Top 6 new diseases and syndromes caused by modern technology

The benefits of modern technology on our daily lives are immense and many of us cannot imagine living without our gadgets, such as, smartphones, tablets, and desktop/laptop computers. Unfortunately, as more and more time is spent on interacting with modern technology, some previously rare or even unknown disorders and syndromes have appeared. This article describes the top worst syndromes that many of us have but few of us know about as well as some tips and remedies.

Most of us associate diseases caused by our modern society and lifestyle to cancer, diabetes, obesity or various kinds of epidemics. While these diseases will not affect most of us (luckily), few of us consider the much higher risks of developing syndromes and disorders simply caused by our over-use of high-tech gadgets. Think about it, when was the last time you or someone you know complained about pain or strain in your arms, hands, neck, eyes, or back? Chances are that most of us are developing chronic pain or infections without even knowing about it, simply because we spend too much time in front of our laptop, tablet or smartphone.

Since awareness is one of the most effective ways to prevent any kind of disease from spreading, the top 5 most common disorders and syndromes are presented as well as cures, remedies and prevention tips.

How to put Matlab icon/shortcut on Ubuntu Unity launcher bar

The Ubuntu Linux is one of the most popular distributions to run Matlab on *nix systems. However, the Unity launcher used by Ubuntu does not support Matlab by default and putting a shortcut to Matlab is a confusing and non-trivial task. This tutorial demonstrates an easy and straight-forward way to integrate Matlab with Unity in Ubuntu.

The powerful scientific computing tool, Matlab (Matrix Laboratory) from Mathworks is certainly a widely used tool in the scientific world. While Mathworks does provide good Windows, Linux, *nix, Mac OS X support for Matlab out-of-the-box, one overlooked aspect is the integration of Matlab to the Unity launcher used in Ubuntu. 

Cell phone radiation levels safe for humans

Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme study shows that radiation from cell (mobile) phones are safe and not harmful to the human health.

Our world is surrounded by sources which emit radiation. During the last decades, the number of radiation sources in our vicinity has exploded with the availability of wifi networks and cell phones. The question of whether or not radio waves used by these sources are harmful for humans has been up for debate for a very long time. The critics, for example, claim that cell phone radiation causes brain tumors and affect the general well being of humans in various negative ways. The critics have primarily based their conclusions on some studies performed on small animals (rats/mice) which indeed have shown adverse effects when the animals were exposed to large amounts of radiation from radio waves. However, physics clearly shows that the energy in radio waves carry insufficient energy to ionize atoms or to affect the biological functions. Thus, to most people in the scientific community, the radiation from cell phones and wifi networks is considered to be safe. Often it is also pointed out that the small animals were exposed to enormous amount of radiation, which are off-the-chart to induce any effect on the health. 

Apple patent turns Touch ID into a trackpad

The Touch ID fingerprint sensor technology launched with the iPhone 5S has been receiving plenty of attention. Not too surprising, patents have started to emerge now related to the Touch ID technology. One such patent intend to use the Touch ID fingerprint sensor to create a form of trackpad through tracking the movements of a finger.

Source: Apple PCT/US2013/04188
Touch ID patent WIPO [www.wipo.int]

The Touch ID fingerprint technology launched with the iPhone 5S promised to change the way biometric information was used on smartphones. So far, the technology seems to have divided the users into two camps: those that love the Touch ID technology and those that are sceptical, mostly due to security and privacy concerns with Touch ID. However, Apple appears to be convinced that Touch ID contains revolutionary technologies that are worth to protect. 

Recently, an international patent application (PCT) under the reference PCT/US2013/04188 by Apple has been made public as it enters its final states of review. This patent application deals with means to use the Touch ID fingerprint sensor to act as a joystick as clearly indicated in the first claim of the patent application stating:

"1. A method, comprising:
at an electronic device with a fingerprint sensor and a display:
displaying, on the display, a first user interface;
while displaying the first user interface on the display, detecting movement of a fingerprint on the fingerprint sensor; and
in response to detecting movement of the fingerprint on the fingerprint sensor:
in accordance with a determination that the movement of the fingerprint is in a first direction, navigating through the first user interface; and
in accordance with a determination that the movement of the fingerprint is in a second direction different from the first direction, displaying a second user interface different from the first user interface on the display."

Sapphire glass on future iPhones and iPads?

The screen on a modern smartphone or tablet is the most fragile component and cracked or broken screens have been seen by most people. Now Apple appears to intend to remedy the fragility of screens by introducing the super hard sapphire crystal glass instead of using the currently used Gorilla Glass.

