kathleen forden

A startup company is taking a customized approach to knee replacement surgery, creating knee implants on demand that exactly match a patient’s anatomy. The company, ConforMIS, based in Burlington, MA, is bringing the technology of rapid prototyping, which converts a three-dimensional computer design into a physical object, into the field of orthopedics. The company believes that such custom-made implants can make knee replacement surgery faster, more accurate, and less traumatic to the patient.

Customized knees: A depiction of a knee implant designed to cover one part of the knee joint. Credit: ConforMIS

Multimedia Watch how a customized knee implant is made.

Knee replacement surgery repairs damage and relieves pain in patients with severe osteoarthritis or knee injury. Total knee replacement involves removing diseased cartilage and bone from the surfaces of the knee joint–the thigh bone, shin bone, and kneecap–and replacing them with an artificial joint made from a combination of metal and plastic. A partial knee replacement can also be performed on one part of the joint.

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/22988/

Radiolaria Pavilion: Printed scale model sandstone structure

3-D printing may soon expand beyond the small scale. In 2010, the world’s largest 3-D printer will build the Radiolaria Pavilion, a 10-meter-tall structure in Pontedera, Italy. Made out of sandstone, the building will be printed one 5-10mm layered sheet at a time.

The thin layers of the structure are held together by an inorganic binder, not the normal steel reinforcements that most buildings have. This allows for strength and design freedom not available before. The structure was designed using CAD/CAM software and then exported directly to the printer. Once printed, it only takes about 24 hours for the material to fully set. The process is also pretty environmentally sound, and if any of the building material remains unused, it can be recycled.

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-06/print-out-your-next-building

Sports drinks getting a run for their money

NASA scientists developed an electrolyte formula that is now available for weekend warriors and athletes here on Earth. The formula is a concentrated liquid that when mixed with water quickly restores hydration and prevents fluid loss. NASA scientists developed an electrolyte formula that is now available for weekend warriors and athletes here on Earth. The formula is a concentrated liquid that when mixed with water quickly restores hydration and prevents fluid loss.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090630-st-nasa-sports-drink.html

I love this video of Malcom Gladwell talking about Howard Moskowitz and reinventing Spaghetti Sauce and changing the way we understand the “Sweet Spot”

its here don’t let anyone tell you it’s not

the semantic web is the next evolutionary development of the Internet , the father

it’s about connecting data not files and about deriving meaning from content and then making connections where there have been none before

it’s about sharing your data across networks of sites that share a basic id to you and pull the data you allow to have all your favorite applications together

it’s about taking the subject and type of content of a page you are on and and using data openness and followers recommendations to make your experience smarter

Image credit: command line tee - flickr user pixelfrenzy

Search and Rescue: 6 Approaches to Semantic Data Collection

Powerset

Cuil

Hakia

Worio

Ubiquity

Semanti

To expand the consciousness of it viewers by showing them what goes on in a world wide scale through use of high resolution time-lapse cinematography and precise time-remapping.

As it takes the viewer on a magical journey through time on earth, it will provide an honest depiction of life on earth where the viewer can access the beauty of nature like it’s never been seen. We hope that people will be inspired by the majesty of the world and will take action to save our precious resources so that future generations can usher in a higher way of living and consciousness.

Carry Small, Live Large

Intel Labs showed off 45 research projects at its research day event yesterday — projects that ran the gamut from energy efficiency to digital living room applications. We’ve already written about the linked virtual worlds for scientists and the Dispute Finder plug-in that highlights disputed facts in stories. Here’s a handful of other interesting projects the company showed off.

1.  cut the amount of bandwidth consumed by voice-over-Internet protocol (VOIP) calls on a WiMax network

2.   promote netbooks – Carry Small, Live Large

3.   making computers more trustworthy

4.   encrypted Wi-Fi

5.   Privacy Scope

6.   improving speech recognition accuracy by combining it with face recognition

7.   Cable Beach is aimed at allowing users to log into a variety of virtual worlds and online games without re-entering all of their identity data or credit card information

http://digital.venturebeat.com/2009/06/19/intels-most-interesting-new-research-ideas/

Ice Age Trigger

A series of cataclysmic volcanic eruptions gave the planet its polar ice caps, and kicked the ancient climate into a freeze-thaw cycle of ice ages that persists to this day, according to a new theory….

….Steven Cather of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and a team of researchers now think they know why. They argue that a series of massive volcanic eruptions spanning nearly all of present-day Mexico, as well as parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Idaho launched vast amounts of ash into the atmosphere.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/06/19/eruptions-ice-age.html