Doctors find a way to deliver drugs straight to your brain

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a marvelous piece of evolutionary engineering designed to keep the inside of your skull pristinely clean by segregating the nervous and circulatory systems. The downside to this nearly impermeable membrane is that it is as adept at blocking therapeutic molecules as it is against harmful chemicals and microbes. However, a team from Canada’s National Research Council (NRC) believe they’ve finally found the key that unlocks the body’s Fort Knox. They’re called “single domain antibodies” (SDA) — molecular fragments capable of binding to larger molecules — and they reportedly trick the BBB into thinking that most any molecule they’re attached to is copacetic. So instead of having to wrap disease fighting medicines in carrier molecules like microscopic Trojan Horses, as has been the preferred method for the past two decades, these single domain antibodies act more like molecular security badges instead.

Developed as part of the NRC’s Therapeutics Beyond Brain Barriers (TBBB) program, “It really opens the possibilities to use many different types of therapeutics for different diseases that we couldn’t really use before unless we inject them directly into the brain which is highly invasive,” Dr. Danica Stanimirovic, TBBB’s scientific lead told Motherboard. Unfortunately however, the research is still at a very early stage and clinical trials aren’t expected to commence for at least a decade.

[Image Credit: Ed Reschke/Getty (top), UIG via Getty Images (inline)]

Filed under: Science

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Via: Motherboard

Source: Canadian National Research Counsel

Rdio Select is a $4 monthly music streaming service (with limitations)

When the competition from Spotify, Apple and new contenders doesn’t let up, it’s time to try something different. That’s what Rdio is doing, with a new $3.99 subscription service, Select, which will let users stream from radio stations (sans ads) with unlimited skips as well as daily (offline) access to a maximum of 25 songs. According to Rdio CEO Anthony Bay, this number is “more than most users download in a day, so we feel it’s enough” — but will the offer be enough to attract new users away from the rivals?

Bay told BuzzFeed that he sees the new service as “coach” when everyone else is only offering business class. We’ve noticed that the service has already gone live inside the Android app, and it’ll reportedly open for business officially tomorrow, in the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, and South Africa. For now, Rdio’s own press site doesn’t offer any more details, but we’ve reached out for more.

Filed under: Internet

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Source: BuzzFeed

Tesla thinks turn signals will solve liability in semi-autonomous cars

In vehicles with self-driving features, who takes the blame for a crash? Tesla may have an answer. The Wall Street Journal understands that the turn signal activation of the Model S’ car-passing autopilot is largely about liability. When you flick the signal stalk, you’re conveying your intent — if the vehicle smacks into someone else as a consequence, you’re likely at fault. This is unfortunate if it leaves you on the hook for an accident that was out of your hands, but it could also save you from requiring special registration to get your semi-autonomous machine on the road.

As it stands, you might not see this option for a while. While there’s a big Model S firmware update expected this summer, the WSJ‘s sources believe that car passing might not make that initial cut. Not that there’s much room to complain about Tesla taking its sweet time. After all, the last thing you want is a buggy robotic vehicle making crucial decisions on the highway.

Filed under: Transportation

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Source: Wall Street Journal

New coloring technique creates perfect spots on 3D-printed cat

Hydrographic printing looks like a magic trick. You print a pattern on a see-through film, place that sheet on a tub of water and spray it with a chemical potion. When you immerse a bland 3D object in the tub, it bonds with the film and comes back out covered in chosen colors. This technique is hugely popular for transferring patterns on simple surfaces. But, the system lacks precision. Complex textures that are now common with 3D printers, stretch the film, and sometimes even tear it. The final pattern is often distorted. According to Wired, a group of researchers from Zheijiang University and Columbia University have devised a quirky dip-kit that adds computational capabilities to conventional hydrographics.

The team created a new apparatus with off-the-shelf hardware: a couple of aluminum rods and tripods. The twist in their technique is a 3D vision system, a Microsoft Kinect, that maps the location of the object before immersion. It gives them the ability to virtually simulate the distortion so they can use that calculation to print a precise image. In their demo video, when one of the rods slowly and consistently dips the object into the tub, the film in the water wraps around it and aligns perfectly. This method accounts for complex textures so you can immerse the object multiples times at different angles for life-like replicas.

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Source: Wired