Sony launches 'purse-sized' laptop

Tech-savvy girls won't have to carry the load of laptop bags anymore, for Sony has launched an ultra-portable "netbook" computer that will fit in any aspiring career woman's purse.

The Vaio P boasts most features found on a laptop, from a webcam and GPS to a built-in 3G modem, allowing users to go online by inserting a mobile phone sim card.

The new netbook is aimed at people who want to surf the Internet, edit documents and check their emails on the go.

In fact, its designers have claimed that it is the lightest eight-inch netbook in the world.

They said it does everything that equivalent models of bigger sizes would do.

And the reviewers said that its keyboard, unlike many other small laptops, is easy to use.

While a basic model is available at 849 pounds, a faster-operating netbook with more memory will cost 1,370 pounds.

However, Joshua Topolsky from the technology website Engadget is not quite sure if many consumers will pay the asking price.

"It simply costs more than other options. A cost which Sony want users to 'aspire' to pay. There are plenty of viable, less expensive options," The Telegraph quoted him as saying. (ANI)


Stumble It!

How Birds Can Down a Jet Airplane

The result of bird striking the jet engine of a Delta MD 11 on Jan 21, 2001. Credit: FAA

Early reports suggest that a bird strike caused a jet plane to crash in the Hudson River near Manhattan today, leaving questions about how a little flying animal could down a big airliner.

More than 200 people have been killed worldwide as a result of wildlife strikes with aircraft since 1988, according to Bird Strike Committee USA, and more than 5,000 bird strikes were reported by the U.S. Air Force in 2007. Bird strikes, or the collision of an aircraft with an airborne bird, tend to happen when aircraft are close to the ground, which means just before landing or after take-off, when jet engines are turning at top speeds.

The incidents are serious particularly when the birds, usually gulls, raptors and geese, are sucked into a jet engine and strike an engine fan blade. That impact displaces the blade such that it strikes another blade and a cascade can occur, resulting in engine failure.

A 12-pound Canada goose striking an aircraft going 150 mph at lift-off generates the force of a 1,000-pound weight dropped from a height of 10 feet, according to Bird Strike Committee USA.

Today's incident, which occurred just after US Airways flight 1549 (an Airbus 320) had taken off with more than 150 passengers and crew members from LaGuardia Airport in New York, en route to Charlotte, N.C., involved a flock of geese, according to CBS News. Reports indicate no deaths or serious injuries as of this writing.

Large aircraft are certified to be able to keep flying after impacting a 4-pound bird, however 36 species of birds in North America weigh more than this, according to the committee. Even smaller birds, such as starlings (which the committee's Web site refers to as "feathered bullets" due to their density), can cause engine failure.

The greater the difference in the speed of the plane and the bird, the greater the force of the impact on the aircraft. The weight of the bird is also a factor, but the speed difference is a much bigger factor.

Flocks of birds are even more dangerous as they can result in multiple strikes.

Delicate birds, delicate aircraft

Dale Oderman, associate professor of aviation technology at Purdue University in Indiana says birds can be very dangerous to aircraft, particularly in the first several thousand feet after take-off, where the birds are flying.

"Obviously, geese or another large bird would be much more hazardous than a little black bird," Oderman said. "The speed at which the two are moving causes the bird to get ingested into the engine. And the engine is very delicate to withstanding a major impact."

He added: "It just shuts the engine down."

Basically, if the birds get too close to the engine's intake, it's like a vacuum — the birds just get sucked in.

"The initial stages of a jet engine are made up of a lot of compressor blades. Those aren't very big and they can be very easily damaged," Oderman told LiveScience. "Even if one of those things breaks off, then the one blade will go through the rest of the engine and it's like shrapnel to the engine."

And in the case of the Hudson River crash, the birds apparently took out both engines.

"Apparently in this particular case it seems both engines were hit. If it was a flock of birds they flew thought it wouldn't be a surprise to me," Oderman said.

