SICK COW WALKING: In the UK some farmers are attaching tracking sensors to their cows. The Silent Herdsman collar includes an accelerometer that can detect a cow's gait in 3D. Sluggish leg movement, for example, suggests a cow may be sick, so the collar sends a signal to the farmer. The collar also senses heat to help determine when a cow is ready for mating. Data is sent via WiFi or 3G to an app that informs the farmer about the health of the animal. If it leads to better animal care it sounds like a good thing. More at here.
POWER STRUCTURE: BAE Systems in the UK had a bright idea: turn carbon fibre into a battery. That means, for example, that a car made of carbon fibre can simply store energy in the body, rather than carrying around separate batteries. These structural batteries use nickel but future batteries should use lithium ion and lithium polymer technologies. At the moment the amount of energy the structural batteries store per weight is rather low, but of course BAE are working on that. Those carbon fibre cars truly would be electric vehicles then. SmartPlanet has more.
MONEY TO BURN: Human beings have been littering in space for more than 50 years now, and as the rubbish piles up it's becoming increasingly dangerous. The Swiss Space Centre aim to start a clean-up with their CleanSpace One project. Their idea is to send a craft that will find and grapple debris, beginning with an abandoned Swiss craft. Then both craft will de-orbit by burning up in the atmosphere. CleanSpace One and its maiden space voyage will cost about 10 million Swiss francs.
It's a shame the only way to deal with this problem is by burning everything. More at EPFL and video here.
SEQUENCE YOURSELF: Genome sequencing takes a massive computer and plenty of time and money. Or it did, until the MinION. The disposable DNA sequencing device is the size of a bulky thumb drive. It's a comparatively low-cost, single use device that contains a sensor chip, ASIC and a fluidics system. Plug it into your laptop and sequence some
DNA today. Oxford Nanopore Technologies.
SHARE THE SUGAR: The MyTelcare Diabetes Pal combines a wireless glucose meter with a smartphone app and website to let people with diabetes not only monitor their own glucose levels, but easily share the data with family, caregivers and doctors. The person uses a cellular-enabled blood glucose meter to test a drop of blood. The device then automatically sends the data to a server which feeds it on to a smartphone app. Graphs and charts show trends, while export features and reports mean the data can be used by those who need it. And if they included a log-in function places like schools could have one meter for many users. More here.
