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Rehearsal Joypads Link Matthew Irvine Brown's Rehearsal Joypads began as a response to the marketing of entry-level music software, such as Apple's Garageband, sold using slogans such as "don’t worry about your musical talent — or lack thereof". However, natural aptitude is only one contributing factor to being good at music; others being dedication, patience, stamina, dexterity, etc. According to Brown, technology is unlikely to make much of a difference. In the Rehearsal Joypads the usual controller interface of video game controllers has been replaced by that of a musical instrument. Intended as a product to help learn a specific skill needed to play a real instrument, they have been designed as motivational aids for beginner musicians facing the problems associated with not practicing enough. [ permanent link to this entry ]
Mothers of the Future May be Older... Much Older Link Research unveiled at the 22nd annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Prague gives hope to women who want to freeze their eggs for later fertilization, perhaps decades down the road. Using the new technique, called Cryotop, eggs have a 90% survival rate, yield a pregnancy rate of 42%. The process prevents formation of ice crystals that can damage eggs. Until now, freezing of unfertilized eggs has been a trickier process than freezing of sperm or embryos. But techniques such as Cryotop will provide new options to women who want to preserve their eggs for later fertilization. The entire process of in vitro fertilization (IVF) adds a new wrinkle to the birth process, and the differences between our physiology and modern society. IVF is popular because women increasingly want to delay childbirth until they are financially stable and otherwise in a good position to start a family. Yet this might not occur until relatively late in life - and with increasing lifespans, women might choose to wait to have children until their 50s, 60s or even later. This, of course, conflicts with the way that the human body has evolved over the last 150,000 years. Until about 100 years ago, women's peak childbearing years were in their teens and early 20s; after that, with lowered fertility, they could help their daughters raise their children, and relatively few women lived long past menopause. Therefore, infertility had a social benefit, and post-menopause was a rare and unnatural condition. As our notions of aging and childbirth change, so will our expected timeline for starting a family. A possible future scenario being that people might have multiple families at different times in their lives. Another might be that one's "youth" (teen years through their 30s) will be devoted to self-fulfillment, with marriage and childbirth reserved for what we today consider to be "midlife." [ permanent link to this entry ]
Beetle Inspiration For Moisture Collection Material Link The material combines a superhydrophobic (water-repelling) surface with superhydrophilic (water-attracting) bumps that trap water droplets and control water flow. Potential applications for the new material include harvesting water, making a lab on a chip (for diagnostics and DNA screening) and creating microfluidic devices and cooling devices. The U.S. military has also expressed interest in using the material as a self-decontaminating surface that could channel and collect harmful substances. [ permanent link to this entry ]
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