Airports, Oderman said, take several precautions to keep planes safe from birds. For instance, they often don't plant many trees nearby, as these are nesting areas for birds. Since La Guardia is right on the water, he noted, there are a lot of water birds around.

Bird strike remains

Bird strikes are on the rise, according to the committee. After a bird strike in the United States, the remains, called snarge, are sent to the Smithsonian Institution’s Feather Identification Laboratory to identify the species, according to Wikipedia.

Bird and other wildlife strikes to aircraft result in more than $600 million in damage a year, according to Bird Strike Committee USA. Five jet airliners have had major accidents involving bird strikes since 1975, the committee says. In one case, about three dozen people died.

NASA worries about bird strikes, too.

During the July 2005 launch of Discovery on mission STS-114, a vulture soaring around the launch pad impacted the shuttle's external tank just after liftoff. With a vulture's average weight ranging from 3 to 5 pounds, a strike at a critical point on the shuttle — like the nose or wing leading thermal protection panels — could cause catastrophic damage to the vehicle.

NASA put safety measures into place in 2005 to reduce the odds of bird strikes with the shuttle. The agency particularly wants to avoid bird strikes to the shuttle's fuel tank that could damage the heat shield during launch and landing.

For instance, NASA has a special during launch countdown where they can stop to wait for birds to pass. And during landing, NASA has a sound cannon that they fire to make sure the runway is clear from birds to make sure shuttle isn't damaged during landing.

Is leaving a cell phone on dangerous to planes?

One of the final hurdles preventing Europeans from chit-chatting on their cell phones while hurtling through Euro airspace has been cleared, as UK regulator Ofcom, has given the OK for cell phones to be used on planes, as long as they're above 3,000 meters. (Many of the other approvals required across Europe have already been granted.)

While the idea of airborne cell phone usage has been a public disaster in the U.S., Europeans seem somewhat warmer to the notion. Perhaps it's the generally shorter flights that tend to dominate Europe, or perhaps it's cultural: Cramped, loud buses and subways tend to be the norm, so the additional noise of a few people on their phones may tend to bother Europeans less than it does their privacy-and-silence-obsessed American counterparts.

Just because Ofcom has signed off, though, that doesn't mean that cell phones will immediately start being whipped out as soon as that 10,000-foot bell chimes en route to Grenoble. It's up to individual airlines now to decide whether they want to offer cell phone in-flight services, and then they have to install the equipment on their planes to make it work. Europe's Aviation Safety Agency also has to approve any new equipment installed on planes (though this is not seen as a major obstacle; all new electronics devices installed on jets have to be approved in this manner). It's also worth noting that no airline has formally applied for permission to offer such services yet, though this is probably just a matter of time.

Of course, in the U.S., no such plans are underway, though those hopeful for getting Internet access while airborne are in for a treat. This week, the FAA approved plans for American Airlines to offer in-flight Wi-Fi service, and that approval can potentially be applied to any U.S. airline that wants to offer the same type of technology (provided by Aircell). No news on a date when such services will be turned on, but many are hoping to have live Wi-Fi rolled out on at least a few planes by the end of the year.

The trains that drive themselves

In 1910, the world's first fully operational driverless railway opened below the streets of Munich. Although the train carried no passenger, only mail for the Post Office, it was hailed as having revolutionary implications for the future of rail travel in general.

Decades later, despite the use of modern technology - closed-circuit televisions to monitor the movement of passengers on both the train and the platform, and microprocessors that can perform all the tasks of a human crew on a conventional train - just 20 passenger-carrying railways around the world use automatic trains and only a few of these are completely unmanned. An attendant is usually on board to control doors, start the train and cope in an emergency.

Why is it that such a labour-saving and therefore economical system has had such little success? Research shows that passengers are reluctant to travel on trains without drivers because they fear they are not safe. But, since the first fully automatic unmanned system was introduced, in Lille, France, in 1983, the indications are that these trains are as safe as - if not safer than - those with drivers. Once an automatic computerised system detects an object on the line, for example, it can operate the emergency brake far faster than the most alert driver.

