conflict zones and fair working conditions for workers along the supply chain. The project has already raised the money for the initial batch of phones via pre-orders. Continue reading →

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Scientists discover that the human mind can be ‘hacked’

Posted on June 18, 2013 by John

A group of international researchers demonstrated that it is possible to read the human mind and revealed that using multiple devices ‘innocent’, which are already available on the market; it is possible to filter the thoughts along with the orders sent to the computer without us noticing.

As part of their study, scientists from the University of Berkeley (USA), Oxford (United Kingdom) and Genoa (Italy), observed 28 people using devices called “brain-computer interface” (BCI). This is a hardware which includes headset (electroencephalogram or EEG) sensors and handles understand the human brain activity.

The BCI is generally used in medical centers with expensive equipment, but over the years the product, which was implemented in some games, it was much cheaper and accessible in the market. Continue reading →

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A new hope thanks to a vaccine for Alzheimer’s

Posted on June 18, 2013 by John

Brain research has made unprecedented strides over the years and Europe is at the forefront with regard to scientific advances. But you can do more. To say it is Alzheimer’s disease International has published a report on the economic impact of global dementia. According to their estimates, if the treatment for dementia were a country, would be the 18th world economy, with a place in the ranking between Turkey and Indonesia.

The European project MIMOVAX has high hopes to make a significant step forward in this important field of medical research. Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disorder progressive, degenerative and irreversible that causes intellectual disability and disorientation. There are no effective cures, the MOMOVAX team has proposed to develop a vaccine that can ensure a safe and effective treatment and ultimately stop the progress of this debilitating disease.

MIMOVAX is a research project with a specific goal (Specific Targeted Research Project or STREP) and points to the truncated peptides A? 40/42 – derived from the amyloid precursor protein (PPA) – through active immunization. Continue reading →

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At Dione may be the secret of water

Posted on June 16, 2013 by John

New data of the spacecraft “Cassini” suggests that under most ordinary surface of Saturn’s moon Dione on behalf of hiding once geologically Active Ocean.

Images of mountains Janiculum-Dorsa 800 km hint at the fact that this was a weak imitator moon Enceladus, famous for its ice geysers. “Active worlds filled with water, can be much more than we once thought,” – emphasizes Bonnie Buratti of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

By modern hypothetical ideas, subsurface oceans exist on Saturn’s moon Enceladus and Titan, as well as on the moon of Jupiter Europe. Scientists are dreaming of how these giant pools of future travelers find the beginnings of life forms unknown to us. Perhaps Dione also under the icy crust is water and, therefore, something metabolized.

“Cassini”, which is studying Saturn’s system with the year 2004, with the help of its magnetometer, discovered a faint stream of particles with Diones. This would suggest not only the existence of a liquid layer, but also the fact that the ancient and no longer active fault in the past threw into space ice water and carbon-containing particles. Continue reading →

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Reduce the time between medical research and therapy

Posted on June 15, 2013 by John

Chronic diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s disease have risen by around Europe due to increased longevity and changes in lifestyle. In principle it is biomedical research that leads to new discoveries, which are then able to offer new therapies and diagnostic solutions. Often, however, remain for too long in the laboratory and reach very late patients who need them.

This is why it has launched a new organization that will help in bridging the “translational gap” that currently still separates the world of scientific research medical applications in hospital. EATRIS, the European infrastructure for translational research dedicated to advanced medicine, will act through a pan-European consortium of 60 distinguished academic institutions, including major centers of translational biomedical research.

The purpose is to ensure that biomedical research is translated more quickly, and more efficiently, in products for clinical applications such as new drugs, vaccines and diagnostic tools. Continue reading →

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Customize therapies for the treatment of cancer

Posted on June 13, 2013 by John

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide with 7.6 million deaths a year (about 13% of the total number). Despite the great efforts invested to find a cure, it is expected that the number of cancer deaths worldwide will continue to rise, reaching 13.1 million by 2030.

The chances of a patient’s cancer responds to treatment are strongly influenced by alterations in the cancer genome. The main objective of an innovative project recently funded by the European Research Council (ERC) is to reveal the complex genomic and biochemical characteristics of the forms of human cancer and identify the optimal drug combinations for use in personalized care.

At the helm of this ambitious project are Professor Anton Berns and Professor Daniel Peeper of the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI), together with Professor David Adams and Professor Michael Stratton of the Cancer Genome Project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (WTSI). Continue reading →

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Viruses protect bacteria from antibiotics

Posted on June 11, 2013 by John

Bacteria living in the stomach, there were some unexpected defenders. According to researchers from the Wyss Institute at Harvard University (USA), resistance to antibiotics, these bacteria get from … viruses that, in general, should attack them and destroy them.

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics – known problem of modern medicine: what drugs we would not come up, the bacteria adapt to them quickly, and this mutual “arms race” is only accelerating. Because of antibiotic resistance even seemingly harmless and well-known infectious diseases deliver a lot of hassle. Sustainability is easy to understand, arises because the bacteria acquire specific genes that allow neutralizing the drug. These bacteria can transfer genes not only to their descendants, but also with each other within the same generation – his own, so to speak, peers.

Typically, researchers in bacterial resistance to antibiotics, the bacteria are studying on their own. But James Collins and colleagues have paid attention to the following fact is known: bacteria (at least in our stomach) live side by side with bacteriophages – viruses, bacteria, parasites on. But viruses are able to “steal” genes hosts and move them from one cell to another. Accordingly, the scientists the idea arose that bacteriophages can contribute to bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Continue reading →

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