Biotech & Synthetic Biology

Major infectious diseases, like COVID-19, often go undetected until they spread. Spotting the problem in a community isn’t easy, in part because infectious disease detection, which is the foundation for surveillance and contact tracing, can take hours, if not days. Compounding the problem is that traditional detection assays are designed …

Lab-on-chip  is an integrated miniaturized device  that  allows researchers to perform all the operations  from sample collection to final analysis onto the same chip. Theoretically, LOC technology has the potential to carry out almost any laboratory procedure on a miniaturized scale. This could range from DNA sequencing and biochemical detection …

According to the University of Maryland’s Global Terrorism Database, there were a total of 143 attacks – 35 biological, 95 chemical, and 13 radiological – using CBRN weapons across the world from 1970 to 2014. The relative ease with which malicious actors could obtain many of the materials and know-how …

Government and local law enforcement agencies have employed canines for decades to sniff  explosives and such banned goods as fresh produce, exotic wildlife, undeclared currency and illicit drugs.   Now researchers are developing electronic noses imitating the sense of smell of humans and animals especially dogs. The smells are composed of molecules, …

Psychological warfare involves the planned use of propaganda and other psychological operations to influence the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of opposition groups. The targets of such propaganda campaigns can include governments, political organizations, advocacy groups, military personnel, and civilian individuals.   While all nations employ it, the U.S. Central …

Brain-computer interface (or BCI) is basically setting up a connection between the human brain and the computer device to control or to perform certain activity using brain signals. These brain signals are translated as an action for a device. The interface thus provides a one-to-one communication pathway between the brain …

Every action our body performs begins with a thought, and with every thought comes an electrical signal. The electrical signals can be received by the brain-computer interface, consisting of an electroencephalograph (EEG) or an implanted electrode, which can then be translated, and then sent to the performing hardware to produce …

Just as computers could be hacked and made to perform according to one’s wishes, now you hack your own body, a concept called Biohacking. It can be as simple as implementing lifestyle and dietary changes that improve the functioning of your body such as to feel more awake, or optimize  …

Artificial intelligence is a branch of computer science dealing with the simulation of intelligent behavior in computers. A computer system able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages. The  first wave of AI was rule-based and “second wave” …