An electrode for your thoughts!

With a sheet of electrodes placed over the brain, people can quickly learn to move a cursor around a computer screen using their thoughts. Early trials suggest that this new procedure could overtake more established brain-computer interfaces (BCIs).
The two established techniques involve inserting electrodes into the brain or attaching them onto the scalp. These approaches have let people control robotic limbs, steer wheelchairs, type messages and walk in virtual worlds using thought alone. BCIs will one day transform the lives of people with disabilities and neurological disorders affecting their ability to move or communicate, says neuroscientist Gerwin Schalk at the Wadsworth Centre, New York State Department of Health, US.
But which method will be best at doing that is still an open question, he says. "The two established sensor methods have fundamental problems that I think will be difficult to overcome."
Electrodes on the scalp can only detect electrical waves that have passed through the skull, producing a weak signal susceptible to interference from mains electricity and other sources. Electrodes implanted directly into the brain produce much clearer signals, but are not well tolerated by the body. "The brain tries to get rid of the electrodes by covering them with a sheet of tissue," explains Schalk. "The signal degrades over time."
Schalk and colleagues at Albany Medical College, Washington University in St Louis, University of Washington, Seattle, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, think a third approach will face fewer hurdles.
They cover part of the brain's surface with a polymer sheet containing a grid of electrodes 2 mm in diameter and spaced 10 mm apart, a method called electrocorticography (ECOG). Such electrode grids are often placed in people with severe epilepsy to identify the focus of seizures within the brain. "These grids are thin like a sheet of paper," says Schalk. "The electrodes record signals similar to those recorded by electrodes on the scalp, but with much greater fidelity."
In recent experiments, five patients learned to control a computer cursor in two dimensions on a computer screen using their brain signals. All five acquired this skill in less than 30 minutes, a performance similar to those achieved using electrodes implanted directly into the brain, says Schalk. Learning to control a cursor like this using a scalp-recorded methods takes weeks or months, he adds.
In other studies, the researchers have shown it is possible to read a person's hand and finger movements from their brain using these types of electrodes. Dedicated human trials will require electrode grids designed to be implanted permanently. Researchers at Washington University in St Louis are testing new designs -- developed by colleagues at the University of Wisconsin -- in monkeys, says Schalk.
If those studies work out, their goal is to seek approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for human trials. "Ultimately, these electrode grids could be put in place in a minimally invasive procedure," Schalk says.
"Whether electrocortigraphy will become the prime method of choice for clinical BCI research is very open," says Klaus-Robert Müller, who works on scalp-attached EEG brain-computer interfaces at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany.
Achieving 2D control of a cursor within 20 minutes is a significant result, he says, but although simpler than implanting electrodes into the brain, the approach is still invasive.

World's cheapest car 'Tata Nano'.

