Invention no. 10: Tooth ‘tattoo’ sensor

The last but trust me, not the least

By Doug Gross, CNN

In the bizarre world of body modification, tooth tattoos – while they do exist – aren’t near the top of many people’s preferred procedures.
But a scientist at Princeton is working on a temporary one that could help detect tooth decay, gum disease and other illnesses.

The tiny sensor is made of graphene, the same substance that forms the graphite in pencils. But applied to ultra-thin layers of silk, it stays flexible enough to attach to skin, or, in this case, tooth enamel.
“It is like the difference between a tree and a piece of paper,” said Michael McAlpine, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton.

The thus-far unnamed sensor is outfitted with miniscule electrodes and a wireless coil – allowing it to be powered by, and transmit information to, a remote device. When it detects the kind of bacteria that causes decay or disease, it pings that device, letting its wearer know there’s a problem brewing.
Depending on which bacteria it’s programmed to detect, the sensor could also be used to watch for other types of illnesses. For example, hospitals could use the replaceable tooth tattoos to spot bacterial infections that sometimes spread among patients.

“The Holy Grail is to be able to detect diseases from saliva and breath,” said McAlpine. “The tooth comes in contact with both, so you can tailor the sensor to target different diseases.”

McAlpine’s team hasn’t made any public announcements on when the sensor might be available commercially, although it’s likely at least several years off. The lab’s work was published in a scientific journal last year and has already picked up some buzz – earning a spot on the New York Times Magazine’s “Innovations That Will Change Your Tomorrow” list.
It may not spark fashion trends. But by being able to detect tiny amounts of bacteria at a much higher sensitivity level than traditional methods, the tooth tattoo could give doctors a critical head start in battling infections.

Source: www.cnn.com

Hope you enjoyed the series?
Leave your comment to make the blog better!

Invention no. 9: Soccket energy ball

By Todd Leopold, CNN

A soccer ball Barack Obama kicked in Tanzania wasn’t just any soccer ball.
It had power. Literally.
The Soccket may look like a soccer ball, but it’s really an energy source. Kick it around for 30 minutes, and thanks to some internal mechanisms, the kinetic energy is converted to about three hours’ worth of electricity – enough to charge a basic cell phone. A full charge, 72 hours, can be had for 16 hours of play.
The idea: Bring electricity and light to parts of the world that are power-poor and often make do with toxic, fume-producing kerosene lamps.

The ball is the flagship product of Uncharted Play, a company founded by two Harvard students, Jessica O. Matthews and Julia Silverman, in 2008.
The two were part of an engineering class for non-engineers. The class assignment: Come up with a playful idea that could help tackle an issue in the developing world. Matthews, whose family is from Nigeria, knew about power problems in sub-Saharan Africa, where less than 25% of the population has access to reliable electricity. With that in mind, the pair and their classmates came up with the Soccket concept.

It’s been through a variety of iterations. The first ball was a Nerf-like hamster ball. Then it became a soccer ball – a nod to the world’s most popular sport, readily played almost everywhere – but an inflatable version proved unworkable. The latest version is just two ounces heavier than a standard soccer ball, though Uncharted Play is still working on making it as bouncy. (Obama did manage to give it a header.)

The company has tested the balls in the U.S., Mexico, Brazil and parts of Africa and conducted a successful Kickstarter campaign earlier this year. (Among its fans: Bill Gates and Ashton Kutcher.) It’s now taking online orders through its website.

Matthews has said there are hopes of expanding to other sports, such as basketball. People across the globe may soon find themselves powering their homes by doing something as delightful and simple as playing a game.
Ain’t that a kick?

Source: www.cnn.com

Invention no. 8: Oculus Rift

By Doug Gross, CNN

Get in the game. That’s not just an order barked from the sidelines any more. The folks behind Oculus Rift are hoping it’s the future of video gaming.
Rift is a head-mounted, virtual-reality device designed specifically with gaming in mind. The idea behind the goggles-and-headphones style contraption is to immerse players in a 3D world that’s as close as possible to the real one.

So, yes, Rift could be a real-world step toward the “Star Trek” Holodeck – a chamber which could simulate any environment -- so many of us have dreamed about for decades.
Rift was designed by Palmer Luckey, a 20-year-old engineer at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies.

