Science Tech Updates

New Glove-like Device Mimics Sense of Touch

September 10, 2020, Physics, Technology/Electronics

A diagram shows how the new finger sensor device works — This diagram illustrates how the new soft skin stretch device (SSD), developed by UNSW Engineering researchers, works. Image: UNSW Engineering

Engineers have invented a soft wearable device which simulates the sense of touch and has wide potential for medical, industrial and entertainment applications. What if you could touch a loved one during a video call — particularly in today’s social distancing era of COVID-19 — or pick up and handle a virtual tool in a video game?

Pending user tests and funding to commercialise the new technology, these ideas could become reality in a couple of years after UNSW Sydney engineers developed a new haptic device which recreates the sense of touch.

Haptic technology mimics the experience of touch by stimulating localised areas of the skin in way...

Australian Telescope finds No Signs of Alien Technology in 10 Million Star Systems

September 10, 2020, Astronomy/Space

Dipole antennas of the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) radio telescope in Mid West Western Australia. Credit: Dragonfly Media.

A radio telescope in outback Western Australia has completed the deepest and broadest search at low frequencies for alien technologies, scanning a patch of sky known to include at least 10 million stars. Astronomers used the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope to explore hundreds of times more broadly than any previous search for extraterrestrial life.

The study, published today in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, observed the sky around the Vela constellation. But in this part of the Universe at least, it appears other civilisations are elusive, if they exist.

The research was conducted by CSIRO astronomer Dr Chenoa Tremblay a...

Linking Calorie Restriction, Body Temperature and Healthspan

September 9, 2020, Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

**Metabolic adaptation to calorie restriction**. *Science Signaling*, 2020; 13 (648): eabb2490 DOI: 10.1126/scisignal.abb2490

Cutting calories significantly may not be an easy task for most, but it’s tied to a host of health benefits ranging from longer lifespan to a much lower chance of developing cancer, heart disease, diabetes and neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s.

A new study from teams led by Scripps Research Professors Bruno Conti, PhD, and Gary Siuzdak, PhD, illuminates the critical role that body temperature plays in realizing these diet-induced health benefits. Through their findings, the scientists pave the way toward creating a medicinal compound that imitates the valuable effects of reduced body temperature.

The research appears in Science Signaling.

Conti has spent...