NEWS : TECH (NFPC)

Baby Jumper Could Prevent Crib Death

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is every new parent's worst nightmare. To keep a close eye on a sleeping baby, some parents rely on a two-way baby monitor or move the crib into mommy and daddy's room. Others stay awake all night worrying and periodically checking on their infant.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration in Berlin propose a different solution: a suit that monitors a baby's breathing.

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It looks like an ordinary “onesie” or “romper suit” but with a major difference: it has commercially available sensors integrated into the cloth. The circuit board for the sensors is printed on polyurethane, which is flexible, stretchable and comfortable for the child. The polyurethane circuit board is contained in a fabric cover that can be removed so that the jumper can be washed separately. 

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The sensors monitor the movement of the chest and stomach by checking both the distance between two points on the chest and responding to strain. If there is a problem -- if the rhythm of breathing or number of breaths is wrong -- it will sound an alarm. It isn't clear what kind of alarm would sound yet; current proposals are for some kind of visual and auditory alert. It's easy to imagine a wireless system firing off a signal to a smartphone.

The circuits themselves are made of ordinary materials and don’t need any specialized manufacturing methods, so the costs can be kept down. Since the electronics are mounted on the polyurethane sheets  rather than being stitched into the fabric, it’s easier to place the components exactly where they need to be on the circuit board.

The idea is similar the Exmobaby suit that appeared early in 2012. The difference is the use of flexible electronics and that the Exmobaby’s ad copy says it’s designed to track emotional states, not operate as a true medical device.

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There are still challenges to mass-producing the suit. One is that polyurethane tends to change shape during the manufacturing process. Even so a number of companies are testing out ways to build them cheaply. 

Baby safety isn’t the only idea the Fraunhofer scientists came up with for their flexible electronics: they also looked at how to make pressure bandages that tell doctors and nurses where the best place to put them is, and even a bandage that can monitor the health of kidneys.

Via Fraunhofer Institute

Credit: Fraunhofer Institute / VERHAERT Masters in Innovation

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A Way for Buildings to Sweat, Cool on Hot Days

Sweating is a strategy used by many animals, including humans, to cool off without expending loads of energy. So why not do the same for buildings?

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, led by Aline Rotzetter, have developed a special polymer that soaks up water in the rain and "sweats" when it gets warm. The evaporating water works to cool the house, eliminating a lot of the work of an air conditioner and saving energy in the process.

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The polymer is called Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide, or PNIPAM. It is made into a mat and covered by a membrane that allows water to soak through it. When it rains, the mat acts like a sponge, soaking up water. But put it in direct sunlight at a temperature of 32 degrees Centigrade (89.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and it shrinks while taking on hydrophobic properties, squeezing the water out, essentially sweating.

The mats were tested on small, model houses -- the size of those used on model train sets -- and was able to cool more efficiently than conventional polymers. It also insulated the houses so that they heated up more slowly.

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The next step is to test the mats in the cold -- it is not clear yet how they might react to being frozen. Even so, if it can be made on a large scale such mats would be useful for people who live in rainy, tropical areas where there is a lot of rain and heat, and where air conditioning is expensive to install.

The research was published online in the journal Advanced Materials.  

via: ETH

Credit: Aline Rotzetter / Advanced Materials

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Bulletproof Vests Get A.C.

Bulletproof vests stop bullets, but not sweat. That can cause overheating for anyone wearing the vests. But now a new kind of vest, which has cooling pads and fans, could reduce dangerous overheating and make bulletproof vests more comfortable, especially in hot weather. Soldiers and police officers could see improved performance as a result.

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The vest was designed by Empa, a Swiss research institute. It has an integrated cooling system based on a technology called Coolpad, originally designed for use in cooling garments used in medicine. The pads built into the vest are filled with water. The water evaporates through a membrane, which cools the person in the vest the same way sweat does. To get additional cooling, a miniature fan blows air through a fabric spacer behind the pad. 

