Alexandra Ossola
at 10:44 AM Apr 7 2015

Going to the doctor to see if you have strep throat might be a hassle, but it's next to impossible for people who live in remote regions with limited access to healthcare. Researchers from Florida Atlantic University have created a sensitive film that can detect viruses and bacteria, such as HIV and Staph, at home. The film could be used in remote regions, helping medical professionals diagnose diseases and decide on the best treatment from afar. The researchers published their findings in a recent issue of Scientific Reports.

Dan Moren
at 10:34 AM Feb 25 2015
Mobile // 

For us average folks, smartphones have already merged several gadgets into one: our phones, our media players, even our computers. Now they may be taking over a more specialized field: the doctor's bag. We've already seen smartphone accessories that work as ophthalmoscopes and otoscopes; now a Kickstarter campaign wants to add a personal thermometer to the mix.

dmoren
at 09:58 AM Jan 22 2015
Energy // 

In the mobile age, we're largely unfettered by wires, thanks in no small part to Wi-Fi, cellular networking, and the rise of laptops, smartphones, and tablets. But one thin tether keeps us perennially bound: power. Though battery technologies have improved, we still need to charge our devices regularly. So-called "wireless power"—charging or power transmitted to a device without the need to plug that device in—has long been (supposedly) just shy of mainstream adoption.

Francie Diep
at 07:30 AM Oct 14 2014

Want to turn your smartphone into a cosmic ray detector? Well there's an app for that. Cosmic Rays Found in Smartphones, or CRAYFIS, uses smartphones' and tablets' standard camera equipment to detect some of the super-rare particles that shower down on the Earth when a high-energy cosmic ray hits the atmosphere. CRAYFIS collects that data, then sends them onto physicists at the University of California's Irvine and Davis campuses for analysis.

Dan Nosowitz
at 23:04 PM Sep 10 2013
Mobile // 

Modern smartphones usually offer some kind of security option to let you into the phone. The iPhone has the a four-digit PIN-like passcode, Android phones have a swiping pattern, Windows Phone has a numeric or text-based password. Those work OK, but they're pretty hackable, and could well be improved by new technologies. Insidious and scary technologies. Here's the rundown.

Rebecca Boyle
at 04:48 AM Nov 1 2012
Mobile // 

A new as-yet-unpublished study claims that teens who have smartphones are more likely to set up hookups. It may be because smartphones make it simpler.

Clay Dillow
at 01:39 AM Jul 6 2012
Mobile // 

We've all grown quite used to the idea of botnets stowing away on PCs out there on the Internet, spamming us from hacked inboxes in unknown places. Now, botnets are going mobile. Microsoft researcher Terry Zink says he's discovered evidence that an illegal botnet has hijacked smartphones running Google's Android operating system and used them to send spam from users' Yahoo email accounts.

 
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