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GE, having access to 7.2 million anonymized electronic medical records from all kinds of people, has teamed up with MIT’s SENSEable City Lab to do a little data mining on all this information. The results have been turned into an interactive map of associations between various conditions. This is an early phase of the project, dubbed Health InfoScape, and researchers plan on adding more visualization tools and options to the system. Link to the interactive map with further info : Health InfoScape… Read More Read More...

Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have successfully created an artificial neural network using DNA molecules that is capable of brain-like behavior. Hailing it as a “major step toward creating artificial intelligence,” the scientists report that, similar to a brain, the network can retrieve memories based on incomplete patterns. Potential applications of such artificially intelligent biochemical networks with decision-making skills include medicine and biological research. The researchers predict that, eventually, neural networks could be developed that operate within...

Researchers from MIT and Harvard are reporting the development of a new technology to selectively edit small identical sections of DNA within batches of living bacteria. Among other things, the technique should prove useful in engineering microorganisms that produce useful byproducts for science, medicine, and industry. Read More Read More...

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has announced a $41.5 million investment towards sanitation science and technology. According to the foundation, only one-third of the world’s population has access to flush toilets, meaning that 2.6 billion people do their business elsewhere. And elsewhere leads to a number of deadly diseases that already account for half of hospital patients in developing countries. Read More Read More...

Having previously released at least two astronomy books for the blind, NASA just unveiled “Getting a Feel for Lunar Craters,” a truly hands-on astro geology book. You can download the text-only or audiobook version now or request a free copy from NASA. Read More Read More...

Care Innovations , a joint venture between GE and Intel, has released Connect, a service designed to address social isolation in seniors. Connect software runs on a touch screen device and features social networking, as well as health management and reporting tools. The system has been undergoing a successful user trial at a nursing home in Michigan since last year. More about Connect from the announcement: Read More Read More...

Amazon , the online purveyor of everything to everyone, is now making cash-strapped medical students happy with a new option to rent textbooks via the Kindle reader. You can select a rental period of anywhere between 30 and 360 days and the cost will be calculated accordingly. Any annotations you make within the Kindle will remain with you once the rental period expires and they’ll appear within the textbook if you rent it again. There’s still a lot of books than need to be made available through rental, but we’re glad to see a new paradigm emerging that allows for substantial...

A new contrast agent based on maltodextrin has been developed at Georgia Tech that can provide in vivo imaging of bacteria with a sensitivity two orders of magnitude greater than previously achieved. Unlike most previous methods, the new probes are able to enter bacterial cells by pretending to be food, while avoiding being ingested by the mammalian cells. Read More Read More...