Could Roaches one day HELP us?

North Carolina State Univ. researchers are using video game technology to remotely control cockroaches on autopilot, with a computer steering the cockroach through a controlled environment. The researchers are using the technology to track how roaches respond to the remote control, with the goal of developing ways that roaches on autopilot can be used to map dynamic environments.

R&D Daily June 25, 2013.

"By rerouting the metabolic pathway that makes fatty acids in E. coli bacteria, researchers at Harvard University have devised a new way to produce a gasoline-like biofuel. According to the scientists, who are tweaking metabolic pathways in bacteria, new lines of engineered bacteria can tailor-make key precursors of high-octane biofuels that could one day replace gasoline."

R&D Daily 25, 2013

Nanosensors that "reset" themselves.

Imagine a swarm of tiny devices only a few hundred nanometers in size that can detect trace amounts of toxins in a water supply or the very earliest signs of cancer in the blood. Now imagine that these tiny sensors can reset themselves, allowing for repeated use over time inside a body of water-or a human body. In a recent Yale Univ. breakthrough, this has become a reality.

The R&D Daily June 24 2013.

New method 700 times faster at magnifying digital images

"A computer engineer in Spain has been developing new image thresholding algorithms to greatly speed the process of image magnification without compromising image quality. Images transferred over the Internet are often reduced; restoring them to their former quality requires complex mathematical routines, many of which are time-consuming. The faster algorithm could affect a wide variety of imaging routines, such fingerprints or MRI scans."

http://www.rdmag.com/news/2013/06/new-method-700-times-faster-magnifying-digital-images?et_cid=3327059&et_rid=381664800&type=headline