Luckey started out as a teenager looking for cool virtual-reality tech he could use to play games. When he didn’t find it, he started trying to make it himself, scouring the Web and buying up outdated VR technology, sometimes for only a fraction of what the pieces originally cost.
When he felt he’d learned enough, he launched a Kickstarter project, hoping to raise enough money to make maybe a few hundred headsets for diehard enthusiasts.
The campaign set out to raise $250,000. It hit that goal in four hours and, by September, it had raised nearly $2.5 million.

Of course, it didn’t hurt that one of its early advocates was gaming legend John Carmack, the lead programmer of groundbreaking games like “Doom,” “Quake,” “Rage” and “Wolfenstein 3D.” Carmack, who demoed an early version of “Doom 3” at the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo, is now chief technology officer for Oculus.

Developer versions of the headsets have been rolling out to Kickstarter backers and others, for $300, since this spring. A consumer version, which will be compatible with PCs and Android devices, is expected sometime next year.
There are other virtual-reality headsets out there. But the people behind Oculus Rift promise their wide field of view, high-resolution display and other features will let people step inside their favorite game like never before.

Source: www.cnn.com

Invention no. 7: GravityLight

By Heather Kelly, CNN

Turning on lights with the flick of a switch is a luxury most people don't ever question. But for the third of the world’s population that lives off of main electrical grids, something as simple as getting light can be a costly challenge.
To the rescue comes the GravityLight -- a simple, ingenious device that generates light without access to electricity.
The portable device doesn't have any batteries or require any fuel or cranking by hand. Instead, you hang the lamp on a wall and fill its attached bag with whatever heavy material is handy, such as rocks, dirt or sand. Then you simply lift the bag and let it go.

The weight slowly pulls a notched belt through a series of gears to drive a small motor, which powers an LED -- ambient or directed light, depending on what you need -- for about 30 minutes. It can even be used to power other low-voltage devices like radios or batteries.
The light will also have a positive impact on users’ health and the environment. In many poorer areas, the primary form of light is kerosene-powered lamps, which produce toxic fumes and trigger fires when the lamps tip over, causing severe burns.
For a struggling family, kerosene can also be costly. At a cost of only $10, Deciwatt says, the GravityLight would pay for itself in a few months.

Created by Martin Riddiford and Jim Reeves, GravityLight was inspired by a challenge by SolarAid, a charity that asked inventors to come up with an LED light to replace kerosene lanterns.
Riddiford and Reeves believe the lamp is just the beginning of what they’ll be able to accomplish with this simple, low-level power. It’s all part of their mission to do more with less.

Source: www.cnn.com

Invention no. 6: Google Glass

By Todd Leopold, CNN

People see what they want to see with Google Glass.
For some, the wearable computer is the next step up from the smartphone. It’s a real-time GPS, a videocamera, an Internet browser – and it does it all while perched on the bridge of your nose like eyeglasses. Just say “OK, Glass” or gesture with your hands, and Google Glass responds instantly, showing the results in a small display that floats just above your right eye.

It’s been a source of amusement for people like author Gary Shteyngart, one of the first people in New York to try Glass, who wrote a humorous essay about reactions as he wore it around the city. It’s also been a source of concern: Authorities consider it a driving distraction and even people who are impressed by the technology wonder if it’s just Big Brother in colorful frames.

So far, Google has offered Glass only through its Explorer program, which requires a compelling reason and $1,500 for a tester model. But a mass-produced version is expected to hit the market in 2014.
Its capabilities are immense: integration with medical technology, on-the-spot journalism, “augmented reality,” hands-free photography, even exchanging virtual lives. (But no sex, please – at least not unless you want to get Google mad.)
Google hasn’t given a specific date Glass will go on sale. In fact, it hasn’t acknowledged if Glass will sell widely at all. But there’s a boat floating in San Francisco Bay that may offer some clues to the future. According to speculation, it’s soon to be a Glass showroom.
Want to see Glass? Your ship may come in very soon.

