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Abstract Traditional microscopes have limitations in obtaining true 3D (three-dimensional) stereovision. Although some optical microscopes have been developed for 3D vision, many of them are complex, expensive, or limited to transparent samples. In this research, a freeform optical prism array was designed and fabricated to achieve 3D stereo imaging capability for microscope and machine vision applications. To form clear stereo images from multiple directions simultaneously, freeform optical surface design was applied to the prisms. In a ray tracing operation to determine the optical performance of the freeform prisms, Taylor series was used to calculate the surface shape. The virtual image spot diagrams were generated by using ray tracing methods for both the freeform prisms and the regular prisms. The results showed that all the light rays can be traced back to a single point for the freeform prism, and aberration was much smaller than that of the regular prism. The ray spots formed by the freeform prisms were adequate for image formation. Furthermore, the freeform prism array was fabricated by using a combined ultraprecision diamond turning and slow tool servo broaching process in a single, uninterrupted operation. The slow tool servo process ensured that the relative tolerance among prisms is guaranteed by the precision of the ultraprecision machine without the need for assembly. Finally 3D imaging tests were conducted to verify the freeform prism array's optical performance. The principle of the freeform prism array investigated in this research can be applied to microscopy, machine vision, robotic sensing, and many other areas.

Metabolic interactions between multiple cell types are difficult to model using existing approaches. Here we present a workflow that integrates gene expression data, proteomics data and literature-based manual curation to model human metabolism within and between different types of cells. Transport reactions are used to account for the transfer of metabolites between models of different cell types via the interstitial fluid. We apply the method to create models of brain energy metabolism that recapitulate metabolic interactions between astrocytes and various neuron types relevant to Alzheimer's disease. Analysis of the models identifies genes and pathways that may explain observed experimental phenomena, including the differential effects of the disease on cell types and regions of the brain. Constraint-based modeling can thus contribute to the study and analysis of multicellular metabolic processes in the human tissue microenvironment and provide detailed mechanistic insight into high-throughput data analysis.

It turns out your brain is organized even if you're not. At least that's the conclusion of a study in Science that looked at the network of fibers that carry signals from one part of the brain to another. Researchers used cutting-edge imaging technology to look at places where these fibers intersect. And they found a remarkably organized three-dimensional grid, says Van Wedeen of Harvard Medical School, the study's lead author. The grid is a bit like Manhattan, Wedeen says, "with streets running in two dimensions and then the elevators in the buildings in the third dimension."

The oxygen and food we consume are converted into energy by tiny organelles present in each cell, the mitochondria. These 'power plants' must be continuously supplied with fuel, to maintain all vital functions. A team led by Jean-Claude Martinou, professor at the University of Geneva, has identified this fuel's carrier, baptized Mitochondrial Pyruvate Carrier. The study, published online by Science, henceforth allows the researchers to investigate how the activity of the carrier is modulated.

This is an updated version of an article that I published in 2009. Alas in the 3 years or so that have passed since I wrote it, little seems to have changed beyond the fact that the crisis in the pharmaceutical industry has deepened to the point that even the biggest companies in the sector are starting to question whether their current business model is sustainable.

When the company behind the gesture technology in the Kinect came to CES a year ago to show how its 3D sensors can enable people to control their TVs with simple gestures, its execs talked about how their sensors eventually would be embedded in mobile devices, opening up a range of possible applications. PrimeSense's new 3D sensor, called Capri, is 10 times smaller than its current sensor and, according to the company, the smallest in the world. The design, says PrimeSense, allows for improved capabilities that it says will soon find its way into PCs, tablets, laptops, phones, various robots, and much more.

""We've learned that the same pathway that is activated strongly and prematurely in kids with progeria is also happening in you and me. That toxic protein they make from the beginning is also in our cells as we approach senescence. So cell senescence is not just a running down of the system - it's an active process. A signal turns on this protein." And that aging signal, Dr. Collins added, is connected to the shortening of the chromosome tips that serves as a cellular clock. So the glimpse into aging the kids with progeria provide may have illuminated a new risk factor that can damage blood vessels even in a star athlete who eats only broccoli."

An overgrowth of bacteria in the gut has been definitively linked to Irritable Bowel Syndrome in the results of a new Cedars-Sinai study which used cultures from the small intestine. This is the first study to use this "gold standard" method of connecting bacteria to the cause of the disease that affects an estimated 30 million people in the United States.

Using this 3D body suit, they are able to shoot 3D motion capture right out of the lab. More details about this suit - known as MVN BIOMECH from Xsens, this 3D human kinematic, camera-less measurement system will come integrated with small tracking sensors that are placed on the joints. All the sensors on the suit will comprise of a trio of components: an accelerometer, magnetometers and a gyroscope, working in tandem to deliver information on each of the joints, body segments between the joints and the 3D movements. Currently, a project is being developed to see how nurses are able to lift patients safely into a hospital bed without having to strain themselves.