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A big challenge was that the fabric spacer needed both to be able to handle pressure and to be flexible and soft. It also had to allow air to flow. Another concern was the fans -- there were no fans small enough to fit inside the vest. On top of that the water in the cooling pads leaked. 

The fabric spacer was designed in partnership with a Swiss textile manufacturer. The engineers at Empa ended up designing the fans themselves, as well as the control electronics and the batteries. Fixing the water-filled pads required welding them with diode lasers.

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The vest can be resupplied with water and fresh fan units (the fans and rechargeable batteries are single units). The water is refilled with a quick-release valve. The vest can provide cooling for three to four hours.

The Zurich City police force tested the vest during several warm summer days and declared it a success. The first of them will be made by Unico Swiss Tex GmbH. But bulletproof vests aren't the only use of this technology;it could also be used for protective suits worn over normal clothing, camouflage suits and even for small backpacks, and there is already development work being done.

Credit: Empa

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Paper Laptops: Sturdy as Plastic

Laptops fill landfills, it's a fact. But what if there was one made of recycled material, and it was paper?

That may be the future if PEGA D&E, a Chinese design consultancy, has its way. The idea is to make a laptop shell -– the part that's usually made of non-recyclable ABS plastic -- out of a paper substance called Paper PP Alloy, a combination of recycled paper and polypropylene. Polypropylene is the same plastic used in some furniture and food containers (it's popular for the latter because it can go in a hot dishwasher without melting).

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The paper and plastic are joined in a composite but not mixed like a metal alloy. PEGA says the Paper PP Alloy is just as strong as ABS, and it can even be injection-molded.

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PEGA has thrown out laptop designs before, one inspired by Italian furniture, which exposes some of the metal frame to reduce the amount of plastic used. PEGA has also designed laptops using bamboo and cellulose acetate.

Both the paper and the plastic in the composite are recyclable -- polypropylene has the "5" symbol you see on containers – so this could end up being the way to go for laptop manufacturers, especially as it doesn't require any new fabrication methods.

Image: PEGA D&E

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Cheese-Inspired Plastic Wrap Cleans Itself

Cheese just got even more awesome. Inspired by the way rinds work, bioengineers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology cooked up a living, functional plastic wrap-like material made with cheese fungus that actually cleans itself.

Cheese rinds have the special ability to protect a tasty interior while simultaneously helping it ripen. Swiss researchers leveraged this knowledge to create a unique "living material." They took a thin plastic sheet and spread it with a fungus mixture made from Penicillium roqueforti, best known for making blue cheese blue.

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A porous plastic membrane was then pressed over the top to complete the thin sandwich, according to a German description of it from the Institute. The pores were tiny enough to keep the fungus in the middle layer but wide enough to let in liquids.

When the researchers dropped a sugary solution on the material, the fungus ate it all up and then went back to being dormant. As long as the material stayed moist and didn't dry out, it kept working, one of the researchers told the Globe & Mail.

The group, led by associate professor of chemical and bioengineering Wendelin Stark and PhD student Lukas Gerber, published an article about the material this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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The researchers say the material could still work after being rubbed with alcohol disinfectant as well as following a soapy scrubbing. Although their fungus wrap was prepared as a conceptual design, Gerber told Globe & Mail reporter Tu Thanh Ha that he envisions the fungi eventually being used to make antimicrobial fabrics that activate only when certain germs are present.

"Composites of classical industrial ingredients and living microorganisms can provide a novel form of functional or smart materials," the researchers wrote in PNAS. Not too shabby for a cheese mold.

Image: Max Straeten

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Top 10 Accidental Inventions

A chest x-ray of a person with a pacemaker. (Source: Don Farrall/Getty Images)

In honor of the show "JUNKies" the Science Channel is celebrating the other side of science –- the, um, not so scientific kind –- the unplanned kind. They've counted down the Top 10 Accidental Inventions of all time. It's a good reminder of the cruel world of scientific invention, but also a good reminder that life-changing science can happen to any of us, anytime, anywhere.

