Scientists gathering at a meeting of the American Physical Society in Dallas, Texas are exploring a quantum physics theory of explaining how smell works. Current theories of human smell hold that molecules have certain shapes. When they enter our noses, they fit like a "key in a lock" with certain receptors in our sinus cavities.

However, new research from Dr. Luca Turin of MIT has suggested instead that the "vibrational" state of the molecule might have a bearing on smell. In experiments, flies were able to distinguish between similar molecules that had differing frequencies.

The BBC article above is very general, but if you'd like to read more specifically how quantum physics might intersect with smell, you can check out this paper in the Journal of Applied Physics by Dr. Andrew Horsfield of Imperial College London. Access will require a subscription.

Japanese researchers have succeeded in creating sperm from mice tissue samples. Takehiko Ogawa then used the sperm to fertilize eggs using IVF techniques, which produced 12 pups who went on to have mice families of their own. 

The research promises to open up the possibility of fatherhood for infertile men. In particular, when pre-pubescent men are treated for cancer (radiation or chemotherapy), they often lose the ability to have children when they grow up. Older men don't suffer this problem because they can freeze their sperm for later use.  

Dr. Ogawa stresses that his research is still in its early stages:

"[He] cautioned that the research is still at an early stage – and while it is clear the baby mice produced from the test-tube sperm were fertile, it is unclear if they were healthy in other ways."

In the first ever crowd-sourcing competition using social media to design a combat vehicle, DARPA has awarded Victor Garcia 1st place for his Flypmode design. Logic-Cool had covered this topic previously here. The winning model will actually be built as a concept model later this June. I consider the idea of this competition more exciting than any of the vehicles themselves, in essence allowing everyday people and enthusiasts to pool their knowledge and design assets far quicker than the normal bureaucratic process.

The process for creating the XC2V vehicle itself serves as a proof of concept. If it works, DARPA will refine the process of crowd-sourcing and start a series of prize challenges that will result in a true infantry fighting vehicle…It takes us 10 or 20 years to develop a complex military system like a jet or a ship or a tank. We want to reduce that by ...

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Researchers at the University of California, San Diego have proposed a novel treatment for people infected with the AIDS virus. Rather than attempt to destroy the virus itself, they've instead suggested patients be injected with a stripped-down, harmless version of HIV. By placing HIV in competition with another virus for the same resources, they hope to slow the onset of AIDS by another 5-10 years.

The treatment isn't without risks, as it ultimately relies upon a rapidly evolving virus to fight another rapidly evolving virus. Animal trials will have to follow.

“The concept and computational model are intriguing, but I’d like to see a clear demonstration of this in animal models,” said computational biologist Allen Rodrigo of Duke University, who wasn’t involved in the study. “So far, it has been almost impossible to design a strategy that HIV can’t escape from.”

Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center have discovered that the human body contains two avenues by which it replicates cellular DNA. Just like reaching a fork in the road, one path is considered "elite" where the body slowly and carefully copies crucial DNA during cell division, and the other path is more standard and swift. 

The elite path consumes more resources from the body, but these DNA copies tend to govern extremely important functions in the body.  

Led by Dr. Robert Bambara, the next step is to figure out how to trigger the elite process for more of the DNA. If successful, this research will not only length the average life span, but also make it more disease-free. Bambara estimates his research will lead to some kind of therapy within 25 years.

Professor Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos of the University of Minnesota saved his department over $100,000 by integrating a Kinect with his research. The Kinect is being used to observe and diagnose children who may be displaying symptoms of various mental disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention deficit disorder.

With the Kinect, Papanikolopoulos hypothesizes doctors will one day be able to receive simplified data that can help with diagnoses...Initially, Papanikolopoulos envisioned purchasing a $100,000-plus system that would do similar observations of a child...

"Is a $100,000 system being outsmarted by a $150 toy?" Papanikolopoulos said of his initial reaction to the idea..."Indeed this is the case."

Working with the Department of Energy, Berkeley Lab has developed a new way to store hydrogen using nano-particles of magnesium metal to absorb and release the gas in a controlled fashion.

Hydrogen is seen as one of the most promising energy alternatives to fossil fuels. When you burn it, the only byproduct is water. However, as the most volatile element in the universe, safely transporting it and storing it under high density is a huge obstacle that must be overcome. No one wants to drive the new GM Hydrogen Exploding Car model.

Now with this major breakthrough, they've brought a hydrogen-based economy one step closer to reality. 