It's either the start of a people's revolution or the trigger for social and environmental headaches across the globe. The Tata Nano, the world's cheapest car, was unveiled with great fanfare in the Indian capital yesterday amid bright lights and blaring music.
Designed to put a stop to a family of four travelling on a single scooter, the new model from Tata Motors – and more importantly its price tag of £1,277 – should make motoring affordable for a new class of consumer in the developing world. But green activists predict trouble ahead for countries that already have inadequate infrastructures and soaring CO2 emissions.
Tata spent five years making its budget model "people's car", priced at just 100,000 rupees and marketed at India's developing middle class. The company's chairman, Ratan Tata, recalled the scene that had inspired him to build the car. "There was the father driving the scooter, his young kid standing in front of him, his wife seated behind him holding a little baby," he said at the launch. "It led me to wonder whether one could conceive of a safe, affordable, all-weather form of transport for such a family."
Many environmentalists believe the new vehicle, with a price tag half that of India's current cheapest car, will simply clog up already busy and broken roads and add pressure to an infrastructure that is badly buckling. They stress the need to develop efficient, modern and affordable public transport, especially in cities such as Delhi, which now has a new metro system but where the bus service is overloaded and often deadly.
"My first reaction when someone says they need to buy a car is to say don't buy it," said Soumya Brata Rahut, a spokesman for Greenpeace India. "But people are buying cars, I cannot stop them. The revolution in small cars means there will be more and more."
Asked yesterday whether he thought India had adequate infrastructure to handle the hundreds of thousands of new Nanos that Tata hopes to shift when it goes on sale in a few months, Mr Tata said: "I think there definitely needs to be more investment in public transport [and] I think that India does not invest in our infrastructure." But he said such things were not the responsibility of his company.
Tony Bosworth, from Friends of the Earth UK, said: "The Tata Nano makes motoring cheaper and growing car sales in India will lead to big rises in carbon dioxide emissions. This is another blow to efforts to tackle global climate change. But per-person emissions will still be much higher in the West. Our priority must be to increase efforts to cut our own emissions and to show the rest of the world how to develop a low-carbon economy".
Though Mr Tata talked of helping solve the transportation needs of rural Indians with his new car, it seems his vehicle is targeted at the country's newly aspirational middle class which has new buying power as a result of the country's economic growth of 9 per cent per year. The overwhelming majority of India's population of 1.1 billion – more than 800 million of whom survive on less than 50 pence a day – will not be able to afford the car.
And yet while they may realistically only be available to a small percentage of Indians, given the scale of the country's population and a middle class sometimes estimated at more than 200 million, the possibility for sales of such vehicles is huge. It is also likely the car will be available elsewhere in south Asia.
While figures suggest that India has a vehicle density of just seven cars per thousand people, compared with 477 in the US and 373 in the UK, sales are increasing all the time. Although the current fleet numbers only about 10 million, last year saw one million new vehicles registered. In Delhi alone the total was 300,000.
Anumita Roychoudhary, a campaigner with the Centre for Science and Environment, said the Tata car was making driving too affordable and was ignoring the congestion and pollution pressures that such a trend would create.
"To stop that, you have to invest in public transport and you have to increase taxes on cars to reflect the true cost of driving," she said. " At the moment we're caught by a double whammy – the manufacturers are competing to build the cheapest car and we lack the correct public policy."
Tata is not alone in developing new "entry level" cars for the Indian market. This week Bajaj Auto said it hoped to begin production of its small car in two years, possibly in conjunction with Nissan-Renault. The Indian motorcycle firm Hero Group is also said to be working on a mini-car, possibly in conjunction with a Canadian company.
To an inexpert eye, the car itself – driven on to a stage at the 2008 India Auto Expo – looked something like a cross between the Ford Ka and the Smart car.
Mr Tata promised to make a "people's car" at a similar car show five years ago. He claims the media misquoted him over a promise to produce the vehicle for 100,000 rupees. Yet he said that once the purported promise became public, he felt obliged to honour it.

Source : The Independent

Cyber technology to detect online fraudsters

Shopping or carrying out other transactions online may soon be a safer affair, for Iowa State University researchers are developing a cyber technology to track fraudsters.

Yong Guan, Iowa State University's Litton Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, says that his team has already developed a technology that may help online advertising companies like Google and Yahoo reduce "click fraud"--falsely increasing hits to ads posted on Web sites that results in higher costs for pay-per-click advertising.

He and the Iowa State University Research Foundation have filed a patent on this technology.

Guan hopes that his research will one day enable millions of naive Internet users to protect their computers with the latest security patches and safeguards.

"There are a lot of security issues and researchers have worked on them from the early 1980s. And 30 years later we're still working on them. These are hard problems," he says.

Compared to the past few years, he adds, there has been a sea change in the motive for which cyber crimes are conducted nowadays. While hackers used to attack systems for thrill earlier, they do it for money after the advent of electronic commerce these days.

Guan says that all such changes compelled him to take up research into technologies that may make computing more secure, and hold cyber criminals accountable.