Forget the inventors who spend their entire lives experimenting, tinkering and building contraptions. They methodically pour over data and test hypotheses. They work in goggles and lab coats.  They dedicate their lives to a scientific pursuit. Then there are the other guys…

Isn't it time we celebrated the scientists that won the invention lottery?

While some of us forget to wash our hands before dinner and then get E. coli, these are the inventors who forget to wash their hands at dinner and discover the key to artificial sweeteners.

Not to say that some of these inventors didn't work hard, but for some of them laziness -- or unfortunate accidents -- actually made them a fortune.

And while the Science Channel calls these "accidental inventions," perhaps it's not giving enough credit where credit is due.  Louis Pasteur was certainly not referring to accidental inventions when he said, "Did you ever observe to whom the accidents happen? Chance favors only the prepared mind." But in this context, perhaps the "mind" -- prepared or not -- should still be given credit for making the best of the "accident."

It's just so much more fun, though, to think of it as pure accident, that it could happen to any of us. So the next time you accidentally explode your homework or feel too lazy to clean up your lab, remember it’s not the end of the world. In fact, you may have just cured cancer -- by accident.

See the entire list of Top 10 Accidental Inventions here.

Spinal Disc Implants Help Fight Back Pain

In what is surely to elicit sighs of relief from the millions of people who suffer from lower back and neck pain, a more permanent solution in spinal disc implants has arrived.

Engineers at Cornell University and doctors at the Weill Cornell Medical College have developed oxymoronic 'living' artificial discs that outperform current implants used in discectomies, a surgery where damaged spinal discs are removed.

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Current disc implants are made from a combination of metal and plastic, and often deteriorate over time. The new artificial discs are made out of two polymers -- collagen, which wraps around the outside of the disc like a tire and a hydrogel called alginate in the middle that helps bear weight, just like real discs.

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The clincher, however, is that the Cornell researchers planted cells in the new implants that germinate new tissue. Due to the growth of cells, the team found the new implants got better as they matured in the body.

"Our implants have maintained 70 to 80 percent of initial disc height. In fact, the mechanical properties get better with time," says Lawrence Bonassar, Ph.D., in a Cornell news release. Bonassar is associate professor of biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering at Cornell.

Roger Hartl, M.D., associate professor of neurosurgery at Weill Cornell Medical College and chief of spinal surgery at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center says the news discs are superior to traditional discs due to their ability to integrate with the vertebrae.

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"Bone or metal or plastic implants are complicated structures which come with a mechanical risk of the structures moving around, or debris from the metal or plastic particles accumulating in the body from wear and tear," he says.

Furthermore, Hartl says discectomies would become less invasive, safer and see a reduction in long-term side effects.

[Via GizMag]

Photo: Stephen Simpson/Getty Images

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Titanium Straw Out-Muscles All Others

Titanium Straw: $14.99

We've all experienced the horrors of the wimpy plastic straw: Too weak to penetrate the juice box; too flimsy for anything but the most mundane cold beverage; too prone to cracks, leaks and other unsightly embarrassments. The solution? That's right, it's the Titanium Straw, very likely the last straw you'll ever need to buy.

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For those of us who weren't already aware, titanium -- none other than the metal of the gods -- is not only tasteless, odorless and corrosion-resistant, but it also possesses low thermal conductivity, meaning that it won't get too hot or too cold. Take note, Goldilocks! Perhaps even better, it's very lightweight and yet strong enough to be stabbed straight into an orange in a single bound, according to ThinkGeek, its trusty purveyor. (That feat and more are actually demonstrated on this video.) The dishwasher-safe innovation measures about 7 inches tall; get one for yourself and “juice boxes will shudder and beverages everywhere will quake in fear,” ThinkGeek predicts. Who can resist a prospect like that?

Credit: ThinkGeek

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Take Your Cellphone or iPad Underwater

aLoksak IT: Starting at $6.49 per three-pack

On a summer outing, the clean air, warm sand and cool water may be refreshing for you, but they're certainly no day at the beach for your devices. Those elements spell potential disaster for the phone, e-reader and tablet you choose to bring along. Putting them in an aLoksak allows you not only to store your devices safely, but also still use them -- touch screen and all, even when swimming or scuba diving. Constructed using FDA-approved medical-grade film, these recyclable polyethylene bags are also good for protecting money, food, documents, batteries, medications, keyless entry devices and other items from air, dust and moisture.

