Not like we haven't heard of at-home dialysis before, but a pair of researchers from UCLA and the Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System concocted a design which would make the process even more portable. The AWAK (automated, wearable artificial kidney) would "avoid the complications patients often suffer with traditional dialysis" by being bloodless in nature; additionally, it would theoretically "reduce or even eliminate protein loss." Fittingly, UCLA-VA has already inked an agreement with Singapore-based AWAK Technologies in order to develop a commercial version, but there's no mention of how soon the creators expect said device to be widely available.

[Via Physorg]

We've seen self-healing materials and artificial arms, but a team of researchers hailing from UCLA have taken two fabulous ideas and wed them together to create "an artificial muscle that heals itself and generates electricity." Put simply, the contracting / expanding of the material can generate a small electric current, which can be "captured and used to power another expansion or stored in a battery." The scientists have relied on carbon nanotubes as electrodes rather than metal-based films that typically fail after extended usage, and in an ideal world, the research could eventually lead to (more) walking robots and highly advanced prosthetics. Integrate an AC adapter in there and we're sold.

[Via CNET]

A pair of researchers at UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science seem to think they're well on their way to building a better LED -- one that's not only brighter than existing LEDs, but more energy efficient and less expensive to boot. According to Physorg, the team's biggest success so far is red phosphorescent LED (or PLED) that delivered a record-breaking 18 lumens per watt (compared to an average of 12 lumens per watt with current red LEDs). The key to that, it seems, was to simplify the LED as much as possible, which they did by adding a polymer powder and liquid mixture to a "previously top-secret material" developed by Canon. The resulting "paint-like product" was then used to coat a layer of glass, with a charge then added to get the whole thing going. From the sound of it, these new wonder LEDs should be making their way into consumer products sooner rather than later, with Canon (naturally) reportedly already having licensed the technology and the first commercial products expected in "about three years."

It's no surprise that humans are doing less and less of the dirty work while they simply control robotic creatures that are actually doing the internal repairs, but a UCLA researcher has devised a ridiculously tiny "microhand" to handle even the smallest surgery-related tasks. The hand, which is said to be a "feat of microscale mechanical systems (MEMS)," measures just one millimeter across when closed into a fist, features four "fingers" made of six silicon wafers each, and touts four gas-powered balloons acting as the muscles at the wafers' joints. As you may expect, the gas lines that run to the balloons inflate and deflate the joints, causing the fingers to grasp and release as needed. The primary purpose is to eventually use the technology in new forms of "minimally invasive surgery," and although the microhand is likely years away from practical use, they're already in cahoots with robotic firm to develop a "slightly larger" rendition with an onboard camera for live action video feeds.

[Via MedGadget]

Undoubtedly, there's been quite a few chips claiming to hold some sort of "world's smallest" title, but a team of researchers have crafted what they call the "most dense computer memory circuit ever fabricated," capable of "storing around 2,000 words in a unit the size of a white blood cell." Scientists at Caltech and UCLA put their proximity differences behind them for a bit to develop a 160-kilobit memory cell that purportedly has a record-setting density of "100 gigabits per square centimeter." The bantam chip is capable of holding a document the size of the US Declaration of Independence with room leftover for a few quarterly reports (or slow jams), but Caltech chemistry professor James Heath doubts that we'll see it in mainstream action anytime soon. Still, the team isn't backing down from its discovery, and hopes to see this manufactured and placed into laptops in the coming years.

[Via Slashdot]

Our visions of cheap electronic paper may finally come to fruition, if scientists at Stanford University and the University of California, Los Angeles have their way. A joint team from the two universities just published a paper in the journal Nature, which outlines a new technique for mass producing single-crystal organic transistors (previously, the transistors had to be made by hand). According to the researchers, they can print transistors on silicon wafers and flexible plastic, meaning that soon it may be possible to print external inexpensive sensors for commercial products like future generations of LCDs. Exciting times, people, exciting times.

[Via CNET]