As E.O. Wilson accepts his 2007 TED Prize, he makes a plea on behalf of his constituents, the insects and small creatures, to learn more about our biosphere. We know so little about nature, he says, that we’re still discovering tiny organisms indispensable to life; yet we’re still steadily destroying nature. Wilson identifies five grave threats to biodiversity (a term he coined), using the acronym HIPPO, and makes his TED wish: that we will work together on the Encyclopedia of Life, a web-based compendium of data from scientists and amateurs on every aspect of the biosphere. [TED] [480p video]

Elegant Embellishments is developing a decorative, three-dimensional architectural tile that can be installed quickly to reduce air pollution in urban environments. The tiles provide councils, developers, and designers with the ability to rapidly improve urban environments in terms of air quality and visual appeal.

via wmmna

via information aesthetics

[xvivo press release]

VeinViewer™ by Luminetx projects a clear real-time image of your subcutaneous vasculature.

via Medgadget

Intelligent Medical Implants AG (IMI), has successfully implanted two patients with its camera to retina transmiter with a unique ‘learning’ capability.

via Medgadget

Despite the prevailing belief that adult brain cells don’t grow, a researcher at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory reports in the Dec. 27 issue of Public Library of Science (PLoS) Biology that structural remodeling of neurons does in fact occur in mature brains. . . In 3-D time-lapse images, the brain cells look like plants sprouting together. Some push out tentative tendrils that grow around, or retract from contact with, neighboring cells. Dendrite tips that look like the thinnest twigs grow longer. [press release] [video 1, 2, 3]

via Medgadget

Using real-time fMRI, researchers have shown how patients are able to take control over their pain by watching the activity from the pain regulating area of the brain. “Neuroimaging therapy,” with practice may offer a highly effective solution for chronic pain.

via Wired

During the past 18 months, radiologists in Sweden have performed more than 100 virtual autopsies on murder victims, according to Anders Ynnerman, a professor in the Department of Science and Technology at Linköpings University, who also works at the Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV) in Linköping. Ynnerman says evidence from virtual autopsies has been used to clarify the cause of death in several criminal trials in Sweden. [video (real) (wma)]

via Medgadget

Virtopsy | born from the desire to implement new techniques in radiology for the benefit of forensic science.

An emerging branch of medicine called “organ printing” takes a patient’s own healthy cells and uses a printer, cell-based “bio-ink” and “bio-paper” to create tissue to repair a damaged organ.

A new hydrogel or “bio-paper”,developed by the University of Utah College of Pharmacy, enables printing of organs by layering thin sheets embedded with cells. The cells and liquid hydrogel are put in the printer cartridge and then dropped into three-dimensional, 1-microliter dots that form layers as the hydrogel hardens. The cells form tissue that can be implanted into a damaged organ. Glenn D. Prestwich believes testing will begin on humans in the next year as research pushes to repair damaged organs in real-time.

via Medgadget

The prosthetic telescope, by VisionCare, is permanently implanted into one eye in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) to reduce the ‘blind spot’, drastically improving vision (in over 200 patients in the phase 1 study).

via Medgadget | Israel21c