My iPod nano is more than a nifty portable device filled with my favorite songs for relaxing, working and running. It's my go-to-gadget for drowning …
Category: Innovation
Health-care consumer apps: helping or hurting?
A host of products are in development that aim to inform and empower health-care consumers. But the gadgets’ capabilities should raise at least a few …
Health-care applications from the Community Health Data Forum
Alex Howard at O'Reilly Radar has posted a giant entry that rounds up some interesting health-care applications from the Community Health Data Forum in Washington, …
Stanford team places second at BMEidea Competition with low-cost ventilator
A Stanford team has won second place in this year's Biomedical Engineering Innovation, Design and Entrepreneurship Award (BMEidea) Competition. The team's winning entry, called OneBreath, …
WolframAlpha integrates World Health Organization data
I'm a bit late to this announcement, but WolframAlpha recently integrated data from the World Health Organization for your querying pleasure: We recently added data …
Why physicians aren't using LinkedIn
I've been at the School of Medicine for well over two years, and I've frequently heard that LinkedIn isn't really popular with physicians and researchers. …
More concern over synthetic biology patents
I'm a few days late to this, but Duke Law School Professor James Boyle has written an insightful opinion piece outlining his concerns about the …
Nanoparticle "tattoo" may one day help diabetics monitor blood sugar
More than 13,000 young people in the United States are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes each year, according to the most recent data from the …
Bioengineering professor Drew Endy testifies at congressional hearing on synthetic biology
Stanford bioengineering professor Drew Endy, PhD, and four other scientists testified before the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce at a hearing yesterday on …
Universal influenza vaccine, maybe – eternal, maybe not
Having a "one-shot" vaccine that prevents all strains of influenza, present and future, is an ideal toward which many scientists (including several at Stanford) are …
British scientist infects himself with a contagious computer virus
British scientist Mark Gasson is the first person in the world to become infected with a computer virus, the BBC reported today. Gasson infected an RFID chip in his hand with a virus that was able to spread to an external computer system.
British scientist Mark Gasson is the first person in the world to become infected with a computer virus, the BBC reported today. Gasson infected an RFID chip in his hand with a virus that was able to spread to an external computer system.
Nobel laureate John Sulston concerned about "synthetic life" patents
Nobel laureate John Sulston, PhD, has said that efforts by Craig Venter, PhD, to apply for patents on his synthetic Mycoplasma mycoides would be "extremely …
Image of the Week: Synthetic M. mycoides bacteria
Whatever one's position (.pdf) might be on the significance of Craig Venter's technical accomplishment, these synthetic bacteria - Mycoplasma mycoides - have been in the …
The quest to create artificial life
You've no doubt read about a team of scientists' achievement in creating the first self-replicating, synthetic bacterial cell. Thousands of articles and blog posts have …
Venter's "synthetic life" is a different disc in an old player (but it's still music)
Human-genome-sequencing pioneer Craig Venter, PhD, and his group have announced the achievement of a significant milestone: They've reconstructed the known genome of a bacterial organism, …
Crossing the valley of death: bridging the drug-development divide
Newsweek science columnists Sharon Begley and Mary Carmichael have written a cogent and provocative article about the impediments to moving promising early drug research out …