Source: www.cnn.com

Invention no. 5: MakerBot Digitizer

By Brandon Griggs, CNN

Printing of three-dimensional objects has been a hot trend in the tech world for the last several years, but an obstacle has kept the process from going mainstream: To print anything, you first need a computer-created digital model that tells the printer what to make. Models are available online for thousands of common objects, but if you wanted to print a rare or custom-made item you had to somehow model it on your own.

Where did you start?

Enter the MakerBot Digitizer, a desktop device that scans almost any small object up to about 8 inches in diameter. Place the item on its rotating turntable, and the Digitizer uses two lasers and a webcam to create a 3-D digital file of it within 12 minutes. Anyone can do it -- no special expertise is required. Once the digital scan is completed, an object can be manufactured right away by feeding the resulting file to a 3-D printer. It’s much easier and faster than using software to design a digital model from scratch.

Let’s say, for example, you lose a knight piece from your favorite chess set. You can simply scan the other knight and print a replica that will be identical in size and shape, if not color or weight. More significantly, astronauts aboard the International Space Station could scan and print replacement parts for broken or lost equipment instead of having to wait weeks for them to be delivered.

The device, meant to be paired with a MakerBot desktop 3-D printer, is still somewhat imprecise – it’s geared more for designers and hobbyists than engineers. But it’s a first step towards a new industrial revolution in which average people can become manufacturers.
“It’s a powerful tool that’s going to give you a whole new way of looking at things,” says MakerBot founder Bre Pettis, who encourages users to “blaze a trail into the future.”
 

 Source: www.cnn.com

Invention no. 4: Bounce Imaging Explorer

By Doug Gross, CNN

Most of us might want to throw our camera only when we just missed the perfect shot. But this new gadget is geared toward saving lives by letting users like firefighters, soldiers and police do just that.

The Bounce Imaging Explorer packs six cameras into a rubber orb the size of a baseball, along with a Wi-Fi transmitter and sensors to detect things like temperature and air quality. It also contains a microphone to transmit audio.

The Explorer’s design allows users to throw it into an area that for safety reasons they’d rather not enter themselves. The data it picks up can be beamed back to the user via a smartphone or tablet.
So for example, soldiers in battle or police in pursuit of an armed suspect could use it to scout out an enclosed space before getting in harm’s way. Disaster responders could toss it into earthquake rubble to look for survivors. Firefighters could find out how hot, or smoke-filled, a building is before they enter.
The Explorer is the brainchild of MIT and Harvard graduate Francisco Aguilar, who thought it up after the Haiti earthquake in 2010. He teamed up with former Army Ranger and fellow MIT grad David Young to form Bounce.

Other technologies, like fiber optics and even robots, already exist to perform similar functions. But the folks at Bounce argue that they’re too expensive for most first responders -- particularly police and firefighters with tight budgets.
No release date has been announced for the product, which its creators still describe as a prototype. Prices for the ball are expected to start at about $1,000 and range up to $3,000 for a more advanced military version.

Source: www.cnn.com

Excited?!! Leave your comment...

Invention no. 3: Automatic

By Heather Kelly, CNN

In the future we will have self-driving cars that weave in and out of traffic and coordinate silently with other vehicles on the road, all while we sit back with a latte, reading a book.
That future is still a ways off, and even when those cars arrive they will be expensive. But Automatic brings a bit of the smart-car future to our existing vehicles with a small device that attaches to a car's onboard computer via a port under the steering wheel.

It works with most gas-powered cars from 1996 or later. The hardware syncs with an iPhone app over Bluetooth. (There's an Android app coming in December.)
Automatic pulls data about your engine and driving habits and displays the results on your phone so you can save energy and money. It maps out each trip using GPS, tallies gas usage and mileage, and gives you a driving score. When your car flashes the dreaded "check engine" light, it deciphers the code and tells you exactly what the problem is. It even remembers where you parked.

Together, these small steps can add up to a positive environmental impact. When you're burning up fuel unnecessarily by speeding, accelerating too quickly or slamming on the brakes, the app will make a sound.
Automatic also can detect when you're in a car accident. If your smartphone is on, has a GPS signal and is still working, it will automatically contact local authorities and your family.

