geekosystem

Yes, you read that right. Researchers at Tufts University have found that an ectopic eye transplanted near the tail of a tadpole -- an eye that has no direct connection to the animal's brain -- will still let the animal see. It's the first time that researchers have observed a vertebrate that can demonstrate vision through a non-traditional, implanted eye, and the implications for bioengineering could be impressive. The results suggest that we could one day develop literal working eyes in the back of our head -- or in our palms, like the Pale Man in Pan's Labyrinth. You know, if you're into that sort of thing.

Generally speaking, people fashioning electronic devices are working to craft things that are built to last, or at least that's what most of us hope when we're buying a new TV. A team of researchers led by scientists at the University of Illinois are instead taking planned obsolescence to the extreme, developing a new class of electronic devices that is built to dissolve over time. If they're successful, the result could be a whole new class of implantable biomedical sensors that help to track patient health -- and then disappear without surgery when they're no longer needed.

If you find the fat cat pictured above adorable, you're not alone. You're also kind of a monster, giggling at the nationwide health epidemic that is animal obesity. Animal obesity is not cute -- I mean, yeah, it's kind of cute, because look at the kitty's big furry belly! -- but a health scourge suffered by up to 60% and cats and dogs in the nation. The Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University is moving to combat out of control weight gain in U.S. housepets, who are even more likely to be overweight than their increasingly pudgy human owners, by opening the Tufts' Veterinary Obesity Clinic.

Researchers led by E. Charles Sykes at Tufts University have created what they believe is the world's smallest electric motor comprised of a single molecule. If accepted by Guinness World Records, their one nanometer long motor will obliterate the previous record-holding 200 nanometre motor. Keep in mind, at such a tiny size the motor is not exactly what you'd expect. It uses an asymmetric butyl methyl sulphide molecule, comprised of a single sulphur atom with four carbon atoms on one side and a lone carbon item opposite this chain. Using the sulphur atom as an anchor, the lopsided molecule was anchored to a copper disc. Once in place, a tiny needle -- no more than a few atoms wide -- was positioned above the sulphur atom.