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Make no mistake, though: these bags are tough. They've been tested by the U.S. Navy Experimental Diving Unit team and certified waterproof to 200 feet by Scuba Schools International (formerly NASDS). And they're temperature rated from negative 40 degrees to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Size-wise, the super baggies are available in a wide range, from 3 by 6 inches to 32 by 16 inches.

Credit: Loksak

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Bend Lego Bricks, Learn Some Geometry

Is this art? Is it math? Or is it just a toy? It may be tough to tell from the photos of these elaborate geometric sculptures, but they're built from something you probably have in your home right now: Lego bricks.

In a world of Nintendo Wii's and Xbox Kinects, Lego bricks, with their lack of electric inputs and stationary nature, seem, well, a bit out-dated. But you might be surprised to learn there's still something new that can be done with them. That's if you're willing to refresh your math skills and bend the rules a little -- or a lot -- and follow the teachings of Jeff Sanders, of Portland, Ore.

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Recently featured in Wired’s Geek Dad blog, Sanders has dubbed his combination of Lego blocks and mathematics "brickbending." He describes it on his blog as "a construction technique used to transform regular old rectangular Lego bricks into smooth, curved geometrical shapes. There's no heating, melting or gluing involved, and although they show a little wear for the experience, your Lego bricks will come through the process intact."

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That's right, with some bricks and a little non-Euclidean geometry knowledge, you can be on your way to building these part-toy, part-math lesson sculptures at home.

A software consultant by day and devoted dad by night and day, Sanders began his Lego brick creations by accident last summer, while on a Lego bender (pun intended) with his daughters, now 6 and 9 years old.

“I just started putting pieces together and found that they had a little bit of flex,” Sanders told Discovery News. “And then I thought, ‘That’s really awesome.’”

Since that first Lego brick circle -- which served as a corral for his daughters’ toy cows -- the designs have gotten bigger and more complicated.

The slight bendability of the small 1x2 and 1x3 bricks, combined with mathematical principles, has allowed Sanders to keep building up and out with his designs. Right now, the largest, a “sunflower,” (pictured below) is made of more than 1,800 bricks.

Sanders speculates that his brickbending designs are the by-product of a once-started-but-never-finished master’s degree in math education.

“I’ve always been a visual thinker -- I loved the graphs, parametric equations, graphing a function, sending it through time, watch it grow,” said Sanders, adding, “But, theoretical math, that’s out of my comprehension.”

He recalls the day he decided that a life devoted to math wasn’t for him: “The teacher told a (math) joke and everyone laughed but me.”

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Sanders may not have had excelled at math in the classroom, but his playtime tells a different story.

While having trouble working on one particular Lego spiral, he sat down and drew on paper what he was trying to do.

“When I mapped out what it was and I saw the proportions grow at a very specific ratio: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, the Fibonacci sequence -- it all just kind of clicked,” said Sanders. “It was first time it had actually really made sense.”

Now Sanders is hoping to bring that same revelation to kids and adults across the world. The only thing standing in his way is his lack of Lego bricks; he needs thousands of them and a camera.

The Kickstarter project, featured by "Wired," is an attempt to bring instructional videos to YouTube so that anyone, anywhere can bend Lego -- and of course learn something, too.

“It’s a children’s toy; it’s something a lot of people really love, and this is a way to smuggle in math and science that’s really engaging,” said Sanders.

There's just one warning Sanders, as a cautious dad, wants to share with his brickbending followers: "The bricks are sometimes under an enormous amount of pressure and can explode; and they could pop you in the forehead or eye."

So please, brickbend with caution as you set out to create some of your own mathematical Lego sculptures. If you need ideas or direction, you can go to Sander's Brickbending Blog.

Photos courtesy of Jeff Sanders