Source: www.cnn.com

Invention no. 2: Atlas humanoid robot

By Heather Kelly, CNN

Even just to look at, the Atlas humanoid robot is impressive.
At 6’ 2” and 330 pounds, it’s the size of an NFL defensive tackle. It can walk and lift heavy objects, replace its hands with customized attachments and complete tasks without direct human supervision, thanks to an on-board computer and plenty of sensors.

The hope is that Atlas someday soon will be working alongside human first responders to earthquakes, typhoons and other disasters, helping to carry supplies or clear debris. It also could be sent into situations deemed too dangerous for humans, such as the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan.
But Atlas has a ways to go before it’s tackling search-and-rescue missions. The result of a $10.9 million contract with Boston Dynamics, the strapping robot must first take part in DARPA's Robotics Challenge, which invites teams of engineers to create a remotely controlled robot that can respond to disasters.
Variations of Atlas, programmed by different teams, will face off against other robots this December in a series of trials meant to test the machines’ readiness for the field. In a series of disaster scenarios, the robots must be able to navigate rough terrain on foot, move debris, climb a ladder and tear down doors or walls to get to victims.

Since communication can be spotty after a disaster, they must also be able to operate semi-independently. The robots will even be tasked with driving a vehicle.
The top-performing robots will then receive further funding, undergo improvements and go on to compete in the DARPA's Robotics Challenge finals in December 2014. At least one version of Atlas is expected to be among them.

Source: www.cnn.com

Woooow! Nice!
Lets look forward to Robots who would pound our yam *Hello Nigeria*

Invention no. 1: Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System

By Todd Leopold, CNN

In the old TV show “The Six Million Dollar Man,” astronaut Steve Austin was given bionic body parts after a horrific crash. Austin gets a new right arm, two replacement legs and a left eye with a zoom lens and night-vision capacities.

The Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System isn’t quite that advanced. But for the vision-impaired, the “bionic retina” is a huge leap forward.
The device, which was created by the California-based company Second Sight Medical Products, has been available in Europe since 2011. It received U.S. approval in February – the first visual prosthesis to do so. Second Sight CEO Robert Greenberg has devoted more than 20 years of his life to the invention.
The Argus II functions as an artificial retina, the light-sensitive part of the eye that collects image information and passes it along to the brain through the optic nerve. (It’s often considered similar to the film in a camera.) People with a disease called retinitis pigmentosa (RP) – about 100,000 Americans -- lose the retina’s light-sensitive cells. It’s here that the Argus II takes over.

The device is surgically implanted in and on the eye, according to the Argus II website. It contains an antenna and some electronics, and connects to an exterior system consisting of eyeglasses, a video processing unit (VPU) and a connecting cable. The glasses contain a camera that sends image information through the VPU and to the implant.

The end result is some vision restoration. "The device may help adults with RP who have lost the ability to perceive shapes and movement to be more mobile and to perform day-to-day activities," the FDA’s Dr. Jeffrey Shuren said in a news release.

The Argus II is available for adults 25 and over. It’s currently available at a handful of American eye centers. Though it’s expensive – about $144,000 – Medicare announced it would cover the costs, and other insurers are expected to follow.
And it’s just the beginning, Greenberg told the trade publication Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry.
“It's a computer-based system, so you can imagine in 10 years how much cell phone and computer technology has advanced,” Greenberg adds.
Expect much more light to shine in the future.
Source: www.cnn.com

Wooooow! Imagine! *shut of words*
Please what do you think, leave a comment!

CNN 10: Inventions

As school children, we learned the names of famous inventors from history: Alexander Graham Bell, Eli Whitney, Thomas Edison. Ask someone to name a famous modern-day inventor, though, and you’ll probably get a blank look. Today's heroes are celebrities: Actors, athletes, singers.

But where would we be without the Post-It Note, the smartphone, the luggage with wheels that rolls through the airport? Somebody invented each of those things, and we owe them all a debt for making our lives easier.
The best inventions make us wonder what we ever did without them.

As part of our focus on innovation, CNN is honoring 10 new inventions in technology and related fields. These are gadgets or prototypes with big, game-changing potential: to power villages in the developing world, to assist search-and-rescue teams in responding to disasters, to restore some vision to the blind.
Some are available now, while others won’t come for a year or two, if ever. But all of them are ingenious in their approach to solving problems. And someday, the names of their inventors may be spoken by future schoolteachers.
May we present The CNN 10: Inventions.

