What if you could swallow a pill-sized device that could diagnose whether you have a peptic ulcer or a bile obstruction? Engineers at MIT and Caltech have created just that: an ingestible sensor that could help physicians more easily identify and diagnose gastrointestinal motility disorders. According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and […]
The World Health Organization estimates that 2.2 billion people around the globe are visually impaired. Since 2015, the popular Be My Eyes app has been working to help that population — and it’s now getting a major AI boost. Be My Eyes was founded by Danish furniture craftsman Hans Jørgen Wiberg, who is visually impaired
Many people have a stack of one-use chopsticks piling up in their cutlery drawer from takeout orders of yore, but what if that stack could be transformed into something not only new, but also beautiful? Felix Böck, CEO and founder of ChopValue, says his desire to find a solution to the staggering problem of urban
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Smell is one of the most powerful, and complicated, of the five senses. Olfaction has been linked to memory, cognition, and mood, and may even influence our other senses as well. So losing the capability, a condition known as anosmia, is not only frustrating and inconvenient, but can also be extremely emotionally taxing. That’s why two
“Everyone deserves a chance to play” is the motto behind All Terrain Georgia, an initiative that offers free all-terrain wheelchairs at Georgia’s parks to those with physical challenges. All-terrain wheelchairs look like rugged versions of everyday wheelchairs. They’re motorized, have a tank-like appearance, and wheels that are large and sturdy. In addition to being undeniably
Meet the machine that’s transforming heartbeats into music — and sharing a deeply heartfelt expression of a struggle. The CHD-4 is a unique drum-like machine that decoded electrocardiograms from four children with heart defects and transformed the patterns into sequences, which ultimately produced sounds based on their unique heartbeats (the individual shape, pace, and beats
Fast fashion is not traditionally known for being made with the health of the planet in mind, but researchers have discovered a practical and powerful way to mitigate the ecological damage of the industry. They’ve designed a slippery, silicon-based fabric coating that helps reduce the amount of microplastics entering the waterways from washing machines —
Despite their numerous upsides as a clean energy solution, solar panels have never garnered much praise for their aesthetic appeal. The appearance of a typical panel might be described as utilitarian, bare-bones, and, at best, futuristic; more often, its design has been considered an “eyesore” by many, in spite of the promise solar holds for
Though invented almost 200 years ago, renewed interest in electric vehicles rose in popularity in the 1990s, making way for the various models on the road today. Now, another type of clean energy is on the horizon for the automobile industry: Solar-powered cars may soon become a mainstream mode of transportation — as long as a
High schoolers in Tennessee have made headlines for an innovative act of kindness: creating a robotic hand for their classmate. When Sergio Peralta, 15, started the year as a new student at Hendersonville High School, he tried to conceal that he was born with a right hand that didn’t fully form. “In the first days
