The need for a better way to objectively measure pain instead of relying on patient self-reporting has long been an elusive goal in medicine. Now, however, advances in neuro-imaging techniques have re-invigorated the debate over whether it might be possible to measure pain objectively. An effective “pain-o-meter” will reap big rewards. Currently, chronic pain costs […]
A comprehensive new study of irrigation in Asia warns that many developing nations face the politically risky prospect of having to import more than a quarter of the rice, wheat and maize they will need by 2050. The warning, along with related forecasts and possible solutions, appear in a report presented at the 2009 World […]
Researchers at the University of Miami and at the Universities of Tokyo and Tohoku, Japan, have developed what they call a “spin battery” which is “charged” by applying a large magnetic field to nano-magnets in a device called a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ). In the future, the new battery could power cars and computers, say […]
A line of massive boulders, each up to 30 feet high and weighing almost 2,000 tons, on the western shore of Tonga could be evidence of the most powerful volcano-triggered tsunami ever, dwarfing even the 1883 Krakatau (Krakatoa) tsunami which is estimated to have been over 100 feet high. Matthew Hornbach, of the University of […]
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin’s Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) on Nanostructures, Materials, and Interfaces have demonstrated a technique that could one day allow electronic devices to assemble themselves automatically – giving semiconductor manufacturers a way to mass-produce “nanochips” that have circuit elements only a few molecules across, roughly ten times smaller […]