Apple and many other smartphone manufacturers have so far been relying on Gorilla Glass to make scratch resistant and sturdy monitors. However, Gorilla Glass itself is definitely not unbreakable and there are plenty of devices out there with cracked or partially broken monitors. Now, it looks like Apple is going to take the next step through a partnership with GT Advanced Technologies Inc. who specializes in creating sapphire glass surfaces. According to GT Advanced Technologies Inc., the interest and investment by Apple should be considered as advanced payment for the development and production of the Advanced Sapphire Furnace factory, which can produce high-quality sapphire crystals at low costs.

Swallow a tablet and forget about your passwords

Usernames and passwords are something that we are all haunted by daily. Now researchers from Motrola has demonstrated a tablet that stores the user credentials on a chip and activates once it is swallowed by a user.

Motorola recently announced the Proteus Digital Health, a somewhat unconventional technology which is a tablet that the users are to swallow for the purpose of authentication. The tablet itself is equipped with a small chip that once swallowed begins to harvest power from the acid in the stomach of the user. 

Once powered, the chip will emit a 18-bit EKG-like signal that can be picked up by proper equipment. This signal obviously can then be made unique and therefore can authenticate the users against other units or accounts. 

Billion year lifetime data storage medium

The common optical, magnetic and flash memory based storage media all have limited lifetime, measured in at best a few decades. Now, scientists have investigated the use of a silicon-nitride and tungsten based medium which will enable a storage medium capable of having a lifetime of a billion years.

For most people, the lifetimes offered by conventional storage media such as magnetic hard drives, flash memory drives, and optical media (CDs/DVDs/BluRays) are more than sufficient even though they typically only last a few decades. However, certain data require more secure and long-time storage of, such as those related to our cultural heritage. 

Now, German and Dutch scientists have managed to create a wolfram-based medium coated with a thin film of silicon-nitride, that can be used to store digital data for a billion years. The choice of wolfram was taken due to the fact that it has the highest melting point out of all metals and by encapsulating the wolfram with silicon-nitride, oxidation of it was minimized.

Scientists discover invisible method to track online users

The Stanford security research Hristo Bojinov has demonstrated a new method for corporations or governments to track users in an invisible fashion to the users.

With smartphones becoming more and more commons, certain privacy issues also arises. For example, on the Apple iPhone, prior to iOS 6, developers could see the unique ID code (UUID) of the device their apps were running on and in this way track and monitor the activity of individual users. Primarily, this has then been used to serve directed advertisements to the users based on their usage patterns. With the release of iOS 6, after massive protests, Apple removed the UUID from being visible for a third-party app and added an alternate ID instead that the users could turn off in their Privacy settings. Users who are concerned with privacy therefore could hide their tracks relatively well by turning off tracking and also browser cookies.

No asteroid warnings during government shutdown

Due to the government shutdown, the asteroid warning service by NASA is offline. How will we now know if we are to be hit by an asteroid?

For the last few years, NASA has through the Twitter account, @AsteroidWatch, provided updates on asteroids in the proximity of the earth or asteroids that are expected to come into contact with the earth. This information has usually been very much valued by amateur astronomers who are out to see shooting stars or to observe asteroids through telescopes. 

Lightsabers created by scientists

The Star Wars lightsabers have been a dream for many enthusiasts. Now, scientists have taken a step toward the invention of lightsabers by photon bunching within molecules.

In the recent issue of Nature, scientists from Harvard and MIT have demonstrated results of photon bunching within molecules that enable them to behave in such a way as the lightsabers from the Star Wars movies.

Photons usually are particles which interact weakly and in a mass-less manner. However, the scientists have managed to allow the photons to interact strongly with certain molecules through various entanglement pairs and in this way create a photon bunch that exhibit interaction with other matter as if the photons carried mass. In essence, the photons are bound to molecules.

Scientists makes two brains communicate over the internet

For the first time, two brains can communicate completely without any intrusive procedures. Scientists have enabled two humans to communicate purely based on their thoughts.

Scientists at the University of Washington recently demonstrated communication between two human brains without applying any intrusive procedures. The approach was based on two caps. With the sender wearing one filled with electrodes which could pick up on the brain activity. The brain of the receiver would then be stimulated by magnetic fields at the same locations as the active parts of the sender brain.

Radio transmitter without batteries demonstrated by scientists

Scientists at University of Washington shows a battery-less radio transmitter.

Image source: University
of Washington

A group of scientists have recently built and demonstrated a radio transmitter that can operate without battery power. The radio transmitter working principle is based on the ambient back-scatter technology.

By using the ambient back-scatter technology, the transmitter can harness the energy from surrounding radio waves, such as TV signals and Wi-Fi signals, and subsequently power itself to transmit its own radio signal.