"The cause of hypertension in insomniacs is due to the number of times the individual wakes during the night as well as their sleep latency - the length of time it takes to accomplish the transition from full wakefulness to sleep," says Christopher Drake, associate scientist at the Henry Ford Hospital Sleep Disorders and Research Center and lead author of this study.

The Misconception: You make rational decisions based on the future value of objects, investments and experiences. The Truth: Your decisions are tainted by the emotional investments you accumulate, and the more you invest in something the harder it becomes to abandon it.

The Coming Crisis In Organizing Work Bollier reports that Roundtable attendees shared a growing concern that there is an unacknowledged crisis brewing in the workforce and the way it's organized. "My sense is that there is a constant move toward globalization, outsourcing and the 'freeagent nation', said attendee Dwayne Spradlin of InnoCentive, Inc. "People are engaging the workplace in a very different way. I think over the next five years we're going to see a massive shift in demographics among young people and how they engage their organizations. In general, companies are wholly unprepared for what's about to come."

According to the "RNA world" model of life's origin, RNA performed all of the operations that are essential to life. RNA alone passed on genetic information and catalyzed the reactions of basic metabolism; DNA and proteins were not in the picture. The RNA world hypothesis is an appealingly simple model for simple early life forms, since it allows the complex array of biochemical interactions among proteins, DNA, and RNA to evolve gradually.

"Navigate the brain in a way that was never before possible; fly through major brain pathways, compare essential circuits, zoom into a region to explore the cells that comprise it, and the functions that depend on it. The Human Connectome Project aims to provide an unparalleled compilation of neural data, an interface to graphically navigate this data and the opportunity to achieve never before realized conclusions about the living human brain."

If education as delivered in the modern American university were fulfilling its mission, would the world look the way it does? We are struck by a simple observation of the state of the world: there is more hunger, poverty, war, crime and disease extant than at any time in history. Even accounting for a growing population, one might reasonably expect that if we are a society that learns from prior mistakes and gains in wisdom as a result then shouldn't the world look quite different by now? Shouldn't we have managed to quell the negative tendencies of society so that life is substantially improved for the majority of humanity? One would think that with all the knowledge afforded by science and the clever technologies we have developed that education would have produced a generation of able citizens capable of making rational decisions in community, politics and economics. The evidence provided in the daily news suggests this is not the case.

The first online 3-D interactive search tool of the human body was released today.  It allows a user to view and navigate the human anatomy, male or female, down to the finest detail-from the muscles and deep muscles to the nerves, arteries, vessels, and bones. This new tool, called BodyMaps, was developed by Healthline Networks, a company that provides medical information to consumers online, and GE Healthyimagination, a Web-based platform that shares and promotes projects that focus on consumer health, such as apps or healthy how-to videos.

Teachers have long known that one-on-one tutoring is effective, but in 1984, the education scholar Benjamin Bloom figured out precisely how effective it is. He conducted a metastudy of research on students who'd been pulled out of class and given individual instruction. What Bloom found is that students given one-on-one attention reliably perform two standard deviations better than their peers who stay in a regular classroom. How much of an improvement is that? Enough that a student in the middle of the pack will vault into the 98th percentile. Bloom's findings caused a stir in education, but ultimately they didn't significantly change the basic structure of the classroom. One-on-one instruction, after all, is insanely expensive. What country can afford one teacher per student?

The last time your doctor asked how much you exercise, did you tell the truth? Do you even really know the truth-not just how many visits to the gym you've made this month, but how many hours you sit or how many calories you burn in a day? What if your doctor had already received the information from a tiny device built into your cell phone, wallet, or undershirt? Sonny Vu believes a device like this could fundamentally change health care. "You can't just lie to your doctor-it's all there, recorded," he says. "You cut right to the chase rather than having to tease out all that information."

Dutch researchers recently demonstrated a new type of wireless body area network, or BAN for short. A BAN essentially gives the human body its own IP address, and the new techniques demonstrated at IMEC based in Eindhoven incorporate a dongle that plugs into the SD card slot of a cellphone, enabling the streaming of data from the sensors to the cellphone in real time.

The Special Issue on Mind Uploading (Vol. 4, issue 1, June 2012) of the International Journal of Machine Consciousness, just released, "constitutes a significant milestone in the history of mind uploading research: the first-ever collection of scientific and philosophical papers on the theme of mind uploading," as Ben Goertzel and Matthew Ikle' note in the Introduction to this issue.