Source: www.cnn.com

I will post the ten of them in details as time progresses. Do not be in a haste, just sit tight!
Visit the blog every day and you'll see the intriguing inventions of the year! In details!!!
*I'm elated*
 

 

GULSHAN ESTHER

Early life

Esther was born in 1952 to a wealthy and prominent family of Jhang in the Punjab, Pakistan. She claims that at the age of six months she became ill with Typhoid Fever and as a result became paralyzed on her left side. At the age of 14, in the search for a cure for her paralysis, her father brought her to England to see a specialist, who allegedly declared her beyond healing and recommended prayer.^{[citation needed]} From England, Esther proceeded directly on a pilgrimage to Mecca with her father and two maids. Esther later stated that despite not being healed while on Hajj she did not initially lose her Islamic faith.^{[citation needed]}

Conversion

In her book, Esther claims that beginning after her father's death when she was 16 years old, she began to hear the voice of Jesus, encouraging her to read about him in the Quran. At the age of 19, she had a vision of Jesus and twelve other radiant beings in her bedroom at 3 A.M., just before morning prayers. At that time, her limbs were instantly and completely healed. At the same time as he healed her, Esther claims that Jesus said, "What you have seen now with your eyes you must take to my people," then he taught her The Lord's Prayer and told her one more time before departing, "I want you to be my witness." As a result of her healing, Esther immediately became a local celebrity.
Later, in light of some hostility from Muslims who didn't like her claim that Jesus had healed her, Esther began to wonder why he was considered an unimportant or peripheral character by Muslims. She further began to question why, if Jesus could heal the sick and raise the dead, he was considered less important than Prophet Muhammed, who could not perform these feats. She also puzzled over the fact that the Quran contained almost no information or teachings about Jesus, even while stating that he was a noble and favored prophet. Esther wrote that The Lord's Prayer taught her that Jesus has primacy over any prophet, and is proof of the kingship of Jesus, since it was he who taught her the prayer and who will establish the earthly kingdom of God upon his return from heaven.
Following her conversion she was punished under the Pakistani law against apostasy, including the loss of a large inheritance and being jailed for a month, and also received death threats from two of her brothers.

Today

Gulshan Esther now lives in Oxford, England. She travels widely on speaking tours, on which she discusses her book and answers questions about her faith^. Her book has sold over 200,000 copies.

Source: www.wikipedia.com

Kimani Ng'ang'a Maruge

 Kimani Maruge (1920 - August 14, 2009) holds the Guinness World Record for being the oldest person to start primary school—he enrolled in the first grade on January 12, 2004, aged 84. Although he had no papers to prove his age, Maruge believed he was born in 1920.

Maruge attended Kapkenduiywo Primary School in Eldoret, Kenya; he said that the government's announcement of universal and free elementary education in 2003 prompted him to enroll.
In 2005 Maruge, who was a model student, was elected head boy of his school.
In September 2005, Maruge boarded a plane for the first time in his life, and headed to New York City to address the United Nations Millennium Development Summit on the importance of free primary education

Maruge's property was stolen during the 2007-2008 post-election violence, and he contemplated quitting school During early 2008 he lived in a refugee camp, where he was reportedly a minor celebrity, four kilometers from his school, but still attended classes every day.In June 2008, he relocated to the capital Nairobi
In June 2008, Maruge was forced to withdraw from school and relocate to a retirement home for senior citizens. However, soon after, on June 10, 2008, Maruge enrolled once again into grade 6 at the Marura primary school, located in the Kariobangi area of Nairobi.

A feature film about Kimani Maruge, starring Oliver Litondo and Naomie Harris titled The First Grader, was released on May 13, 2011. The British-produced film was shot on location in the Rift Valley in Kenya, despite earlier reports that it would be filmed in South Africa.
Director Justin Chadwick said: "We could have shot it in South Africa, but Kenya has this unbelievable, inexplicable energy - inherent in the children, and the people we were making the film about"

On Sunday May 24, 2009, Maruge was baptised at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Kariobangi and took a Christian name, Stephen.
Maruge was then using a wheelchair.
Maruge was a widower, and a great-grandfather (two of his 30 grandchildren attend the same school). He was a combatant in the Mau Mau Uprising against the British colonizers in the 1950s.

