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Sunburn is painful, dangerous and embarrassing. But despite knowing it’s the body’s protective immune response to high levels of ultraviolet radiation, scientists weren’t exactly sure what the biological process behind it was. Turns out that it’s your RNA screaming out in pain—a finding which could help sunburn and other skin ailments for good. More »

How do babies learn to walk? And how to victims of spinal cord injuries regain the ability to do so? We might soon have a bit more insight into these phenomena, because researchers at the University of Arizona have created the first pair of legs that can walk in in a biologically accurate way. More »

Women may be able to have babies later in life thanks to ovary transplants. A handful of women worldwide have undergone the experimental procedure and had babies after menopause. Did science just reset how we think about the female body clock? More »

While our bodies approach beach-readiness for the summer, Sony‘s unveiled plans to tinker with your gym playlist in the future. According to a patent granted today, the electronics manufacturer aims to closely tie the tempo of your music to your own physical exertions. It’ll do this by using a nefarious-sounding (but ultimately vague) “exercise information analyzing circuit” that will pick up on tempo differences between the user and their favorite Pendulum tracks. It will then change the “music data” for something a little more fitting for your 10-minute trudge at 10 percent incline. The patent’s sketches include the idea of personalized profiles for users, and displaying what you got done at the end of the session, broken down by tempo and duration. The technology could end up in PMPs or phones, although we reckon the latter has more legs. Give your legalese its own workout and peruse the laborious wording of another patent filing at the source below.

Continue reading Sony patents exercise music system that adjusts music to your work-out tempo

Sony patents exercise music system that adjusts music to your work-out tempo originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Jul 2012 22:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The same technology that allows airport staff to laugh at your genitals could soon allow dentists to check your wisdom teeth without first irradiating you with X-rays. Silicon-based terahertz range emitters and detectors, however, could shrink the airport scanner tech down to 45nm CMOS scale, according to research at the Texas Analog Center of Excellence at the University of Dallas, EETimes reports. In collaboration with Texas Instruments, they’ve come up with an on-chip antenna that could eventually find its way into a compact X-ray alternative machine suitable for medical professionals.

Causing headaches – metaphorically – so far has been sufficiently stabilizing the frequency of the terahertz waves, with TI and the Dallas team building on research funded earlier in 2012 by Semiconductor Research Corp. into CMOS detectors. TI uses a phase-locked loop to stabilize at around the 390GHz point, “the highest frequency ever demonstrated for a phase-locked loop” according to TI design engineer Brian Ginsburg.

Future iterations will see that number climb, however, with targets of 600GHz or higher for TI’s 45nm processes. Boosting the output power is also on the agenda, with the current prototype mustering 2.2 microWatts.

As well as the health benefits from reducing potentially cancer-causing X-ray exposure, terahertz alternatives could also be more flexible in how they are implemented. Optical components such as lenses could be used to reflect and direct the waves, potentially making for more compact equipment.

[via Slashdot]

Naked scanners zoom on your teeth in TI research is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
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