One such technology, he says, is digital forensics which may facilitate the extraction of criminal evidence from computers, network hardware, cell phones and other electronic devices.

The work is focused on three projects -- network attack attribution to help investigators find the real origins of cyber criminals and attackers, click fraud detection to protect Internet advertising, and auction fraud technology to quickly identify the people and their accomplices who run bogus Internet auctions.

Wireless security is another field which Guan's team is concerned about.

They are working on three projects aimed at protecting a new secure network-coding model from attacks while it transmits network traffic, developing location-based security systems to allow document viewing only in designated secure rooms, and securing wired and wireless multicasts over the Internet by enabling webcasters to manage and limit access to their content.

Guan is also running a project on Privacy protection to protect the identity of Internet users. This will aid in keeping the identities and medical records of people who use online pharmacies, besides preserving the anonymity of people using an online voting system.

Selecting a Digital Camera

There are various factors that come to mind when buying a digital camera. When you are investing thousands or rupees or dollars or euros for a camera, you want to make sure you don't buy a model that doesn't really suit your purpose or is much too advanced for your requirements. I listed two of a few pointers that may assist you in making the right buying decision.

CCD or CMOS?

CCD (Charged Coupled Device) and CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) are the two types of image sensors used in digital cameras. Cameras with CCD sensors are recommended over CMOS plainly because the image quality is tremendously better in the former. Though CMOS lenses are significantly cheaper to manufacture and easier to implement than CCDs, the difference in image quality is simply passable.

CCD sensor

CMOS sensor

CMOS sensors are extremely portable and require considerably lesser battery power - precisely why their most common application is in webcams and phone cams.

The Megapixel myth

First things first - higher megapixel count is in no way a measure of the quality of your pictures. Quality is determined by the image sensor; megapixel count simply denotes how big your image would be. For any home user who wants to post snapshots on the Internet or print them on a maximum of an A4 size photo paper does not need anything more than a 3-megapixel camera.

Though the megapixel count does not directly relate to image quality. It is noticed that the higher megapixel cameras have more professional features, hence they are generally more expensive.

How To Watch Satellite TV On The Web

Ever wondered how to watch satellite TV on the web? This question could be puzzling for you. You are not alone as many people are searching online for answers to how they can watch satellite TV on the internet or on the web. There are three known ways to do so. This article would take you through and explain the three ways so that you can quickly know the benefits of each way to watch satellite TV on the web are and how they fare overall.

Satellite TV Online Streaming

This is the first way to watch satellite TV on the web. There are websites such as BeeLine.com and Live-Online-TV.com that offer free TV for you. Satellite TV stations have taken their broadcasting online and you can have LIVE streaming video from some of these online web resources. In fact, it is not new for some TV viewers. While the channels available can fall within the range of hundreds, not all channels are viewer-worthy. At the same time, the stream of TV can be really slow because thousands of people are watching satellite TV on the web simultaneously. Some websites tend to be slow when they are taxed heavily on their server resources.

PCTV Cards

Using PCTV cards to watch satellite TV on the web is yet another method. It is not exactly new as this way to watch TV online has been around for a few years now. PCTV cards are cool and in most cases easy to install if you buy the external hardware. These cards come in both external and internal hardware versions. The external is a plug-and-play device that is connected to the USB port whereas the internal card requires a bit of technical know-how. You also need to be familiar with your PC components as it requires you to dismantle your computer and physically fix it within your CPU hard casing. PCTV cards are able to deliver a few hundred programs and the picture and sound quality are known to be good. However, getting such cards to watch satellite TV on the web is not cheap and can easily set you back by two to three hundred dollars.