 Maruge died on August 14, 2009 of stomach cancer, at the Cheshire Home for the Aged in Nairobi.He was buried at his farm in Subukia

Source: www.wikipedia.com

How old are you that you cannot get educated?

'Vampire therapy' could reverse ageing, scientists find...

A transfusion of youthful blood may halt or even reverse the ageing process as two studies find that the chemical make-up of younger blood has surprising health benefits

It may seem the stuff of gothic horror novels, but transfusions of young blood could reverse the ageing process and even cure Alzheimer’s Disease, scientists believe. 

Throughout history, cultures across the globe have extolled the properties of youthful blood, with children sacrificed and the blood of young warriors drunk by the victors.

It was even rumoured that the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il injected himself with blood from healthy young virgins to slow the ageing process.

Now scientists have found that young blood actually ‘recharges’ the brain, forms new blood vessels and improves memory and learning.

In parallel research, scientists at Harvard University also discovered that a ‘youth protein’ which circulates in the blood is responsible for keeping the brain and muscles young and strong.
The protein, known as ‘GDF11’, is present in the bloodstream in large quantities when we are young but peters out as we age.
Although both the discoveries were made in mice, researchers are hoping to begin human trials in the next two to three years, in studies which could bring rapid improvements for human longevity and health.
“This should give us all hope for a healthier future,” said Prof Doug Melton, of Harvard's Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology.
“We all wonder why we were stronger and mentally more agile when young, and these two unusually exciting papers actually point to a possible answer.
“There seems to be little question that, GDF11 has an amazing capacity to restore aging muscle and brain function.”
Last year the team discovered that the protein could repair damaged hearts. But the new study showed that that raising the levels of the GDF11 protein in older mice improved the function of every organ in the body.
Harvard stem cell biologist Prof Lee Rubin added: “We do think that, at least in principal, there will be a way to reverse some of the decline of aging with a single protein.
"It isn't out of question that GDF11, or a drug developed from it, might be worthwhile in Alzheimer's Disease.”
It is likely that the protein is at least partly responsible for the parallel finding by Stanford University that young blood can reverse the signs of ageing.
In the study, the blood of three-month-old mice was repeatedly injected into 18-month-old mice near the end of their natural life span.
The "vampire therapy" improved the performance of the elderly mice in memory and learning tasks.
Structural, molecular and functional changes were also seen in their brains, the study published in the journal Science found.
If the same were seem in humans, it could lead to new therapies for recharging our aging brains and novel drugs for treating dementias such as Alzheimer’s disease.
“We’ve shown that at least some age-related impairments in brain function are reversible. They’re not final,” said Dr Saul Villeda, of Stanford’s School of Medicine.
Ageing mice given eight infusions of young blood over three weeks improved their performance in mental tests of fear condition and locating a hidden platform in a water maze.
Evidence was seen of new connections forming in the hippocampus, a brain region vital to memory and sensitive to ageing.
Dendritic spines - finger-like extensions from the branches of neurons that are thought to play a role in memory formation - also became more dense.
Infusions of blood from other elderly mice had no effect, the study, published in the journal Nature, found.
“This could have been done 20 years ago,” said lead researcher Dr Tony Wyss-Coray of Stanford.
“You don’t need to know anything about how the brain works. You just give an old mouse young blood and see if the animal is smarter than before. It’s just that nobody did it.”
"Our data indicate that exposure of aged mice to young blood late in life is capable of rejuvenating synaptic plasticity and improving cognitive function.
"Future studies are warranted in aged humans and potentially those suffering from age-related neurodegenerative disorders."
Dr Eric Karran, from the dementia charity Alzheimer's Research UK, said: “This technically complex study looks at the effects of exposing old mice to blood-borne factors from young mice on age-related cognitive decline.
“Although the treatments tested here rejuvenate certain aspects of learning and memory in mice, these studies are of unknown significance to humans.
“This research, while very interesting, does not investigate the type of cognitive impairment that is seen in Alzheimer's disease, which is not an inevitable consequence of ageing.”

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk