RESCUE STAT!: Lifeguards at beaches may need to spend precious minutes launching a craft to reach the casualty they're rescuing. Or they may just swim out and have reduced energy for the rescue itself. One project in the annual James Dyson Award is a prototype small powered flotation device called the ASAP. The small device runs on a solar powered Lithium Ion battery and can easily be launched by one person.
It's designed to float a casualty with their head tilted back and facing the lifeguard for monitoring and rescue breaths. A small but powerful idea. More at James Dyson Foundation and video here.
FLEXI CHIPS: Silicon is the familiar basis of computer chips, but it has some problems. One is that below a certain minimum size it becomes unstable and useless. But there's a new substance that could replace it: the abundant and naturally occurring molybdenite. The Laboratory of Nanoscale Electronics and Structures has created a working prototype integrated circuit using molybdenite and shown that basic binary logic operations are possible. Molybdenite can be worked in layers only 3 atoms thick meaning small and even flexible devices are possible. The material rivals silicon and even graphene in its properties. Abundant, and naturally occurring are also great features. Details at EurekAlert!.
ATTRACTION PLUS: Feeling magnetic today? Looking for friends or business relationships? The magnetU device may be what you need. The tiny social networking gadget holds information such as your Twitter or Facebook profiles, and a set of 'social desires' that you feed in via a web page. When you're near another magnetU carrier whose profile or desires match yours the device alerts you via an SMS to your phone. Become Facebook friends or exchange business details by touching the devices together. It's a bit like a tech version of a moodring magnetU has details, video here.
SIGNATURE SMELL: In opera and movies different characters often have unique music associated with them to help the audience know who's who — a Leitmotif. Now a team at the National University of Singapore are bringing something like that to real life. Their Sound Perfume glasses include an odour emitter and speakers, and a Bluetooth connection to a smartphone. The wearer can choose one specific perfume from eight and a sound to be emitted when they meet others. When two Sound Perfume users meet, an infrared sensor in the glasses triggers an exchange of address cards on the phones which in turn triggers the sound and scent. Initial testing suggests this helps people form a positive first impression. It just smells wrong to me. New Scientist has more.
THE UPSIDE OF SPAM: Spammers keep changing their techniques so their messages avoid spam filters, and Microsoft works hard to update the computer algorithms that keep email streams clean. Meanwhile, in the field of medicine, researchers are trying to figure out how HIV mutates so they can develop effective vaccines. Spot the similarities? These commonalities have brought the Microsoft Research team into the world of HIV research. By applying their anti-spam algorithms to HIV data they're able to highlight areas the medical researchers should work on. Since the analysis exposes how the human immune system works the results are also useful for cancer researchers and other medical studies. It's a shame it took spammers to trigger this kind of scientific analysis. Details at Microsoft Research.