Converting bad fat to good could help us lose weight and avoid obesity-related illness. Now researchers at Columbia Engineering have developed a transplant method, where white fat is removed from the body, cultivated in a lab for a few weeks, then reinserted into the body as brown fat.
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While it's already possible to relay information via barcodes or QR codes, those codes are entirely visible when included in a document. Using Columbia University's FontCode system, however, users can hide messages within unrelated text via virtually-invisible changes to the displayed letters.
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Models have long suggested that Earth's orbit shifts from circular to elliptical and back again over hundreds of thousands of years, which plays a part in natural climate swings. Now, scientists have found the first physical evidence for the cycle, and traced it back to before the dinosaurs.
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Scientists have long searched for proof of the decades-old theory that black holes surround the supermassive black hole at the heart of our galaxy. By tweaking their approach just a little, astronomers have now turned up the first direct evidence that they do in fact exist.
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Although you may not realize it, there are car-racing video games that blind people can play. Brian A. Smith, however, thinks they leave something to be desired. That's why he created the RAD, an audio-based interface that he claims can be integrated into almost any racing game.
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For decades, it's been known that broad-spectrum UVC light kills viruses and bacteria. Unfortunately, it also causes skin cancer and cataracts in people. Now, however, scientists have discovered that a narrow spectrum of UVC can eradicate airborne viruses without harming humans.
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Flexible batteries may not be an entirely new idea, but here's a development with more backbone than most: engineers at Columbia have developed a flexible battery shaped much like a human spine. The battery is claimed to offer superior energy density to similar prototypes.
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Hydrogen is a clean fuel source, and using sunlight and water is the cleanest way to produce it. Now, engineers from Columbia University are developing a “solar fuels rig” that floats on the ocean, captures energy through a solar cell and uses it to harvest hydrogen from the water beneath it.
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A new technique from Columbia University recruits bacterial spies to see what’s going on in our bodies. It's essentially “bugging” a bug, with bacteria engineered to record what they interact with on their journey through the gastrointestinal tract, and even timestamp when those events occurred.
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A recently published study estimates that up to 70 percent of the United States' electricity needs could be met through a newly devised system that harvests power from evaporation. This novel power source uses bacterial spores to generate electricity and can sit on top of lakes and reservoirs.
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