OsakaUniversity
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Atomic pen achieves invisible victory
Putting the world's tiniest book to shame -- not to mention the Torah-inscribed grain of rice -- a research team at Osaka University has "written" the letters "Si" using an atomic pen that interchanges silicon and tin atoms, enabling those who have the time, resources, and patience to manipulate said atoms one by one. The results are a diminutive 2 x 2 nm (or 40,000 times smaller than a strand of hair) which took about an hour and a half to complete. The previous best was a laughably large 0.07 x 0.10 mm tome hailing from SFU's Nano Imaging Lab. "It's not possible to write any smaller than this," said researcher Masayuki Abe, adding that, while the project sounded impressive on (really tiny) paper, it had failed to garner him any coveted cool points at the local bar. Next steps for the project will be determined once the team puts the finishing touches on the "g" and the "h."
Osaka University scientists create world's first optical pacemaker
Around 1.5 years ago, we got wind of researchers in the UK working up a battery-free pacemaker. Fast forward to now, and we've got yet another breakthrough in the field. Purportedly, a crew of Osaka University scientists have created the "world's first optical pacemaker," and in an article published in Optics Express, the team details how "powerful, but very short, laser pulses can help control the beating of heart muscle cells." In theory, this discovery provides the means for dictating said cells within a controlled setting, which could help researchers "better understand the mechanism of heart muscle contraction." As amazing as we're sure this is to the science world, throwing "lasers" and "heart" into the same sentence just doesn't elicit warm / fuzzy feelings.[Via Primidi]
Japanese scientist claims breakthrough with cold fusion experiment
While recent attempts to create a perpetual motion machine somehow, inexplicably didn't pan out, a physics professor from Osaka University now claims to have made a scientific breakthrough of another sort, with him now touting nothing less than a supposedly successful demonstration of cold fusion. That was apparently done by forcing deuterium gas under pressure into an evacuated cell containing a sample of palladium dispersed in zirconium oxide, which caused the deuterium to be absorbed by the palladium sample, resulting in a denser, or "pynco" deuterium, with deuterium nuclei that are close enough together to fuse. That process also supposedly resulted in a rise in temperature to about 70° Celsius, and a temperature in the center of the cell that remained "significantly warmer" than the cell wall for 50 hours after the test. Of course, there doesn't appear to be any other scientists ready to back up the experiment just yet, so you'll have to rely on your own armchair science expertise to get your hopes up or down accordingly on this one.[Via Slashdot, thanks One]
New bionic limbs to be controlled via brain-mounted sensors
Researchers at Osaka University are redefining "thought-controlled" limbs. Hailed as the first endeavor to dabble in the world of bionic phalanges by requiring open-skull surgery, the research is seeking to develop "real-time mind-controlled robotic limbs for the disabled." Of course, it's not the goal that's striking, but the means. Essentially, gurus working on the project are hoping to place electrode sheets directly on the surface of the brain in order to "obtain a more accurate signal," and amazingly enough, they're currently working to sign up willing subjects that are already scheduled to have brain electrodes added to deal with "monitoring epilepsy or other conditions." Maybe the bionic beings really aren't that far off, eh?[Via Pink Tentacle]
Japanese scientists make breakthrough in space-based laser power
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Osaka University have been working together to develop a device which converts sunlight into laser-light with four times the efficiency of previous attempts. According to a report out of Tokyo, the team is working on Space-based solar power systems which can collect sunlight in space and convert it into laser light, which is then transmitted to Earth and used for electricity... or to power a massive Death-Ray. The project works by storing sunlight-based energy in plate made from a sintered powder of metals like chromium and neodymium. When weak laser light is shined onto the plate, the stored energy is transferred to the laser where its strength is amplified by a factor of four. In one test, a 0.5-watt laser was amplified to 180-watts by the plates. Scientists have thus far been able to garner 40-percent of the solar energy produced, and they hope to have a system ready for satellite mounting by the not-too-distant year 2030. Huzzah! [Warning: read link requires subscription]
Osaka University develops teeth-controlled iPod interface
Just in case you weren't satisfied with the smorgasbord of options you already had when looking to control your iPod alternatively, researchers at Osaka University are hoping to shut you up. Thanks to new head gear that "uses infrared sensors and a microcomputer," individuals would be able to "operate music players by clenching their teeth." Essentially, the system "receives a command when the user clenches his or her teeth for about one second," which means that you can still chew gum and whatnot without getting it all confused. In the future, the team hopes to implement the technology into more devices, allowing folks to make funny faces to flip to the next slide in a presentation, answer a phone call, or even direct a wheelchair.
Researchers using waves to write on water
Liquid-based displays are nothing new -- in a vertical orientation, at least -- but apparently it's a lot more difficult to coax a standing pool of water into forming recognizable shapes and characters. In fact, before coming up with their current design, researchers at Japan's Akishima Laboratories were only able to get poorly-formed letters to pop up once every 15 minutes in their first stab at using waves to "print" on the surface of a specially-built pool. Their second attempt, however -- developed with Professor Shigeru Naito of Osaka University -- addresses both major flaws by using formulas known as Bessel functions to cut the processing time down to between 15 and 30 seconds and form characters with straight lines. The 30-centimeter deep, kiddie pool-sized device employs 50 generators operating in unison to produce cylindrical waves that behave like pixels, giving it the ability to display the entire roman alphabet as well as a number of kanji characters. Eventually this technology could be combined with music and lighting effects to create multimedia attractions at hotels or theme parks, but until they can speed up the letter formation even more (and maybe toss in some video), we don't see any real practical applications here. Readers?[Via Pink Tentacle]