A team of archaeologists led by Richard Freund of the University of Harford, Connecticut have announced they have discovered the lost city of Atlantis at the bottom of a marsh in Spain. The team's findings will be unveiled tomorrow on the National Geographic Channel in a special called "Finding Atlantis." In a turn of historical irony, the city that the archaeologists discovered was indeed destroyed by a tsunami.

What makes this particular discovery of Atlantis different from the rest is that it seems to fit a primary theory...that after Atlantis was destroyed, the inhabitants fled to form multiple nearby "memorial" cities. And indeed, this new Atlantis discovery has such cities located around it.

Researchers at the University of Manchester discovered that nano-scale hairs off tunicates, also known as sea squirts, can be used to create "cell alignment" which allows for artificial muscle growth. When placed in parallel, muscle tissue rapidly grows and fuses along the hairs as a guiding structure. 

This announcement is actually pretty huge news despite the brevity of the linked press release above. The ability to create artificial muscle tissue will revolutionize many areas of healthcare. Even better, the same technique can be used to regrow other critical human tissue such ligaments and even nerves.

These are tunicates. They grow on rocks and even artificial man-made structures. Lovely, yes?

Scientists at Northwestern University have successfully transported entangled particles of light through a fiber optic cable without losing the entangled information.  

Entanglement is simply a term that describes an unexplainable phenomena between quantum particles. No matter how far apart two entangled particles are, they will always share the same physical state. Current day physics cannot explain how this instantaneous transfer of data happens. Einstein called entanglement, "The ghost in the machine."

Nonetheless, we don't have to understand any physical phenomena completely in order to exploit it. Who wouldn't want instantaneous communication?

Readers who remember basic high school computer science know that computer software is built on a vast foundation of 1's and 0's...binary code.

The attraction of quantum data, the basic unit being the qubit, is that it can simultaneously be 1 and 0, in addition to being 1 or 0. In addition, qubits contain ...

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According to this latest study, a metastatic cancer's resistance to chemotherapy contributes to 90% of treatment failures. Overcoming a cancer's ability to resist chemotherapy would dramatically increase survive rates. 

Enter nano-diamonds.

In earlier Logic-Cool posts, we’ve highlighted attempts to use nano-particles to treat cancer…in particular gold nano-particles. Now, diamond nano-particles have joined the fight.

This time, the effects are a little different. The diamond nano-particles enable chemotherapy to stay inside tumors for longer periods of time. In drug-resistant cancer, the body’s normal response to expel the drugs prevents chemotherapy treatment from having enough time to work on the disease.

Scientists found that diamond nano-particles allow chemotherapy drugs to stay inside the body 10 times longer. In addition, the drugs remained inside the tumors longer as well. The study suggests that diamond nano-particulars will enable them to substantially reduce the chemotherapy dosage required for treatment, lessening ...

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The 2010 A.M. Turing Award has been announced and the recipient is Harvard professor Leslie Valiant. The Turing Award is basically considered equivalent to a Nobel Prize in computing. The prize is named after the famed British mathematician Alan M. Turing.

Geeky readers will recognize Turing's name, of course. He was a brilliant homosexual scientist responsible for breaking Nazi codes in World War II. He was also instrumental in building one of the world's first stored-program computers. Turing was later prosecuted by Britain for his homosexuality and forced to take female enzymes in an attempt to cure him. He later died of cyanide poisoning. The British government only recently formally apologized in 2009 for Turing’s treatment.

Turing is most famous for developing the Turing Test for Artificial Intelligence. In essence, the Turing Test is a language test. A human engages in a natural conversation with an ...

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Scientists at the Medical University of South Carolina have developed a prototype replacement disc by printing an organ scaffold and seeding it with living cells.  Their new spinal implant disc closely mimics the basic structure of a real spinal disc.

Currently, the only options for someone suffering chronic back pain from damaged discs would be 1) infuse the bones, which limit movement and risk damaging other discs, or 2) implant a metal or plastic disc which risks infection and has no shock absorption.

Either way, people who suffer chronic back pain injuries may soon find permanent relief in the coming years.

“Compared to the metal and plastic implants used today, an artificial scaffold swathed in living tissue could repair itself…Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina, led by Xuejun Wen, professor of bioengineering and regenerative medicine at Clemson University and the Medical University of South Carolina, tried to ...

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An international team led by engineers from the University of Queensland in Australia have overcome a key hurdle to the real-life applications of quantum computing. In essence, using current technology, engineers have no way of efficiently measuring the behavior of qubits. Like computer bits, "qubits" are the smallest measure of quantum information. According to the article, just an 8-qubit quantum computer would require over a billion measurements. The measuring tasks increase exponentially with the number of qubits.