PC Satellite TV Software

The third way to watch satellite TV on the web is somewhat revolutionary and is the latest development in satellite TV technology. PC satellite TV software is what people call software that allows you to watch satellite TV on the PC using web. Just like any other piece of software application, all you need to do is downloading and install it onto your computer. After that, click on a few buttons and start your search for a desired program of your choice. Of course, what comes next is you can sit back, relax and watch satellite TV on the web. It delivers more than a thousand channels from worldwide TV stations. Programs listed cover LIVE sports channels, TV and radio news, movies, TV shows, music videos, cartoons, foreign programs and more. Each piece of software costs no more than $50.

A quick comparison is made between the three methods to watch satellite TV on the web. The winner goes to PC satellite TV software. Granted that you can get free TV from online streaming, you have to contend with the inconsistent delivery of channels and poorer TV quality. PCTV cards still work well but are quickly losing out to PC satellite TV software in terms of program variety and pricing. It is little wonder why it is the favorite among TV viewers who want to catch a good TV program on the web.

Discover through author's free satellite TV mini-series how you can make use of new PC satellite TV technology to watch satellite TV on the web around-the-clock for free.

Davion is a great fan of TV shows. Sign up for his Free Satellite TV Guide for instant quick tips on how to watch satellite TV on PC, tuning into hundreds of LIVE channels of sports, news, movies and kids program without monthly subscriptions. Also read his popular lens on how to watch satellite TV on PC instantly for pennies.

Original Author : Davion Wong

Smart Jewellery

The diamond ring of the future will radiate its unique beauty—quite literally—thanks to a minuscule radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip embedded in it. Scientists at Hitachi Research Labs in Japan have devised the smallest RFID tag ever, just 0.05 millimeter by 0.05 millimeter, tinier than a grain of sand. The so-called powder chip is thin enough that it can be mixed with paper pulp to add a layer of counterfeit protection to gift certificates, passports and currency. It's also caught the interest of the jewelry industry, which could invisibly embed the chip in rings and necklaces to track their origins, making them more difficult to sell illegally.

Each chip stores a unique 38-digit ID number. When stimulated by an RFID reader, the chip emits its code, verifying its identity. The code is integrated into the chip's circuitry, making counterfeiting impossible.

Hitachi unveiled the chip in February and plans to take it to market in 2009. Wal-Mart might be one of the first retailers to debut the radio dust: The big-box store is pushing RFID technology forward to get your deodorant, bagels and T-shirts from factory to aisle faster.

Source : Popular Science Photo Courtesy : Hitachi

Brain with hands

Forget the clicker: A new technology in Japan could let you control electronic devices without lifting a finger simply by reading brain activity.

The "brain-machine interface" developed by Hitachi Inc. analyzes slight changes in the brain's blood flow and translates brain motion into electric signals.

A cap connects by optical fibers to a mapping device, which links, in turn, to a toy train set via a control computer and motor during one recent demonstration at Hitachi's Advanced Research Laboratory in Hatoyama, just outside Tokyo.

"Take a deep breath and relax," said Kei Utsugi, a researcher, while demonstrating the device on Wednesday.

At his prompting, a reporter did simple calculations in her head, and the train sprang forward _ apparently indicating activity in the brain's frontal cortex, which handles problem solving.

Activating that region of the brain _ by doing sums or singing a song _ is what makes the train run, according to Utsugi. When one stops the calculations, the train stops, too.
Underlying Hitachi's brain-machine interface is a technology called optical topography, which sends a small amount of infrared light through the brain's surface to map out changes in blood flow.

Although brain-machine interface technology has traditionally focused on medical uses, makers like Hitachi and Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co. have been racing to refine the technology for commercial application.

Hitachi's scientists are set to develop a brain TV remote controller letting users turn a TV on and off or switch channels by only thinking.

Honda, whose interface monitors the brain with an MRI machine like those used in hospitals, is keen to apply the interface to intelligent, next-generation automobiles.
The technology could one day replace remote controls and keyboards and perhaps help disabled people operate electric wheelchairs, beds or artificial limbs.

Initial uses would be helping people with paralyzing diseases communicate even after they have lost all control of their muscles.

