Author: Diane Shipley

Staff Writer Diane is especially interested in high-tech medical advances, weird and interesting uses of science, new gadgets, and the intersection of tech and lifestyle. When not working, she reads the internet, listens to podcasts, watches American TV, and thinks about leaving the house.

BSL SignBank is the first British Sign Language dictionary based on actual use

University College London has just launched BSL SignBank, a new online British Sign Language (BSL) dictionary – the first ever to be based on how Deaf people actually use the language. Click on a letter, choose a word, and you can see exactly how to sign it. (That's 'computer', above.) Previously, online BSL dictionaries were…

Synthetic bone replacement Aerograft wins engineering award

A researcher has just won an award for developing a synthetic bone replacement that can be used in dental procedures. Dr Niall Kent, a post-doctoral researcher at UCL, was given the JC Gammon Launchpad Award, including £15,000 to expand his start-up, which he founded with Dr Alessia D’Onofrio. They produced Aerograft, a new material that…

A smart new sensor can detect Alzheimer’s

Scientists from Toyohashi University of Technology and the National Centre for Geriatrics and Gerontology in Japan have developed a new way of testing for diseases like Alzheimer’s and diabetes which could lead to earlier diagnosis. It consists of a semiconductor image sensor which can detect disease markers in a tiny drop of blood or urine.…

A new wearable could secure your computer

A computer science student from Dartmouth College has come up with a new, more secure way to make sure no one can see what you’re working on when you step away from your computer. Of course, if you’re dealing with sensitive info, like other people’s medical or employment records (or maybe the horrors of your…

A new robot ‘finger’ is the most sensitive yet

Computer scientists in the U.S have made a sensor that allows a robot to ‘feel’ where it needs to go, meaning it can pick up and plug in a USB cable. That might not sound like such a big deal (I did it myself just this morning), but it’s actually a breakthrough. Robots can be…

Scientists have discovered the part of brain that makes us disappointed

Let's face it, we've all been disappointed many many times on occasion. Not to rub it in, but if you were hoping for a Yes vote in Scotland you're probably feeling some pretty intense disappointment right now. What you might not know is where you're feeling it, as scientists only just discovered that themselves. In…

Now depression can be diagnosed by a blood test

American scientists have developed a new blood test for depression, Psych Central reports. The researchers, from Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, say this is the first unbiased scientific way to diagnose the illness. This is a huge breakthrough given that depression is the most common mental illness in the world and the second biggest…

Facebook and Twitter got the Scottish referendum all wrong

Just after 6 AM today, the results were in: Scotland had voted to stay in the United Kingdom by 55% to 45%. Whether it was because of Gordon Brown’s unexpectedly rousing speech, the Better Together campaign’s uninspiring ad, or just because people tend to stick with what they know, the final result was 2,001,926 votes…

London’s mobile phone data can help predict crimes

Researchers in Italy have accurately predicted crime outbreaks in London – and all without plunging Samantha Morton into a perma-bath. Unlike Minority Report, the University of Trento team didn’t need pre-cogs or Tom Cruise on the case; they just needed mobile phone data. As Engadget reports, Andrey Bogomolov and his colleagues build an algorithm using…