Dr. Alessandro Fedrizzi, co-author of this study published in Physical Review Letters states:

“Imagine that you're building a car but you can't test-drive it.This is the situation that quantum engineers are facing at the moment.”

The team developed a "compressive sensing algorithm" that for the first time allowed drastic simplification for measuring quantum processes.

Quantum computing is the holy grail of computer technology. We've covered quantum technology developments a ...

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In a huge breakthrough for the treatment of Parkinson's Disease, researchers at the CU School of Medicine have found a drug that stops the disease from worsening. Current drugs only treat Parkinson symptoms.  

Led by Wenbo Zhou and Curt Freed, the team found that the drug Phenylbutyrate activates a gene called DJ-1 that protects brain neurons.

Mice with Parkinson's disease were able to move normally with no decline in mental function when Phenylbutyrate was placed in their drinking water. Human trials have already begun back in 2009 to test the drug's safety.

Their findings will be published later in 2011.

Freed and Zhou are now looking for other drugs that might turn on the DJ-1 gene. One drawback of phenylbutyrate is that patients must take very large doses, 16 grams per day or 32 large tablets taken at frequent intervals. While the drug is approved by the ...

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I find it interesting how similar topic news always seems to cluster around each other. Two separate alcohol studies released today showcase the health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption.

First, a summary review of thousands of previous studies found alcohol consumption indicated a 25% reduction in cardiovascular disease, 29% for coronary heart disease, 25% for coronary heart disease mortality rates and a 13% reduction in mortality overall.

"The public health messages should (and in many countries do) acknowledge the reduced risk of incidence and mortality of coronary heart disease associated with moderate drinking. However, we should not expect official recommendations of light drinking on a par with exercise, vegetables, and not smoking. The caveats would be too many, and official recommendations should be based on prospective, randomized studies. The role of alcohol drinking is best discussed in a scenario of a patient taking medical advice from his personal physician."

Second ...

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Scientists at the National Institute of Materials Science in Japan found that by immersing iron compound pellots in alcohol such as red wine, sake and shochu they could induce superconductivity.

Superconductivity occurs when electricity passes through materials with zero resistance. Breakthroughs in superconduction will lead to Science Fiction goodies like levitating skateboards and other such devices. It would revolutionize electric motors and the energy industry. Currently, superconducting magnets are used in particle accelerators, like the Large Hadron Collider, MRI and NMR machines, and mass spectrometers.

Professor Yoshihiko Takano, Nano Frontier Materials Group at the National Institute for Materials Science, Japan, said, "The iron compound becomes superconductive by air exposure but the sample needs to be exposed to air for a few months to show superconductivity. This is a very, very long time.

"However, the sample immersed in the red wine becomes superconductive only in one day, much faster than air-exposure."

As readers are probably aware, researchers are currently using stem cells to create treatments for a breathtaking array of diseases. However, before scientists can be sure they're using "pluripotent" stem cells in their research, their cell lines must pass through an exhaustive quality control test that can take 6-8 weeks and involves animal testing.

No longer.

In a study published by Nature Methods, Scripps researchers have developed a way to test stem cells in 10 minutes or less, without using animals. The only task required of stem cell researchers is to upload thousands of DNA sequences from their cells online and compare them to an enormous database of genetic information compiled by Scripps.

By shaving roughly 2 months off of research time, we'll soon see even faster research breakthroughs in the use of stem cells.

In research promising major breakthroughs in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, researchers at Northwestern University have successfully converted stem cells into brain cells that are crucial to sustain human memory.

Led by Dr. Jack Kessler, the research team reprogrammed ordinary skin cells to create pluripotent stem cells, which in turn, were used to create fresh brain cells.

Currently, there exist no treatments or drugs that prevent Alzheimer's disease from progressing. Dr. Kessler's work promises to change that fact in the next decade.

Don't mind me, Ladies. I'm just trying to maintain a healthy heart. German researchers studied 500 men over the course of 5 years. Half were told to avoid staring at women's breasts, the other half told to stare.

The result? The men who stared had healthier hearts, lower blood pressure and lower resting heart rates. The German researchers recommend that all men should stare at breasts for 10 minutes a day.

I don't think it's the breasts in all honesty. The article dovetails nicely with other research that in essence says emotionally feeling good promotes better health.

Oh you Germans, what have ye unleashed??

Study: Staring at breasts increases heart health: MyFoxBOSTON.com