Playing doctor and nurse used to be so affordable as a kid. Nowadays, you need to fork out $69.99 for an iPhone app, and $279.99 for a stethoscope. Still, you can’t put a price on saving lives, right? Not that you’ll be saving too many lives with just a stethoscope and an app that displays the heartbeat in its arty, wiggly form. But you can record the sound of a heartbeat, and even email it to your doctor if you’re particularly worried

Artificial schnozzes have been sniffing foreign objects for years now , but rarely are they engineered to sniff out specific things. A team of researchers from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign have done just that, though, with a new snout that acts as a coffee analyzer. Reportedly, the device can “distinguish between ten well-known commercial brands of coffee and can also make a distinction between coffee beans that have been roasted at different temperatures or lengths of time.” The significance here is that this distinction is incredibly difficult to make, and it could one day help coffee growers determine whether batches are as good as prior batches on the cheap. More importantly, however, it could help the modern java hunter determine whether or not they’re walking in a corporate Starbucks or one of those “branded” kiosks with two-fifths the menu. Brilliant, right

Neurologists have built an ultrasound device which uses focused sound waves to destroy stroke-causing blood clots in brains. The procedure is non-invasive—requiring no drugs or surgery—and is already being tested on patients. The machine and procedure allows doctors to “surround the head with an array of transducers that can focus ultrasound beams on a single spot in the brain without damaging the skull.” This means that diseased tissue could be destroyed without any collateral damage or risky surgery. [ Technology Review via Pop Sci ]

The smallest solar sensor in the world is 1,000 times smaller than standard systems, and under the right conditions, it could last forever. According to electrical engineering professor David Blaauw, who participated in the project at the University of Michigan: “Our system can run nearly perpetually if periodically exposed to reasonable lighting conditions, even indoors. Its only limiting factor is battery wear-out, but the battery would last many years.” The measurements are an amazing 2.5 x 3.5 x 1 millimeters. The sensor uses an ARM Cortex M3 processor and consumes about 2,000 times less power in sleep mode than current commercial products.

While a GPS-style “navigation system” for surgeons may not seem like the best idea to anyone that’s ever been led astray by their dash-mounted co-pilot, it apparently seemed like a good enough idea for a group of researchers at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. While they do stretch the metaphor a bit, the group’s TLEMsafe system does provide surgeons with a complete 3D map of the lower body, which can actually be personalized for each individual patient, giving surgeons a reference and means to practice before any actual surgery takes place — and, yes, even an “automated navigation system” during surgery. Coincidentally, some researchers from the University of Colorado have also just announced that they’ve developed a similar modeling system that would give surgeons 3D views of arteries and let them see any blockages up close. It’s even already been tested on patients, while the University of Twente says its system will be ready for clinical trials in about four years’ time.

This one’s pretty cute (or evidence of a completely uncreative healthcare industry). Researchers at the University of Melbourne and Singapore General Hospital’s Department of Physiotherapy have run a battery of tests on the Wii’s Balance Board , and found it to be somewhat useful in testing patient’s balance and equilibrium, medically speaking. Current medical equipment used to test these skills is very expensive, heavy, and in short supply. The Balance Board, on the other hand, runs about $99. The Wii accessory was tested on 30 patients, and found to be about as good as the expensive force platforms usually used by doctors..

Could cellphone radiation actually be good for you and bad for you at the same time? It might, according to a group of researchers at the University of South Florida, who say that tests on mice suggest that long-term cellphone use might actually help fend off some of the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. That, as you might have suspected, is the exact opposite of what the researchers expected to find, and they say that exposure to electromagnetic waves from cellphones could both prevent some of the effects of Alzheimer’s if the exposure is introduced in early adulthood, or potentially even reverse some of the impairment among those already memory-impaired. Needless to say, the tests are still in the earliest of stages, but the researchers are apparently planning on modifying the experiment to try to speed up the results, and eventually expand it to include tests on humans. Tests on mice still found cellphones to be an impairement while driving. [Thanks, Antonio] Study finds cellphone use may fend off effects of Alzheimer’s disease originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 10:33:00 EST.

Could cellphone radiation actually be good for you and bad for you at the same time? It might, according to a group of researchers at the University of South Florida, who say that tests on mice suggest that long-term cellphone use might actually help fend off some of the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. That, as you might have suspected, is the exact opposite of what the researchers expected to find, and they say that exposure to electromagnetic waves from cellphones could both prevent some of the effects of Alzheimer’s if the exposure is introduced in early adulthood, or potentially even reverse some of the impairment among those already memory-impaired. Needless to say, the tests are still in the earliest of stages, but the researchers are apparently planning on modifying the experiment to try to speed up the results, and eventually expand it to include tests on humans. Tests on mice still found cellphones to be an impairement while driving.

Say hello to “the world’s first production model 3D bio-printer .” What you’re looking at is a machine capable of arranging human cells and artificial scaffolds into complex three-dimensional structures, which result in such wonderful things as replacement liver and kidney tissue, or such simple niceties as artificially grown teeth. All we’re told of the internal workings is that the bio-printer utilizes laser-calibrated print heads and that its design is the first to offer sufficiently wide flexibility of use to make the device viable. Organovo will be the company responsible for promoting the new hardware to research institutions, while at the same time trying to convince the world that it’s not the fifth sign of the apocalypse. Maybe if the printer didn’t have a menacing red button attached to it, we’d all be a little less freaked out by it. Invetech 3D bio-printer is ready for production, promises ’tissue on demand’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .

Researchers have been tinkering with contact and implanted eye sensors and electronics for some while, but here’s a way around the problem of powering that gear: use the same light entering the eye to power it. Stanford scientists have figured out that near infrared light works to send not only data to circuits embedded in eyes but power, too. The implant that allows them to do this magic is only 3mm wide, and 30 micrometers thick. [ IEEE Spectrum ]