Category Archives: Gadgets

NASA Funding Flows to Seven Small Businesses in Arizona

NASA has selected its 2018 crop of small businesses to receive funding supporting innovation research and technology transfer, with seven awards going to Arizona.

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contracts, which total $43.5 million nationally among 348 awardees, support projects that promise to benefit both NASA’s mission and the U.S. economy.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Seven Arizona Small Businesses Receive NASA Funding

Flesh-Eating Bacteria Recovery Improved by Experimental Skin Spray

Dr. Kevin Foster, director of the Burn Center at Maricopa Integrated Health System in Phoenix, Arizona, treated Christin Lipinski with an experimental skin spray. Photo by Nicholas Gerbis – KJZZ.

A special education teacher in the Glendale, Arizona’s Peoria Unified School District has recovered from a necrotizing fasciitis, better known as flesh-eating bacteria.

Dr. Kevin Foster, director of the Burn Center at Maricopa Integrated Health System, used an experimental skin spray called ReCell to improve the healing and reconstruction of the woman’s large open arm wound.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
https://science.kjzz.org/node/625640

Doctor-Hackers Warn of Medical Device Security Flaws

Image by Lucien Monfils.

Members of the medical and hacker communities are raising concerns about cybersecurity vulnerabilities affecting medical records, infrastructure and devices.

Experts have long warned of security flaws in medical devices — insulin pumps that can deliver deadly doses, for example. Many devices include wireless connectivity capability.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Doctor-Hackers Raise Awareness Of Medical Device Vulnerabilities

Is Progress Outpacing Precaution? Experts Weigh In

Illustration by An Arres.

No one expects the machinery of progress to roll backwards, but sometimes it seems that no one is watching the speedometer (or manning the brakes, assuming any exist).  Is this a fair assessment? If so, should we be worried — and what can we do about it?

In this feature, experts on technology, risk, science, policy and neuroscience discuss risk, innovation and how our values affect our conceptions of both.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
ASU Experts Weigh the Risks of Innovation

Biomarker-Based Concussion Test Passes Key Milestone

Diagram by Patrick J. Lynch, medical illustrator; C. Carl Jaffe, MD, cardiologist.

In one five-year period, college athletes suffered more than 10,000 concussions — one-third of them while playing football. But an unusual team-up has recently brought a new, biomarker-based concussion test one step closer.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
TGen, ASU And Riddell Team Up To Create New Concussion Test