Since 2005, Hitachi has sold a device based on optical topography that monitors brain activity in paralyzed patients so they can answer simple questions _ for example, by doing mental calculations to indicate "yes" or thinking of nothing in particular to indicate "no."

"We are thinking of various kinds of applications," project leader Hideaki Koizumi said. "Locked-in patients can speak to other people by using this kind of brain machine interface."
A key advantage to Hitachi's technology is that sensors don't have to physically enter the brain. Earlier technologies developed by U.S. companies like Neural Signals Inc. required implanting a chip under the skull.

Still, major stumbling blocks remain.

Size is one issue, though Hitachi has developed a prototype compact headband and mapping machine that together weigh only about two pounds.

Another would be to tweak the interface to more accurately pick up on the correct signals while ignoring background brain activity.

Any brain-machine interface device for widespread use would be "a little further down the road," Koizumi said.

He added, however, that the technology is entertaining in itself and could easily be applied to toys.

"It's really fun to move a model train just by thinking," he said.

Creepy-Crawly Robot To Mend A Broken Heart

A device that sounds like a 21st-century version of a medicinal leech may soon be set loose inside the chests of heart patients. Resembling a robotic caterpillar, it will crawl across the surface of their beating heart, delivering treatment without the need for major surgery.

The device, called HeartLander, can be inserted using minimally invasive keyhole surgery. Once in place, it will attach itself to the heart and begin inching its way across the outside of the organ, injecting drugs or attaching medical devices. In tests on live pigs, the HeartLander has fitted pacemaker leads and injected dye into the heart.

The 20-millimetre-long robot has two suckers for feet, each pierced with 20 holes connected to a vacuum line, which hold it onto the outside of the heart. By moving its two body segments back and forth relative to one another it can crawl across the heart at up to 18 centimetres per minute. This back-and-forth movement is generated by pushing and pulling wires that run back to motors outside the patient's body. The robot is being developed by Cameron Riviere and colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The plan is to insert the HeartLander through an incision below the ribcage, and pass it through a further incision in the membrane that encloses the heart. Surgeons keep track of the device using X-ray video or a magnetic tracker, and control its movements via a joystick.

Traditional open-heart surgery requires a massive incision, and the heart usually has to be stopped to make it easier to operate safely. Though minimally invasive procedures on a beating heart are sometimes possible, some areas of the heart are out of reach to instruments inserted through the keyhole incisions, and the limited space in the chest cavity makes operating difficult.
"HeartLander can reach all parts of the heart's surface," Riviere says. And because it is stationary relative to the heart's surface, there is no need to interfere with the organ's movement.

Entering the body from a single small incision could even allow some heart procedures to be performed without a general anaesthetic, he says. "It avoids having to disturb the ribcage, or to deflate the left lung to access the heart."

"This device is certainly like nothing else I've seen," says Andrew Rankin, a cardiologist at the University of Glasgow in the UK. Many procedures can be performed by passing instruments into the heart through blood vessels, but this is not possible where damaged or diseased tissue is close to the heart's surface. "This device could be useful in those cases," Rankin says.

He suggests it might come into its own for future treatments such as stem cell therapies to encourage regeneration of heart tissue. "You can imagine this device moving around the surface of a scarred heart to deliver treatments."

The researchers are now working on adding a radio-frequency probe to the device, to treat arrhythmias by selectively killing malfunctioning heart tissue. They also plan to add a camera.

Source : New Scientist

At The Flick Of The Switch

The English chemist Humphry Davy demonstrated that electricity could be used to heat metal strips and make them glow in 1801, but electric lighting was not a possibility for householders until much later. In 1878 the English physicist Joseph Swan ran electricity through a carbon filament encased in a glass bulb from which the air had been evacuated, and produced an incandescent light that lasted for several hours. The following year the American inventor Thomas Edison created a light that burned for a couple of days. Honours for the first practical electric light went to Edison.

When electric lights were first installed in hotels and public places in the 1900s, notices were needed to remind people not to light them with a match.