Researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland have developed a flexible, flowerlike device that can be inserted through a tiny hole in the skull and attached to the brain to help treat conditions like epilepsy. The project was initiated after a neurosurgeon approached Stephanie Lacour, director of the EPFL Center for Neuroprosthetics, […]
A team of engineers at the University of British Columbia have developed a new method that can permanently remove toxic “forever chemicals” from drinking water — technology that its lead developer compared to a Brita filter, “but a thousand times better.” So why do we need it? While no one wants to gulp down a serving
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
