Self-Charging Batteries Powered by Vibration
Self-Charging Batteries Powered by VibrationBrother Industries has developed an AA battery sized generator powered by vibration, which can be used to charge another AA battery. Shaking your remote every once in a while could soon be all that's needed to keep it alive.
Inside the generator battery sits an "electromagnetic induction generator and an electric double layer capacitor" and although you'd have to do an impossibly vigorous amount of shaking to power a DSLR, for low-drain gadgets like remotes and LED torches a quick shuffle should dribble out enough energy for a brief spell of use. [Tech-On]
The iPad robot that can let you go anywhere in the world - without ever leaving your living room
- Motorised arm turns an iPad into a 'virtual you'
- Makers say it can be used to attend meeting and even tour art gallerie
- By Mark Prigg
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For the frequent traveller, it could be the perfect way to attend those urgent meetings while staying at home.
The Double robot can turn your iPad into a 'virtual you' that can be sent anywhere in the world.
The $2,000 robot is described as 'the simplest, most elegant way to be somewhere else in the world without flying there'
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It can move around, all controlled by your own iPad, and even adjust its height to make sure you are always at eye level.The Double robot that can let you virtually attend meeting anywhere in the world, and even let you visit art galleries.
The firm says the gadget could be used to attend meetings, meet friends for lunch, and even visit art galleries around the world.
'You can stay at eye level, whether sitting or standing, by adjusting your height remotely, which makes conversations fluid and real,' says the firm behind it.
The robot is based around a single wheel, which balances the robot as it moves, rather like a Segway.
Where you're not moving, a retractable kickstand automatically deploys to conserve power when you are not moving around.
Double Robotics, the firm behind the design, says 'Efficient motors and lightweight design give Double the ability to last all day without recharging the battery.'The robot is controlled via a second iPad, and can be driven using computer game style controls
Where you're not moving, a retractable kickstand automatically deploys to conserve power when you are not moving around.
The gadget has already proved a huge success, the firm said, with the first run already sold out.
'First off, we want to thank you all for your enthusiasm and support for Double, especially to those of you who pre-ordered,' it said in a blog post.The robot could even be sent into art galleries without ever having to visit them, with rented robots being used to give hundreds access to collections around the world.
'Because of the overwhelming response, we've already had to expand our first production run to include more robots than planned, which is great!
'However, in good conscience, we cannot continue to offer a December ship date for units placed from here forward.
'New orders placed (as of August 16th) will now be shipping in early 2013.'
The double robot can adjust its height between a sitting and standing mode to ensure you are at eye level with others.
56 new genes that can prevent growth of tumours identified
Scientists claimed to have discovered an entirely new class of 56 genes that may serve as an Achilles' heel for many forms of cancer.
Researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard found 56 genes that didn't cause normal cells to turn cancerous and instead were essential to all cells but get disrupted as cancer progresses.
"One of the hallmarks of cancer is genomic instability, in which entire sections of chromosomes can be lost or duplicated many times over," Rameen Beroukhim, one of the researchers said.
"The result is that genes residing in those areas are either deleted or significantly over-copied," Beroukhim said. This often leads to partial loss of essential genes, leaving cancer cells with barely enough of these genes to survive. Such genes become lifelines for tumour cells.
Blocking them with drug molecules is far more likely to harm cancer cells than normal cells.
"When tumour suppressor genes are lost, it's common for several nearby genes - which play no role in cancer development - to be lost as well," study's co-author William Hahn said.
The study scanned more than 3,100 samples of different types of cancers, and found that most were missing copies of genes across wide stretches of the genome.
They analysed data from Project Achilles, a Dana-Farber research effort that has uncovered genes critical to the reproduction of cancer cells.
Researchers combined both sets of data to find instances where the loss of one copy of a gene rendered the remaining copy especially important to the cancer cell.
From an initial pool of 5,312 genes, researchers identified 56 that met the desired criteria. They dubbed them CYCLOPS genes (for Copy number alterations Yielding Cancer Liabilities Owing to Partial loss).
When the researchers ranked the 56 CYCLOPS genes by the degree to which the cancer cells were dependent on them, the gene that topped the list was PSMC2.
When they administered a PSMC2-blocking agent to mice whose tumours lacked a copy of the PSMC2 gene, the tumours shrank dramatically.
"It was a powerful demonstration of the potential of CYCLOPS genes to serve as targets for cancer therapies," Beroukhim said.
The fact that CYCLOPS genes are often neighbours of tumour suppressor genes makes them even more attractive as drug targets, the study authors said in a statement.
In cancers with missing copies of tumour suppressor genes, blocking nearby CYCLOPS genes offers a promising way to dampen cell proliferation.
The study was published in the journal Cell.
Researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard found 56 genes that didn't cause normal cells to turn cancerous and instead were essential to all cells but get disrupted as cancer progresses.
"One of the hallmarks of cancer is genomic instability, in which entire sections of chromosomes can be lost or duplicated many times over," Rameen Beroukhim, one of the researchers said.
Blocking them with drug molecules is far more likely to harm cancer cells than normal cells.
"When tumour suppressor genes are lost, it's common for several nearby genes - which play no role in cancer development - to be lost as well," study's co-author William Hahn said.
The study scanned more than 3,100 samples of different types of cancers, and found that most were missing copies of genes across wide stretches of the genome.
They analysed data from Project Achilles, a Dana-Farber research effort that has uncovered genes critical to the reproduction of cancer cells.
Researchers combined both sets of data to find instances where the loss of one copy of a gene rendered the remaining copy especially important to the cancer cell.
From an initial pool of 5,312 genes, researchers identified 56 that met the desired criteria. They dubbed them CYCLOPS genes (for Copy number alterations Yielding Cancer Liabilities Owing to Partial loss).
When the researchers ranked the 56 CYCLOPS genes by the degree to which the cancer cells were dependent on them, the gene that topped the list was PSMC2.
When they administered a PSMC2-blocking agent to mice whose tumours lacked a copy of the PSMC2 gene, the tumours shrank dramatically.
"It was a powerful demonstration of the potential of CYCLOPS genes to serve as targets for cancer therapies," Beroukhim said.
The fact that CYCLOPS genes are often neighbours of tumour suppressor genes makes them even more attractive as drug targets, the study authors said in a statement.
In cancers with missing copies of tumour suppressor genes, blocking nearby CYCLOPS genes offers a promising way to dampen cell proliferation.
The study was published in the journal Cell.
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